Nonbinary Wiki

History of nonbinary gender: Difference between revisions

No edit summary
(restructuring and rewriting the beginning of the article to make it more appropriate to the wiki)
Tag: 2017 source edit
 
(146 intermediate revisions by 26 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
And I oop.
{{Content warning|<translate><!--T:1--> some troubling events that could be traumatic for some readers. Some historical quotes use language that is now seen as offensive</translate>}}
<translate><!--T:2-->
Gender variance has a long history [[gender-variant identities worldwide|all around the world]], from the first known records of written language to modern day. What gender variance means and how it's viewed in society has changed throughout history, and the words used to describe it has changed as well; while the word "nonbinary" itself is a relatively new term, the concept itself has existed since ancient times. This page summarizes the history of gender that doesn't fit the [[gender binary|binary]], irrespective of how it's called.


==Wanted events in this time-line==
==Antiquity== <!--T:10-->
* In Mesopotamian mythology, among the earliest written records of humanity, there are references to types of people who are neither male nor female. Sumerian and Akkadian tablets from the 2nd millennium BCE and 1700 BCE describe how the gods created these people, their roles in society, and words for different kinds of them. These included eunuchs, women who couldn't or weren't allowed to have children, men who live as women, intersex people, gay people, and others.<ref>Murray, Stephen O., and Roscoe, Will (1997). ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature.'' New York: New York University Press.</ref><ref>Nissinen, Martti (1998). ''Homoeroticism in the Biblical World'', Translated by Kirsi Stjedna. Fortress Press (November 1998) p. 30. ISBN|0-8006-2985-X<br>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.</ref><ref>Leick, Gwendolyn (1994). ''Sex and Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature''. Routledge. New York.</ref></translate>
[[File:Sekhet hieroglyphs.jpg|thumb|<translate><!--T:11--> The word "sekhet" in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.</translate><ref name="Brustman">Mark Brustman. "The Third Gender in Ancient Egypt." ''"Born Eunuchs" Home Page and Library.'' 1999. https://people.well.com/user/aquarius/egypt.htm [https://web.archive.org/web/20230510151854/https://people.well.com/user/aquarius/egypt.htm Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref>]]
<translate>
<!--T:12-->
* {{#if:1|{{#section:Gender variance in spirituality|SekhetDefinition}}}}


Please help fill out this time-line if you can add information of these kinds:
<!--T:13-->
* Events in the movement for keeping the genders of babies undisclosed.
* Many cultures and ethnic groups have concepts of [[gender-variant identities worldwide|traditional gender-variant roles]], with a history of them going back to antiquity. These gender identities and roles are often analogous to nonbinary identity, as they don't fit into the Western idea of the [[gender binary]] roles. The [[Hijra]] of South Asian countries including India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh date back to 400 BCE or 300 CE, where they were mentioned in the ''Kama Sutra.'' The Hijra are feminine eunuchs who consider themselves neither male nor female. The Scythians, who were Eurasian nomadic horseriders, were well-known to other civilizations for honoring gender-variant people as priests and warriors. The Scythians invented the world's earliest known hormone therapy as far back as the 7th century BCE, using licorice root as an antiandrogen,<ref name="enarees kaldera">Raven Kaldera. "Ergi: The Way of the Third." ''Northern-Tradition Shamanism.'' https://web.archive.org/web/20130501152328/http://www.northernshamanism.org/shamanic-techniques/gender-sexuality/ergi-the-way-of-the-third.html</ref> and mare's urine as an oestrogen, much as is used in the modern oestrogen medication, Premarin.<ref name="enarees savage 74">Helen Savage. (2006) "Changing sex? : transsexuality and Christian theology." Doctoral thesis, Durham University. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3364/ [https://web.archive.org/web/20230415224247/http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3364/ Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref> Hundreds of pre-colonial Native American cultures recognized various kinds of gender roles (today called by the umbrella term [[Two-Spirit]]) who did not fit into the Western gender binary. The [[māhū]] of Hawaii and Tahiti were also pre-colonial genders outside male and female. As far back as six centuries ago, the Bugis people of Indonesia have recognized five genders, one of which, called [[Bissu]], is a combination of all the genders, even if they are not physically intersex.<ref name=ABC>{{cite news|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation News|first=Farid M|last=Ibrahim|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-27/indonesia-fifth-gender-might-soon-disappear/10846570|accessdate=27 February 2019|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190227045350/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-27/indonesia-fifth-gender-might-soon-disappear/10846570|archive-date=27 February 2019|title=Homophobia and rising Islamic intolerance push Indonesia's intersex bissu priests to the brink|date=27 February 2019}}</ref> As far back as the 1st century CE, classical Judaism has recognized six genders/sexes, with distinct prohibitions for each.<ref>Robbie Medwed. "More Than Just Male and Female: The Six Genders in Classical Judaism." ''Sojourn'' (blog). June 01, 2015. Retrieved July 14, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150714011440/http://www.sojourngsd.org/blog/sixgenders</ref>
* Events concerning [[nonbinary celebrities]], and historical persons who clearly stated they were neither female nor male, or both, or androgynes, etc.
* Skim nonbinary blogs looking for past and current historical events.
* Events that show that transgender and especially nonbinary gender identities existed long before the twentieth century.
* Changes in the use of gendered versus gender-neutral language.


==Eleventh century== <!--T:14-->


==Antiquity==
<!--T:15-->
* In Mesopotamian mythology, among the earliest written records of humanity, there are references to types of people who are neither male nor female. Sumerian and Akkadian tablets from the 2nd millennium BCE and 1700 BCE describe how the gods created these people, their roles in society, and words for different kinds of them. These included eunuchs, women who couldn't or weren't allowed to have children, men who live as women, intersex people, gay people, and others.<ref>Murray, Stephen O., and Roscoe, Will (1997). ''Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature.'' New York: New York University Press.</ref><ref>Nissinen, Martti (1998). ''Homoeroticism in the Biblical World'', Translated by Kirsi Stjedna. Fortress Press (November 1998) p. 30. ISBN|0-8006-2985-X<br>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.</ref><ref>Leick, Gwendolyn (1994). ''Sex and Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature''. Routledge. New York.</ref>
* The Anglo-Saxon word ''wæpen-wifestre'', or ''wæpned-wifestre'' (Anglo-Saxon, ''wæpen'' "sword," "penis," "male" (or ''wæpned'' "weaponed," "with a penis," "male") + ''wif'' woman, + ''estre'' feminine suffix, thus "woman with a weapon," "woman with a penis," or "man woman") was defined in an eleventh-century glossary (Antwerp Plantin-Moretus 32) as meaning "hermaphrodite." The counterpart of this word, ''wæpned-mann,'' simply meant "a person armed with a sword" or "male person."<ref>Dana Oswald, ''Monsters, Gender and Sexuality in Medieval English Literature.'' Rochester, NY: D.S. Brewer, 2010. p. 93.</ref><ref name="ClarkMedieval">David Clark. ''Between medieval men: Male friendship and desire in early medieval English literature.'' Oxford University Press, 2009. P. 63-65.</ref> ''Wæpen-wifestre'' is known to be a synonym for "scrat" (intersex).<ref>''Catholicon Anglicum: An English-Latin Word-book, dated 1483, volume 30.'' Accessed via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=I7wKAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22W%C3%A6pen-wifestre%22&pg=PA325#v=onepage&q=%22W%C3%A6pen-wifestre%22&f=false [https://web.archive.org/web/20221213084019/https://books.google.com/books?id=I7wKAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22W%C3%A6pen-wifestre%22&pg=PA325 Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref> Another synonym given for ''wæpen-wifestre'' is ''bæddel,'' an which also means intersex, but also feminine men, from which the word "bad" is thought to be derived, due to its use as a slur.<ref>"bad (adj.)" ''Online Etymology Dictionary.'' https://www.etymonline.com/word/bad [https://web.archive.org/web/20230320040139/https://www.etymonline.com/word/bad Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref> The related word ''bæddling'' was used in eleventh-century laws for men who had sex with men in a receptive role.<ref name="ClarkMedieval" /> Additional meanings of ''wæpen-wifestre'' are possible. When ''wæpen-wifestre'' is read as "woman with a penis," it could describe a feminine man, a man who has sex with men, or a transgender woman. When read as "woman with a sword," it could refer to a warrior woman. When read as "man woman," it could mean not only an intersex person, but also people who transgressed the gender binary that seems to have been the rule in Anglo-Saxon England, as far as is known from limited literature from that era. From this range of meanings that the word potentially covers, it's possible that ''wæpen-wifestre'' may have been a general category for intersex, queer, and gender-variant people in Britain, during the time that was contemporary to Beowulf.
* In ancient Egypt (Middle Kingdom, 2000-1800 BCE), there were said to be three genders of humans: men, ''sekhet (s<u>h</u>t)'', and women, in that order. Sekhet is usually translated as "eunuch," but that's probably an oversimplification of what this gender category means, especially because there is no certain record of "eunuchs" having been castrated in ancient Egypt. It may also mean cisgender gay men, in the sense of not having children, and not necessarily someone who was castrated.<ref>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.</ref><ref>[http://www.well.com/user/aquarius/egypt.htm The Third Gender in Ancient Egypt], Faris Malik. (web site)</ref><ref>http://www.gendertree.com/Egyptian%20third%20gender.htm</ref><ref>Mark Brustman. "The Third Gender in Ancient Egypt." ''"Born Eunuchs" Home Page and Library.'' 1999. https://people.well.com/user/aquarius/egypt.htm</ref>  
* Many cultures and ethnic groups have concepts of [[gender-variant identities worldwide|traditional gender-variant roles]], with a history of them going back to antiquity. For example, [[Hijra]] and [[Two-Spirit]]. These gender identities and roles are often analogous to nonbinary identity, as they don't fit into the Western idea of the [[gender binary]] roles.


==Seventeenth century==
==Seventeenth century== <!--T:16-->


* A blog post by the Merriam Webster dictionary editors says, "In the 17th century, English laws concerning inheritance sometimes referred to people who didn’t fit a gender binary using the pronoun ''it'', which, while dehumanizing, was conceived of as being the most grammatically fit answer to gendered pronouns around then."<ref>“Words We’re Watching: Singular 'They:' Though singular 'they' is old, &#