Gender can be recognized and organized differently in different cultures. In some non-Western cultures, gender may not be considered binary, or humans may be able to switch freely between men and women, or exist in a state that is in between, or neither. In some cultures, the third gender may be associated with the gift of being able to mediate between the spirit world and the human world. [18] For cultures with these spiritual beliefs, this is generally considered a positive thing, although some people of the third sex have also been accused of witchcraft and persecuted. [19] In most Western cultures, people who do not conform to heteronormative ideals are often seen as sick, disordered, or insufficiently educated. [18] Historically, in areas of the Canadian Arctic, such as Igloolik and Nunavik, Inuit had a third gender concept called sipiniq (Inuktitut: ᓯᐱᓂᖅ). [106] A sipiniq infant is believed to have changed physical sex from male to female at the time of birth. [107] The Sipiniq children were considered socially masculine and bore the name of a male relative, performed male tasks, and wore traditional clothing adapted to men`s tasks. This usually lasted until puberty, but in some cases continued into adulthood and even after the sipiniq person married a man. [108] The Netsilic Inuit used the word kipijuituq for a similar concept. [109] The most vulnerable and disadvantaged populations in Asia-Pacific countries are hijras, who face unique barriers compared to other gender identity communities. Although many Asian and Pacific Island cultures view sexuality as more fluid than Western cultures, some Asian leaders have stated that a direct approach to homosexuality is a false imposition of Western concepts that contradicts Asian values.

According to Hahm (2010), the Hijra group has been marginalized since ancient times (Khan et al., 2009). The Hijra community is marginalized in social, political and economic life, particularly stigmatized in society. Legally, everyone has the right to benefit from society`s resources and services. Again, society must serve this group in order to fulfill its duties and responsibilities. Therefore, it is imperative to examine in depth the problems and challenges of the hijra community (Shuvo, 2018). Hijras have abandoned their healing role over time and have begun to engage in sex work, which is incompatible with India`s ethical systems (Nanda, 1999). At the turn of the era, male cults were dedicated to a goddess who thrived in the vast region from the Mediterranean to South Asia. While Galli proselytized against the Roman Empire, Kalū, Kurgarrū and Assinnu continued to perform ancient rites in the temples of Mesopotamia, and the Hegira predecessors of the third family were clearly recognizable. He should also be mentioned by the eunuch priests of Artemis in Ephesus; Western Semitic qedeshim, the male “temple prostitutes” known from the Hebrew Bible and Ugaritic texts of the end of the second millennium; and Keleb, priests of Astarte in Kition and elsewhere. Beyond India, modern ethnographic literature documents gender-variant shaman priests in Southeast Asia, Borneo, and Sulawesi.

All these roles share the characteristics of devotion to a goddess, gender transgression and receptive anal sex, ecstatic ritual techniques (for healing in the case of Kalū and Mesopotamian priests and fertility in the case of the Hegira) and real (or symbolic) castration. Most of them resided in temples at some point in their history and were therefore part of the religious and economic administration of their respective city-states. [118] In How to become a Berdache: Towards a unified analysis of gender diversity, Will Roscoe writes, using an anthropological term that Indigenous peoples have always found offensive,[14][37] that “this pattern can be traced from the earliest accounts of the Spanish to today`s ethnographies. What has been written about Berdaches reflects more the influence of existing Western discourses on gender, sexuality and the Other than what observers have actually seen. [38] Literary critic Michael Maiwald identified a “third gender ideal” in one of the first African-American bestsellers, Claude McKay`s Home to Harlem (1928). [112] A third gender is discussed in ancient Hindu law, medicine, linguistics, and astrology. The fundamental work of Hindu law, the Manu Smriti (c. 200 BC – 200 AD), explains the biological origins of the three sexes: Most cultures use a gender binary with two genders (boys/men and girls/women).

[3] [4] [5] In cultures with a third or fourth gender, these genders can represent very different things. For Hawaiians and Tahitians, Māhū is an intermediate state between man and woman, or a “person of indeterminate sex.” [6] [best source needed] Some traditional Diné Indians in the southwestern United States recognize a spectrum of four genders: female, female, female, female, female, male, and male. [7] The term “third gender” has also been used to describe the hijras of India[8] who have acquired a legal identity, fa`afafine of Polynesia and sworn virgins. [9] A culture that recognizes a third gender does not in itself mean that they have been valued by that culture, and is often the result of an explicit devaluation of women in that culture. [10] Transgender people revel in their transgender identification in a variety of ways and can be initiates of their transgender identification at any age.