Review of Neither Man Nor Woman: The Hijras of India. By Serena Nanda.

Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1990.

 

Reviewed by Walter L. Williams, in American Ethnologist 1992.

 

This book makes important contributions to the study of gender

variance, sexuality, and South Asian cultures. It was awarded the

Ruth Benedict Prize, given by the Society of Lesbian and Gay

Anthropologists, and contains a forward written by the sexologist John

Money. Nanda's focus is the hijras, effeminate or androgynous males

who do not fulfill a standard man's role. She bases her book on

several years of fieldwork in an unnamed city in southern India, where

she studied a hijra community of about two hundred persons. She also

worked in Bombay, which is a center of hijra culture.

         Nanda defines hijras as occupying an alternative gender role,

distinct from either men or women. She draws comparisons with the

American Indian berdache, the xanith of Oman, and the mahu in Tahiti.

In contrast, she points out, the transsexual role in Western culture

is not accepted as a fully recognized gender. This non-acceptance,

she argues, is due to a lack of religious sanction and an "unyielding

Western commitment to a dichotomous gender system" (p. 137), which

expects all "normal" persons to conform to one of only two gender

roles. Western ideology, uncomfortable with ambiguity, strives to

resolve in-between categories.

         Hindu ideology not only accomodates the reality of ambiguity and

diversity among different personality types, but also conceptionalizes

androgynous persons as special sacred beings. Hindu mythology makes

frequent reference to combined man/woman beings. The cognition of

hijras as religious figures, as neither men nor women, provides them

with social respect and an institutional character. They are seen as

representatives of the Hindu goddess Bahuchara Mata, which gives them

ritual power. Not just tolerating contradiction, but actively

embracing it, Hindus believe that hijras have powers to bless

heterosexual marriages so that they will be fertile, and infant males

so that they will grow up to become masculine men.

         Nanda, a professor at John Jay College, corrects many

inaccuracies that anthropologists have written about hijras. First,

she points out, they are not morphological hermaphrodites, but were

androgynous in character from early childhood and voluntarily joined a

hijra community during their adolescence. Second, they are not forced

to undergo a surgical operation to remove their penis and testicles,

though many of them do this by their own wish. Third, most hijras are

sexually active with men, being the insertee in anal intercourse.

Some gain their livelihood through prostituting themselves to

masculine males, while others marry a man and live together as husband

and wife.

         Indian society traditionally did not see such pairings as

"homosexual," since hijras were not considered to be the same gender

as their masculine partners. Hijras are not defined as "men," because

they have no desire to engage in masculine labor and activities, they

do not wish to have sex with women, and they do not want to father

children. Conversely, hijras are not seen as "women," because even

though they may engage in women's occupations, they do not menstruate

and cannot give birth. The book's striking photographs show hijras

dressed in women's clothing, and wearing feminine hairstyles and

jewelry. Yet, at the same time, Indian people recognize that hijras

are not actually women. They are not-men/not-women.

         Due to the Western colonial influence, which condemns gender

variance and homosexuality, the status of hijras in modern Indian

society has declined. Among Westernized Indians, hijras' presence at

weddings and baptismal ceremonials is only barely tolerated. Hijras'

temples are not given adequate financial support, and many hijras

suffer employment discrimination. As a result, prostitution is often

the only occupation open to them. Nanda's study unfortunately does

not address the impact of the spread of the AIDS epidemic. Recent

reports indicate that AIDS infection is quite prevalent among both

male and female prostitutes in India. The fact that vaginal or anal

intercourse is now considered the only proper form of sexual

interaction in India is unfortunate, especially considering the

popularity of oral sex, interfemoral sex, and other less dangerous

forms of erotic interaction in pre-colonial Asia. For many, the

imposition of Western notions of "normal" sexuality will literally

lead to death.

         Though her psychoanalytic interpretation is problematic, Nanda's

study is an important addition to the growing literature of life

histories. The book includes four hijras' detailed personal

narratives, which contribute to recent trends in feminist anthropology

emphasizing life stories. Nanda rightly recognizes the need for

scholars to acknowledge individual variation, to understand the

gendered perspectives of non-Western peoples in their own words. This

book avoids the pitfall of many ethnographies which present only a

generalized "culture" while lacking a presentation of real peoples'

lives.

         Nanda agrees with this reviewer's thesis, presented in The Spirit

and the Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture (Beacon

1986), that religion is the crucial factor in the acceptance of

homosexuality and gender variance. Nanda concludes that alternative

gender roles will be socially accepted when the religious ideology of

that culture offers (1) a specific explanation for such difference,

(2) formalized traditions in ritual, (3) a recognition that there are

many different paths to personal fulfillment, enlightenment or

salvation, and (4) the idea that gender-variant persons cannot resist

following their own true nature, and are fated to be the way they are.

The implications here are important for a cross-cultural understanding

of homophobia, and what must be done for it to be overcome. It

is not enough for a religion to be "tolerant" of gender diversity

and sexual variation; it must also provide specific recognition

for such diversity. By showing the social advantages to be

gained by an appreciation for diversity, Nanda's study deserves a

wide reading.