Name of identity: Fa'afafine, meaning "in the manner of a woman" [1]. Fa'atama, meaning "in the manner of a boy"[2] in Samoa.
Culture: Samoa
Era: traditional to present
Description of sex/gender: Third and fourth genders for AFAB and AMAB.[3]
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.[4] Traditionally, faʻafafine follow the training of the women's daily work in an Aiga (Samoan family group).[5]
↑Wade, Lisa & Myra Marz Ferree. Gender: Ideas, Interactions, Institutions. New York: W. W. Norton, 2015.