In January 2016, I had the opportunity to go to India with a group of fellow students. While we were there, we researched a topic of our choice. During an overnight train trip, I saw women begging on the train, and as told that they were transgender women called hijras. I chose non-binary gender as my topic, and soon learned the term third nature. The Sanskrit words tritiya-prakriti (third nature) refer to people who cannot be categorised as men or women. Vedic texts further classify these people into categories such as shanda, male-to-female transgender people, and stripmusa, female-to-male transgender people (Wilhelm, 2008).
Smith, Victor
Supervisors: Matsunaga, L
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Year: 2016
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