Gender-variant identities worldwide: Difference between revisions

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.

[[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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* '''Name of identity:''' ''Sekhet (s<u>h</u>t)''

* '''Culture:''' Ancient Egypt

* '''Role in society:''' unknown

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{{main|Two-Spirit}}

{{#if:1|{{#section:List of nonbinary identities|TwoSpiritDefinition}}}}<ref name="Trans Bodies 611">Laura Erickson-Schroth, ed. ''Trans Bodies, Trans Selves: A Resource for the Transgender Community.'' Oxford University Press, 2014. P. 611.</ref>

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* '''Name of identity:''' Lhamana

* '''Culture:''' Zuni

* '''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.<ref name=Stevenson37>Matilda Coxe Stevenson, The Zuni Indians: Their Mythology, Esoteric Fraternities, and Ceremonies, (BiblioBazaar, 2010) p. 37</ref><ref name=Bost139>Suzanne Bost, Mulattas and Mestizas: Representing Mixed Identities in the Americas, 1850-2000, (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2003, pg.139</ref>

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* '''Name of identity:''' ''Muxe'', also spelled ''muxhe''. This is Zapotec for "woman," but their society distinguishes them from women.<ref name="muxe cobelo">Luis Cobelo. "Cooking with Muxes, Mexico's Third Gender." ''Vice'' (magazine). July 2015. Retrieved October 14, 2020. https://www.vice.com/en/article/bmp3zv/cooking-with-muxes-mexicos-third-gender</ref> Another possible origin of the word is the Spanish word for "woman", ''mujer''.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://origin-www.goethe.de/mmo/priv/4038800-STANDARD.pdf|title=Muxe: el tercer sexo|last=Bennholdt-Thomsen|first=Veronika|work=|year=2008|agency=Goethe Institut|language=Spanish|access-date=March 13, 2016|via=}}</ref>

* '''Culture:''' Zapotec cultures of Oaxaca (southern Mexico)

* '''Role in society:''' mostly women's work, but also men's work<ref name="muxe cobelo" /><ref name="Lynn 2002"/><ref>MIANO, M. (2002). Hombre, mujer y muxe’ en el Istmo de Tehuantepec. México: Plaza y Valdés. CONACULTA-INAH.</ref>

In Mexico, the Zapotec people recognize the ''muxe'', who are assigned male at birth, and prefer to wear traditional women's styles of clothing and fashionable make-up. ''Muxes'' are thought to be usually attracted to men, though some ''muxes'' marry women.<ref name="muxe cobelo" /><ref name="Lynn 2002">Stephen, Lynn (2002). "Latin American Perspectives," Issue 123, Vol.29 No.2, March 2002, pp. 41-59. {{cite web |url= http://www.uky.edu/~tmute2/mexico/MexWeb/Mex+PDFs/stephan-gender-zapotec.pdf |title= ''Sexualities and Genders in Zapotec Oaxaca.'' |url-status=dead |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20070129073904/http://www.uky.edu/~tmute2/mexico/MexWeb/Mex%20PDFs/stephan-gender-zapotec.pdf |archivedate= 2007-01-29 |df=  }}&nbsp;{{small|(98.6&nbsp;[[Kibibyte|KiB]])}}</ref> ''Muxes'' may consider themselves homosexual, heterosexual, or asexual.<ref name="muxe bbc" /> (Men who are not ''muxe,'' and who have relationships with ''muxe,'' are called ''mayetes'', and are not socially thought of as gay for doing so.<ref name="muxe bbc" /> ''Muxes'' themselves have various opinions about whether such men are really gay or straight.<ref name="muxe cobelo" />) A person recognizes from early childhood that they want to be a ''muxe'', based on their own natural instincts.<ref name="muxe cobelo" /> They usually do not seek [[surgery|gender-affirming surgery]].<ref name="muxe cobelo" /> Today, ''muxe'' are accepted and integrated in society, whereas gay men and trans women are not accepted as much, though this varies by the amount of Westernization in a given community.<ref name="muxe cobelo" /> One ''muxe'' named Gala who was interviewed in 2015 explained, "We are not men or women [...] We are a third gender. Men are men and women are women— and ''muxes'' are ''muxes''. Is that simple."<ref name="muxe cobelo" /> Much the same definition was given in a 2018 BBC interview with another ''muxe'' named Felina, who runs a group for ''muxe'' founded in the 1970s, ''[https://www.lasintrepidas.com/ Las Auténticas Intrepidas Buscadoras del Peligro]'' (The Authentic Intrepid Danger Seekers).<ref name="muxe cobelo" /><ref name="muxe bbc">Ola Synowiec. "The third gender of southern Mexico." November 26, 2018. ''BBC.'' http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20181125-the-third-gender-of-southern-mexico</ref> Another ''muxe'', performance artist [[Lukas Avendaño]];<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Stambaugh|first=Antonio Prieto|date=2014-01-01|title=RepresentaXión" de un muxe: la identidad performática de Lukas Avendaño|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/latin_american_theatre_review/v048/48.1.stambaugh.html|journal=Latin American Theatre Review|volume=48|issue=1|pages=31–53|doi=10.1353/ltr.2014.0030|s2cid=141999742|issn=2161-0576}}</ref>, explained in a 2017 interview that not all ''muxe'' identify the same way, and some ''muxe'' do identify as women.<ref name="muxe cruz">Mónica Cruz. "Muxes: una comunidad en Oaxaca desafía los conceptos tradicionales de la identidad y el género." ''Verne.'' February 2, 2017. https://verne.elpais.com/verne/2017/01/31/mexico/1485834145_612368.html</ref> In the Zapotec language, there is no grammatical gender, which makes it easier. The Spanish language has only masculine and feminine, so ''muxe'' have to choose one, even though many ''muxe'' do not feel like either.<ref name="muxe cruz" /> In recent years, ''muxe'' have campaigned for the right to use the [[toilets|restroom]] of their preference: some ''muxe'' (''gunaa muxe'', who think of themselves as like trans women) feel safer in the women's restroom, whereas other ''muxe'' (''nguiiu muxe'', who think of themselves as like feminine gay men) prefer the men's restroom.<ref name="muxe cruz" /> One study estimates that 6% of people assigned male at birth in an Isthmus Zapotec community in the early 1970s were ''muxe''.<ref>Rymph, David (1974). ''Cross-sex behavior in an Isthmus Zapotec village.'' Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Mexico City.</ref> Notable ''muxes'' include human rights activist [[Amaranta Gómez Regalado]] (b. 1977), who gained international prominence as the first trans candidate of Mexico, in the 2003 Oaxaca state elections;<ref name="muxe bbc" /><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2003/06/05/ls-amaranta.html|title=La nueva visibilidad lésbico-gay|last=Medina|first=Antonio|date=June 5, 2003|work=LETRA S|access-date=March 13, 2016|via=La Jornada}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=//www.copenhagen2009.org/Conference/Keynote_Speakers/Amaranta_Gomez_Regalado.aspx |title=Archived profile from Amaranta Gómez Regalado for the WorldOut Games in Copenhagen 2009 |last= |first= |date=January 11, 2016 |website=Amaranta Gómez Regalado – WorldOut Games 2009 |publisher=Wayback Machine Internet Archive |access-date=March 13, 2016 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090721073144/http://www.copenhagen2009.org/Conference/Keynote_Speakers/Amaranta_Gomez_Regalado.aspx |archivedate=July 21, 2009 |df= }}</ref> and food vendor [[Marven]], ''Lady Tacos de Canasta'', who became famous in a viral video taken while she was selling food at a pride parade in 2016, and has been featured on multiple media outlets since.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chilango.com/comida/lady-tacos-de-canasta/|title=Lady Tacos de Canasta: hay de chapulines, iguana, arroz con leche...|last1=M|first1=Sthefany|last2=ujano|date=2018-08-28|language=es-MX|access-date=2019-08-12}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.milenio.com/policia/lady-tacos-canasta-policias-agreden-tiran-puesto|title=A Lady Tacos de Canasta, policías la agreden y le tiran su puesto|website=www.milenio.com|access-date=2019-08-12}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://heraldodemexico.com.mx/tendencias/autoridades-intentan-retirar-a-lady-tacos-de-canasta-en-alcaldia-cuauhemoc/|title=Autoridades intentan retirar a Lady tacos de canasta, en alcaldía Cuauhémoc|date=2019-07-29|website=El Heraldo de México|language=es-MX|access-date=2019-08-12}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://culturacolectiva.com/movies/taco-chronicles-netflix-mexico-food-documentary-review|title='The Taco Chronicles' Does Justice To Mexico's Misunderstood Street Food Staple|date=2019-07-18|website=culturacolectiva.com|language=English|access-date=2019-08-12}}</ref>

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* '''Name of identity:''' Quariwarmi, meaning "men-women"

* '''Culture:''' Inca

* '''Role in society:''' shaman

In Peru, the pre-colonial Inca civilization had shamans called [[quariwarmi]], meaning "men-women," who were a mixed-gender role. Andean Studies scholar Michael Horswell writes that [[third gender]] 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."<ref>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. [http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/excerpts/exhordec.html Article online].</ref> Richard Trexler gives an early Spanish account of religious third gender figures from the Inca empire in his 1995 book "Sex and Conquest": "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."<ref>Trexler, Richard C. (1995). ''Sex and Conquest''. Cornell University Press: Ithaca. p. 107</ref> This description draws into question whether the quariwarmi considered themselves a gender outside man or woman, or if they considered themselves women.  

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{{main|hijra}}

* '''Name of identity:''' Hijra  

* '''Culture:''' South Asian countries including India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh

* '''Role in society:''' religious

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* '''Name of identity:''' [[Bissu]]

* '''Culture:''' the Bugis people of Indonesia

* '''Role in society:''' Priesthood.

For the past six centuries, the Bugis people of Indonesia have divided their society into five separate genders. All five must harmoniously coexist. They are ''oroané'' (cisgender men), ''makkunrai'' (cisgender women), ''calabai'' (analogous to transgender women), ''calalai'' (analogous to transgender men), and ''bissu'' (all aspects of gender combined to form a whole).<ref>"Sulawesi's fifth gender" . Inside Indonesia. https://web.archive.org/web/20120728104208/http://www.insideindonesia.org/edition-66-apr-jun-2001/sulawesi-s-fifth-gender-3007484 Archived from the original on 28 July 2012. Retrieved 2011-07-25.</ref><ref><a href="http://www.iias.nl/iiasn/29/IIASNL29_27.pdf">"Sex, Gender, and Priests in South Sulawesi, Indonesia"</a> (PDF). International Institute for Asian Studies. Retrieved 2011-07-25. </ref> <ref>Davies, Sharyn Graham. Gender Diversity in Indonesia: Sexuality, Islam and Queer Selves (ASAA Women in Asia Series), Routledge, 2010.</ref><ref>Davies, Sharyn Graham. Challenging Gender Norms: Five Genders Among Bugis in Indonesia (Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology), Wadsworth Publishing, 2006.</ref><ref>Pelras, Christian. The Bugis (The Peoples of South-East Asia and the Pacific), Wiley-Blackwell, 1997.</ref><ref name=Prezi>{{cite web |url=http://www.iias.nl/iiasn/29/IIASNL29_27.pdf |title=Sex, Gender, and Priests in South Sulawesi, Indonesia |publisher=[[International Institute for Asian Studies]] |accessdate=2011-07-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721074825/http://www.iias.nl/iiasn/29/IIASNL29_27.pdf |archive-date=21 July 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref>  

The Bugis believe that someone is born with the propensity to become the mixed gender ''bissu'', revealed in a baby whose genitalia are ambiguous ([[intersex]]). 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. Ambiguous genitalia alone do not confer the state of being a ''bissu''.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.insideindonesia.org/edition-66/sulawesi-s-fifth-gender-3007484 |title=Sulawesi's fifth gender |journal=[[Inside Indonesia]] |accessdate=2011-07-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120728104208/http://www.insideindonesia.org/edition-66-apr-jun-2001/sulawesi-s-fifth-gender-3007484 |archive-date=28 July 2012 }}</ref> In order to become ''bissu'', one must learn the language, songs, and incantations, and have a gift for bestowing blessings. They must remain celibate and wear conservative clothes.<ref name=ABC/> In daily social life, the ''bissu'', the ''calabai'', and the ''calalai'' may enter the dwelling places of both men and women.<ref name=Prezi1>{{cite web|website=Prezi|url=https://prezi.com/yhh0sdzysou5/the-bugis-five-genders-and-belief-in-a-harmonious-world/|title=The Bugis Five Genders and Belief in a Harmonious World|first=Karlana|last=June|date=23 February 2015|accessdate=27 February 2019}}</ref>

In pre-Islamic Bugis culture, ''bissu'' were seen as intermediaries between the people and the gods. Up until the 1940s, the ''bissu'' were still central to keeping ancient palace rituals alive, including coronations of kings and queens.<ref name=ABC/> 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''. 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.<ref name=ABC/>  

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* '''Name of identity:''' Mukhannathun (Arabic مخنثون "effeminate ones", "men who resemble women", singular mukhannath)

* '''Culture:'''  

* '''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.<ref>USC-MSA compendium of Muslim Text: Partial Translation of Sunan Abu-Dawud, Book 41:General Behavior (Kitab Al-Adab), Number 4910 http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/texts/muslim/hadith/abudawud/041.sat.html#041.4910</ref> 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?"<ref>Rowson, Everett K. (October 1991). <a href="http://www.williamapercy.com/wiki/images/The_effeminates_of_early_medina.pdf">"The Effeminates of Early Medina"</a> (PDF). Journal of the American Oriental Society (American Oriental Society) 111 (4): 671–693. doi:10.2307/603399 . JSTOR 603399.</ref>

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* '''Name of identity:''' called ''asog'' in groups in the Visayan islands, and ''bayok'' in the Luzon islands.<ref>http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue2/carolyn2.html</ref>

* '''Culture:''' indigenous peoples of the Philippines

* '''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.<ref>http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue2/carolyn2.html</ref> Persecution of non-Christian, non-Muslim people and the imposition of patriarchy and binary gender has led to the erasure of these social roles.<ref>https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=93lag7tXriIC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false</ref>   

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{{main|kathoey}}

* '''Name of identity:''' Kathoey. Often rendered as "ladyboy" in English.

* '''Culture:''' Thailand

* '''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).<ref name="SwinterNsak">Winter S, Udomsak N (2002). [http://www.symposion.com/ijt/ijtvo06no01_04.htm Male, Female and Transgender: Stereotypes and Self in Thailand] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070228130914/http://www.symposion.com/ijt/ijtvo06no01_04.htm |date=28 February 2007 }}. ''International Journal of Transgenderism''. 6,1</ref> Kathoey also work in entertainment and tourist centres, in cabarets, and as sex workers.<ref name="Tooru Nemoto">{{cite journal|last=Nemoto|first=Tooru|year=2012|title=HIV-Related Risk Behaviors among Kathoey (Male-to-Female Transgender) Sex Workers in Bangkok, Thailand|url=|journal=AIDS Care|volume=24|issue=2|pages=210–9|doi=10.1080/09540121.2011.597709|pmc=3242825|pmid=21780964}}</ref>

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.<ref>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. [http://web.hku.hk/~sjwinter/TransgenderASIA/paper_language_and_identity.htm Article online].</ref>  

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* '''Name of identity:''' Mutarajjulat, "women who wish to resemble men."<ref name="bowen">Gary Bowen. "A Dictionary of Words for Masculine Women." ''FTM International.'' May 15, 1995. Retrieved November 5, 1996. http://web.archive.org/web/19961105010926/http://www.ftm-intl.org/Wrtngs/ftm-words.gary.html</ref>

* '''Culture:''' Islam<ref name="mutarajjulat cook">David Cook. "Women fighting in jihad?" ''Female Terrorism and Militancy: Agency , Utility, and Organization.'' Cindy D. Ness, ed. New York: Routledge, 2008. Pp. 38-39.</ref>

* '''Role in society:''' unknown

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* '''Culture:''' Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities

* '''Era:''' to present

* '''Role in society:'''  

In Australia, Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities recognize identities called sistergirl ([[AMAB]] people who have a feminine spirit) and brotherboy ([[AFAB]] people who have a masculine spirit). Brotherboys and Sistergirls can have binary or nonbinary genders.<ref name="Moon">{{Cite web |title=Brotherboys And Sistergirls: We Need To Decolonise Our Attitude Towards Gender In This Country |author=Moon, Hayden |work=Junkee |date=20 July 2020 |access-date=17 September 2020 |url= https://junkee.com/brotherboy-sistergirl-decolonise-gender/262222}}</ref><ref name="atsaq" />

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* '''Name of identity:''' Yimpininni. Less traditionally, rendered in English as Sistagirl.

* '''Culture:''' Tiwi Island culture

* '''Role in society:'''  

In Tiwi Island culture, "Sistagirl", traditionally ''Yimpininni'', is an identity analogous to trans woman.<ref>https://aboriginalartandculture.wordpress.com/2011/02/06/bindi-cole-and-the-sistagirls/</ref>

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{{main|Fa'afafine}}

* '''Name of identity:''' Fa'afafine, meaning "in the manner of a woman" in Samoa<ref name=":1">Wade, Lisa & Myra Marz Ferree.  ''Gender: Ideas, Interactions, Institutions.''  New York: W. W. Norton, 2015.</ref>.

* '''Culture:''' Samoa

* '''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.<ref>Saleimoa Vaai, Samoa Faa-matai and the Rule of Law (Apia: The National University of Samoa Le Papa-I-Galagala, 1999).</ref> Traditionally, faʻafafine follow the training of the women's daily work in an ''Aiga'' (Samoan family group).<ref>Danielsson, B., T. Danielsson, and R. Pierson. 1978. Polynesia's third sex: The gay life starts in the kitchen. Pacific Islands Monthly 49:10–13.</ref>

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{{main|Māhū}}

* '''Name of identity:''' māhū (meaning "in the middle")

* '''Culture:''' the Kanaka Maoli (Hawaiian) and Maohi (Tahitian) cultures

* '''Role in society:'''  

{{#if:1|{{#section:List of nonbinary identities|MahuDefinition}}}}<ref name=NBGQ2016>"NB/GQ Survey 2016 - the worldwide results." ''Gender Census.'' March 19, 2016. http://gendercensus.tumblr.com/post/141311159050/nbgq-survey-2016-the-worldwide-results</ref>

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* '''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"),<ref name="BuseTaringa1995">{{cite book|author1=Jasper Buse|author2=Raututi Taringa|title=Cook Islands Maori Dictionary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AT2ENAHoS28C&pg=PA51|accessdate=27 July 2013|year=1995|isbn=978-0-7286-0230-4|page=51}}</ref> or simply, "to behave as a woman".<ref name="BuseTaringa1995"/><ref name="Alexeyeff2009">{{cite book|author=Kalissa Alexeyeff|title=Dancing from the Heart: Movement, Gender, and Cook Islands Globalization|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SdmBdhq6l-gC&pg=PT105|accessdate=27 July 2013|year=2009|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-3244-5|page=105}}</ref>)

* '''Culture:''' Cook Islands Māori

* '''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.<ref name="LittleMcAnany2011">{{cite book|author1=Walter E. Little|author2=Patricia Ann McAnany|title=Textile Economies: Power and Value from the Local to the Transnational|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=woPmXQOU4hUC&pg=PA72|accessdate=27 July 2013|date=16 October 2011|publisher=Rowman Altamira|isbn=978-0-7591-2061-7|page=72}}</ref>

In the Cook Islands, some people who do not fit the Western gender binary are called akava'ine.<ref name=":1" />

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* '''Name of identity:''' Burrnesha, meaning "sworn virgins"

* '''Culture:''' Albania

* '''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}}

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* '''Name of identity:''' ''il femminiello'' (singular), or ''i femminielli'' (plural), meaning "the little female-men." This comes from ''femmina'' ("woman"), with ''-iello'', which is a diminuitive term of endearment, with a masculine -o ending. This is neither derogatory nor an insult.<ref name="Femminiello Portland">"The Femminiello." ''Portland Art Museum.'' http://portlandartmuseum.us/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=68749;type=101</ref><ref name="NaplesLDM">"The Femminiello in Neapolitan Culture." ''Naples: Life, Death, & Miracles.'' November 2009. Retrieved July 28, 2020. http://www.naplesldm.com/femm.php</ref>

* '''Culture:''' Naples, Italy.<ref name="teenvogue">Lucy Diavolo. "Gender variance around the world over time." ''Teen Vogue'' (magazine). June 21, 2017. Retrieved July 28, 2020.  https://www.teenvogue.com/story/gender-variance-around-the-world</ref> Specifically, they are centered in "the Spanish Quarter, the most impoverished neighborhood in the city."<ref name="Femminiello Portland" />

* '''Role in society:''' "Women's work," according to local traditional gender roles, such as looking after children, housework, and running errands. Sex work. Priests, and a source of good luck.<ref name="NaplesLDM" />

In Italy, the femminielli are people who were assigned male at birth, and who begin to express femininity in mannerisms and clothing preferences from early childhood.<ref name="Femminiello Portland" /> They continue to do so into old age. However, they do not hide that they were assigned male at birth.<ref name="Femminiello Portland" /> The locals have always been accepting of the femminielli, and see them as good luck.<ref name="Femminiello Portland" /><ref name="NaplesLDM" /> Neapolitans invite a femminiello to come with them when they gamble in order to improve their luck,<ref name="Femminiello Portland" /> and mothers ask feminielli to bless their new-born babies.<ref name="NaplesLDM" /> There is a Neapolitan proverb: "If you need good luck, get blessed by a queer priest" (which uses a pejorative word rather than the word femminiello).<ref name="NaplesLDM" /> The femminielli are said to come from all over Europe to Torre del Greco to hold a secret and sacred ceremony once a year, ''figliata dei femminielli'' ("marriage of the femminielli"), led by priests from a modern continuation of the [[gender-variant identities worldwide#Gallae|Gallae]] priesthood of the goddess Cybele, which came to Rome from western Asia in antiquity.<ref name="NaplesLDM" /> The ''figliata'' has been practiced for centuries, only temporarily suspended during World War II, and then resumed after the war.<ref name="NaplesLDM" /> In the ''figliata'', the femminielli wed one another at sunset in front of a closed church. Nine months later, they simulate giving birth, and then celebrate with a banquet.<ref name="femminiello huffpost">Giuseppe Melillo. "Una storia antica: Napoli, i femminielli e la figliata." ''Huffington Post'' (magazine). January 24, 2018. Retrieved July 28, 2020.  https://www.huffingtonpost.it/giuseppe-melillo/una-storia-antica-napoli-i-femminielli-e-la-figliata_a_23339374/</ref> The remote mountain church at Montevergine is built atop what was once a temple to Cybele. Its icon, the Madonna of Transformation, Mamma Schiavona, "serving mother," is the Catholic syncretization of Cybele. According to legend, in 1256 CE, a mob had beaten a male-male couple, and then Mamma Schiavona miraculously saved the lives of the couple, so they lived happily ever after.<ref name="RoadsAndKingdoms" /> Ever since then, she has been seen as a patron of femminielli, who have gone on pilgrimage to that church for the procession of Candlemas, February 2, called ''juta dei femminielli''. It is celebrated with the long and energetic tammurriata dance, and a candle-lit procession, by pilgrims who are visibly gender nonconforming. The celebrants chant, "''Non c'è uomo che non sia femmina e non c'è femmina che non sia uomo''" ("There is no man who is not female and there is no female who is not man.")<ref name="femminiello huffpost" /> In 2002, a priest at Montevergine threw out a group of pilgrims who were LGBT, because he was offended by their tambourine and castanet playing.<ref name="RoadsAndKingdoms" /> (At festivals, femminielli use musical instruments such as bells and tambourines, which also came from the worship of Cybele.<ref name="NaplesLDM" />) In response, hundreds of pilgrims who were LGBT activists and allies came to Montevergine two weeks later, and established the festival of Candlemas as also being Femminiello Pride.<ref name="RoadsAndKingdoms" />

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* '''Name of identity:''' Gallae. Contemporaries who were not Gallae called them by masculine words, Galloi or Galli (plural), or Gallus (singular). Some historians interpret the Gallae as transgender, by modern terms, and think they would have called themselves by the feminine Gallae (plural) and Galla (singular).<ref>Kirsten Cronn-Mills, ''Transgender Lives: Complex Stories, Complex Voices'' (2014, {{ISBN|0761390227}}), page 39</ref><ref>Teresa Hornsby, Deryn Guest, ''Transgender, Intersex and Biblical Interpretation'' (2016, {{ISBN|0884141551}}), page 47</ref><ref name="seabrook gallae about">Laura Anne Seabrook, "About this comic." ''Tales of the Gallae.'' http://totg-mirror.thecomicseries.com/about/</ref> The Roman poet Ovid (43 BC – 17 AD) says their name comes from the Gallus river in Phrygia;<ref>Maarten J. Vermaseren, ''Cybele and Attis: the myth and the cult'', translated by A. M. H. Lemmers,  London: Thames and Hudson, 1977, p.85, referencing Ovid, ''Fasti'' IV.9</ref> "gallus" itself means chicken or rooster.

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A significant portion of the ancient priesthood of the goddess Cybele and her consort Attis were Gallae. This tradition began in Phrygia (where Turkey is today, part of Asia Minor), 2,300 years ago.<ref name="kaldera 174" /> After 205 BCE, it spread throughout the Roman Empire, as far north as London.<ref name="kaldera 174" /> 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,<ref name="kaldera 174" /> 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 [[bottom surgery|sex reassignment surgery]].<ref name="kaldera 174" />

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.<ref name="Maarten J. Vermaseren 1977, p.97" /><ref name="kaldera 174" /> 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.<ref name="kaldera 174" /> Afterward, the initiate's lower belly was tattooed, and the healed wound dressed with gold leaf.<ref name="seabrook gallae about" />  

Due to being criminalized, persecuted, and exterminated by the Christians, the Gallae were gone by the 6th century CE. Or, rather, the Gallae were syncretized into Christianity as the [[gender-variant identities worldwide#Femminiello|Femminiello]] of Italy, who have been recorded since the 1500s, and still exist today.<ref name="RoadsAndKingdoms" /> Today, some trans women and worshipers of Cybele call themselves Gallae, and [http://gallae.com 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, [http://totg-mirror.thecomicseries.com/about/ Tales of the Galli]. Her comic is a work of historical fiction about Gallae in ancient Rome, based on her extensive historical research.

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* '''Name of identity:''' Enarees, Enareis, or Anarieis (ἐναρής).<ref name="enarees phillips">Phillips, E. D. “The Scythian Domination in Western Asia: Its Record in History, Scripture and Archaeology.” World Archaeology, vol. 4, no. 2, 1972, pp. 129–130. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/123971. Accessed 13 Jan. 2020.</ref> The ancient Greek historian Herodotus said this means "men-women" or "effeminates."<ref name="enarees phillips" /> Some modern historians notice that it does not look like a Scythian word, but seems to have been from Greek for "Accursed."<ref name="enarees west">West, Stephanie. “Introducing the Scythians: Herodotus on Koumiss (4.2).” ''Museum Helveticum'', vol. 56, no. 2, 1999, pp. 83. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24821090. Accessed 13 Jan. 2020.</ref> It is not known today what the Enarees called themselves.

* '''Culture:''' The Scythians, who were Eurasian nomadic horseriders. They lived in regions that are now the modern-day countries of Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Egypt, and neighboring countries. They had contact with many more, due to their use of the Silk Road.<ref name="Beckwith58">{{harvnb|Beckwith|2009|pp=58–70}}</ref>

* '''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.<ref name="enarees cassells">Conner, Sparks, and Sparks. ''Cassell's Encyclopedia of queer myth, symbol, and spirit, covering gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender lore.'' 1997. P. 70. </ref> The enarees told the future, and did women's work.<ref name="enarees phillips" />

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.<ref name="enarees phillips" /> 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,<ref>{{cite wikisource |author=Hippocrates |title=On Airs, Waters, Places |wslink=On Airs, Waters, Places#Part XXII |at=Part XXII}}</ref> and from wearing trousers<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Chiasson|first=Charles|date=2001|title=Scythian Androgyny and Environmental Determinism in Herodotus and the Hippocratic πϵρὶ ἀϵ́ρων ὑδάτων τóπων|journal=Syllecta Classica|language=en|volume=12|issue=1|pages=33–73|doi=10.1353/syl.2001.0007|issn=2160-5157}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Minns|first=Ellis|title=Scythians and Greeks: A Survey of Ancient History and Archaeology on the North Coast of the Euxine from the Danube to the Caucasus|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1913|isbn=9781108024877|location=|pages=45–6}}</ref> (which was seen as an odd foreign custom to the toga-wearing Greeks). 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.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Minns|first=Ellis|title=Scythians and Greeks: A Survey of Ancient History and Archaeology on the North Coast of the Euxine from the Danube to the Caucasus|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1913|isbn=9781108024877|location=|pages=45–6}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://classicalstudies.org/annual-meeting/148/abstract/neither-men-nor-women-failure-western-binary-systems|title=(N)either Men (n)or Women? The Failure of Western Binary Systems|last=Hart|first=Rachel|date=|website=Society for Classical Studies|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-01-28}}</ref>

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."<ref name="enarees savage 74">Helen Savage. (2006) "Changing sex? : transsexuality and Christian theology." Doctoral thesis, Durham University. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3364/</ref> 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.<ref name="SchachterMarrian1938">{{cite journal|last1=Schachter|first1=B.|last2=Marrian|first2=G. F.|title=The isolation of estrone sulfate from the urine of pregnant mares|journal=Journal of Biological Chemistry|volume=126|year=1938|pages=663–669}}</ref> This discovery was developed into Premarin in the 1940s, the first commercial oestrogen replacement drug in Western medicine,<ref name=MDD>Jim Kling  October 2000 [http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/archive/mdd/v03/i08/html/kling.html The Strange Case of Premarin] Modern Drug Discovery (3):8 46–52</ref> 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."<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> 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.<ref name="enarees phillips" /> Herodotus described the method of fortune-telling that the Enarees practiced:  

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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.<ref>Herodotus, ''The Histories'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.%204.67&lang=original IV. 67]</ref>

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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.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Ustinova|first=Yulia|url=https://books.google.ca/books?id=ARyeneZne9gC|title=The Supreme Gods of the Bosporan Kingdom: Celestial Aphrodite and the Most High God|publisher=Brill|year=1999|isbn=978-90-04-11231-5|location=|pages=78|language=en}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Taylor|first=Timothy|title=The Prehistory of Sex: Four Million Years of Human Sexual Culture|publisher=Bantam Books|year=1997|isbn=978-0553375275|location=|pages=214}}</ref>

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* '''Names of identities:''' Zachar, Nekeivah, Androgynos, Tumtum, Ay’lonit, and Saris, each with a different meaning. See below.

* '''Culture:''' Judaism

* '''Role in society:''' Each of the six genders has its own roles and prohibitions under Judaic law.

{{#section-h:Gender variance in spirituality|The six genders in classical Judaism}}

*[[Nonbinary gender outside of the transgender community]]

*[[List of nonbinary identities]]

*[[Gender variance in spirituality]]

* [https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/content/two-spirits_map-html/ PBS: A Map of Gender-Diverse Cultures]. This is an interactive world map showing the locations of dozens of cultures that recognize nonbinary genders.

* 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.

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<references/>

[[Category:Gender-variant identities worldwide]][[Category:Spirituality]]