The Third Sex: Las Dies

THE THIRD SEX: LAS DIES

Introduction

The theme that I have decided to deal with in this second anthropological essay of the subject Social Anthropology, is related to sexuality, regarding the so -called third sex, a topic considered as taboo. More specifically, I will try to understand and know this third sex through the life of the dizzas, thanks to several documentaries that I have been able to observe on television on this topic.

To carry out the development of the topic chosen, the first of all will be to differentiate two terms, sex and gender, which tend to describe the same, and this is not how you think.

After differentiating and being clear about the concepts of sex and gender, the following will be to ask, what do we mean when we talk about third sex or third gender? Is third gender or sexuality the same as homosexuality?

Subsequently, answered the two previous questions, we will look at the daughter. Starting from this, we could ask ourselves a series of issues:

• From a sexual point of view, what are dizzas, are men or are women? Could it be considered that the dizzas, are a mixture of the two sexual prototypes that imperate in society? If they are not considered in either of these two previous prototypes, what are they?
• Placing ourselves in a historical context, when for the first time the dizzas appear?
• From a more social perspective, what is the position or status they occupy for the rest of society? Can we find another third genre like dizzras in other countries?

Therefore, we could consider the question of whether it is possible to accept the third sex in our Spanish society.

Finally, I will test what has been learned when making this essay and carrying out a series of conclusions about what was treated. All this based on what I learned in class in the subject of Social Anthropology, and helping me with the texts that our teacher has facilitated us to their access in the virtual classroom, and others sought in other places, which are exposed at the end of the essay, in the bibliography.

Sex and gender

To assess whether there are other genres apart from the binary and female sexual system, a clear vision of the difference in meanings that the concept of sex and gender implies is needed.

Sex refers to how we are born biologically, and that is determined by our sexual organs.

On the other hand, according to Marta Lamas, “in Spanish gender it is a useful taxonomic concept to classify what species, type or class someone belongs or something;As a set of people with a common sex, women and men are talked about as a female gender and male gender. It is also used to refer to the way of doing something, of executing an action;It also applies to commerce;to refer to any merchandise and, especially, of any kind of fabric (Moliner) ". However, we can say that gender is determined by social factors. The social construction of gender identity is independent of sexual orientation.

According to DR. Evelyn Blackwood, an anthropologist at the University of Puerdue, in a documentary issued by National Geographic about the third genre, and also, which deals with the dizzas, argues that: “Gender, to a large extent, is defined by culture, so, there are cultures that establish certain expectations and characteristics that men and women should meet. And when there is this idea that there are only two genres, everything that is different becomes a threat to people ”. That is, that society has a mentality on sexuality due to culture, and thinking that, in addition to existing men and women there is another genre, called third sex or gender. Which, becomes incomprehensible to such society, since most people who understand this society have rooting values and, therefore, tend to discriminate and exclude by being different from culture. 

The third sex or third gender

It is a fact that all customs and cultures are different in each part of the world, but generally, they all have in common the concept of gender, based on a binary sexual scheme, constituted by a man and woman.

According to Marta Lamas (1986: 174), “Anthropology has always been interested in how culture expresses the differences between men and women. The main interest of anthropologists has basically been the way in which each culture manifests that difference. Sexual roles, supposedly due to an original division of labor based on biological difference have been described ethnographically."

In spite of this, in many countries these two genres are recognized, but a third genre appears, that is, an alternative that ends up breaking the classic generic duality scheme. For example, in India there is a third recognized sex, called the daughter, of which we will talk later.

From a biological perspective, it must be taken into account, that half of the species that inhabit the earth, whether animals or plant, could not be framed within the binary or female sexual sexual scheme. As already known, most plants are hermaphrodites and, in addition, animals such as snails, perclabes and sea stars.

Therefore, we should ask: And humans could be classified as another type of genre that was not male or female, male or female, man or woman?

It is usual to practice genital surgeries in newborns, when their sexual organs are not clearly defined or when they have physiological characteristics of the two sexes, they are called intersex. This practice is usually done to avoid discriminations by society in the future, since everything that exceeds our "comfort area" is strange. Since society tends to discriminate any aspect that comes out of what is considered normal or usual. But over time, this practice is done less and less frequentwoman or belong to a third genre.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it affects one percent of the world’s population or what is the same, there is a case of intersexuality for every 250 people, so, the frequency of coinciding with one of them is the same is the same is the same isto meet a redhead.

Therefore, this concept of third gender is beginning to be coined little by little in the different societies. Since more and more emphasis is placed on recognition of this genre, different from those that comfort the binary sexual scheme, becoming that there is a third sex other than the other two. For example, it is the case of Australia and Germany, which have recognized it, allowing the possibility that a citizen of their country may not be registered as a man or woman, but to free the box that corresponds to the genre. It is one more step to the recognition of a genre different from that of men and women, and the possibility that several countries join this cause. 

A fundamental and key aspect that should not be confused is the third sex with homosexuality. Homosexuality is not a third genre, since it is a sexual preference that is generally related to sexuality. So, there is a desire on the part of a person towards another of the same sex such as two men or two women. While, the third sex has more to do with gender, so often, we appreciate cases of people talking about being trapped in a wrong body or that is not comfortable with itself, so decides to change your body.

The dizzas

What are they?

According to the Hindu religious tradition, the daughter are recognized as an alternative genre associated with spirituality. The children are male, but from an early age, they dress and behave as women, identifying with all female roles. To become a real daughter and gradually assume femininity it is necessary to go from Chela (student) to Guru (teacher). Each teacher can live with five or six students in a home family and are considered part of their lineage. 

The culmination of femininity takes place after a ceremony called Nirvan (Renaissance), which in numerous cases is linked to castration. Those who decide to remove the genitals, it is customary to deposit them in a vessel and leave them under a sacred tree. After removal, the daughter receive the greatest respect from their community. Therefore, we would be talking about transgender men to women, according to Aurelia Martín Casares (2006: 58-59). In the western culture of our society, it resembles transvestites.

The dizzas themselves are considered superior for having a double personality, that of man and that of women, but they are considered above all female yes or yes.

Its origin

The origin or history that accompanies the daughter comes from a legend with more than twenty thousand years old.

According to this, the Hindu warrior Araba decided to sacrifice his life to the gods to ensure victory in an epic battle. Although Aravan imposed as a condition to be granted a single desire, which was to marry and spend the last night on earth with a beautiful woman. But he encountered the impediment that no woman wanted to marry this, since no woman wanted to marry someone who would die the next day. To satisfy Aravn’s desire, the Krishna god, hearing the regretted Guerrero transformed into Mohini, a beautiful maiden. All this to marry Aravan and spend the night with him. The day after the Battle Aravan died, and Krishna cried for him as a true widow.

Therefore, the daughter have Krishna as God, since their transformation constitutes support for the nature of love between the daughter and men. To celebrate his weddings with the God and, at the same time his identity, the daughter go to Kutayan every year, south of India. For this occasion, the daughter dress with their best wedding costumes and, the next day as Aravan dies, the daughter becomes widows crying this.

Your social status

The daughter at the time had an important role in Hindu society, occupied a religious and spiritual status, since they danced at a wedding or attending a baby was considered a sign of fortune. Since, according to the Hindu tradition, the daughter have the ability to grant or deprive the newly married fertility and newborns. But in today’s Hindu society, the daughter are losing their religious status, so to survive they are forced to beg the streets. When the daughter approaches people to ask for alms, they announce it with a peculiar pat, and these are warned that they are there. Most people prefer that the dizzas throw a blessing before being cursed, since their curse is considered the most feared in the Hindu. To do this, the daughter lifted their clothes to show the scar where the genitals hung. In addition, they turn to prostitution as another means of making a living.

In the culture of India, dizzas are considered a unique third sex, but that recognition is not synonymous with acceptance, since becoming a daughter means being a couple. Often, it is the parents of the son who repudiates it, because he stains the reputation of the family and, therefore, they have no choice but to take refuge between them.

In addition, the daughter is denied the right to decent housing, and many have to live in a center led by a veteran wower who exercises as the mother of the group, or in the center exclusively created to protect them. Most renounce sexual life and only give themselves to a spiritual life, because forming a family is a very distant dream at this time for them. Since the reality that accompanies them is that little by little, and more and more, they are being left out of society.

MUXES

In this world, the daughter are not the only ones known as "third genre", in Mexico there is also a type of third genre, the well -known muxes. More specifically, we will relate the dizziness to the muxes of Juchitán.

Muxes are people born with male genitals that assume female roles. According to Pedro Pitarch and Gema Orobitg (2012: 321), “The Muxes of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and specifically those of Juchitán, also constitute a type of figures that have suffered an overexposure before the external sight of travelers, experts and now ethnic touristsor sexual, causing the effect of a silhouette whose contrast has decreased, erasing certain details of his profile and hardening others notorious ”. So the muxes are people who are every day in the spotlight of many, for not being something normal or something very watched in society.

The muxes consider their own life without having to ask anyone for permission of what to do at all times, considering totally free people, as Pedro Pitarch and Gema Orobitg (2012: 327), ‘when talking about body itineraries I amConsidering these people as agents of their own life, and not only as victims or passive subjects of a certain gender system and a hegemonic body culture ”.

One of the curiosities of society is to know the sexuality and sexual practices of the muxes going beyond their appearance, social role and aesthetics. It is not known for sure how their sexual practices or sexuality are, since we do not have information that comes from true sources, so we can only know a little of them finding them in academic texts and assumptions, as Pedro Pitarch saysand Gema Orobitg.

Therefore, we can affirm that the visibility and uniqueness of the muxes have been interpreted as an expression of sexual freedom of the Juchiteca society.

CONCLUSION

Of everything commented and exposed so far, it can be said that the daughter represent the concept of third genre, and therefore challenge the general concession that there are only two genres. In the West they would be the so -called transvestites or transsexuals, but transvestites often identify as a man or as a woman, the daughter are not considered either one or the other.

It should be noted that it has long tried to make society advance and see this third genre as something natural and not strange. To do this, around the 90s the queer theory emerged, which is an increasingly recognized American current.

According to Aurelila Martín Casares, the new theoretical and methodological proposals of queer theory have allowed to deepen criticism of binarism about sexuality and gender. In practice, queer expression is used to define a large group of people: lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender, transsexuals, homosexuals and intersex. Basically these are people, behaviors or groups that transgress heteronormativity. You could say that queer refers to different ways of life and identities, which leave the norm established by ideology and dominant stereotypes. Queer theory is closely related to the anthropology of the genre, and among its objectives is the deconstruction of stable sexual identities and, particularly, the destabilization of the heterosexual-homosexual binomial that prevails in almost all societies. Since we are not able to expand our accurate thoughts and values.

Some theorists who stand out for their effort to dismant. As for queer anthropology, Lewin, Serena Nanda, Evelyn Blackwood, Saskia Wieringa among others, as Aurelia Martín Casares states.

The recognition and acceptance of the existence of a third genre in the cultures of the West costs much more, becausehas based on the existence of men and women, hence the difficulty of understanding the existence of other genres. On the other hand, unlike Catholicism, religions such as the Hinduist, have a high number of gods, so that religion has a more open mentality to recognize the existence of other genres.

But I hope that little by little, society, we will be able to recognize, but not only to recognize but in addition to accepting, that is, not to discriminate to other alternative genres. Since it is a fact that are there, even if we are not able or do not want to open our eyes and realize it. With this theory, queer theory, and with claiming movements of their rights, small steps are being given to get their acceptance at once.

Bibliography

• Lamas, m., 1986, feminist anthropology and the category "Gender", Mexico: New Anthropology Association to.C.
• Lamas, m., 2000, differences in sex, gender and sexual difference, Mexico: National School of Anthropology and History.
• Martín Casares, to., 2006, genre anthropology. Cultures, myths and sexual stereotypes, Madrid: Ediciones Cátedra.
• Pitarch, p.;OroBitg, g., 2012, indigenous modernities, Madrid: Ibero -American Vervet.