Multiple Gender and Variant Gender

Gender and Sexuality ANTH 2301 Multiple Gender and Variant Gender In order to accommodate individuals that do not fit into a binary gender system, many civilizations create other categories in addition to male and female. A gender system that incorporates one or more categories of variant gender in addition to male and female in order to allow greater sex/gender variety is referred to as multiple gender. An additional form of male or female that accommodates people who were not born into that category but develop that identification over time is known as a variant gender. A person can adopt a variantgender identification if their biology, identity, or sexual orientation conflict with their assigned sex/gender role. For example, an individual may be born as a female but then change into a masculine form of the same gender—what anthropologists refer to as a feminine variation. Variant-gender categories have been investigated in a wide range of communities, including Native North American societies and peoples in Brazil, India, Polynesia, Thailand, and the Philippines, according to cultural anthropologist Serena Nanda (2000). Multiple gender identities are widely practiced, which suggests a shared cultural need to take into account the complexity of human sex, gender, and sexuality. On the other hand, the strict two-gender system that has been inherited by European and Euro-American communities stigmatises those who do not fit the gender identification that was given to them at birth. Advocates advocating for increased gender equality may find motivation from diverse gender roles found in several non-European societies. Spanish explorers were shocked to discover males in Native American society dressing like women, doing feminine tasks, and engaging in sexual intercourse with men when they first arrived in North America. Afterwards, anthropologists who researched Native American tribes found that some, like the Crow and the Navajo, fell into two categories: variant males, who were assigned a male identity at birth but later adopted a feminine identity, and variant females, who were assigned a female identity at birth but later adopted a masculine identity. It should be noted that persons in variant categories adopted a masculine or feminine variation of the sex given at birth rather than completely transitioning to the other gender. Early European explorers mistook the Native American words for variable gender and called variant men "berdache," a Portuguese phrase that denoted a male prostitute, even though that is not what they were at all. The phrase "two-spirit people" was invented by Native American LGBTQ persons in 1990 as they attempted to revive their tradition of gender variation. This word refers to those who possess both male and female spirits. Native societies placed a great emphasis and respect on twospirit persons. It was believed that their alternative gender identification gave them unique abilities and spiritual powers rather than causing them shame or rejection. People with two spirits frequently became healers and spiritual leaders in several Native American communities. Usually, they were quite good at doing the jobs that the other gender did not. Many female-variant people were skilled hunters and warriors, and male-variant people were renowned for their superb cooking and needlework. In addition, two-spirit individuals were expected to mediate disputes between the sexes, including those involving marriage. Like many people who identify as gender non-conforming in various countries, two-spirit persons rejected the activities associated with their given gender as children and only later became aware of their variant identities. A female may want to go hunting and play with the lads, whereas a boy may want to cook or weave. A family may even urge a girl to take on a different identity if there weren't enough guys to kill in order for her to contribute to the family's meat supply. Children might occasionally have dreams or visions that led them to the tools belonging to the other gender. People of variable gender typically engaged in sexual relationships with individuals of the gender opposite to their lived identity. It was therefore assumed that women who dressed and worked like women would have close connections with men, and vice versa for those who lived like men. Lesbians or homosexuals were not associated with two-spirit individuals or their companions of the opposing gender. The colonisation of North America by Europeans brought with it a far more rigid system of sexual orientations and gender roles. Native Americans faced pressure to adapt to Euro-American standards as Euro-Americans grew into their lands. Children were taken from their families and transferred to assimilationist schools between 1860 and 1978. There, they were taught that gender variants were wicked and abnormal and that Native customs were outdated. Variant-gender rituals had almost vanished by the 1930s. But many Native Americans have rediscovering their predecessors' more liberal and accommodating gender structure in the wake of the American LGBTQ movement.