Neither Man Nor Woman: The Hijras of India
by Serena Nanda
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Description
This ethnography is a cultural study of the Hijras of India, a religious community of men who dress and act like women. It focuses on how Hijras can be used in the study of gender categories and human sexual variation.Tags
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Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1990
- Epigraph
- If we want to discover what man amounts to, we can only find it in what men are -- and what men are, above all other things, is various. It is in understanding that variousness. . . that we shall come to construct a concept o... (show all)f human nature that, more than a statistical shadow and less than a primitivist dream, has both substance and truth.
Becoming human is becoming individual, and we become individual under the guidance of cultural patterns. . . which give form, order, point, and direction to our lives. . . [But] we must. . . descend into detail, past the misleading tags, past the metaphysical types, past the empty similarities to grasp firmly the essential character of not only the various cultures but the various sorts of individuals within each culture, if we wish to encounter humanity face to face.
--Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Culture - Dedication
- For Ruth, in whose classes it all began.
- First words
- Search the unabridged first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary for the term hijra, and you will not find it there.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)As we become increasingly aware of this cultural diversity in gender systems, we can begin looking at our own culture in new ways and perhaps become more flexible in accommodating those individuals who do not fit into our traditionally prescribed categories.
- Publisher's editor
- Adams, Peggy
Classifications
- Genres
- Anthropology, Sexuality and Gender Studies, Nonfiction, General Nonfiction, LGBTQ+, Religion & Spirituality
- DDC/MDS
- 305.3 — Society, government, & culture Social sciences, sociology & anthropology Social group - Age, Gender, Ethnicity People by gender or sex
- LCC
- HQ449 .N36 — Social sciences The family. Marriage, Women and Sexuality The Family. Marriage. Women Sexual life Emasculation. Eunuchs, etc.
- BISAC
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- Members
- 214
- Popularity
- 153,268
- Rating
- (4.23)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 2
- ASINs
- 2
