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| 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 [[lesbian]]s, [[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.
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| | 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. |
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| 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.
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| | 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 [[ethnicity and culture#Cultural appropriation that impacts trans people|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. |
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| 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 [[ethnicity and culture#Cultural appropriation that impacts trans people|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.
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| | [[Third gender]], or third sex, is not a satisfactory label for all the identities on this page, because it has meant many things. {{#if:1|{{#section:List of nonbinary identities|ThirdGenderDefinition}}}}<ref name="trans bodies 617">Laura Erickson-Schroth, ed. ''Trans Bodies, Trans Selves: A Resource for the Transgender Community.'' Oxford University Press, 2014. P. 617.</ref> |
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| 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.
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| | ==Identities in Africa== |
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| | ===Kodjo-besia=== |
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| | * '''Name of identity:''' Kodjo-besia ("Kodjo" is a common Ghanaian name, and Kodjo-besia means "Kodjo is a woman [inside]" in the Twi language.)<ref name="Geoffrion2013">{{cite journal|last1=Geoffrion|first1=Karine|title=“I Wish our Gender Could Be Dual”|journal=Cahiers d'études africaines|volume=53|issue=209-210|year=2013|pages=417–443|issn=0008-0055|doi=10.4000/etudesafricaines.17373}}</ref> |
| | * '''Culture:''' Ghana |
| | * '''Era:''' |
| | * '''Description of sex/gender:''' Kodjo-besia is used for a range of AMAB individuals who deviate from normative masculinity. They may be gay, [[transfeminine]], or simply effeminate.<ref name="Geoffrion2013" /> |
| | * '''Role in society:''' Often engaging in traditionally female occupations, Kodjo-besia are "perceived as deviant, but they are tolerated on the basis that they cannot be changed".<ref name="Geoffrion2013" /> |
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| | ===Sarombavy=== |
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| | * '''Name of identity:''' Sarombavy or Sarimbavy<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1215/23289252-2685642 |last=Palmer |first= Seth |title=Asexual Inverts and Sexual Perverts: Locating the Sarimbavy of Madagascar within Fin-de-Siècle Sexological Theories |journal= Transgender Studies Quarterly |date=August 2014 |volume=1 |issue=3 |pages=368-386 |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/tsq/article-abstract/1/3/368/24744/Asexual-Inverts-and-Sexual-PervertsLocating-the}}</ref> |
| | * '''Culture:''' Tanala people of Madagascar<ref>{{cite web |url=https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-lgbtq-studies/chapter/africa/ |title=Chapter 3: Global Sexualities: LGBTQ Anthropology Past, Present, and Future |work=LGBTQ+ Studies: An Open Textbook |last=Russo |first=Joseph}}</ref> |
| | * '''Era:''' |
| | * '''Description of sex/gender:''' "males who adopted the behavior and roles of women"<ref>{{cite web |url=https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-lgbtq-studies/chapter/global-sexualities-glossary/ |title=Glossary for Chapter 3: Global Sexualities: LGBTQ Anthropology Past, Present, and Future |work=LGBTQ+ Studies: An Open Textbook |last=Russo |first=Joseph}}</ref> |
| | * '''Role in society:''' |
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| ==Третий пол== | | ==Третий пол== |
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| '''Third gender''' is a catch-all category used by some Western anthropologists when talking about other cultures that have societal gendered roles for people who can be thought of as under [[nonbinary]], [[transgender]], and sometimes larger [[MOGII]] [[umbrella terms|umbrellas]]. Third gender includes [[Two Spirit]], [[Hijra]], and many other gender-variant identities worldwide. The people described do not necessarily call themselves anything analogous to the label "third gender," as the term is applied to them by external anthropologists. Additionally, the culture itself may not necessarily think of there strictly being three genders, either. Some Western writers have used "third gender" only for people who they consider to be on the [[transgender women|male-to-female]] spectrum, and "fourth gender" for people on the [[transgender men|female-to-male]] spectrum. Other writers use "third gender" to include both. A "third gender" label has also sometimes been applied to people more accurately described as [[cisgender]], [[gay]], or [[lesbian]]. There have been critical analysis<ref>http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/tbettch/Coloniality.htm The Coloniality of Power: Critiquing the Transgender Paradigm</ref> about the use of the term third gender in anthropology and transgender rights movements as perpetuating the romanticization of cultures outside of the Anglo-Saxon West, and for this reason it is important to make the distinction that only people of the ethnic group which uses a particular designation are entitled to use it as an identity. For instance, someone who is not from India or of Indian descent should not refer to themself as hijra, as this would be [[ethnicity and culture#Cultural appropriation|cultural appropriation]]. Although there are strong historical patterns of the term "third gender" being used by white colonialist anthropologists to erase ethnic genders among People of Colour, it is important to remember that many phenotypically white cultures have also had nonbinary genders. It would, therefore, also be cultural appropriation for a non-Italian to refer to themself as a Femminiello, or someone who is not from the Balkans to refer to themself as a sworn virgin.
| | [[File:Sekhet hieroglyphs.jpg|thumb|<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">The word "sekhet" in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.</span><ref name="Sekhet">{{cite web| title=The Third Gender in Ancient Egypt|url= http://www.gendertree.com/Egyptian%20third%20gender.htm| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200206205104/http://www.gendertree.com/Egyptian%20third%20gender.htm|date=24 December 2013|archive-date=6 February 2020}}</ref>]] |
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| In ''Whipping Girl'', Julia Serano talks about some of the problems of how Westerners have interpreted gender variant people in other cultures as "third gender" in order to support those Westerners' own theories about gender. For example, she says that Will Roscoe, who studied Two-Spirit people in history, interprets those people as nonbinary in ''every'' case, even when the people themselves made clear that they identified as women or men. Roscoe does this to support his view that gender is always only a social construct. Serano wrote,
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| <blockquote>"Because Roscoe is determined to demonstrate that Native American berdaches [Two-Spirit people] represent 'third genders,' he plays up the ways in which these groups showed signs of being separate from and/or a mix of female and male, while playing down evidence that some berdaches may have actually seen themselves as, or wanted to be, the other [binary] gender. While this is not difficult to do for certain berdaches (as these roles varied significantly between Native American nations), Roscoe sticks to his 'third gender' hypothesis even when analyzing the historical record of the Mohave ''alyha'' (MTF spectrum) [...] Despite the fact that the alyha 'insisted on being referred to by female names and with female gender references,' used 'the Mohave word for clitoris to refer to their penises,' received female facial tattoos, and took part in rituals where they simulated pregnancy, Roscoe still argues that they should be considered 'third gender' [...] Roscoe resorts to giving more credence to the judgments of non-gender-variant Mohave [...] Roscoe himself purposely |