Gender-variant identities worldwide

From ancient history to the present, many cultures around the world that have established gender-variant identities worldwide, some of which are accepted as an essential part of their societies. These are the gender identities and roles that Western anthropologists have called third gender, because they are different than the Western gender binary idea of cisgender, heterosexual, masculine men and feminine women. Identities that have been called "third gender" are often transgender and nonbinary, and the "third gender" label pushes that interpretation. However, many of the identities that anthropologists call third gender are not nonbinary identities: some are instead lesbians, gay men, and intersex people. This is part of why "third gender" is a problematic colonialist label. Calling these identities by outside labels such as "transgender" and "nonbinary," in cases where the people in question haven't said that they would call themselves by those words, can also be colonialist and problematic.

Although it is challenging for Western writers to do so, it is important to talk about these identities without imposing modern Western ideas of gender on them, such as binarism. Sometimes it isn't clear to outsiders whether a certain apparently gender nonconforming or LGBT role was made of people who were like what they think of as gay cisgender people, transgender women, transgender men, or nonbinary people. It can be unwise for outsiders to try to fit them into those modern Western categories. However, it is also difficult to talk about them without doing something like that.

People who aren't members of these cultures and ethnic groups aren't entitled to call themselves by any of the following genders. That would be cultural appropriation, which means taking parts of somebody else's culture to use for yourself. It is acceptable to learn about these cultures, so long as one does not take what is not one's own.

Outsiders should learn about cultures that accept transgender and nonbinary people so that they can support those people on their own terms, and so that they are informed about political challenges that those people face today. Outsiders should also learn about them in order to see that there have been hundreds of accepting cultures throughout history, that it has been done and that it has worked, and that these genders have always been real. This gives hope for other cultures to become accepting as well.

Third gender

See main article: third gender

Third gender, or third sex, is a concept in which individuals are categorized, either by themselves, by their society, or by outsiders to their society, as not fitting into the Western ideas of binary gender and heterosexual roles.

The phrase "third gender" has been used for a wide variety of meanings: intersex people whose bodies do not fit outdated Western medical concepts of binary sex, hundreds of indigenous societal roles as described (and often misrepresented) by Western anthropologists (including indigenous identities such as south Asian hijras, Hawaiian and Tahitian māhū, and Native American identities now called Two-Spirits), transgender people who are nonbinary, homosexual people even in Western societies, and women who were considered to be gender-nonconforming because they fought for women's rights.

A significant number of nonbinary people have adopted "third gender" to describe themselves. In the 2019 Worldwide Gender Census, 2.17% (244) of the 11,242 respondants called themselves third gender.

List of gender-variant identities

This list focuses on identities that are most analogous to nonbinary gender. However, due to the problems of imposing outsider's views on these identities, this isn't clear in all cases. Some of the identities in the list below may be more analogous to binary transgender women and transgender men than to nonbinary identity. This should not list identities that are known to be more analogous to cisgender identities that are simply gender nonconforming or non-heterosexual.

Africa

The word "sekhet" in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.

• Writings from ancient Egypt (Middle Kingdom, 2000-1800 BCE) said there were three genders of humans: males, sekhet (sht), and females, in that order. Sekhet is usually translated as "eunuch," but that's probably an oversimplification of what this gender category means. Since it was given that level of importance, it could potentially be an entire category of gender/sex variance that doesn't fit into male or female. The hieroglyphs for sekhet include a sitting figure that usually mean a man, but the word doesn't include hieroglyphs that refer to genitals in any way. At the very least, sekhet is likely to mean cisgender gay men, in the sense of not having children, and not necessarily someone who was castrated.

• In Egypt, during the Mamluk Sultanate of the 1200s to 1700s, masculine children who were assigned female at birth (AFAB) could be raised as men.

• In Benin, when it was the Kingdom of Dahomey, it had the Mino, warriors who were AFAB and considered masculine.

• In Ethiopia, the Maale people had a gender role called Ashtime, for assigned-male-at-birth (AMAB) eunuchs who live as women, though later this became an umbrella term for all kinds of gender non-conforming AMAB people.

• In Madagascar, the Sakalava people have the Sekrata, who are analogous to binary transgender women.

Americas

We'Wha, a famous Zuni Two-Spirit (Lhamana) person who lived 1849-1896.

Hundreds of cultures throughout North and South America had gender roles for those other than cisgender women and cisgender men. Internationally (that is, across all Native American nations), these transgender and nonbinary people are called two-spirit. Depending on the nation, and on the individual, a two-spirit role is not necessarily analogous to what Westerners consider nonbinary. That is, some two-spirit roles and persons may be more analogous to what Westerners categorize as gay men, lesbian women, bisexual people, trans men, or trans women. However, those roles and persons listed here can be considered analogous to nonbinary, in that they are distinct from-- or combine characteristics of-- male and female gender roles and expressions, in their cultures.

• The Blackfoot Confederacy recognizes Ninauposkitzipxpe, "manly-hearted women," who are AFAB and occupy a gender role different from that of women and men.

• The Lakota recognize Winkte, who are AMAB and occupy a gender role like that of women.

• The Navajo recognize Nadleehi, who are AMAB and feminine, and the Dilbaa, who are AFAB and masculine.

• The Zuni recognize lhamana, who take on roles and duties associated with both men and women, and they wear a mixture of women's and men's clothing. They work as mediators.

• In Mexico, the Zapotec people recognize the Muxe, who are AMAB and feminine. This term also includes gay men.

• In Peru, the pre-colonial Incas recognized Quariwarmi, a nonbinary mixed-gender role.

• The Ojibwe people of Canada recognized the ininiikaazo and the ikwekaazo pre-colonization. Ininiikaazo means "woman who functions as a man," and ikwekaazo means "man who functions as a woman."

• "[I]n parts of Chile and Argentina, 'machi' are spiritual leaders who fluidly move between or embrace both womanhood and manhood during healing ceremonies."

Asia and Middle East

A group of Hijra, circa 1865.

• In south Asian countries including India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, the Hijra are AMAB people with a feminine gender expression. This is a very ancient tradition. Today, Hijra are legally recognized as a gender other than female or male. The Hijra of India alone may number as many as 2,000,000.

• The Bugis people of Indonesia divide their society into five separate genders. These are oroané (cisgender men), makkunrai (cisgender women), calabai (analogous to transgender women), calalai (transgender men), and bissu. To be considered bissu, all aspects of gender must be combined to form a whole. Bissu may or may not be intersex. It is a cultural belief that all five genders must harmoniously coexist.

• Also in Indonesia, waria refers to a third gender. Because the discrimination they face, most warias only have the option to work as sex workers.

• In Japan, X-gender (Xジェンダー) is a common transgender identity that isn't female or male.

• In Turkey, in the 17th century Ottoman Empire, the köçek were feminine AMAB people.

• In Oman, the Xanith are AMAB people with a partially feminine gender expression.

• In Nepal, the Metis are AMAB people with a feminine gender expression.

• In Myanmar, the Acault are AMAB people with a feminine gender expression.

• In Siberia, the indigenous Chuckchi people have shamans who are a nonbinary gender, usually feminine AMAB people.

• In Iraq, the ancient Sumerians had several kinds of nonbinary priesthoods, called Assinnu, Kurgarru, and Kalaturru.

• In Afghanistan and Pakistan, there is a 100 year old tradition in which a family with no sons will choose a daughter to raise as a bacha posh (meaning "dressed as a boy"), a male or intermediate gender role. This lasts until the child has reached marriage age, whereupon the child is pressured to switch to a female gender role.

• In classical Arabic writings, people called Mukhannathun (Arabic مخنثون "effeminate ones", "men who resemble women", singular mukhannath) were queer people who were assigned male at birth, analogous to transgender women, or to very feminine gay men, depending on the individual. In Sunan Abu-Dawud, Book 41, Number 4910, Mohammed said to exile a mukhannath, and said not to kill them. At one point during the Umayyad dynasty, a caliph ordered that all mukhannathun should be castrated. In response to this, a group of mukhannathun are recorded as having this conversation about it: "This is simply a circumcision which we must undergo again." "Or rather the Greater Circumcision!" "With castration I have become a mukhannath in truth!" "Or rather we have become women in truth!" "We have been spared the trouble of carrying around a spout for urine." "What would we do with an unused weapon anyway?"

• In the Philippines, various pre-colonial ethnic groups had spiritual functionaries called babaylan/balian/katalonan, a few of them being AMAB people with a feminine gender expression called asog in groups in the Visayan islands and bayok in the Luzon islands. Persecution of non-Christian, non-Muslim people and the imposition of patriarchy and binary gender has led to the erasure of these social roles.

• In Thailand, kathoey refers to trans women or effeminate gay men. However, a lot of people perceive kathoeys as a third gender. Many kathoeys work in traditionally female occupations such as in shops or restaurants, but also in factories. They can also works in cabarets and as sex workers.

Australia and Oceania

• In Australia, Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities recognize identities called sistergirl (analogous to trans woman) and brotherboy (analogous to trans man).

• In Tiwi Island culture, "Sistagirl", traditionally Yimpininni, is an identity analogous to trans woman.

Fa'afafine banner at the Auckland pride parade in 2016.

• In Samoa, the Fa'afafine are AMAB people with a feminine gender expression, who don't think of themselves as female or male. It has been estimated that between the 1% and 5% of Samoans are fa'afafine. Fa'afafines are accepted in the Samoan culture, although in some conservative sectors of the society they are still discriminated. Fa'afafines translates to "in the manner of a woman" in Samoa.

• In New Zealand, the Maori culture recognizes transgender identities called Whakawahine (feminine and AMAB) and Wakatane (masculine and AFAB).

• Māhū ("in the middle") in Kanaka Maoli (Hawaiian) and Maohi (Tahitian) cultures are third gender persons with traditional spiritual and social roles within the culture. The māhū gender category existed in their cultures during pre-contact times, when they were noted as priests and healers, and they still exist today. Māhū people can be either AMAB or AFAB.

• In the Cook Islands, people who do not fit the gender binary are called akava'ine.

Europe

Sworn virgin in Rapsha, Hoti, Ottoman Albania, at the beginning of the 20th century.

• In Albania, the Burrnesha, "sworn virgins," are AFAB people with a masculine gender expression and role. This tradition goes back to at least the 1400s, and is still practiced.

• In Italy, the Femminello, "little man-woman," are AMAB people with a feminine gender expression.

Several world regions

Gallae

Statue of a galla priest in feminine clothing, 2nd century, Capitoline Museum.

A significant portion of the ancient priests of the goddess Cybele and her consort Attis were Gallae. This tradition began in Phygia (where Turkey is today, part of Asia Minor), 2,300 years ago. After 205 BCE, it spread throughout the Roman Empire, as far north as London. The Gallae were AMAB eunuchs. They wore bright-colored feminine sacerdotal clothing, hairstyles or wigs, makeup, and jewelry, and used feminine mannerisms in their speech. Contemporaries who were not Gallae called them by masculine words, Galloi or Galli (plural), or Gallus (singular). Some historians interpret the Gallae as transgender, and think they would have called themselves by the feminine Gallae (plural) and Galla (singular). The Roman poet Ovid (43 BC – 17 AD) says their name comes from the Gallus river in Phrygia; "gallus" itself means chicken or rooster. There were other priests and priestesses of Cybele who were not eunuchs, but ordinary men, and other priestesses who were cisgender or transmasculine Amazonian warrior women. Due to the Gallae's practice of castration, many historians have been confused about how to categorize Gallae in modern frameworks of sex, gender, and religion. The Gallae were not ascetic but hedonistic, so castration was not about stopping sexual desires. Some Gallae would marry men, and others would marry women, so castration was not about being a gay man. Their ways were more consistent with transgender people who had suffered gender dysphoria, which they relieved by castration, as the available form of sex reassignment surgery.

The Gallae lived together in the metro'on temple compounds, which they tended, and cared for the statue of Cybele. They called one another by familial titles like Mother and Sister. They spent much of their time traveling in order to beg for charity, in exchange for which they told fortunes and blessed homes. They were believed to have spiritual powers: that they could bring rain, and exorcise evil spirits. The Roman public viewed them with a mixture of awe and contempt, seeing them as practicing shocking foreign customs, so they were just as often honored as they were harassed and politically persecuted. They were not allowed to be Roman citizens, and vice versa.

The Gallae practiced annual celebrations representing the death and rebirth of the god Attis. Their best-known holiday was the Day of Blood (Dies Sanguinis) on March 24, in which the Gallae would dance around a felled and decorated pine tree. The Gallae were known for wild dancing, during which they whipped themselves and one another until they reached an altered state of consciousness. They were also known for playing loud music with drums, flutes, and cymbals. (One possible origin of the word "cymbal" is that it comes from their goddess Cybele.) Then their initiates would publicly, ritually castrate themselves on the temple steps, by means of potsherds in their own hands. This was to show that their castration was voluntary. They would throw the severed genitals into the cheering crowd, which were good luck to catch. Whatever family caught them would return thanks for the blessing by caring for the initiate while she healed. Afterward, the initiate's lower belly was tattooed, and the healed wound dressed with gold leaf.

Due to being criminalized, persecuted, and exterminated by the Christians, the Gallae were gone by the 6th century CE. Today, some trans women and worshipers of Cybele call themselves Gallae, and one of their modern temples is in New York. Laura Anne Seabrook, a trans woman and follower of Cybele who considers herself a modern gallae, created an educational web-comic, Tales of the Galli. Her comic is a work of historical fiction about Gallae in ancient Rome, based on her extensive historical research.

See also

• Nonbinary gender outside of the transgender community
• List of nonbinary identities
• Gender variance in spirituality

External links

• PBS: A Map of Gender-Diverse Cultures. This is an interactive world map showing the locations of dozens of cultures that recognize nonbinary genders.
• Wikipedia's Third gender article

Further reading

• Herdt, Gilbert H. Third Sex, Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History. New York: Zone Books, 1994. Print.
• Nanda, Serena. Gender Diversity: Crosscultural Variations. Prospect Heights, Ill: Waveland Press, 2000. Print.