2. Michael G. Peletz Has a PhD in Anthropology and is currently a professor at Emory University His teaching and research interests focus on social and cultural theory; gender and sexual diversity; law, discipline, and disorder; and the cultural politics of religion Peletzhas done extensive fieldwork in Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries He has published several works on these topics
3. Peletz’sPurpose for the Article “This article develops the concept of “gender pluralism” to analyze historical and ethnographic material bearing on Southeast Asia since early modern times.”-Peletz (p.309) The overall goal for Peletz was to help analyze modern gender pluralism in Southeast Asia by bring particular attention to the practices, roles and identities of transgendered individuals. The author is trying to bring light to the cultural politics of sexual diversity opposed to the struggles and aspirations of these individuals as much research has already done.
4. Key Terms: Gender Pluralism Gender Pluralism is defined as the pluralistic sensibilities and dispositions regarding bodily practices (adornment, attire, mannerisms) and embodied desires, as well as social roles, sexual relationships and ways of being that bear on or are otherwise linked with local conceptions of femminity, masculinity, androgyny, etc.
5. Key Terms: Transgenderism Fits under the umbrella of Gender Pluralism In the popular lingo used today, “transgendered” people is an umbrella term used for those with various forms and degrees of crossgender practices and identifications. The categories are not hermetically sealed and to a certain extent the boundaries are permeable.
6. Transgenderism in Southeast Asia Background: during the modern era and many centuries prior, the religious traditions throughout Southeast Asia were profoundly dualistic with male and female elements both needing to be present to give power and effect. Female gods of the underworld, of the earth or crops and the moon balanced the male gods of the upper world, the sky, iron and the sun. Women were seen to have many religious powers that man could not match
7. Transgenderism in Southeast Aisa This importance of the female gods gave ignoramus prestige in many Southasian communities for those who to male-bodied individuals who dressed in female attire while performing certain rituals These men and women who performed in these rituals were seen as sacred mediators between males and females and between the spheres of humans and the domains of spirits and nature
8. The Bissu a well known class of ritual specialists among the Bugis of south Sulawesi are the Bissu The male-bodied Bissu assumed female attire and other accoutrements of femininity, safeguard royal regalia and the sacred “white blood” of ruling families, engaged in sexual relations and marriage with same-sex partners and were accorded the status of nobility
9. Sida-Sida A less well known example of ritual specialists from the Malay Peninsula The Sida-Sida are known to engage in androgynous behavior The resided in the inner chambers of palaces this could be to safeguard the women of the palaces or another possible explaination was that the Sida-Sida were entrusted with the sacred regalia and the preservation of the ruler’s spiritual powers or potency, hence the well bing of the body politic and the cosmos as a whole
10. Transgenderismin Southeast Asia It was a belief that transcended male-female duality helped structure and animate the universe It is no small matter in many of the cosmologies of the region important spirits and deities were depicted as exhibiting various degrees of androgyny or as existing in male-female pairs. All things being equal things being equal, then, ritual specialists exhibiting androgyny were ideally situated both to communicate and successfully negotiate with these spirits and deities and to personify them. These views would soon be subject to change in the second half of the Early Modern Period
11. Transformation and Reproduction since the Second Half of the Early Modern Period The second half of this period went through dramatic changes associated with dialectically related processes like the intensification of commerce, state building, and territorial consolidation conductive to political systems that were more centralized and bureaucratic This change was due to the western invasion The new change made no room for the public ritual centrality of women or the transgendered-leading to declines of prestige and legitimacy
12. The Western Effects on the Bissu The mostly male bodiedBissu claim to heavenly beings as mystical spouses in addition to more earth-bound same-sex spouses but also the decent from the gods and the status of divinity were seen as a threat to the new foundations of the community This threat lead to huge discredit of the Bissuand the expel of the them from their jurisdictions They also deprived the Bissu of their royal patrons and duties guarding royal regalia and enhancing the sacred potency of the local rulers This is not to suggest that the Bissuhave completely disappeared but have been delegitimized and radically transformed
