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Third gender

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Anna P., who lived for many years as a man in Germany, was photographed for Magnus Hirschfeld's book Sexual Intermediates in 1922. Today, Anna would probably be considered to be transgender.
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The terms third gender and third sex describe individuals who are considered to be neither women nor men, as well as the social category present in those societies who recognize three or more genders.

To different cultures or individuals, a third sex or gender may represent an intermediate state between men and women, a state of being both (such as "the spirit of a man in the body of a woman"), the state of being neither (neuter), the ability to cross or swap genders, or another category altogether independent of male and female. This last definition is favored by those who argue for a strict interpretation of the "third gender" concept.

The term has been used to describe Hijras of India and Pakistan,[1] Fa'afafine of Polynesia, and Sworn virgins of the Balkans,[2] among others, and is also used by many of such groups and individuals to describe themselves. In the Western world, lesbian, gay, transgender and intersex people have been described as belonging to a third sex or gender, although some object to this characterization.

Although, original accounts of third gender (like from ancient tribes such as American tribes and Polynesian tribes) indicate that the category was only about gender, i.e. feminine gender in males and masculine gender in females, by the middle ages, the accounts from Indo-European societies suggest that Third Gender had now come to be closely associated with feminine males who had receptive anal and oral sex with men, and with that it had also become extremely stigmatised.[3] [4]

This latter definition of third gender in terms of feminine males who have receptive anal sex is a common feature of all Indo-European societies, be it Catamites of ancient Greece or Hijras and Kotis of India or Pandaka of ancient Buddhist societies or lady boys of modern Thailand or the Mollies of modern England or Zenanas of the Arab world.


Many scholars feel that attempts to understand the traditional third gender identities through the Western models of gender and sexuality is problematic and distorts its original meaning.[5] [6]


The term "third" is usually understood to mean "other"; some anthropologists and sociologists have described fourth,[7] fifth,[8] and many[9] genders.

Third sex in biology

In animals that exhibit sexual dimorphism, a number of individuals within a population will not differentiate sexually into bodies that are typically male or female. In non-human animals, this is called hermaphroditism, and in humans, it is called intersexuality. The incidence varies from population to population, and also varies depending on how femaleness and maleness are understood. Biologist and gender theorist Anne Fausto-Sterling proposed in a 1993 article that five sexes may be more adequate than just two, for describing human bodies.[10]

The white-striped form of the white-throated sparrow, which has two distinct female and two male morphs.

In addition to male and female sexes (defined as the production of small or large gametes), evolutionary biologist Joan Roughgarden argues that more than two genders exist in hundreds of animal species.[11] Species with one female and two male genders include red deer who have two male morphs, one with antlers and one without, known as hummels or notts, as well as several species of fish such as plainfin midshipman fish and coho salmon.[12] Species with one female and three male genders include bluegill sunfish, where four distinct size and color classes exhibit different social and reproductive behaviours, as well as the spotted European wrasse (Symphodus ocellatus), a cichlid (Oreochromis mossambicus) and a kind of tree lizard, Urosaurus ornatus.[13] Species with two male and two female genders include the white-throated sparrow, in which male and female morphs are either white-striped or tan-striped. White-striped individuals are more aggressive and defend territory, while tan-striped individuals provide more parental care. Ninety percent of breeding pairs are between a tan striped and a white striped sparrow.[14] Finally, the highest number of distinct male and female morphs or "genders" within a species is found in the side-blotched lizard, which has five altogether: orange-throated males, who are "ultra-dominant, high testosterone" controllers of multiple females; blue-throated males, who are less aggressive and guard only one female; yellow-throated males, who don't defend territories at all but cluster around the territories of orange males; orange-throated females, who lay many small eggs and are very territorial; and yellow-throated females, who lay fewer larger eggs and are more tolerant of each other.[15]

Third gender in contemporary societies

Since at least the 1970s, anthropologists have described gender categories in some cultures which they could not adequately explain using a two-gender framework.[9] At the same time, feminists began to draw a distinction between (biological) sex and (social/psychological) gender. Contemporary gender theorists usually argue that a two-gender system is neither innate nor universal. A sex/gender system which only recognizes the following two social norms has been labeled "heteronormativity":

  • female genitalia = female identity = feminine behavior = desire male partner
  • male genitalia = male identity = masculine behavior = desire female partner

The Indian subcontinent

File:Mona ahmed book cover.jpg
"I am the third sex, not a man trying to be a woman. It is your society's problem that you only recognize two sexes." (Hijra Mona Ahmed to author Dayanita Singh).

The Hijra[16] of India and Bangladesh are probably the most well known and populous third sex type in the modern world — Mumbai-based community health organisation The Humsafar Trust estimates there are between 5 and 6 million hijras in India. In different areas they are known as Aravani/Aruvani or Jogappa. Often (somewhat misleadingly) called eunuchs in English, they may be born intersex or apparently male, dress in feminine clothes and generally see themselves as neither men nor women. Only eight percent of hijras visiting Humsafar clinics are nirwaan (castrated). British photographer Dayanita Singh writes about her friendship with a Hijra, Mona Ahmed, and their two different societies' beliefs about gender: "When I once asked her if she would like to go to Singapore for a sex change operation, she told me, 'You really do not understand. I am the third sex, not a man trying to be a woman. It is your society's problem that you only recognise two sexes.'"[17] Hijra social movements have campaigned for recognition as a third sex,[18] and in 2005, Indian passport application forms were updated with three gender options: M, F, and E (for male, female, and eunuch, respectively).[19]

In addition to the feminine role of hijras, which is widespread across the subcontinent, a few occurrences of institutionalised "female masculinity" have been noted in modern India. Among the Gaddhi in the foothills of the Himalayas, some girls adopt a role as a sadhin, renouncing marriage, and dressing and working as men, but retaining female names and pronouns.[20] A late-nineteenth century anthropologist noted the existence of a similar role in Madras, that of the basivi.[21] However, historian Walter Penrose concludes that in both cases "their status is perhaps more 'transgendered' than 'third-gendered.'"[22]

Thailand

Also commonly referred to as a third sex are the kathoeys (or "ladyboys") of Thailand.[23] However, while a significant number of Thais perceive kathoeys as belonging to a third gender, including many kathoeys themselves, others see them as either a kind of man or a kind of woman.[24] Researcher Sam Winter writes:

"We asked our 190 [kathoeys] to say whether they thought of themselves as men, women, sao praphet song ["a second kind of woman"] or kathoey. None thought of themselves as male, and only 11 percent saw themselves as kathoey (i.e. ‘non-male’). By contrast 45 percent thought of themselves as women, with another 36 percent as sao praphet song... Unfortunately we did not include the category phet tee sam (third sex/gender); conceivably if we had done so there may have been many respondents who would have chosen that term... Around 50 percent [of non-transgender Thais] see them as males with the mistaken minds, but the other half see them as either women born into the wrong body (around 15 percent) or as a third sex/gender (35 percent)."[24]

In 2004, the Chiang Mai Technology School allocated a separate restroom for kathoeys, with an intertwined male and female symbol on the door. The 15 kathoey students are required to wear male clothing at school but are allowed to sport feminine hairdos. The restroom features four stalls, but no urinals.[25]

The Western world

Cover to 1959 lesbian pulp fiction novel "The Third Sex", by Artemis Smith.

Some writers suggest that a third gender emerged around 1700 AD in England: the male sodomite.[26] According to these writers, this was marked by the emergence of a subculture of effeminate males and their meeting places (molly houses), as well as a marked increase in hostility towards effeminate and/or homosexual males. People described themselves as members of a third sex in Europe from at least the 1860s with the writings of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs[27] and continuing in the late nineteenth century with Magnus Hirschfeld,[28] John Addington Symonds,[29] Edward Carpenter,[30] Aimée Duc[31] and others. These writers described themselves and those like them as being of an "inverted" or "intermediate" sex and experiencing homosexual desire, and their writing argued for social acceptance of such sexual intermediates.[32] Many cited precedents from classical Greek and Sanskrit literature (see below).

In Wilhelmine Germany, the terms drittes Geschlecht ("third sex") and Mannweib ("man-woman") were also used to describe feminists — both by their opponents[33] and sometimes by feminists themselves. In the 1899 novel Das dritte Geschlecht (The Third Sex) by Ernst Ludwig von Wolzogen, feminists are portrayed as "neuters" with external female characteristics accompanied by a crippled male psyche.

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Throughout much of the twentieth century, the term "third sex" was a popular descriptor for homosexuals and gender nonconformists, but after Gay Liberation of the 1970s and a growing separation of the concepts of sexual orientation and gender identity, the term fell out of favor among LGBT communities and the wider public. With the renewed exploration of gender that feminism, the modern transgender movement and queer theory has fostered, some in the contemporary West have begun to describe themselves as a third sex again.[34] One well known social movement of male-bodied people that identify as neither men nor women are the Radical Faeries. Other modern identities that cover similar ground include pangender, bigender, genderqueer, androgyne, intergender,"other gender" and "differently gendered".

The term transgender, which often refers to those who change their gender, is increasingly being used to signify a gendered subjectivity that is neither male nor female — one recent example is on a form for the Harvard Business School, which has three gender options — male, female, and transgender.[35]

Indigenous cultures of North America

Main article: Two-Spirit

Also very much associated with multiple genders are the indigenous cultures of North America,[36] who often contain social gender categories that are collectively known as Two-Spirit. Individual examples include the Winkte of Lakota culture, the ninauposkitzipxpe ("manly-hearted woman") of the North Peigan (Blackfoot) community, and the Zapotec Muxe. Various scholars have debated the nature of such categories, as well as the definition of the term "third gender". Different researchers may characterise a Two-Spirit person as a gender-crosser, a mixed gender, an intermediate gender, or distinct third and fourth genders that are not dependent on male and female as primary categories. Those (such as Will Roscoe) who have argued for the latter interpretation also argue that mixed-, intermediate-, cross- or non-gendered social roles should not be understood as truly representing a third gender. Anthropologist Jean-Guy Goulet (1996) reviews the literature:

To summarize: 'berdache' may signify a category of male human beings who fill an established social status other than that of man or woman (Blackwood 1984; Williams 1986: 1993); a category of male and female human beings who behave and dress 'like a member of the opposite sex' (Angelino & Shedd 1955; Jacobs 1968; and Whitehead 1981); or categories of male and female human beings who occupy well established third or fourth genders (Callender & Kochems 1983a; 1983b; Jacobs 1983; Roscoe 1987; 1994). Scheffler (1991: 378), however, sees Native American cases of 'berdache' and 'amazon' as 'situations in which some men (less often women) are permitted to act, in some degree, as though they were women (or men), and may be spoken of as though they were women (or men), or as anomalous 'he-she' or 'she-he'.' In Scheffler's view (1991: 378), '[e]thnographic data cited by Kessler and McKenna (1978), and more recently by Williams (1986), provide definitive evidence that such persons were not regarded as having somehow moved from one sex (or in Kessler and McKenna's terms, gender) category to the other, but were only metaphorically "women" (or "men")'. In other words, according to Scheffler, we need not imagine a multiple gender system. Individuals who appeared in the dress and/or occupation of the opposite sex were only metaphorically spoken of as members of that sex or gender."[37]

The term "berdache" is seen as very offensive by many Two-Spirit and Native people because of its historical roots; It was first applied by European settlers as a derogative term, meaning a submissive, effeminate man.[38] The term "Two-Spirit" was created in 1990 as an English word to convey an identity already recognized by many Nations, and is usually the preferred and most respectful term.

Other

The following gender categories have also been described as a third gender:

North America
Middle East:
Asia-Pacific:
  • Indonesia: Waria.[42] Additionally, the Bugis culture of Sulawesi has been described as having three sexes (male, female and intersex) as well as five genders with distinct social roles.[8]
  • In the Philippines, a number of local sex/gender identities are commonly referred to as a third sex in popular discourse, as well as by some academic studies. Local terms for these identities (which are considered derogatory by some) include bakla (Tagalog), bayot (Cebuano), agi (Ilonggo), bantut (Tausug), binabae, bading — all of which refer to effeminate 'gay' men/transwomen. Gender variant females may be called lakin-on or tomboy.[43]
Europe:
Africa:
Latin America and the Caribbean:

Third gender in history

Mesopotamia

Stone tablet from 2nd millennium BC Sumer containing a myth about the creation of a type of human who is neither man nor woman.

In Mesopotamian mythology, among the earliest written records of humanity, there are references to types of people who are not men and not women. In a Sumerian creation myth found on a stone tablet from the second millennium BC, the goddess Ninmah fashions a being "with no male organ and no female organ", for whom Enki finds a position in society: "to stand before the king". In the Akkadian myth of Atra-Hasis (ca. 1700 BC), Enki instructs Nintu, the goddess of birth, to establish a “third category among the people” in addition to men and women, that includes demons who steal infants, women who are unable to give birth, and priestesses who are prohibited from bearing children.[49] In Babylonia, Sumer and Assyria, certain types of individuals who performed religious duties in the service of Inanna/Ishtar have been described as a third gender.[50] They worked as sacred prostitutes or Hierodules, performed ecstatic dance, music and plays, wore masks and had gender characteristics of both women and men.[51] In Sumer, they were given the cuneiform names of ur.sal ("dog/man-woman") and kur.gar.ra (also described as a man-woman).[52] Modern scholars, struggling to describe them using contemporary sex/gender categories, have variously described them as "living as women", or used descriptors such as hermaphrodites, eunuchs, homosexuals, transvestites, effeminate males and a range of other terms and phrases.[53]

Egypt

Inscribed pottery shards from the Middle Kingdom of Egypt (2000-1800 BCE), found near ancient Thebes (now Luxor, Egypt), list three human genders: tai (male), sḫt ("sekhet") and hmt (female).[54] Sḫt is often translated as "eunuch", although there is little evidence that such individuals were castrated.[55]

Indic culture

The Hindu god Shiva is often represented as Ardhanarisvara, with a dual male and female nature; Typically, Ardhanarisvara's right side is male, and left side female. This sculpture is from the Elephanta Caves near Mumbai.

References to a third sex can be found throughout the various texts of India's three ancient spiritual traditions — Hinduism,[56] Jainism[57] and Buddhism[58] — and it can be inferred that Vedic culture recognised three genders. The Vedas (c. 1500 BC - 500 BC) describe individuals as belonging to one of three separate categories, according to one's nature or prakrti. These are also spelled out in the Kama Sutra (c. 4th century AD) and elsewhere as pums-prakrti (male-nature), stri-prakrti (female-nature), and tritiya-prakrti (third-nature).[59] Various texts suggest that third sex individuals were well known in premodern India, and included male-bodied or female-bodied[60] people as well as intersexuals, and that they can often be recognised from childhood.

A third sex is also discussed in ancient Hindu law, medicine, linguistics and astrology. The foundational work of Hindu law, the Manu Smriti (c. 200 BC - 200 AD) explains the biological origins of the three sexes: "A male child is produced by a greater quantity of male seed, a female child by the prevalence of the female; if both are equal, a third-sex child or boy and girl twins are produced; if either are weak or deficient in quantity, a failure of conception results."[61] Indian linguist Patañjali's work on Sanskrit grammar, the Mahābhāṣya (c. 200 BC), states that Sanskrit's three grammatical genders are derived from three natural genders. The earliest Tamil grammar, the Tolkappiyam (3rd century BC) also refers to hermaphrodites as a third "neuter" gender (in addition to a feminine category of unmasculine males). In Vedic astrology, the nine planets are each assigned to one of the three genders; the third gender, tritiya-prakrti, is associated with Mercury, Saturn and (in particular) Ketu. In the Puranas, there are also references to three kinds of devas of music and dance: apsaras (female), gandharvas (male) and kinnars (neuter).

The two great Sanskrit epic poems, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata,[62] also indicate the existence of a third gender in ancient Indic society. Some versions of Ramayana tell that in one part of the story, the hero Rama heads into exile in the forest. Halfway there, he discovers that most of the people of his home town Ayodhya were following him. He told them, "Men and women, turn back," and with that, those who were "neither men nor women" did not know what to do, so they stayed there. When Rama returned to from exile years later, he discovered them still there and blessed them, saying that there will be a day when they will rule the world.

In the Buddhist Vinaya, codified in its present form around the 2nd century BC and said to be handed down by oral tradition from Buddha himself, there are four main sex/gender categories: Men, Women, Ubhatobyanjanakas (of dual sex, hermaphrodite) and Pandakas who are feminine gendered males who indulge in receptive anal or oral sex with men[63] As the Vinaya tradition developed, the term pandaka came to refer to a broad third sex category which encompassed intersex, male and female bodied people with physical and/or behavioural attributes that were considered inconsistent with the sexual ideal of man and woman.[64] [65]

Mediterranean culture

2nd century Roman copy of a Greek sculpture. The figure is Hermaphroditus, from which the word hermaphrodite is derived.

In Plato's Symposium, written around the 4th century BC, Aristophanes relates a creation myth involving three original sexes: female, male and androgynous. They are split in half by Zeus, producing four different contemporary sex/gender types which seek to be reunited with their lost other half; in this account, the modern heterosexual man and woman descend from the original androgynous sex. Other creation myths around the world share a belief in three original sexes, such as those from northern Thailand.[66]

Many have interpreted the "eunuchs" of the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean world as a third gender that inhabited a liminal space between women and men, understood in their societies as somehow neither or both.[67] In the Historia Augusta, the eunuch body is described as a tertium genus hominum (a third human gender),[68] and in 77 BC, a eunuch named Genucius was prevented from claiming goods left to him in a will, on the grounds that he had voluntarily mutilated himself (amputatis sui ipsius) and was neither a woman or a man (neque virorum neque mulierum numero).[69] Several scholars have argued that the eunuchs in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament were understood in their time to belong to a third gender, rather than the more recent interpretations of a kind of emasculated man, or a metaphor for chastity.[70] The first Christian theologian, Tertullian, wrote that Jesus himself was a eunuch (c. 200 AD).[71] Tertullian also noted the existence of a third sex (tertium sexus) among heathens: "a third race in sex... made of male and female in one."[72] He may have been referring to the Galli, "eunuch" devotees of the Phrygian goddess Cybele, who were described as belonging to a third sex by several Roman writers.[73]

The Americas

The ancient Maya civilization may have recognised a third gender, according to historian Matthew Looper. Looper notes the androgynous Maize Deity and masculine Moon goddess of Maya mythology, and iconography and inscriptions where rulers embody or impersonate these deities. He suggests that the third gender could also include two-spirit individuals with special roles such as healers or diviners.[74]

Anthropologist and archaeologist Miranda Stockett notes that several writers have felt the need to move beyond a two-gender framework when discussing prehispanic cultures across mesoamerica,[75] and concludes that the Olmec, Aztec and Maya peoples understood "more than two kinds of bodies and more than two kinds of gender." Anthropologist Rosemary Joyce agrees, writing that "gender was a fluid potential, not a fixed category, before the Spaniards came to Mesoamerica. Childhood training and ritual shaped, but did not set, adult gender, which could encompass third genders and alternative sexualities as well as "male" and "female." At the height of the Classic period, Maya rulers presented themselves as embodying the entire range of gender possibilities, from male through female, by wearing blended costumes and playing male and female roles in state ceremonies." Joyce notes that many figures of mesoamerican art are depicted with male genitalia and female breasts, while she suggests that other figures in which chests and waists are exposed but no sexual characteristics (primary or secondary) are marked may represent a third sex, ambiguous gender or androgyny.[76]

Inca

Andean Studies scholar Michael Horswell writes that third-gendered ritual attendants to chuqui chinchay, a jaguar deity in Incan mythology, were "vital actors in Andean ceremonies" prior to Spanish colonisation. Horswell elaborates: "These quariwarmi (men-women) shamans mediated between the symmetrically dualistic spheres of Andean cosmology and daily life by performing rituals that at times required same-sex erotic practices. Their transvested attire served as a visible sign of a third space that negotiated between the masculine and the feminine, the present and the past, the living and the dead. Their shamanic presence invoked the androgynous creative force often represented in Andean mythology."[77] Richard Trexler gives an early Spanish account of religious 'third gender' figures from the Inca empire in his 1995 book "Sex and Conquest":

It is true that, as a general thing among the mountaineers and the coastal dwellers [Yungas], the devil has introduced his vice under the pretense of sanctity. And in each important temple or house of worship, they have a man or two, or more, depending on the idol, who go dressed in women's attire from the time they are children, and speak like them, and in manner, dress, and everything else they imitate women. With them especially the chiefs and headmen have carnal, foul intercourse on feast days and holidays, almost like a religious rite and ceremony.[78]

Illiniwek

The natives of modern Illinois decided the gender of their members based on their childhood behavior. If a genetic male child used female tools like a spade or ax instead of a bow, they considered them berdaches.[79]

Third sex in art and literature

Illustration from the Nuremberg Chronicle, by Hartmann Schedel (1440-1514)
  • In the 1980s science fiction book trilogy Xenogenesis, by Octavia Butler, the extraterrestrial race has three sexes: male, female, and Ooloi. They also have sexual relationships with humans and interbreed with them.
  • In the world of Carolyn Ives Gilman's 1998 novel Halfway Human, all children are born with indeterminate sex, and develop into male, female, or "bland" in adolescence. Blands are a neuter category lacking sexual characteristics, who are disparaged and treated as servants — the "halfway humans" of the book's title.
  • Literary critic Michael Maiwald identifies a "third-sex ideal" in the one of the first African-American bestsellers, Claude McKay's Home to Harlem (1928).[80]
  • The Third Sex, a 1959 lesbian pulp fiction novel by Artemis Smith.
  • The Third Sex, a 1934 film directed by Richard C. Kahn, based on a novel by Radcliffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness.[81]
  • Anders als du und ich ("Different From You and I"), a 1957 film directed by Veit Harlan, was also known under the titles Bewildered Youth (USA) and The Third Sex.[82]
  • Mikaël, a 1924 film directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer was also released as Chained: The Story of the Third Sex in the USA.[83]
  • In David Lindsay's A Voyage to Arcturus there is a type of being called phaen, a third gender which is attracted neither to men nor women but to "Shaping" (the Demiurge). The appropriate pronouns are ae and aer.
  • In Imajica, one of the characters, Pie 'oh' Pah, is called a mystif, and has the characteristics of a third sex that is neither male nor female but could either fertilize or bear children. Pie marries the male character Gentle, but says it prefers not to be called his wife.
  • In C. S. Lewis' Space Trilogy, the solar system has seven genders (not sexes) altogether.
  • In Matt Groening's cartoon series Futurama, "smizmar" is used as a term for a third sex, the name for the individuals whom inspire the feeling of love (and thus conception, for that species), regardless of genetic relationship, to Kif Kroker's species, the Amphibiosians. This is explained in the episode "Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch".
  • Arthur C. Clarke's novel Rendezvous with Rama depicts an alien civilization with three genders.
  • Ursula K. Le Guin's 1969 novel The Left Hand of Darkness posits a world called Gethen, on which humans are androgynes, effectively neuter 12/13 of the time, and for up to two days per month are said to be "in Kemmer," that is, openly available to enter either male or female state as per pheromonal contact with a potential mate.

Attempts to reinterpret and redefine the traditional concept of Third Gender by the West in terms of sexual orientation

According to some scholars, the West is trying to reinterpret and redefine the ancient third gender identities to fit into the Western concept of "sexual orientation". In her research paper titled "Redefining Fa'afafine: Western Discourses and the Construction of Transgenderism in Samoa," Johanna Schmidt has argued that the Western attempts to reinterpret the Samoan third gender identity of Fa 'afafine in terms of homosexuality is influencing the fa'afafine identity itself which is being reorganised in western ways, i.e. from being a feminine gender space to being a homosexual space. [84]

As a Samoan Fa'afafine says, "But I would like to pursue a masters degree with a paper on homosexuality from a Samoan perspective that would be written for educational purposes, because I believe some of the stuff that has been written about us is quite wrong." [85]

In his paper, 'How to become a Berdache: Toward a unified analysis of gender diversity', Will Roscoe writes that "This pattern can be traced from the earliest accounts of the Spaniards to present-day ethnographies. What has been written about berdaches reflects more the influence of existing Western discourses on gender, sexuality and the Other than what observers actually witnessed."[86]

See also

References

  1. ^ Agrawal, Anuja (1997). Gendered Bodies: The Case of the ‘Third Gender’ in India, Contributions to Indian Sociology, n.s., 31 (1997): 273–97
  2. ^ a b Young, Antonia (2000). Women Who Become Men: Albanian Sworn Virgins. ISBN 1-85973-335-2
  3. ^ Thai Buddhist accounts of male homosexuality and AIDS in the 1980s (THai Sexuality in the Age of AIDS: Essays in Memory of Robert Ariss) by Peter Anthony Jackson; The Australian Journal of Anthropology; Vol.6 No.3; Pp.140-153; Dec.1995; Copyrighyt by Anthropological Society of New South Wales;According to Buddhaghosa pandakas are full of defiling passions (ussanakilesa); their lusts are unquenchable (avapasantaparilaha); and they are dominated by their libido (parilahavegabhibhuta) and the desire for lovers just like prostitutes (vesiya) and coarse young girls (thulakumarika) (Samantapasadika III, p.1042). Thus the pandaka . . . was considered in some degree to share the behaviour and psychological characteristics of the stereotypical 'bad' woman. ... the scriptural emphasis is usually on receptive anal sex as the violation and source of disruption. The Vinaya conflates receptive anal sex with demasculinisation, i.e. being a pandaka, and the Buddha's ban on the ordination of pandaka indicates a concern to exclude non-masculine men from the sangha. The ban on the ordination of pandaka or kathoeys has continued until today.
  4. ^ HOW TO BECOME A BERDACHE: TOWARD A UNIFIED ANALYSIS OF GENDER DIVERSITYBY WILL ROSCOE; Quote: The men arc strongly inclined to sodomy; but the boys that abandon themselves thus are excluded from the society of men and sent out to that of women as being effeminates. They are confused with the Hermaphrodites which they say are found in quantity in the country of the Floridians. I believe that these Hermaphrodites are none other than the effeminate boys, that in a sense truly are hermaphrodites. Be that as it may, they employ them in all the diverse handiworks of women, in servile functions, and to carry the munitions and provisions of war. They are also distinguished from the men and the women by the color of the feathers that they put on their heads and for the scorn than they bring au to themselves. --Francisco Coreal
  5. ^ http://www.jstor.org/pss/3175882 Review: [untitled] by David Valentine © 2001 The University of Chicago Press. Quote: At heart these books -- Men as Women, Women as Men, by Sabine Lang, and Two Spirit Poeple, edited by Sue-Ellen Jacobs, Wesley Thomas, and Sabine Lang -- engage two broad anthropological questions: first, how do we describe genders and sexualities taht fall outside Western binary organization of translating non-Western categories in ways that both make sense of them and adequately represents native meanings... Indeed, contemporary anthropologists working in the field of the Native American "berdache" -- and more broadly, the field of homosexuality and alternative genders and sexualities -- are beset by the competing demands generated by social justice movements, the need for accurate ethnographic representation, and the possibilities of critical scholarship.
  6. ^ Redefining Fa'afafine: Western Discourses and the Construction of Transgenderism in Samoa Johanna Schmidt; Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context; Issue 6, August 2001 Quote: In this article, I argue that fa'afafine are both viewed through the lens of and influenced by Western understandings of sexuality. This argument is based on the analysis of various representations of fa'afafine and discusses the impact of Western discourses of gender and sexuality have had on fa'afafine identities.[6]
  7. ^ Roscoe, Will (2000). Changing Ones: Third and Fourth Genders in Native North America. Palgrave Macmillan (June 17 2000) ISBN 0-312-22479-6
    See also: Trumbach, Randolph (1994). London’s Sapphists: From Three Sexes to Four Genders in the Making of Modern Culture. In Third Sex, Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History, edited by Gilbert Herdt, 111-36. New York: Zone (MIT).
  8. ^ a b Graham, Sharyn (2001), Sulawesi's fifth gender, Inside Indonesia, April-June 2001.
  9. ^ a b Martin, M. Kay and Voorhies, Barbara (1975). Supernumerary Sexes, chapter 4 of Female of the Species (New York: Columbia University Press, 1975), 23.
  10. ^ Fausto-Sterling, Anne (1993). "The Five Sexes: Why male and female are not enough". The Sciences (May/April 1993): 20–25. Article online.
  11. ^ Roughgarden, Joan (2004). Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-24073-1 Especially chapter 6, Multiple Gender Families, pp. 75 - 105.
  12. ^ Ibid, p. 76 - 78
  13. ^ pp. 78 - 88
  14. ^ Ibid, pp 89 - 90
  15. ^ Ibid, pp. 90 - 93
  16. ^ Talwar, Rajesh (1999). The Third sex and Human Rights, Gyan Publishing House. ISBN 81-212-0266-3
  17. ^ Myself Mona Ahmed. by Dayanita Singh (Photographer) and Mona Ahmed. Scalo Publishers (September 15 2001). ISBN 3-908247-46-2
  18. ^ India's eunuchs demand rights, by Habib Beary, BBC correspondent in Bangalore. Article online.
  19. ^ ‘Third sex’ finds a place on Indian passport forms, The Telegraph, March 10 2005. Article online
  20. ^ Phillimore, Peter (1991). Unmarried Women of the Dhaula Dhar: Celibacy and Social Control in Northwest India. Journal of Anthropological Research 47 (3): 331-50.
  21. ^ Fawcett, Fred (1891). On Basivis: Women Who, through Dedication to a Deity, Assume Masculine Privileges. Journal of the Anthropological Society of Bombay (July). Bombay: Education Society's Press; London: Treubner.
  22. ^ Penrose, Walter (2001). Hidden in History: Female Homoeroticism and Women of a "Third Nature" in the South Asian Past, Journal of the History of Sexuality 10.1
  23. ^ Totman, Richard, (2004). The Third Sex: Kathoey: Thailand's Ladyboys, Souvenir Press. ISBN 0-285-63668-5
  24. ^ a b Winter, Sam (2003). Research and discussion paper: Language and identity in transgender: gender wars and the case of the Thai kathoey. Paper presented at the Hawaii conference on Social Sciences, Waikiki, June 2003. Article online.
  25. ^ Transvestites Get Their Own School Bathroom, Associated Press, June 22 2004.
  26. ^ a b Trumbach, Randolph. (1998) Sex and the Gender Revolution. Volume 1: Heterosexuality and the Third Gender in Enlightenment London. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1998. (Chicago Series on Sexuality, History & Society)
  27. ^ Kennedy, Hubert C. (1980) The "third sex" theory of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, Journal of Homosexuality. 1980-1981 Fall-Winter; 6(1-2): pp. 103-1
  28. ^ Hirschfeld, Magnus, 1904. Berlins Drittes Geschlecht ("Berlin's Third Sex")
  29. ^ Ellis, Havelock and Symonds, J. A., 1897. Sexual Inversion.
  30. ^ Carpenter, Edward, 1908. The Intermediate Sex: A Study of Some Transitional Types of Men and Women.
  31. ^ Duc, Aimée, 1901. Sind es Frauen? Roman über das dritte Geschlecht ("Are These Women? Novel about the Third Sex")
  32. ^ Jones, James W. (1990). "We of the third sex” : Literary Representations of Homosexuality in Wilhelmine Germany. (German Life and Civilization v. 7) New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1990. ISBN 0-8204-1209-0
  33. ^ Wright, Barbara D. (1897). 'New Man,' Eternal Woman: Expressionist Responses to German Feminism, The German Quarterly, 60, no. 4, (Autumn 1987): 594.
  34. ^ Sell, Ingrid. (2001). Not man, not woman: Psychospiritual characteristics of a Western third gender. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 33 (1), pp. 16-36. (Complete doctoral dissertation: Sell, Ingrid. (2001). Third gender: A qualitative study of the experience of individuals who identify as being neither man nor woman. (Doctoral Dissertation, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology). UMI No. 3011299.)
  35. ^ Harvard Business School Profile form online.
  36. ^ See, for example, Hollimon, S. E. (1997), The third-gender in native California: two-spirit undertakers among the Chumash and their neighbors. In Women in Prehistory, C. Claassen and R. Joyce (Ed.). Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, pp. 173 - 188.
  37. ^ Goulet, Jean-Guy A. (2006). The 'berdache'/'two-spirit': a comparison of anthropological and native constructions of gendered identities among the Northern Athapaskans. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 2.n4 (December 1996): 683(19).
    *The works cited in this overview are:
    Angelino, H. & C. Shedd, (1955). A note on Berdache. Am. Anthrop. 57, pp. 121-6.
    Blackwood, E. (1984). Sexuality and gender in certain Native American tribes: the case of cross-gender females. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 10, pp. 27-4
    Callender, C. & L.M. Kochems (1983a). The North American berdache. Current Anthropology 24, 443-56.
    — (1983b). Reply. Curr. Anthrop. 24, 464-7.
    Jacobs, S.-E. (1968). Berdache: a brief review of the literature. Colorado Anthrop. 1, pp. 25-40.
    — (1983). Comment. Curr. Anthrop. 24, 462.
    Kessler, S. & W. McKenna (1978). Gender: an ethnomethodological approach. New York: Wiley.
    Roscoe, W. (1987). Bibliography of berdache and alternative gender roles among North American Indians. Journal of Homosexuality. 14, 81-171.
    — (1994). How to become a berdache: toward a unified analysis of gender diversity. In "Third sex, third gender: beyond sexual dimorphism in culture and history" (ed.) G. Herdt. New York: Zone Books.
    Scheffler, H.W. (1991). Sexism and naturalism in the study of kinship. In "Gender at the crossroads of knowledge: feminist anthropology in the postmodern era" (ed.) M. di Leonardo. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
    Whitehead, H. (1981). The bow and the burden strap: a new look at institutionalized homosexuality in Native North America. In "Sexual meanings: the cultural construction of gender and sexuality", (eds) S.B. Ortner & H. Whitehead. New York: Cambridge University
    Williams, W.L. (1986). The spirit and the flesh: sexual diversity in American Indian culture. Boston: Beacon Press.
  38. ^ B.C. on Gender: The Berdache Tradition
  39. ^ Wikan, Unni (1991). The Xanith: a third gender role? in Behind the veil in Arabia: women in Oman. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
  40. ^ Sua'aIi'i, Tamasailau, "Samoans and Gender: Some Reflections on Male, Female and Fa'afafine Gender Identities", in: Tangata O Te Moana Nui: The Evolving Identities of Pacific Peoples in Aotearoa/New Zealand, Palmerston North (NZ): Dunmore Press, 2001, ISBN 0-86469-369-9
  41. ^ National fono for Pacific “third sex” communities, media release from New Zealand Aids Foundation, August 5 2005. Article online.
  42. ^ Oostvogels, Robert (1995). The Waria of Indonesia: A Traditional Third Gender Role, in Herdt (ed.), op cit.
  43. ^ Nanda, Serena (1999). Gender Diversity: Crosscultural Variations. Waveland Pr Inc, 7 October 1999. ISBN 1-57766-074-9
  44. ^ Donham, Donald (1990). History, Power, Ideology. Central Issues in Marxism and Anthropology, Cambridge
  45. ^ Towles, Joseph A. (1993). Nkumbi initiation: Ritual and structure among the Mbo of Zaire, Musée royal de l'Afrique Centrale (Tervuren, Belgique)
  46. ^ Kulick, Don (1998). Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998)
  47. ^ Nataf, Zachary I (1998). Whatever I feel..., New Internationalist, Issue 300 / April 1998. Article online.
  48. ^ Herdt, Gilbert. (1993). Mistaken Sex: Culture, Biology and the Third Sex in New Guinea, in Herdt, (1999). "Sambia Sexual Culture: Essays from the Field." Chicago. 243–64.
  49. ^ Murray, Stephen O., and Roscoe, Will (1997). Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature. New York: New York University Press.
  50. ^ Roscoe, Will (1996). Priests of the Goddess: Gender Transgression in Ancient Religion. History of Religions 35(3) (1996): 295-330.
    *Roscoe identifies these temple staff by the names kalû, kurgarrû, and assinnu.
  51. ^ Nissinen, Martti (1998). Homoeroticism in the Biblical World, Translated by Kirsi Stjedna. Fortress Press (November 1998) p. 30. ISBN 0-8006-2985-X
    See also: Maul, S. M. (1992). Kurgarrû und assinnu und ihr Stand in der babylonischen Gesellschaft. Pp. 159-71 in Aussenseiter und Randgruppen. Konstanze Althistorische Vorträge und Forschungern 32. Edited by V. Haas. Konstanz: Universitätsverlag.
  52. ^ Nissinen (1998) p. 28, 32.
  53. ^ Leick, Gwendolyn (1994). Sex and Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature. Routledge. New York.
    *Leick's account: Sumerian: sag-ur-sag, pilpili and kurgarra; and Assyrian: assinnu. Leick describes them as "hermaphrodites, homosexual transvestites, and other, castrated individuals".
    Burns, John Barclay (2000). Devotee or Deviate: The “Dog” (keleb) in Ancient Israel as a Symbol of Male Passivity and Perversion. Journal of Religion & Society Volume 2 (2000). ISSN 1522-5658
    *Burns defines the assinnu as "a member of Ishtar’s cultic staff with whom, it seems, a man might have intercourse, whose masculinity had become femininity" and who "lacked libido, either from a natural defect or castration". He described the kulu'u as effeminate and the kurgarru as transvestite. In addition, he defines another kind of gender-variant prostitute, sinnisānu, as (literally) “woman-like.”
  54. ^ Sethe, Kurt, (1926), Die Aechtung feindlicher Fürsten, Völker und Dinge auf altägyptischen Tongefäßscherben des mittleren Reiches, in: Abhandlungen der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, 1926, p. 61.
  55. ^ The Third Gender in Ancient Egypt, Faris Malik. (web site)
  56. ^ Wilhelm, Amara Das (2004). Tritiya Prakriti (People of the Third Sex): Understanding Homosexuality, Transgender Identity and Intersex Conditions through Hinduism (XLibris Corporation, 2004).
  57. ^ Zwilling, Leonard and Sweet, Michael (1996). Like a City Ablaze: The Third Sex and the Creation of Sexuality in Jain Religious Literature, Journal of the History of Sexuality, 6 (3), pp.359-384
  58. ^ Jackson, Peter A. (1996). Non-normative Sex/Gender Categories in the Theravada Buddhist Scriptures, Australian Humanities Review, April 1996. Full text.
  59. ^ Alternate transliteration: trhytîyâ prakrhyti
  60. ^ Historian Walter Penrose wrote that "distinct social and economic roles once existed for women thought to belong to a third gender. Hidden in history, these women dressed in men's clothing, served as porters and personal bodyguards to kings and queens, and even took an active role in sex with women." Penrose, Walter (2001). Hidden in History: Female Homoeroticism and Women of a "Third Nature" in the South Asian Past, Journal of the History of Sexuality 10.1 (2001), p.4
  61. ^ Manu Smriti, 3.49. Text online.
  62. ^ The hero Arjuna takes a "vow of eunuchism" to live as the third sex for a year: "O lord of the Earth, I will declare myself as one of the neuter sex. O monarch, it is, indeed difficult to hide the marks of the bowstring on my arms. I will, however, cover both my cicatrized arms with bangles. Wearing brilliant rings on my ears and conch-bangles on my wrists and causing a braid to hang down from my head, I shall, O king, appear as one of the third sex, Vrihannala by name. And living as a female I shall (always) entertain the king and the inmates of the inner apartments by reciting stories. And, O king, I shall also instruct the women of Virata's palace in singing and delightful modes of dancing and in musical instruments of diverse kinds. And I shall also recite the various excellent acts of men..." Mahabharata (Virata-parva), Translated by Ganguli, Kisari Mohan. Project Gutenberg.
  63. ^ [http://www.buddhanet.net/homosexu.htm Homosexuality and Theravada Buddhism by A. L. De Silva] Quote: The term pandaka therefore probably does not refer to homosexuals in general but rather to the effeminate, self-advertising and promiscuous homosexual.
  64. ^ Gyatso, Janet (2003). One Plus One Makes Three: Buddhist Gender Conceptions and the Law of the Non-Excluded Middle, History of Religions. 2003, no. 2. University of Chicago press.
  65. ^ Male homosexuality and Transgenderism in the Thai Budhhist Tradition, by Peter A. Jackson, excerpted from the book "Queer Dharma: voices of gay buddhists" edited by Winston Leyland, ISBN 0940567229; Quote: Suchip Punyanuphap, author of a comprehensive Thai language summary of the forty -five volumes of the Tipitaka, equates pandaka with Kathoey and defines both in behaviorual and psychologicval rather than physiological terms as, "a person who takes pleasure in having relations with a man while feeling that they are women" (Suchip 1982:224n)
  66. ^ Jackson, Peter A. (1995) Kathoey: The third sex. In Jackson, P., "Dear Uncle Go: Male homosexuality in Thailand." Bangkok, Thailand: Bua Luang Books
    See also: Peltier, Anatole-Roger (1991). Pathamamulamuli: The Origin of the World in the Lan Na Tradition. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Silkworm Books. The Yuan creation myth in the book is from Pathamamulamuli, an antique Buddhist palmleaf manuscript. Its translator, Anatole-Roger Peltier, believes that this story is based on an oral tradition which is over five hundred years old. Text online.
  67. ^ S. Tougher, ed., (2001) Eunuchs in Antiquity and Beyond (London: Duckworth Publishing, 2001).
    Ringrose, Kathryn M. (2003). The Perfect Servant: Eunuchs and the Social Construction of Gender in Byzantium. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2003.
  68. ^ Historia Augusta, Severus Alexander xxiii.7.
  69. ^ Valerius Maximus, 7.7.6).
  70. ^ Hester, J. David (2005). Eunuchs and the Postgender Jesus: Matthew 19:12 and Transgressive Sexualities. Journal for the Study of the New Testament, Vol. 28, No. 1, 13-40 (2005)
  71. ^ Tertullian, On Monogamy, 3: “...He stands before you, if you are willing to copy him, as a voluntary spado (eunuch) in the flesh.” And elsewhere: "The Lord Himself opened the kingdom of heaven to eunuchs and He Himself lived as a eunuch. The apostle [Paul] also, following His example, made himself a eunuch..."
  72. ^ Tertullian, Ad nationes, 1.20.4. Text online.
  73. ^ e.g. "Both sexes are displeasing to her holiness, so [the gallus] keeps a middle gender (medium genus) between the others." Prudentius, Peristephanon, 10.1071-3
  74. ^ Looper, Matthew G. (2001). Ancient Maya Women-Men (and Men-Women): Classic Rulers and the Third Gender, In: "Ancient Maya Women", ed. Traci Ardren. Walnut Creek, California: Alta Mira, 2001.
  75. ^ Stockett, Miranda K. ( 2005). On the importance of difference: re-envisioning sex and gender in ancient Mesoamerica, World Archaeology, Routledge, Volume 37, Number 4 / December 2005. pp. 566 - 578
    In addition to Looper (above) and Joyce (below), Stockett cites:
    Geller, P. (2004). Skeletal analysis and theoretical complications. Paper presented at Que(e)rying Archaeology: The Fifteenth Anniversary Gender Conference, Chacmool Archaeology Conference, University of Calgary, Calgary.
    Joyce, R. (1998). Performing the body in pre-Hispanic Central American. RES, 33: 147–65.
    Lopez-Austin, A. (1988). The Human Body and Ideology: Concepts of Ancient Nahuas (trans T.O. de Montellano and B.O. de Montellano). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
  76. ^ Joyce, Rosemary A. (2000). Gender and Power in Prehispanic Mesoamerica. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
  77. ^ Horswell, Michael J. (2006). Transculturating Tropes of Sexuality, Tinkuy, and Third Gender in the Andes, introduction to "Decolonizing the Sodomite: Queer Tropes of Sexuality in Colonial Andean Culture". ISBN 0-292-71267-7. Article online.
  78. ^ Trexler, Richard C. (1995). Sex and Conquest. Cornell University Press: Ithaca. p. 107
  79. ^ Pierre Liette. Memoir of Pierre Liette on the Illinois Country as quoted in Gender Outlaw by Kate Bornsten
  80. ^ Maiwald, Michael (2002). Race, Capitalism, and the Third-Sex Ideal: Claude McKay's Home to Harlem and the Legacy of Edward Carpenter, MFS Modern Fiction Studies, Volume 48, Number 4, Winter 2002
  81. ^ The Third Sex (1934)
  82. ^ Anders als du und ich (1957)
  83. ^ Michael (1924)
  84. ^ Redefining Fa'afafine: Western Discourses and the Construction of Transgenderism in Samoa Johanna Schmidt; Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context; Issue 6, August 2001 Quote: In this article, I argue that fa'afafine are both viewed through the lens of and influenced by Western understandings of sexuality. This argument is based on the analysis of various representations of fa'afafine and discusses the impact of Western discourses of gender and sexuality have had on fa'afafine identities.[6]
  85. ^ Redefining Fa'afafine: Western Discourses and the Construction of Transgenderism in Samoa Johanna Schmidt; Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context; Issue 6, August 2001
  86. ^ How to become a Berdache: Toward a unified analysis of gender diversity Will Roscoe

Further reading

  • Gilbert Herdt, ed. 1996. Third Sex Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History. ISBN 0-942299-82-5
  • Morris, Rosalind. 1994. Three Sexes and Four Sexualities: Redressing the Discourses on Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Thailand, in Positions 2(1):15-43.
  • Wilhelm, Amara Das. Tritiya-Prakriti: People of the Third Sex. Philadelphia, PA: Xlibris Corporation, 2005.


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