Katherine Wilks

ANTH 4113 Ð Anthropological Theory

Dr. Jackson and Dr. Minnis

Deified, Ostracized, and Medicalized: A study of the interaction between third genders and their societies.

Final draft

12-11-03

INTRODUCTION

For the purposes of this research project I have chosen four cultures to survey. Each one has a unique perspective on the incorporation or exclusion of third sex and gender roles in their society. The theory I would like to present here is that many societies have a problem dealing with third gendered people, especially in respect to their reproductive potential. If their skirting of gender or sex lines thwarts that potential, then they are generally not well received by their society. And, instead of accepting them as ordinary members they must be deified, ostracized, or medicalized to explain their condition. They are classified as existing outside of normal life because human societies want biological sex roles to conform to social gender roles. When I use the term gender I mean to denote the social appearance that does not necessarily reflect a specific genital or sex type. In other words gender and sex refers to man and woman. In this paper the term sex will be used to indicate a biological characteristic independent of what social role is played (Morris 1995:569). Each culture considered has its own coping strategies to make third genders and sexes culturally acceptable. I specifically chose to use the hijras of India, the Navajo berdache, and the eunuchs of tenth century Byzantium because the cultural coping mechanisms are a salient part of each society. These third genders are not hidden away; instead they hold culturally significant roles in their communities.

The Indians choose to create a separate, but unequal, third gender category, the hijras. No one is born a hijra, but must instead transition into the role. There is a wide spread belief that hermaphrodites are stolen by hijra, but there is no proof to back up these myths (Nanda 1999:xx). Those who are allowed to enter are impotent men who are seen as no longer being able to perform their masculine duty as a husband. These men will begin to dress as women, and are usually physically emasculated in the end stage of the transition. (Nanda 1999:14). Even though they take the dress as women, they do not adopt a woman's lifestyle. In fact, there is an entirely different caste set aside with its own rules and regulations for this third gender. Their sexual ambiguity allows the incorporation of "elements of the erotic and the ascetic" (Nanda 1999:23) into a religious system, Hinduism, which usually avoids these taboo topics in public display.

In contrast to the hijras of India there are the eunuchs of ancient Byzantium. These men were also castrated, but they were biologically normal and able to perform sexually before the surgery. Instead of undergoing castration for religious reasons, many went "under the knife" in a quest for power and prestige (Herdt 1994:38). Eunuchs controlled the imperial palace, and those who entered as children were thought of as the perfect servant of God based on their indefinite celibacy. Interestingly enough these castrated men were still considered males, not a third sex. However, they did constitute a third gender because their socially prescribed behaviors differed greatly from those given to either men or women (Ringrose 2003:3-4). Their inability to procreate combined with the idea that they somehow transcended male and female relationships made them the perfect mediators in arguments, as well as a sexually safe guard for aristocratic women (Ringrose 2003:203).

For the Navajo the ability to procreate was not the basis of membership for a berdache. In fact, many could and did raise children of their own. The term "berdache" is misleading because it is a French word meaning the passive male in a homosexual relationship, and was erroneously applied by early missionaries to a group of people who were cross-dressing in many Indian societies across America. A more useful and popular term is "two spirit people" (Roscoe: 31). For ease of understanding I will continue to use the term berdache for this paper, however.

A berdache is born male, but he transitions into the social role of a female (Angelino and Shedd 1955:122). He takes on the traditional dress and work of a Navajo woman because he feels himself to be better suited to those pursuits, but he does not need to change his body physically with castration or emasculation to reflect the role he chooses. This choice may also be made at any point throughout his lifespan. If later in life he decides to leave the lifestyle, he is allowed to. However, those who are born intersexed (with ambiguous genitals) are automatically entered into the social role of berdache and are not allowed to change roles. They are even taken one step farther and given even greater rewards for what might in other cultures be seen as a deformity (Hill 1935:273-274). These nadle (hermaphrodites) are thought to bring even more fortune, honor, and wealth to a family than the social relatives of the berdache. "In this society there is a definite differentiation between those individuals who are as they are because of obvious physiology and those who are as they are because of psychology" (Angelino and Shedd 1955:125).

There is no medicalization of either the nadle or berdache in Navajo society, but the intersexed and transgendered (those not conforming to the gender identity of their sex; i.e. transvestites) of America are not so lucky. Third genders are highly medicalized in American society. Many intersexed and transgendered are told they have both physical and mental disorders. The United States operates on a strictly two-gender system, and there is little, if any, ambiguity. Parents who do not encourage their children to cross gender boundaries set up this dichotomy when they will not let Billy play with dolls, or Jane play with toy soldiers. Physicians enforce a two sex and gender system when they insist on surgically correcting intersexed children. And, above all, the media impose a gender dichotomy with their portrayal of many intersexed or transgendered characters as sources of comic relief (MacKenzie 1994:103-139). This absolute dichotomy is, in nature, a hard rule to live by. Nature loves variation, but unfortunately most societies do not. Those who do not fit are ostracized, and physicians looking from the outside in offer them a cure of sorts. Surgery is available to turn fix their social role to match their biological role. If a man is going to look and dress like a woman, he needs to be a woman by American standards. Those who simply cross-dress are regarded as even more outcast than those who adopt both a gender and sexual identity opposite to the one they were born with.

DEIFIED

Cross-culturally, many third gendered people are put in positions of awe, respect, and fear by their societies. They become supernatural because they cannot comply with gender and sex roles. This in-between stage is often seen as the source of their power. The hijras are shrouded in mystery, even to their own culture. Many Indians are confused about their origins, and refer to them both as intersexed and as eunuchs at the same time (Nanda 1999:xvii). When they go out to beg on the streets for alms people quickly offer up a few pennies and scurry away, afraid to make a wrong move and draw a curse from these powerful pottai (effeminate men). On a social level much of their power is drawn from their seeming indifference to the symbol of male power, the phallus. Their castration effectively challenges the idea of gender identity, and could even be construed as an attack on the male power structure itself. These radical and potent images along with their separate caste structure make many Indians too uncomfortable to associate with them (Roscoe 1995:264).

Hijras are associated with the destructive and feared Mother Goddess, Mata Bahuchara. Their supernatural connection with this goddess gives them the ability to bestow blessings and curses on whomever they choose (Nanda 1999:12). Bahuchara is said to call to impotent men in their dreams and beseech them to give up their "normal" lives and seek out a life more suited to them. And, if these men do not heed her call, she will curse them with impotence for seven future births (Nanda 1999: 25). This goddess is associated with violence as well as initiation and rebirth (Nanda 1999: 33), and her initiates gain her powers through association. To become a hijra is to give up one life and be reborn into another. You have to, in essence, start over from scratch because you must give up all of your friends, family, and possessions to be initiated. A hijra may even change castes due to this ritual (Nanda 1999: 42). This rebirth is a ritual way to transition a mortal to divinity.

The hijras' main ritual functions are to perform dances and blessings at auspicious occasions like births, marriages, and deaths. Their special relationship with the goddess gives them a unique right to perform at these events. But, the hijras also have the power to bring down terrible curses on those who displease them. These bipolar powers come from the fact that they are neither male nor female. It is this in-between gender stage and assumed lack of sexual drive that allows them to benefit from the Mata's power, and thus become her earthly vessel (Nanda 1999:25). They are linked to her in many Hindu myths that involve impotent men who betrayed their wives with abstinence. A Hindu man is expected to bed his wife and produce children; those who will not or cannot are punished with emasculation. An emasculated man has no purpose in Indian society by himself, and so society wants to find a role to put him in to change that. By becoming a hijra he is allowed a very powerful social role, and he is no longer a useless member of society.

The Navajo berdache (transvestite) is far from a useless member of its society. Those who cross gender lines are honored in this tradition, not ostracized. To be a berdache brings great honor, prestige, and wealth to your family. "They are believed to have been given charge of the wealth in the beginning [of the world] and to control it to the present day" (Hill 1935:274). Not just anyone could become a berdache. In order to receive the title of one must go on a vision quest, or receive dreams as verification from the gods (Hauser 1990:59). This gives the berdache an automatic entry into the realm of the supernatural because they must be sanctioned by it to even exist. Nadle (hermaphrodites) are handled a little differently because they are born into the spiritually enlightened position of berdache and do not need to cross genders to achieve this status. They are already in an ambiguous gender grouping, and their heightened biological status as neither male nor female brings them even closer to the gods. The Navajo believe this natural ambiguity is where their powers find their source. The nadle and berdache are regarded as especially sacred figures, and are thought to bring many blessings on their families. "They are, somehow, sacred and holy" (Hill 1935:274). The Navajo creation myths show nadle as playing an important part in the formation of the world, and give them explicit blessings from the gods for their devotion (Callender 1983:452). These associations with gods and initiation through vision quests are how the Navajo mark the berdache as both supernormal and supernatural. And, since men are naturally more aggressive than women (Konner 2002:93), most berdache are barred from participating in hunting and war parties. However, this separation from normalcy can result in general exclusion from society. Recently though there has been a resurgence of "two spirit" people, many of who are not even Native American. This movement has been thoroughly embraced by the gay community as a beacon of how a society used to accept third gendered individuals (Roscoe: 334).

OSTRACIZED

Third genders are ostracized because they are different. The two-gender system allows for only a small bit of variation, and those who fall outside of its specifications are often marked as supernatural, or at the least, abnormal. People also fear what they do not understand, especially if that person is considered linked to a source of power over them.

The eunuchs of ancient Byzantium were not always honored as holy men. When castration took place after a man became sexually mature the act was considered a violation of God's will. Someone who had experienced life as a whole man was forsaking it, and, in the process, destroying something made by God. The sin here is that this man was able to procreate, and chose not to (Ringrose 2003:15). Only if a eunuch was taken in and castrated as a young boy was he considered untainted. The child was never given the opportunity to experience sexual desire, and so there could be no loss of virility where none had ever existed.

So, if those castrated as adults were so looked down on, why would anyone do it? Generally men elected to undergo castration as adults to suppress their sexuality and bring them closer to God. Their ability to practice perfect celibacy after the surgery was what was sought after. Even though the Church considered celibacy an honored duty, it did not condone the eunuch's way of going about attaining it. By removing their sexual drive through castration they were "cheating on the way to the ascetic life" (Ringrose 2003:11). They took the easy way out by circumventing any temptation they may have had to struggle with. It was even believed that some adults castrated themselves so they could indulge their sexual desires without the threat of pregnancy (Ringrose 2003:2). The Christian church condoned sex only in reference to procreation, and these sexually active eunuchs were taking advantage of their sterility to have sex purely for pleasure. No one wanted to associate with an adult-castrated eunuch because of these negative images.

But, just because the youthful castrati were considered holy did not make the public anymore at ease around them. Those castrated in their youth were revered as especially otherworldly, and they easily won prestigious jobs working in palace positions. Their appearance was eternally youthful since their bodies never produced testosterone to sharpen their curved faces, or grow hair on their bodies (Ringrose 2003:4). Because of this soft youth they were often compared with angels. But, their eternal youth also forever marked them as eunuchs. It made it impossible for them to pass through crowds without being recognized for the special position they held. This was not always a bad thing because their position was one of great prestige, but people were so cowed by their presence that often they would avoid contact with the eunuchs.

American society is no more comfortable with its intersexed and transgendered than were the people of Byzantium with their eunuchs. (Kessler 1998:31). Therefore, anyone who breaches the sexual dichotomy is instantly seen as a source of anxiety. Everything in our society from our idealized nuclear family, to even our vocabulary and grammar prohibits ambiguously gendered individuals from existing. People must be addressed as either masculine or feminine, there is no acceptable neuter pronoun to substitute in English (Bloom 2002: 104). And, cross-dressing is seen as something to be ashamed of because in America our sexual identity is reliant on our presentation of self (Griggs 1998: 42-43). If a heterosexual man dresses like a woman it upsets our American idea that form follows function. Here is a guy who looks like a woman, but still has a sexual interest in women. This scenario can remind us subconsciously of homosexuality, and that relation usually makes people even more uncomfortable than we are with cross-dressing (Bloom 2002:51). At least gay transvestites make sense because they are effeminate men who like males. They preserve a shadow of the gender dichotomy that we are so comfortable with.

However, those who are intersexed might as well have an untreatable disease for all that the doctors try to cure them. Most intersexed cases involve a clitoris that is too large by medical standards, or a penis that is too small. On a newborn infant a single centimeter can be the deciding factor for a doctor to reassign a little girl with an enlarged clitoris to be raised as a boy (Kessler 1998:43). Cultural stigmas about how a male and females genitals should appear drive surgeons to correct minor cosmetic variations as though they were major medical disasters (Kessler 1998:116). The fact that our culture makes intersexed individuals feel like they need to be fixed gives the impression that they are somehow wrong. This sense of not belonging causes them to feel like outcasts, and usually convinces them to play the part. They ostracize themselves because of a feeling that they are too different to be reconciled (Colapinto 2001:145). And American society ostracizes them because they do not understand the place of the intersexed, or lack there of, in the gender dichotomy.

Each day that same anxiety that ostracizes is turned into humor as we create caricatures of intersexed and transgendered people in songs like "Dude Looks Like a Lady" (Aerosmith) and movies about cross-dressing homicidal maniacs (Silence of the Lambs). These cultural icons do not encourage people to get to know someone who cross-dresses, but instead they warn us to keep an eye on him or her. Mostly they represent the transgendered as crazed, unstable, objects to laugh about. Drag queens, the most popular cultural icon of transvestites, are misconstrued as a true representation of the cross-dressing population. These people are trying to be caricatures of the real thing, but this subtext is not always seen and understood by the American public as a whole (Bloom 2002:14-15). It is also easier to accept someone acting in an exaggerated manner, rather than someone seriously, and less flamboyantly, living in the opposite gender. While some people may be comfortable going to a drag show for a fun Saturday night, they may feel uncomfortable when they discover the man who sits next to them in class is actually a woman.

People fear what they do not understand, and most of what the general Indian society knows about the hijras comes only from myths. Though many people come into contact with hijras on multiple occasions during their life, very few know anything about them. And, even fewer have ever known a hijra personally. Even though the hijras are looked on as blessed by their close union with the Mother Goddess, this also separates them from the more mundane members of "normal" Indian society (Busby 1997:265). Their supernatural abilities to curse and bless evoke fear from other Indians who often seek to distance themselves from the hijras (Nanda 1999:22). One of the curses that hijras carry they need not say anything to invoke, it is simply the curse of being who they are. Their infertility can be contagious to certain women. More orthodox Hindus do not allow them near new brides, even though they dance at the bride's wedding celebrations. Just a glance could curse a woman with infertility (Nanda 1999:4). This, understandably, makes many women uncomfortable to be around hijras, even when they are not the newlywed brides. Some hijras even report being "ostracized and evicted from their own households" (Bergvall et al. 1996:237) because their powers frighten their familes.

Hijras are also known for their aggressive display of female sexuality (Nanda 1999:5). At the best of times these overt displays come off as humorous comments on the tensions between men and women. But, most of the time they merely make people uneasy. Hijras are seen as uncontrollable and dangerous because they are no longer called to obey the same laws that govern a "whole" man in Hindu society. Since the populous is generally ignorant to the hijra's customs and beliefs, they are left to fill in the gaps with second hand, and often distorted, information. This miscommunication leads to distrust by the public of such powerful and seemingly uncontrollable sacred beings.

Emasculation, the very rite that gives hijras the power to curse or bless, is illegal to perform in India (Nanda 1999:xix). This makes it very difficult for a hijra to be reborn into his new caste. So, to have the very operation that defines a man as a true hijra, he must be a criminal. Prostitution, the more lucrative way to make a living as a hijra, is also illegal in India (Nanda 1999:54). A hijra may make only a few rupees from a single dance, and the chance to dance is becoming a much less frequent occasion than it was 10 years ago. This necessitates a second, and somewhat substantial, source of income. Though not all hijras use prostitution as an income supplement, it is still equated with their work and lifestyles by the general public. Because of these two illegal, albeit essential, ingredients in becoming and living as a hijra, their world is looked on as deviant, and as a lifestyle to be avoided.

In contrast to all of the above examples is the acceptance afforded to the berdache. They were not ostracized in Navajo society, but instead were respected and given places of honor within their families. "They were never made fun of and their abnormalities were never mentioned to them or by them" (Hill 1935:274). Berdache even found greater sexual liberty granted to them because of their respected position. They were allowed to engage in sexual encounters with whichever sex they chose, and their promiscuity was never a source of humor or ill will (Hill 1935:276). They were considered an integral part to the family's well being, and were put in charge of managing its wealth. They were allowed and encouraged to marry, as long as they did not marry other berdache (Fulton and Anderson 1992:607). So, instead of enjoying fewer privileges associated with social interaction, they were afforded a much broader range than the average Navajo.

Generally third genders are feared, and therefore avoided by the common populace. This power of fear is especially prevalent in the eunuchs of ancient Byzantium and the hijras of India. Of my four case studies only the Navajo berdache seems to have escaped this debilitating stigma.

MEDICALIZED

One way societies can cope with third genders is to attempt to manipulate them with surgery (Ekins, 1997:55). This attempt usually takes the sexually ambiguous intersexed, transgendered or hermaphrodites and converts them into one sex or the other. It can also be used to remove all outer trappings of gender, as in castration. However, when medicalization is used to create a sex change it can end up making things worse or harder on the patient. Many times medicalization becomes a question of "can we?" not "should we?" (Garber 1992:101) and this can cause great harm for only a small benefit to the patients involved.

Hijras are only considered as having completed their process of transformation after emasculation, a delicate and life threatening operation that is only performed by a fellow hijra, not by a doctor (Nanda 1999:26). A hijra may make a living performing his ritual functions at auspicious occasions, but if it is found out that he is still a "whole" man all of his credibility, and thus livelihood, is lost. Therefore, it is essential for him to be emasculated. He only becomes a vehicle for the Goddess after his genitals are removed. In this way his impotence is medically proven and permanent.

Eunuchs of Byzantium undergo the same physical risks that emasculated hijras do, but to a lesser extent since most only lost their testicles. This procedure was seen as necessary in confirming their chastity in a physical and observable manner. A man could not be a eunuch, and therefore have unquestioningly given up his sexual drive, without castration. Though of course, as I pointed out earlier, castration did not always mean that a man was no longer sexually active, simply that Byzantine society saw him as supposed to no longer be sexually active. Medicalization was the only way to achieve this elevated state. In a sense, medicalization was the only way to guarantee that a man could control his sexual urges. God knows that without surgical intervention a man might not be able to resist temptation.

American society, like Byzantium, feels the need to make someone's biological sex role conform to his or her social sex role. If a man presents himself as a woman, pressure is put on him by society to consider sex reassignment surgery, and vice versa. A psychological sex change should be completed with a physical sex change (Colapinto 2001:92). The surgeries are painful, and mostly cosmetic. In fact, much sensation can be lost in the process (Kessler 1998:116). So, why would someone want to undergo a surgery that might rob him or her of the ability to become sexually aroused? Because sex reassignment surgery is the socially sanctioned "cure," and even someone as socially outcast as a transvestite feels the pressure to conform and pick a gender (Bloom 2002:13).

The same need for gender dichotomy exists when dealing with intersexed infants in America. Since the child is too young to decide what to do, the decision is left up to the doctor and the confused parents. While men who cross-dress may have grown into some sort of comical acceptance by American society, those with ambiguous genitalia have not. Children are still judged and assigned based on what the doctor thinks will be the best social role for them given their specific anatomical defects. An infant male with a microphallus (measuring less than 2.5 centimeters long) is regarded as "a medical and social emergency" (Bloom 2002: 101). The most likely case these days is that he will receive hormone therapy until puberty. But still, in some cases the perfectly normal, if a bit short equipped, male is reassigned as a female. Genital surgery is preformed to make the little male's genitals look more like a little female's, and hormone therapy is expected to follow her throughout the rest of her life (Kessler 1998:43-69). This surgery is seen as necessary to keep the male with a microphallus from committing suicide later on in life from shame once his secret is found out (Bloom 2002:105).

Of course, this gender reassignment does not always take as easily as the doctors would like. In the case of Brenda/David Reimer the sex he was assigned (female) because of a botched circumcision was disastrous. His parents, and indeed his therapist, impressed on him that he was actually a she throughout David's childhood. However, he felt more like his rowdy twin brother, not like the little girl he was supposed to be. Eventually when David learned the truth of his surgical past he renounced all claims to the female alter ego he was forced to use growing up and began to live full time as David. No amount of nurture could change that David's nature said he was male (Colapinto 2001). And so, the medical society in America changes the sex of infants because it can without evaluating whether or not it should.

Sex changes for Navajo berdache were never an issue. In fact, there was no medicalization of this third gender that I could find proof of in my research. This is quite unusual, and presents an interesting counterpoint to the idea that medicalization is the basic way to create a way for third gendered people to find a place in a dichotomous society. I believe the Navajo might be an exception because they lacked the medical ability to castrate or give sex changes to those who decided to become berdache.

Medicalization is often seen as a necessary step in transforming someone into a new social gender. It is encouraged in those who do not have matching gender and sex roles in order to bring them into the dichotomy and away from the stigma of being an outcast. But, this option is only open to those cultures with the medical technology to perform such surgeries. Perhaps when the technology is not there, the need does not develop to surgically alter someone's anatomy to match their gender role.

CONCLUSION

The Indians deified, ostracized and medicalized their third gender, the hijras. The practice of becoming a hijra is steadily growing harder to find as times and laws change to limit it (Nanda 1999:52). The eunuchs of Byzantium were ostracized and medicalized. Their adults' abstinence through castration was frowned upon because it was seen as a cheat. One could have gotten into heaven by removing the inner turmoil involved in abstinence by choice. However, if a man became a eunuch as a child he was smiled upon as a good and sacred man (Ringrose 2003:20). The most tolerant culture of the four I looked at was the Navajo. Their intersexed (nadle) and their transvestites (berdache) were both treated with respect, dignity, and religious devotion (Hill 1935:274). Americans unfortunately are not as positive when it comes to ambiguous sex or gender. They treat intersexed individuals with thinly veiled contempt most of the time. And, the United States' transvestites are only treated marginally better (Bloom 2002).

Theoretically, each society has a specific way to deal with third and ambiguous sex and genders based on that person's reproductive capabilities. Some deified, other ostracized, and many medicalized. All of the cultures used more than one method to help create a spot in their society for third genders; others were not so liberal in their applications. But, not one was equipped to accept sexual ambiguity at face value. These cultures, Navajo, Indians, and Byzantines, were not able to allow a third gender category to exist, and they felt the need to create an elaborate social system around incorporation of the third genders into the already present gender dichotomy. Even the tolerant Navajo required their third genders to conform to a social identity, man, woman, or eunuch, which was culturally constructed. In this case all transvestites had to take on, not only the characteristic dress, but also the work of women. I find it interesting that the male-man and female-woman dichotomy found here in the West is mirrored to some extent in many other cultures all around the world. Hypothetically two gender systems are a universal structure based on male and female reproduction potentials. But, now as we move out of an age where reproduction was our main purpose in life maybe we need to revise and expand our ideas about how gender and sex roles work with each other.

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