With respect to sex : negotiating hijra identity in South India / Gayatri Reddy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Reddy, Gayatri.

Series:

Worlds of desire

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Trans people--India, South.

Trans people.

Transness--Religious aspects--Islam.

Transness.

Transsexualism--Religious aspects--Islam.

Sex role--India, South.

Sex role.

Sex differences--Indian, South.

Sex differences.

Sex role--Religious aspects--Islam.

Gender identity--India, South.

Gender identity.

Islam and culture--India, South.

Islam and culture.

Cross-dressing--Religious aspects--Islam.

Cross-dressing.

Prostitution--India, South.

Prostitution.

Transsexuals.

Hyderabad (India)--Social life and customs.

Hyderabad (India).

Secunderābād (India)--Social life and customs.

Secunderābād (India).

South India.

Physical Description:

xi, 310 pages : illustrations, map ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2005.

Summary:

With Respect to Sex is an intimate ethnography that offers a provocative account of sexual and social difference in India. The subjects of this study are hijras or the "third sex" of India, individuals who occupy a unique, liminal space between male and female, sacred and profane. Hijras are men who sacrifice their genitalia to a goddess in return for the power to confer fertility on newlyweds and newborn children, a ritual role they are respected for, at the same time as they are stigmatized for their ambiguous sexuality. By focusing on the hijra community, Reddy sheds new light on Indian society and the intricate negotiations of identity across various domains of everyday life. Further, by reframing hijra identity through the local economy of respect, this ethnography highlights the complex relationships between local and global, sexual and moral, economies.

This book will be regarded as the definitive work on hijras, one that will be of enormous interest to anthropologists, students of South Asian culture, and specialists in gender, queer, and sexuality studies.

Contents:

The ethnographic setting

Hijras, individuality, and izzat

Cartographies of sex/gender

Sacred legitimization, corporeal practice : Hindu iconography and hijra renunciation

"We are all Musalmans now" : religious practice, positionality, and hijra/Muslim identification

(Per)formative selves : the production of gender

"Our people" : kinship, marriage, and the family

Shifting contexts, fluid identities

Crossing "lines" of subjectivity : transnational movements and gay identifications

Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [273]-297) and index.

ISBN:

0226707555

0226707563

OCLC:

55887296

Online:

Publisher description