THIRD GENDER

Third Gender: translation

Marie Czaplicka, Marjorie Balzer, andBernardSaladin d’Angluredemonstrate the importance of broadening the notion ofgenderto include not only male and female but also various mediating positions and roles. Czaplicka, for example, notes that shamans are a “third class,” separate from males and females. This separation enables shamans tomediatebecause they are already, by nature orinitiation, “in-between” persons. This use of the termthirdgenderto refer to shamans as a gender separate from male and female overlaps its use as a reference to homosexuality as a third gender. The marriage of some shamans tootherworldpartners sometimes leads to their practice oftransvestitism, but can also result in homosexual marriages in the “ordinary world.” Whether this is acceptable within the wider culture or a specific aspect of the strangeness of shamans varies from culture to culture, and perhaps from village to village.