Gender-variant identities worldwide

This article about gender-variant identities worldwide is about many cultures' and ethnic groups' traditional identities and roles that do not fit into the Western gender binary. 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, or otherwise misrepresenting them. The following article focuses on identities that are most analogous to gender outside of the Western binary. 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. This should not list identities that are known to be more analogous to cisgender identities that are simply gender nonconforming or non-heterosexual.

Generally, people who aren't members of the cultures and ethnic groups in question aren't entitled to call themselves by any of the following genders. That would be cultural appropriation, which means wrongfully taking parts of somebody else's culture to use for yourself. It is okay to learn about these cultures, but not to take what is not one's own. Outsiders would do well to learning about cultures that accept people who are outside the Western gender binary 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 also benefit by learning 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, or third sex, is not a satisfactory label for all the identities on this page, because it has meant many things. Third gender 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 The phrase "third gender" has been used for a wide variety of meanings: intersex people whose bodies do not fit outdated Western medical concepts of binary sex, hundreds of indigenous societal roles as described (and often misrepresented) by Western anthropologists (including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.

Identities in Africa

Sekhet

The word "sekhet" in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.

• Name of identity: Sekhet
• Culture: Ancient Egypt
• Era: Middle Kingdom, 2000-1800 BCE
• Description of sex/gender: unknown, except that the ancient Egyptians said Sekhet were one of the three genders or sexes
• Role in society: unknown

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.

Gender variance under the Mamluk Sultanate

• Name of identity: ?
• Culture: Egypt, during the Mamluk Sultanate
• Era: 1200s to 1700s CE
• Description of sex/gender: AFAB and masculine
• Role in society:

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.^{[citation needed]}

Mino

A photo of Mino veterans at the annual meeting in Abomay in 1908.

• Name of identity: Mino, meaning "our mothers." Europeans called them Dahomey Amazons, because they saw them as warrior women.
• Culture: The Fon people of the Kingdom of Dahomey, which is in present-day Benin
• Era: 1640s CE until the end of the 19th century
• Description of sex/gender: AFAB and masculine
• Role in society: soldiers, including hunters, riflewomen, reapers, archers, and gunners

The Mino were a Fon all-female military regiment of the Kingdom of Dahomey. King Houegbadja (who ruled from 1645 to 1685), the third King of Dahomey, is said to have originally started the group which would become the Mino as a corps of elephant hunters called the gbeto. Membership among the Mino was supposed to hone any aggressive character traits for the purpose of war. During their membership they were not allowed to have children or be part of married life (though they were legally married to the king). Many of them were virgins. The regiment had a semi-sacred status, which was intertwined with the Fon belief in Vodun. The Mino trained with intense physical exercise. They wore uniforms indicating their rank. They learnt survival skills and indifference to pain and death, storming acacia-thorn defenses in military exercises and executing prisoners. Discipline was emphasised. Serving in the Mino offered women the opportunity to "rise to positions of command and influence" in an environment structured for individual empowerment. The Mino were also wealthy and held high status. The Mino took a prominent role in the Grand Council, debating the policy of the kingdom. Units were under female command. Some historians have seen the Mino as not just warrior women, but transgender, or outside the Western gender binary. An 1851 published translation of a war chant of the women claims the warriors would chant, "a[s] the blacksmith takes an iron bar and by fire changes its fashion, so have we changed our nature. We are no longer women, we are men."

Ashtime

• Name of identity: Ashtime
• Culture: The Maale people in the country of Ethiopia
• Era:
• Description of sex/gender: AMAB and feminine, possibly eunuchs
• Role in society:

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. There are opposing scholarly interpretations of the role and significance of the Ashtime. Some non-Maale historians believe that they are AMAB people who behave as women and also have sex with men. Other non-Maale historians who lived among the Maale describe them very differently, saying the duty of an ashtime was to allow the king to have sex "protected from even the merest whiff of female sexuality at key moments in the ritual life of the nation".

Sekrata

• Name of identity: Sekrata
• Culture: The Sakalava people in Madagascar
• Era:
• Description of sex/gender: AMAB and feminine
• Role in society:

In Madagascar, the Sakalava people have the Sekrata, who were AMAB and live as women.^{[citation needed]}

Identities in the Americas

There is more information about this topic here: Two-Spirit

"Berdache" was an old word used by European-American anthropologists. Berdache was an umbrella term for all traditional gender and sexual identities in all cultures throughout the Americas that were outside of Western ideas of binary gender and heterosexual roles. These identities included the nádleeh in Diné (Navajo), and the lhamana in Zuni, among many others. In 1990, an Indigenous lesbian and gay international gathering chose to internationally replace "berdache" with "Two-Spirit" as a preferable umbrella term for these identities. Two-Spirit was chosen to distance these identities from non-Natives, and should only be used for people who are Native American, because it is for identities that must be contextualized in Native cultures. Because of the wide variety of identities under the Two-Spirit umbrella, a Two-Spirit person does not necessarily have an identity analogous to a non-Native nonbinary gender identity. Some do, but others are more analogous to non-Native gay male or lesbian woman identities. Notable people who identify specifically with the label "Two-Spirit" include Menominee poet Chrystos (b. 1946), who goes by they/them pronouns, and Ojibwe artist Raven Davis (b. 1975), who goes by neutral pronouns. In the 2019 Worldwide Gender Census, 0.18% (20) of the responses called themselves Two-Spirit. Many more responses in that and earlier surveys called themselves by specific identities under the Two-Spirit umbrella.

Ninauposkitzipxpe

• Name of identity: Ninauposkitzipxpe, "manly-hearted women"
• Culture: The Blackfoot Confederacy
• Era:
• Description of sex/gender: AFAB
• Role in society:

The Blackfoot Confederacy recognizes Ninauposkitzipxpe, "manly-hearted women," who are AFAB and occupy a gender role different from that of women and men.^{[citation needed]}

Winkte

• Name of identity: Winkte
• Culture: Lakota
• Era:
• Description of sex/gender: AMAB
• Role in society:

The Lakota recognize Winkte, who are AMAB and occupy a gender role different from men.^{[citation needed]}

Nadleehi and Dilbaa

• Name of identity: Nadleehi and Dilbaa
• Culture: Diné (Navajo)
• Era:
• Description of sex/gender: Nadleehi are AMAB and feminine. The Dilbaa are AFAB and masculine.
• Role in society:

The Diné recognize Nadleehi, who are AMAB and feminine, and the Dilbaa, who are AFAB and masculine.^{[citation needed]}

Lhamana

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

• Name of identity: Lhamana
• Culture: Zuni
• Era:
• Description of sex/gender:
• Role in society: Mediators. They take on roles and duties associated with both men and women.

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.

Muxe

• Name of identity: Muxe
• Culture: Zapotec
• Era:
• Description of sex/gender: AMAB and feminine
• Role in society:

In Mexico, the Zapotec people recognize the Muxe, who are AMAB and feminine. This term also includes gay men.^{[citation needed]}

Quariwarmi

• Name of identity: Quariwarmi
• Culture: Inca
• Era:
• Description of sex/gender:
• Role in society:

In Peru, the pre-colonial Incas recognized Quariwarmi, a mixed-gender role.^{[citation needed]}

Ininiikaazo and Ikwekaazo

• Name of identity: ininiikaazo and the ikwekaazo
• Culture: Ojibwe people in what is now Canada
• Era:
• Description of sex/gender: Ininiikaazo means "woman who functions as a man," and ikwekaazo means "man who functions as a woman."
• Role in society:

The Ojibwe 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."^{[citation needed]}

Machi

• Name of identity: Machi
• Culture: The Mapuche (Araucana) people in what is now Chile and Argentina
• Era: traditional to present
• Description of sex/gender: whether AMAB or AFAB, their spiritual practices involve cross-dressing. Many but not all Machi themselves
• Role in society: shaman, spiritual leader

The Machi are the shamans of the Mapuche people. During their rituals, the Machi cross-dress in order to communicate with certain aspects of the Creator.

Identities in Asia

Hijra

A group of Hijra, circa 1865.

There is more information about this topic here: hijra

• Name of identity: Hijra
• Culture: South Asian countries including India, Pakistan, and Banglades
• Era: From from 400 BCE or 300 CE to the present
• Description of sex/gender: feminine eunuchs
• Role in society: religious

In south Asian countries including India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, the hijra are people who were assigned male at birth, who have a feminine gender expression. Traditionally and today, some hijras seek castration. Hijras live together communally. They have important roles in religious practice. They can be Hindu or Muslim. Hijra traditions are ancient. The earliest mention of hijras is in the Kama Sutra, from 400 BCE to 300 CE. In one of the earliest Western records of them, Franciscan travelers wrote about seeing hijras in the 1650s. From the 1850s onward, the British Raj criminalized and tried to exterminate hijras. Since the late 20th century, hijra activists and non-government organizations have lobbied for official recognition of the hijra as a legal sex other than male or female. This is important for them to be able to have passports, travel, hold jobs, and other rights. They have been successful at achieving legal recognition as another gender in Nepal, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. The Hijra in India alone may number as many as 2,000,000 today.

Bissu

In Bugis society, androgynous bissu are priests, shamans, sorcerers, or mediums.

• Name of identity: Bissu
• Culture: the Bugis people of Indonesia
• Era: six centuries ago to present.
• Description of sex/gender: a combination of all aspects of gender, not considered men or women, not necessarily intersex, can be AMAB or AFAB
• Role in society: priesthood

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. There are divergent theories regarding the definitive origins and meaning of "gender transcendent", as the bissu are commonly called.

For one to be considered bissu, all aspects of gender must be combined to form a whole. It is believed that you are born with the propensity to become a bissu, revealed in a baby whose genitalia are ambiguous. These ambiguous genitalia need not be visible; a normative male who becomes a bissu is believed to be female on the inside. This combination of sexes enables a 'meta-gender' identity to emerge. However, ambiguous genitalia alone do not confer the state of being a bissu. The person must also learn the language, songs and incantations, and have a gift for bestowing blessings in order to become bissu. They must remain celibate and wear conservative clothes. In daily social life, the bissu, the calabai, and the calalai may enter the dwelling places and the villages of both men and women.

In pre-Islamic Bugis culture, bissu were seen as intermediaries between the people and the gods, according to Indonesian anthropologist Professor Halilintar Lathief. Up until the 1940s, the bissu were still central to keeping ancient palace rituals alive, including coronations of kings and queens.

Bugis society has a cultural belief that all five genders must co-exist harmoniously; but by 2019 the numbers of bissu had declined dramatically, after years of increasing persecution and the tradition of revering bissu as traditional community priests. Bissu have mostly survived by participating in weddings as maids of honour and working as farmers as well as performing their cultural roles as priests. Hardline Islamic groups, police and politicians have all played their part in Indonesia's increased harassment and discrimination of the LGBTI community. After independence in 1949, the ancient Bugis kingdoms were incorporated into the new republic and bissus' roles became increasingly sidelined. A regional Islamic rebellion in South Sulawesi led to further persecution. As the atmosphere became increasingly homophobic, fewer people were willing to take on the role of bissu.

Waria

• Name of identity: Waria
• Culture: Indonesia
• Era: traditional to present
• Description of sex/gender:
• Role in society: often sex workers

Waria is a traditional third gender role found in modern Indonesia. Because the discrimination they face, most warias only have the option to work as sex workers.

Köçek

"Köçek with a tambourine", Photograph late 19th century.

• Name of identity: köçek, from a Persian word meaning "little" or "young."
• Culture: In Turkey, köçek were recruited from among the ranks of the non-Muslim subject nations of the empire, such as Jews, Romani (Gypsies), Greeks, and Albanians.
• Era: 17th to 19th centuries CE
• Description of sex/gender: AMAB and feminine
• Role in society: dancers, acrobats, entertainers, and sex workers in connection with harem culture

In Turkey, in the 17th century Ottoman Empire, the köçek were feminine AMAB people. They were the AMAB counterparts to the AFAB çengi (belly dancers), but the köçek were seen as more desirable. A köçek would begin training around the age of seven or eight to become expert at dancing to köçekçe music, and would be considered accomplished after about six years of study and practice. A dancer's career would last as long as he was beardless and retained his youthful appearance. They wore makeup, long hair, jewels, velvet, and gold. Like belly dancers, their dance involved gyrating their hips and snapping their fingers to the rhythm. The occasions of their performances were wedding or circumcision celebrations, feasts and festivals, as well as the pleasure of the sultans and the aristocracy. The köçeks were available sexually, often to the highest bidder, in the passive role. They performed before men who were screaming fans, and sometimes these audiences would become violent with one another as the fans tried to attract their attention.

Xanith

• Name of identity: Xanith (also spelled Khaneeth or Khanith; خنيث; khanīth). The word is closely related to مخنث mukhannath, another word for feminine AMAB people described elsewhere on this page.
• Culture: Oman and the Arabian Peninsula
• Era:
• Description of sex/gender: AMAB and partially feminine
• Role in society:

In Oman, the Xanith are AMAB people with a partially feminine gender expression.^{[citation needed]}

Metis

• Name of identity: Metis
• Culture: Nepal
• Era:
• Description of sex/gender: AMAB and feminine
• Role in society:

In Nepal, the Metis are AMAB people with a feminine gender expression.^{[citation needed]}

Acault

• Name of identity: Acault
• Culture: Myanmar
• Era:
• Description of sex/gender: AMAB and feminine
• Role in society:

In Myanmar, the Acault are AMAB people with a feminine gender expression.^{[citation needed]}

Chuckchi shaman

• Name of identity:
• Culture: the indigenous Chuckchi people of Siberia
• Era:
• Description of sex/gender: usually AMAB and feminine
• Role in society: shaman

In Siberia, the indigenous Chuckchi people have shaman who are a gender role that do not fit into the Western gender binary. They are usually feminine AMAB people.^{[citation needed]}

Sumerian priesthood

• Name of identity: Assinnu, Kurgarru, and Kalaturru
• Culture: ancient Sumeria, in what is now the country of Iraq
• Era:
• Description of sex/gender: Each of these three classes of priesthood had a different gender identity: feminine AMAB, masculine AFAB, and nonbinary. No surviving records tell us which word was for which gender.
• Role in society: priesthood

In what is now Iraq, the ancient Sumerians had several kinds of priesthoods that do not fit into the Western gender binary, called Assinnu, Kurgarru, and Kalaturru.^{[citation needed]}

Bacha Posh

• Name of identity: bacha posh (بچه پوش literally "dressed as a boy")
• Culture: Afghanistan and Pakistan
• Era: about 1900 CE to present
• Description of sex/gender: AFAB and masculine
• Role in society: to perform the family duties of a son

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, 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.^{[citation needed]}

Mukhannathun

• Name of identity: Mukhannathun (Arabic مخنثون "effeminate ones", "men who resemble women", singular mukhannath)
• Culture:
• Era: pre-Islamic and early Islamic eras.
• Description of sex/gender: AMAB and feminine
• Role in society:

In classical Arabic writings, people called Mukhannathun were queer people who were assigned male at birth. They were 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?"

Asog

Potters from the Itneg people. The person on the right is a bayok in female attire (c. 1922).

• Name of identity: called asog in groups in the Visayan islands, and bayok in the Luzon islands.
• Culture: indigenous peoples of the Philippines
• Era: traditional to present
• Description of sex/gender: AMAB and feminine
• Role in society: shaman

In the Philippines, various pre-colonial ethnic groups had spiritual functionaries called babaylan, balian, or katalonan. A few of them were 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.

Kathoey

Kathoeys on the stage of a cabaret show.

There is more information about this topic here: kathoey

• Name of identity: Kathoey. Often rendered as "ladyboy" in English.
• Culture: Thailand
• Era: to present
• Description of sex/gender: AMAB and feminine. Not completely synonymous with trans women, gay men, or intersex people.
• Role in society: today, kathoey often have occupations that are usually associated with women, such as in shops, restaurants, and beauty salons, but also in factories (a reflection of Thailand's high proportion of female industrial workers). Kathoey also work in entertainment and tourist centres, in cabarets, and as sex workers.

In Thailand, kathoey can refer to a variety of kinds of LGBT people, but more specifically it means AMAB people who are feminine, and who may seek physical transition, and who do not entirely consider themselves to be men or women.

Identities in Australia and Oceania

Sistergirl and brotherboy

• Name of identity: sistergirl and brotherboy
• Culture: Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities
• Era: to present
• Description of sex/gender: Sistergirl is analogous to trans woman. Brotherboy is analogous to trans man.
• Role in society:

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

Yimpininni

• Name of identity: Yimpininni. Less traditionally, rendered in English as Sistagirl.
• Culture: Tiwi Island culture
• Era:
• Description of sex/gender: analogous to trans woman
• Role in society:

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

Fa'afafine

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

There is more information about this topic here: Fa'afafine

• Name of identity: Fa'afafine, meaning "in the manner of a woman" in Samoa.
• Culture: Samoa
• Era: traditional to present
• Description of sex/gender: AMAB and feminine
• Role in society: Faʻafafine are known for their hard work and dedication to the family, in the Samoan tradition of tautua or service to family. Ideas of the family in Samoa and Polynesia are markedly different from Western constructions, and include all the members of a sa, or communal family within the faʻamatai family systems. Traditionally, faʻafafine follow the training of the women's daily work in an Aiga (Samoan family group).

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 against.

The AFAB and masculine counterpart of fa'afafine in Samoa are known variously as faʻatane, faʻatama, and fafatama.^{[citation needed]}

Whakawahine and Wakatane

• Name of identity: Whakawahine and Wakatane
• Culture: New Zealand Māori
• Era: traditional to present
• Description of sex/gender: Whakawahine are feminine and AMAB. Wakatane are masculine and AFAB.
• Role in society:

In New Zealand, the Maori culture recognizes transgender identities called Whakawahine (feminine and AMAB) and Wakatane (masculine and AFAB).^{[citation needed]}

Māhū

Papa Moe (Mysterious Water), an oil painting by the Westerner, Paul Gauguin, from 1893. It depicts a māhū in Tahiti drinking from a waterfall.

There is more information about this topic here: Māhū

• Name of identity: māhū (meaning "in the middle")
• Culture: the Kanaka Maoli (Hawaiian) and Maohi (Tahitian) cultures
• Era:
• Description of sex/gender: AMAB and AFAB people who are outside the Western concept of gender roles
• Role in society:

In the Kanaka Maoli (Hawaiian) and Maohi (Tahitian) cultures, the māhū is a traditional gender role outside of the Western concept of gender roles. It is made of people who may have been assigned either male or female at birth. This tradition existed before Western invaders. The first published description of māhū is from 1789. From 1820 onward, Westerners stigmatized and criminalized māhū. Māhū still exist today, and play an important role in preserving and reviving Polynesian culture.

Akava'ine

• Name of identity: Akava'ine. According to the Cook Islands Maori dictionary (1995) 'akava'ine comes from the prefix aka ("to be or to behave like") and va'ine ("woman"), or simply, "to behave as a woman".)
• Culture: Cook Islands Māori
• Era: to present
• Description of sex/gender: AMAB and feminine
• Role in society: work that is traditionally women's work, especially sewing. Some akava'ine take part in the making of tivaevae (quilts), an activity traditionally done by the women of the community.

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

Identities in Europe

Burrnesha

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

• Name of identity: Burrnesha, meaning "sworn virgins"
• Culture: Albania
• Era: 1400s CE to present
• Description of sex/gender: AFAB and masculine
• Role in society: most roles that otherwise only men are allowed to do

In Albania, the Burrnesha are AFAB people with a masculine gender expression and role. This tradition goes back to at least the 1400s, and is still practiced.^{[citation needed]}

Femminello

• Name of identity: Femminello, meaning "little man-woman"
• Culture: Italy
• Era:
• Description of sex/gender: AMAB and feminine
• Role in society:

In Italy, the Femminello are AMAB people with a feminine gender expression.^{[citation needed]}

Identities from several world regions

Gallae

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

• Name of identity: 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.
• Culture: Originally Phrygia (where Turkey is today, part of Asia Minor)
• Era: 2,300 years ago to 6th century CE; revived in the modern day
• Description of sex/gender: AMAB and feminine eunuchs
• Role in society: priesthood

A significant portion of the ancient priesthood 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. 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, so it would not have been necessary to become a Gallae or a eunuch simply in order to become a priest of Cybele. 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 simply about being a man attracted to men. The ways of the Gallae were more consistent with transgender people who had suffered gender dysphoria, which they relieved by voluntary 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.

Enarees

• Name of identity: Enarees, Enareis, or Anarieis (ἐναρής). The ancient Greek historian Herodotus said this means "men-women" or "effeminates." Some modern historians notice that it does not look like a Scythian word, but seems to have been from Greek for "Accursed." It is not known today what the Scythians themselves called the Enarees.
• Culture: The Scythians, who where Eurasian nomadic horseriders who lived in regions that are now the modern-day countries of Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Egypt, and neighboring countries.
• Era: As far back as the 7th century BCE, to as late as the 3rd century CE
• Description of sex/gender: AMAB and feminine
• Role in society: Priests of the goddess Artimpasa, also called Argimpasa, who the Greeks thought correlated with their goddess Aphrodite. Artimpasa also had AFAB priestesses. The enarees told the future, and did women's work.

The Enarees were gender-variant priests of the ancient Scythian people. The 5th century Greek medical anthology, "Hippocratic Corpus," said that the Enarees wore women's styles of clothing, used feminine mannerisms in their speech, and did women's work. Pseudo-Hippocrates said the Scythians believe the cause of their femininity is divine, but he theorized that they became so due to injuring their genitals from continous horse riding, and from the un-Greek practice of wearing trousers. Archaeologist Ellis Minns (1874 - 1953) said Ovid may be partly right, because bareback horse riding has been known to cause damage to the testicles resulting in loss of the ability to have an erection or ejaculate, even for modern-day riders. However, riding injures alone do not account for the femininity of Enarees, which seem to be part of the cross-cultural tradition of cross-dressing shamans.

In her PhD thesis about trans history and spirituality, trans woman Helen Savage noted another way that the importance of horses in Scythian culture may have led to the Enarees' discovery of another method of gender transition: "The Roman poet Ovid, who was exiled to the borders of the Scythian steppe in the first century BC, provides a tantalising hint of the practice there of drinking mare's urine, a substance so high in oestrogens that it is still used as the source of a proprietary drug, 'premarin', widely used still for hormone replacement therapy -- and to feminise male-to-female transsexuals." The Enarees may have practiced the world's earliest-known hormone therapy for trans-feminine people. The practice of using mare's urine for oestrogen therapy was lost for hundreds of years, until being independently discovered by scientists in the 1930s CE. This discovery was developed into Premarin in the 1940s, the first commercial oestrogen replacement drug in Western medicine, and still one of the most widely used today. The Enarees may also have used their herbal knowledge to influence their hormone balance. Present-day intersex trans man and shaman Raven Kaldera notes that the Enarees "ate a lot of licorice root - so popular among them that the Greeks to whom they exported it referred to it as 'the Scythian root' - which is also an anti-androgen." Between all these treatments, the Enarees could have had the most medically advanced physical transition in the ancient world.

According to Herodotus, outsiders said that in the 7th century BCE, a band of Scythians had plundered a temple to Aphrodite Urania, a Greek goddess born from the severed genitals of the god Uranus. As punishment, that goddess had cursed the Enarees with "a female disease," that is, that the Enarees wanted to become women. Other parts of Herodotus's description do not support this, so it seems the Scythians themselves did not tell this legend, and did not see the Enarees' condition as punishment. Herodotus described the method of fortune-telling that the Enarees practiced:

There are many diviners among the Scythians, who divine by means of many willow wands as I will show. They bring great bundles of wands, which they lay on the ground and unfasten, and utter their divinations as they lay the rods down one by one; and while still speaking, they gather up the rods once more and place them together again; this manner of divination is hereditary among them. The Enarees, who are hermaphrodites [sic, this does not necessarily mean intersex, as it is a common mistranslation for words about all kinds of gender variance], say that Aphrodite [that is, Artimpasa] gave them the art of divination, which they practise by means of lime-tree bark. They cut this bark into three portions, and prophesy while they braid and unbraid these in their fingers.

Further details about how to practice divination in the above method are lost to history. However, some of the above description of the Enarees' divination method sounds similar to the process of I Ching divination in China by means of casting fifty yarrow stalks. The diviner picks up the stalks and puts them between certain fingers. This process generates random numbers, just as casting dice does. These numbers are then used to look up a divinatory meaning. The I Ching comes from between the 10th and 4th centuries BCE, the same period the Enarees lived. The Scythians were connected to China via the Silk Road, so it's possible that these two similar divinatory systems could have involved some contact between these cultures.

Though Enarees are the best-known example, Scythians accepted a wide range of gender variance other than these priests. Some Scythians were masculine warriors who were AFAB. Archaeologists have found Scythian burials that may be Enarees, or other gender variant people from their culture. Some from the 2nd and 3rd centuries BCE in Sibera are remains of what are thought to be AMAB people with female decorations and utensils. The grave of a Scythian priestess near the Bug River in eastern Europe could be an Enaree. The grave includes what are typically women's grave goods. Archaeologists differ about whether the remains are that of an AMAB or AFAB person, which is not always clear from skeletal structure alone.

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.