Comparison of Social Roles of Indian Hijras and Two-Spirited People of North America

This essay compares and contrasts the social roles of Indian Hijras and Two-Spirited People of North America. It discusses the cultural dimensions of the Hijras and the Two-Spirited People, their roles in society, and the challenges they face.

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
Sociolgy
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1SOCIOLOGY
Introduction
The revolution in the study of the social and the historical context of the gender and the
sexuality tends to develop some of the enormous interest in the analysis of the historical
categories from the perspective of the cross cultural domain. Numerous categories of the
individual in certain place and times have transcended the various categories of the female and
the male that has been understood in the era of the late nineteenth century. The third gender or
the hijras, as termed in the Indian culture and the two spirited people in the western culture are
the persons or the individual group of people that are collectively classified by the third or the
multiple historical -cultural categories. The social construction of the gender is generally
determined by the society (Herdt, 2012). It varies across the periods of the time and is generally
not as same as the biological sex. The Indian culture notes the differences of the masculinity and
the feminity by the various biological and the social norms targeting the identification and the
characteristics of the individual genders in the society. The biological differences as identified by
the androgen infectivity syndrome and the klinefelters' syndrome, the congenital adrenal
hyperplasia and the turner's syndrome denotes the basic characteristics of the gender. The essay
illustrates the contrast and the comparison of the social roles of the Indian Hijras and the two
spirited people of North America.
The Main Body
The hijras, the third gender role and the institutionalized role model in the Indian culture
is neither male nor the female containing the elements of both the categories. They constitute a
large section of the society including impotent, intersexes men and the individuals undergoing
emasculation or the removal of the genitals from their body (Cameron, 2005). The central feature

2SOCIOLOGY
of the hijras in the Indian culture is their devotion towards the Bahuchara Mata who is
considered as one of the many mother goddesses.
There lies some of the major cultural dimensions of the community of the hijras in the
prevailing society. They are most clearly not the men in the relation towards their claiming of the
inability towards the lack of the desire for the engagement or the biological intersexuality and
their subsequent castration. The inability to be a part of the normal community in the society
together with the feminine behavior associated with their role differentiates the hijras from that
of the other social and the cultural individuals of the community. In most of the cases, the social
role and the identification of the path of the life for the hijras are denied which led the
community people to provide an opportunity towards an alternative identity and an environment
which constitutes a more emotional and economically satisfying. The narratives of the hijras
personnel cast a doubt in the ideas of the western culture that illustrates how the identity of the
gender is always permanent over the lifetime (Jennifer Ung Loh, 2014). According the
concept of the culture residing beyond the Indian scenario, the identity of the gender roles tends
to vary mostly among the individual occupying the equal gender role.
The eunuch -transvestite role of the community of the hijras tends to link them not only
towards the mother goddess but also to the Shiva via their effective identification with the
Arjuna who was the hero of the Mahabharata. In the event of the sexual abstinence with the
effective association of the Hindu mythology and the power of the ascetic is generally the very
source of the power of the hijras (Nanda, 1993). The community of the hijras themselves
recognizes this connection as they tend to frequently refer to the holy wanderers of the society.

3SOCIOLOGY
Among the multiple forms of the preconceptions and the indetermination of the study of the
gender and the sexual variations one of the most astonishing tenacious is the idea if the deviant
sexual orientations. The debate in the western society regarding the two and the three sex
systems has been long entangled together with the discussions regarding the dichotomous nature
of the context of the homosexuality and the heterosexuality.
In the context of the western culture and the social norms, the two spirited people or the
community people are referred to as the certain group of the community people fulfilling a
traditional third gender ceremonial role regarding their culture. The indigenous North Americans
mistakenly associate the two spirited people as the LGBT natives (Robinson, 2017). These are
not interchangeable with the LGBT Native Americans since the concept of the two spirits
includes the definition and the explanation of the sexuality and the gender identity and the
concept of the self chosen term towards the personal sexual or the gender identity.
The concept of the two spirits has generally be presented for the countless generations
that tends to predate the LGBTQ terminology (Kalra, Gupta & Bhugra, 2010). Most of people
visualize the concept of the two spirits as some thing or someone out of the community
individuals. Coined in the year 1990, the term two spirit in the culture of the northern America
illustrates the meaning of the unifying of the various identities of the gender and the expressions
of the indigenous individuals together with the specific definition of the gender and that of the
sexual orientation towards the self determination of the catch all phrase and the umbrella term.
The two spirited people of the North America have both the male and the female spirit
inside them since they believe that they are being blessed by their creator towards seeing their
life’s through the eyes of both the genders. In the Northern American culture, the term of the two

4SOCIOLOGY
spirited people does not marginalize or diminish the roles and the traditions of the community
people. Some of the examples of the community people are ‘winkte’ among the Lakota
community and the ‘nadleeh’ among the community of Navajo people (Harris, Lone Dog &
Blincoe, 2013).
In the current scenario, the people of the Northern America revolves that a person can be
born with both the male and the female spirits and the manifestation involves within the cultural
practices are sacred. The cultural norms of the North America thus have raised the recognition
and the barriers towards the judgment on the basis of the gender and the sexuality has been
removed. The two spirited people are generally valued on the basis upon their contribution to the
society and by their character. It is only in the northern American context that the recognition
and the rights of the two spirited people together with the recognition of the LGBT native are
being allowed and came into recognition in lieu of their accomplishments and the worthy of their
celebrations (The Guardian, 2017). They are being valued for their contributions and their
engagements regardless of their attributes towards the domain of the gender as they are
exhibited. In case of the context of the Indian culture and the community of the Hijras, the
cultural barriers and their roles towards the community is still being hindered and left un
recognized (Khaleeli, 2017). The rights and the engagement of the hijras together with the
consideration of their presence as an essential and a bigger part of the society is still a big
challenge in the Indian culture. While comparing and contrasting the social engagement and the
roles of the hijras in the Indian context and the two spirited people in the North American
context, the community of the two spirited people are far more involved and advanced in aspect
to their contribution and recognition as a part of the social chain in the cultural community of the
region.

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Conclusion
Without the presence of any sort of the negative stigma attached towards being a two
spirited people unlike the Indian Hijras, instances of the violations and disrespect towards the
individual are not practiced. Furthermore they are being recognized for their high functioning
intellect, their natural artistic skills and their exceptional and highlighted capacity towards the
compassion. The cultural reality and the controversy regarding the presence and the role of the
third gender in the Indian culture is still a big challenge. Thus it is important to end the
epistemology of the sexual dimorphism and the ideologies related to the reproductive functions
in regards to the system of moral classifications of the humanity for a more pervasive and
significant cultural space for the third genders of the world economy.

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References
Cameron, Michelle. (2005). Two-spirited aboriginal people: Continuing cultural appropriation by
non-Aboriginal society. Canadian Woman Studies, 24(2 3), 123-127
Harris, C., Lone Dog, L., & Blincoe, D. (2013). Two spirited people: Understanding who we are
as creation. In New York State Folklife Reader: Diverse Voices (pp. 181-191). University
Press of Mississippi.
Herdt, G. (2012). Third sex, third gender–beyond sexual dimorphism in culture and history.
Jennifer Ung Loh. (2014). Narrating Identity: The Employment of Mythological
and Literary Narratives in Identity Formation Among the Hijras of
India. Religion and Gender, 4(1), 21-39.
Kalra, G., Gupta, S., & Bhugra, D. (2010). Sexual variation in India: A view from the
west. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 52(Suppl 1), 264-268.
Khaleeli, H. (2017, November 25). Hijra: India's third gender claims its place in law. Retrieved
from https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/apr/16/india-third-gender-claims-place-
in-law
Nanda, S. (1993). Hijras as neither man nor woman. The lesbian and gay studies reader, 542-52.
Robinson, M. (2017). Two-spirit and bisexual people: Different umbrella, same rain. Journal of
Bisexuality, 17(1), 7-29.

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The Guardian. (2017, September 20). The 'two-spirit' people of indigenous North Americans.
Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/oct/11/two-spirit-people-north-
america