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With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India (Worlds of Desire: The Chicago Series on Sexuality, Gender, and Culture) 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

by Gayatri Reddy (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 13 ratings
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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, Gayatri 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 among 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 the study of gender and sexuality.
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  1. ISBN-13
    978-0226707563
  2. Edition
    1st
  3. Sticky notes
    Not Enabled
  4. Publisher
    University of Chicago Press
  5. Publication date
    May 15, 2010
  6. Part of series
    Worlds of Desire: The Chicago Series on Sexuality, Gender, and Culture
  7. Language
    English
  8. File size
    3234 KB
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book is an important and significant one. Not only does it add to the field of academic accounts of the hijira and anthropology, but it contributes to gender and sexuality studies." -- Shane Gannon ― Journal of the History of Sexuality

From the Inside Flap

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.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B003QHZ3KG
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Chicago Press; 1st edition (May 15, 2010)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 15, 2010
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3234 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Not enabled
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 310 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 13 ratings

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Gayatri Reddy

Gayatri Reddy

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Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
13 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Benjamin E. Murphy
4.0 out of 5 stars Useful, but not the definitive guide
Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2015
Verified Purchase
I teach a class on Gender and Religion, and for several years I've had a unit on hijras, and the book I've used in Serena Nanda's Neither Man Nor Woman. Now, I'm considering switching to this book.

Neither Man Nor Woman presents hijras as an example of a third gender, and it includes potted biographies of several hijras. It is very accessible: a good introductory book. Gayatri Reddy is determined to contribute something new to the discussion of hijras. Consequently, there's a lot of discussion about theories of gender, some of which might be heavy going for students. Those sections are really aimed at fellow anthropologists and theorists. Reddy does not describe the ceremony of castration in great detail because that has already been done by Serena Nanda. However, her determination to present hijras as more than just an example of a third gender does have its benefits. Not only are hijras neither men nor women, they are both Muslims and Hindus. They are Hindus in so far as they worship a Hindu Goddess, Bedhraj Mata (or Bahuchara Mata), but they frequently make the claim that "We are all Muslims", seeing castration as an extreme form of circumcision, a mark of Muslim identity. Reddy devotes more attention to this apparent paradox than Nanda does. Since my class is specifically about Gender and Religion, not just Gender Theory, this might be a more useful book.

I cannot agree with the publisher that this is the definitive book on hijras, and I think that Serena Nanda's book is still the best introductory text. But it is still a useful addition to the literature.
6 people found this helpful
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Halbe Family
2.0 out of 5 stars Class assignment
Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2010
Verified Purchase
I had to read this for class. It was a mostly painful experience of thinking abstractly about the "third gender". As far as gender studies go, which I have very little interest on the academic level, I can image worse books. This book at least has narrative portions. Excluding chapter 1 it is actually readable. the idea of respect or "izzat"as being a primary consideration animating life for the Hijra is interesting. But as far as the foundations of Reddy's ideas, it's mostly the post modern babble students today are used to.... Ie gender is an essentially unknowable matter of performance and desire rather than a unchangeable reality of the self.
5 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Alex
2.0 out of 5 stars I hate the way the author writes
Reviewed in India on September 8, 2015
Verified Purchase
I hate the way the author writes, it's very dry and academic and not very accessible by the reader (unless one is an academic doing research). It's very convoluted, confusing, punctuated by too many references, and doesn't present the information in a clear and concise way.

A much better book on the subject is Neither Man Nor Woman by Serena Nanda which is very well written, interesting, and accessible by the layperson.
2 people found this helpful
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