Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T09:32:03.535Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The ‘Third Gender’ of the Inuit

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Bernard Saladin d'Anglure
Bernard Saladin d'Anglure*
Affiliation:
Anthropology, Laval University, Quebec

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The author introduces us to the mythology, system of thought and social practices of the Inuit in an attempt to discover their conception of social sex (or gender). Unlike the binary conception that predominates among westerners, the Inuit have a tripartite system in which some individuals, men or women, straddle the social frontier between the sexes/genders. This third social sex, which is prominent in mythology and among the great mythical figures, is also found at the heart of shamanistic mediations, as well as in many families, where the identity of dead relatives is transmitted to the ‘newborn’, regardless of their sex. When the sex is different, the children are cross-dressed till puberty, after which time they have to take on the gender corresponding to their sex, but a number of these young people used to become shamans and so continued to assume the mediations of the third social sex. This construction occurs without any reference to sexual orientation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 52 , Issue 4 , November 2005 , pp. 134 - 144
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2005

References

Boas, F. (1901) ‘The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay’, Bulletin of American Museum of Natural History 15(I), New York.Google Scholar
Czaplicka, M. (1914) Aboriginal Siberia: A Study in Social Anthropology. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Frazer, J. (1907) Adonis, Attis, Oziris, Studies in the History of Oriental Religion. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Godelier, M. (2004) Métamorphoses de la parenté[Metamorphoses of Kinship]. Paris: Fayard.Google Scholar
Herdt, G., ed. (1996) Third Sex, Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History. New York: Zone Books.Google Scholar
Iqallijuq, R. (1977, 1979) Entretiens inédits en langue inuit, enregistrés par B. Saladin d'Anglure[Unpublished conversations in the Inuit language, recorded by B. Saladin d 'Anglure].Google Scholar
Marett, R. (1914) ‘Introduction’, in Czaplicka (1914).Google Scholar
Mathieu, N.C. (1971) 'Notes pour une définition sociologique des catégories de sexe' [Notes for a sociological definition of sex categories], Epistémologie sociologique, septembre: 1–39.Google Scholar
Mauss, M. with Beuchat, H. (1979) Seasonal Variations of the Eskimo: A Study in Social Morphology(1906), translated with a Foreword by James, Fox. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Rasmussen, K. (1929) Intellectual Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos. Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition, 1921–1924, vol. VII. Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Saladin d'Anglure, B. (1977) 'Iqallijuq, ou les réminiscences d'une sme-nom inuit' [Iqallijuq, or the reminiscences of an Inuit soul-name], Etudes Inuit / Inuit Studies 1(1): 33–63.Google Scholar
Saladin d'Anglure, B. (1986) 'Du fœtus au chaman, la construction d'un troisième sexe inuit' [From th fœtus to the shaman, the construction of an Inuit third sex], Études Inuit / Inuit Studies 10(1–2): 25– 113.Google Scholar
Saladin d'Anglure, B. (1992) 'Le troisième sexe' [The third sex], La Recherche, no. 245: 836–844.Google Scholar
Saladin d'Anglure, B. (forthcoming) Être et renaître Inuit, homme, femme ou chamane. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Slwooko, G. (1979) Sivuqam ungipaghaatangi II. Saint-Lawrence Island Legends. From stories written by Slwooko, G., illustrated by Boffa, J. L., Anchorage, National Bilingual Materials Development Center, Rural Education Affairs, University of Alaska.Google Scholar
Sternberg, L. (1925) ‘Divine Election in Primitive Religion’, Congrès International des Américanistes, Compte-rendu de la XXIème session tenue à Göteborg en 1924, Göteborg Museum.Google Scholar