Title: Third gender - Wikipedia
Headings: Third gender
Third gender
Contents
Sex and gender
Intersex people and third gender
Transgender people and third gender
Third gender and sexual orientation
Third gender and feminism
Legal recognition
Modern societies without legal recognition
Africa
Asia-Pacific
Europe
Latin America and the Caribbean
Middle East
North American indigenous cultures
History
Mesopotamia
Egypt
Indic culture
Mediterranean culture
Israel
The Americas
Mesoamerica
Inca
Indigenous North Americans
Inuit culture
Art and literature
Spirituality
See also
References
Further reading

Content: While mainstream western scholars—notably anthropologists who have tried to write about the South Asian hijras or the Native American "gender variant" and two-spirit people—have often sought to understand the term "third gender" solely in the language of the modern LGBT community, other scholars—especially Indigenous scholars—stress that mainstream scholars' lack of cultural understanding and context has led to widespread misrepresentation of third gender people, as well as misrepresentations of the cultures in question, including whether or not this concept actually applies to these cultures at all. Contents
1 Sex and gender
1.1 Intersex people and third gender
1.2 Transgender people and third gender
1.3 Third gender and sexual orientation
1.4 Third gender and feminism
2 Legal recognition
3 Modern societies without legal recognition
3.1 Africa
3.2 Asia-Pacific
3.3 Europe
3.4 Latin America and the Caribbean
3.5 Middle East
3.6 North American indigenous cultures
4 History
4.1 Mesopotamia
4.2 Egypt
4.3 Indic culture
4.4 Mediterranean culture
4.5 Israel
4.6 The Americas
4.6.1 Mesoamerica
4.6.2 Inca
4.6.3 Indigenous North Americans
4.7 Inuit culture
5 Art and literature
6 Spirituality
7 See also
8 References
9 Further reading
Sex and gender
World map of nonbinary gender recognition
Main article: Legal recognition of non-binary gender
Since at least the 1970s, anthropologists have described gender categories in some cultures which they could not adequately explain using a two-gender framework. At the same time, feminists began to draw a distinction between (biological) sex and (social/psychological) gender . Anthropologist Michael G. Peletz believes our notions of different types of genders (including the attitudes toward the third gender) deeply affect our lives and reflects our values in society. In Peletz' book, "Gender, Sexuality, and Body Politics in Modern Asia", he describes: For our purposes, the term "gender" designates the cultural categories, symbols, meanings, practices, and institutionalized arrangements bearing on at least five sets of phenomena: ( 1) females and femininity; ( 2) males and masculinity; ( 3) Androgynes, who are partly male and partly female in appearance or of indeterminate sex/gender, as well as intersexed individuals, also known as hermaphrodites, who to one or another degree may have both male and female sexual organs or characteristics; (