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Article I plan to to work on:


 * Intersex in history

Ancient Islam
By the eighth century CE, records of Islamic legal rulings discuss individuals known in Arabic as khuntha. This term, which has been translated as "hermaphrodite," was used to apply to individuals with a range of intersex conditions, including mixed gonadal disgenesis, male hypospadias, partial androgen insensitivity syndrome, 5-alpha reductase deficiency, gonadal aplasia, and congenital adrenal hyperplasia.

In premodern Islamic law, inheritance was determined based on sex, so it was sometimes necessary to attempt to determine the biological sex of sexually ambiguous heirs. The first recorded case of this sort has been attributed to the seventh-century Rashidun caliph named 'Ali, who attempted to settle an inheritance case between five brothers in which one brother had both a male and female urinary opening. 'Ali advised the brothers that sex could be determined by site of urination in a practice called hukm al-mabal; if urine exited the male opening, the individual was male, and if it exited the female opening, the individual was female. If it exited both openings simultaneously, as it did in this case, the heir would be given half of a male inheritance and half of a female inheritance. Later, in the thirteenth century CE, Shafi'i law expert Abu Zakariya al-Nawawi ruled that an individual whose sex could not be determined by hukm al-mabal, such as those with urination from both openings or those with no identifiable sex organs, was assigned the intermediary sex category khuntha mushkil.

Both Hanafi and Hanbali lawmakers also recognized that puberty could clarify a new dominant sex in intersex individuals who were labeled khuntha, male, or female in childhood. If a khuntha or male developed female secondary sex characteristics, performed vaginal sex, lactacted, menstruated, or conceived, this person's legal sex could change to female. Conversely, if a khuntha or female developed male secondary sex characteristics, performed penetrative sex with a woman, or had an erection, their legal sex could change to male. This understanding of the effect of puberty on intersex conditions appears in Islamic law as early as the eleventh century CE, notably by Ibn Qudama.

In the sixteenth century CE, Ibrahim al-Halabi, a member of the Hanafi school of jurisprudence in Islam, directed slave owners to use special gender-neutral language when freeing intersex slaves. He recognized that language manumitting "males" or "females" would not directly apply to them.

=== South Asia (include the Ancient Tamil section) === Ardhanarishvara, an androgynous composite form of male deity Shiva and female deity Parvati, originated in Kushan culture as far back as the first century CE. A statue depicting Ardhanarishvara is included in India's Meenkashi Temple; this statue clearly shows both male and female bodily elements.

Due to the presence of intersex traits, Ardhanarishvara is associated with the hijra, a third sex category that has been accepted in South Asia for centuries. After interviewing and studying the hijra for many years, Serena Nanda writes in her book Neither Man Nor Woman: The Hijras of India, as follows: "There is a widespread belief in India that hijras are born hermaphrodites [intersex] and are taken away by the hijra community at birth or in childhood, but I found no evidence to support this belief among the hijras I met, all of whom joined the community voluntarily, often in their teens."

According to Herdt, the hijra differentiate between "born" and "made" individuals, or those who have physical intersex traits by birth and those who become hijra through penectomy, respectively. According to Indian tradition, the hijra perform a traditional song and dance as part of a family's celebration of the birth of a male child; during the performance, they also inspect the newborn's genitals to verify its sex. Herdt states that it is widely accepted that if the child is intersex, the hijra have a right to claim it as part of their community. However, Warne and Raza argue that an association between intersex and hijra people is mostly unfounded but provokes parental fear. The hijra are mentioned in some versions of the Ramayana, a Hindu epic poem from around 300 BCE, in a myth about the hero Rama instructing his devotees to return to the city Ayodhya rather than follow him across the city's adjacent river into banishment. Since he gives this instruction specifically to "all you men and women," his hijra followers, being neither, remain on the banks of the river for fourteen years until Rama returns from exile.

In the Tantric sect of Hinduism, there is a belief that all individuals possess both male and female components. This belief can be seen explicitly in the Tantric concept of a Supreme Being with both male and female sex organs, which constitutes "one complete sex" and the ideal physical form.

Mali

 * article

Additional resources

 * Geller article
 * Lang and Kuhnle article

Annotated Bibliography for work on Intersex in History
Lang, Claudia, and Ursula Kuhnle. “Intersexuality and Alternative Gender Categories in Non-Western Cultures.” Hormone Research in Paediatrics, vol. 69, no. 4, 21 Jan. 2008, pp. 240–250., doi:10.1159/000113025.

Lang, C., & Kuhnle, U. (2008, January 21). Intersexuality and Alternative Gender Categories in Non-Western Cultures. Hormone Research in Paediatrics, 69(4), 240-250. doi:10.1159/000113025


 * The article "Intersexuality and Alternative Gender Categories in Non-Western Cultures" was written by Claudia Lang, a medical anthropologist currently teaching at the University of Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, and Ursula Kuhnle, a researcher at the Center for Child and Adolescent Health in Munich, Germany. The paper is based upon a review of anthropological literature about people who live as neither men nor women in various non-Western cultures. It claims that most instances of gender variance are not due to physical disorders of sex development, but rather are a social phenomenon that appears in cultures throughout the world, using examples of variations in gender roles and sexual orientation in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Overall, this resource would be more applicable to research about gender categories in non-Western cultures rather than sex categories, but it does offer valuable information about neither-male-nor-female individuals throughout the world as a jumping-off point for further research into intersexuality.

Gesink, Indira Falk. “Intersex Bodies in Premodern Islamic Discourse: Complicating the Binary.” Journal of Middle East Womens Studies, vol. 14, no. 2, July 2018. Project MUSE, doi:10.2979/mew.2007.3.issue-2.

Gesink, I. F. (2018). Intersex Bodies in Premodern Islamic Discourse: Complicating the Binary. Journal of Middle East Womens Studies, 14(2). doi:10.2979/mew.2007.3.issue-2


 * "Intersex Bodies in Premodern Islamic Discourse: Complicating the Binary" was written by Indira Falk Gesink, a professor of history at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, Ohio. This article is based upon an analysis of Islamic medical and legal literature from the eighth century through the eighteenth century. It argues that modern scholarship unfairly applies contemporary disapproval for intersex individuals to premodern Islamic legal and medical discourse; Falk asserts that the majority of premodern Islamic experts recognized and tolerated alternate sex categories in legal and medical contexts. Throughout the article, she notes that less tolerant views did exist but were not predominant until a marked shift in the nineteenth century. This source is rich in specific historical cases involving intersexuality, so it was monumentally helpful to my research toward a contribution to the Intersex in history page.

Herdt, Gilbert H., editor. Third Sex, Third Gender: beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History. Zone Books, 2003.

Herdt, G. H. (Ed.). (2003). Third sex, third gender: Beyond sexual dimorphism in culture and history. New York: Zone Books. doi:10.1525/ae.1998.25.1.22


 * The book Third Sex, Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History, which was compiled and edited by Gilbert Herdt, is a collection of historical and anthropological writings about sex and gender variance. Herdt is a professor of human development at the University of Chicago and the director of the associated Center for Culture and Mental Health. Chapter Eight of this book, "Hijras: An Alternative Sex and Gender Role in India" was written by Serena Nanda, chair of the anthropology department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. Nanda discusses both the cultural significance of the hijra and their individual gender roles and gender identities, exploring their diversity as a group and emphasizing the role Hindu deities play in the Indian view of sex and gender. She bases this discussion on a variety of fieldwork, studies, and literature on the subject. This resource contains helpful information about the cultural phenomenon of the hijra in India, but it lacks specific historical dates; the information it contains might be better suited to a discussion of intersex and culture rather than intersex in history.

Imperato, Gavin H., and Pascal James Imperato. “Beliefs and Practices Concerning Twins, Hermaphrodites, and Albinos among the Bamana and Maninka of Mali.” Journal of Community Health, vol. 31, no. 3, 16 Mar. 2006, pp. 198–224. SpringerLink, doi:10.1007/s10900-005-9011-3.

Imperato, G. H., & Imperato, P. J. (2006, March 16). Beliefs and practices concerning twins, hermaphrodites, and albinos among the Bamana and Maninka of Mali. Journal of Community Health, 31(3), 198-224. doi:10.1007/s10900-005-9011-3


 * The article "Beliefs and Practices Concerning Twins, Hermaphrodites, and Albinos Among the Bamana and Maninka of Mali" was written by Gavin H. Imperato, a researcher who studied biology at the graduate level at New York University, and Pascal James Imperato, Distinguished Service Professor and Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health at the State University of New York. This resource was based upon anthropological literature about the cultures of Mali. The main point of this article is that the Bamana and Maninka of Mali hold certain religious and cultural beliefs about twins, which to them includes individuals with albinism and intersex individuals who are their own twin, so to speak. All of these types of individuals are associated with the god Faro, and this association affords them special treatment in Bamana and Maninka society. This article is an incredibly interesting in-depth look at the treatment of intersex individuals in the traditional culture of Mali; however, it does not include specific historical dates, which makes it difficult to include in the Intersex in history article. Furthermore, including information about Mali in my Wikipedia contribution may make it far too lengthy for the purposes of this class.

Geller, Pamela L. “Skeletal Analysis and Theoretical Complications.” World Archaeology, vol. 37, no. 4, Dec. 2005, pp. 597–609. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40025095.

Geller, P. L. (2005). Skeletal Analysis and Theoretical Complications. World Archaeology, 37(4), 597-609. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/40025095.


 * The article "Skeletal Analysis and Theoretical Complications" was written by Pamela L. Geller, a doctor of anthropology and the Visiting Assistant Professor at American University in Washington, D.C. This paper uses a variety of anthropological and archaeological literature to discuss the sexing of skeletal remains, arguing that cultural constructions of gender and sex should be given more attention in the field of skeletal analysis. Specifically, Geller uses ancient Maya burial practices to illustrate how archaeologists need to understand the fluidity of sex and gender in other cultures when investigating human remains. This article discusses intersex remains, but it does no do so in a way specific enough to a certain culture and time period for use in Wikipedia; however, I anticipate using it in my research paper in which I am allowed to connect ideas and come to my own conclusions.

Haneef, Sayed Sikandar Shah, and Mahmood Zuhdi Haji Abd Majid. “Medical Management Of Infant Intersex: The Juridico-Ethical Dilemma Of Contemporary Islamic Legal Response.” Zygon®, vol. 50, no. 4, 13 Nov. 2015, pp. 809–829., doi:10.1111/zygo.12220.

Haneef, S. S., & Abd Majid, M. Z. (2015, November 13). Medical Management Of Infant Intersex: The Juridico-Ethical Dilemma Of Contemporary Islamic Legal Response. Zygon®, 50(4), 809-829. doi:10.1111/zygo.12220


 * "Medical Management of Infant Intersex: The Juridico-Ethical Dilemma of Contemporary Islamic Legal Response" was written by Sayed Sikandar Shah Haneef and Mahmood Zuhdi Haji Abd Majid, Professors of Islamic Jurisprudence at the International Islamic University in Malaysia. These professors draw on Islamic and medical literature to debate the ethical and legal implications of performing sex assignment surgeries on intersex infants in the Islamic school of thought. Their conclusion is that the modern medical practice of sex assignment on infants does not "fix" the issue anyway, so the more tolerant classical Islamic treatment of intersex conditions is preferred; to make this claim, they discuss ancient Islamic legal and medical traditions extensively, making the article very useful to my research on intersexuality in ancient Islam. Even though the main claim applies to modern medicine, the background information contained throughout the article makes it relevant to my work.

Reddy, Gayatri. “‘Men’ Who Would Be Kings: Celibacy, Emasculation, and the Re-Production of Hijras in Contemporary Indian Politics.” Social Research, vol. 70, no. 1, 2003, pp. 163–200. EBSCO, web-a-ebscohost-com.echo.louisville.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&sid=60f173c4-b342-4160-8a96-389c18400eb2@sessionmgr4007.

Reddy, G. (2003). "Men" Who Would Be Kings: Celibacy, Emasculation, and the Re-Production of Hijras in Contemporary Indian Politics. Social Research, 70(1), 163-200. Retrieved from https://web-a-ebscohost-com.echo.louisville.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&sid=60f173c4-b342-4160-8a96-389c18400eb2@sessionmgr4007.


 * "'Men' Who Would Be Kings: Celibacy, Emasculation, and the Re-Production of Hijras in Contemporary Indian Politics" was written by Gayatri Reddy, a doctor of anthropology, field researcher, and associate professor in Anthropology and Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Reddy based this paper on her own fieldwork experience as well as a plethora of works of literature on gender, Indian culture, and the hijra. The article's main focus is on understanding the rising prominence of the hijra in Indian culture and politics in context of their history of stigmatization. Since the majority of the text focuses on contemporary issues, this article is not greatly relevant to my research beyond providing a general understanding of what it means to be hijra; however, there are certain historical pieces that are noteworthy, including the Ramayana myth about the hijra that I have included in my work.

Warne, Garry L., and Jamal Raza. “Disorders of Sex Development (DSDs), Their Presentation and Management in Different Cultures.” Reviews in Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders, vol. 9, no. 3, 17 July 2008, pp. 227–236. SpringerLink, doi:10.1007/s11154-008-9084-2.

Warne, G. L., & Raza, J. (2008). Disorders of sex development (DSDs), their presentation and management in different cultures. Reviews in Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders, 9(3), 227-236. doi:10.1007/s11154-008-9084-2


 * "Disorders of sex development (DSDs), their presentation and management in different cultures" is an article written by Garry L. Warne, Professor and Director of the Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes at the Royal Children's Hospital in Australia, and Jamal Raza, doctor, Professor, and Director of the Department of Paediatrics at the National Institute of Child Health in Pakistan. This paper uses a variety of medical literature as its basis in advocating for improved care for intersex patients worldwide. Specifically, Warne and Raza propose a framework for improving cultural and medical treatment of patients with disorders of sex development though education, counseling, and a variety of medical interventions and practices. Included in this proposed framework are references to the way intersex conditions are viewed and treated in various cultures. This article is focused more on intersex medicine than intersex history, but this perspective is useful in discussions of intersex treatment in different cultures and in creating a more balanced piece of encyclopedic literature.