Blog #1: Culture and Identity

You might be interested to know that in Samoa there is a "socially acceptable" group of men who dress and act like women, so much so it is sometimes almost impossible to pick them out. That being the case, there even is a "male" perspective of what beauty is from men who dress and act like women. They are REALLY good at it. Getting their perspective would be quite interesting I would think. These people are called fafafine. The word for woman is fafine, and the preceding fa in front of it means "like." So the word fafafine means like a woman.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g60665-i4093-k287869-Female_Beauty_in_Samoa-American_Samoa.html


Please read pages 256-260 from the following site:
http://books.google.com/books?id=AfP70eIcggQC&pg=PA152&dq=spirit+and+flesh:+sexual+identity+among+american+indians&sig=-xyqDhWgX7KGArzQRlgqGLIoBnA#PPA256,M1


Culture & Identity
The sexual identity in cultures (other than the Anglo-Saxon) is very multifaceted and heterogeneous. In American Indian culture, as the reading states, the homosexual or effeminate man is called a Berdache. Unlike the cultural revulsion we immediately feel towards these ‘transvestites’, the cultural norms within their society feel that homosexuality is completely normal, if not a gift. And the American Indian culture is in no way the only one.

Samoa has men that identify themselves as being women, called Fafafine as the statement above explains. In the Philippines and Tahiti these men are called Winkta, or spirit, because their inner spirit identifies them as a woman. The Hijra of India is very androgynous, but still engages in homosexual relations with no sense of disgust or shame. In all these examples of these alternative sexual identities, they incite no disfavor, disgust, or disrespect among their peers. They are treated with indifference to their ways of life, and are even considered with great reverence depending on the social structure.

I find these deviations (not deviants) from western acceptance of homosexuality very fascinating. If homosexuality has been an accepted and known aspect of civilization even in Greco-Roman times, why is homosexuality seen as being such a horrible, and unacceptable aspect of our own culture? Can this western distaste and hatred for homosexuality be entirely pinned on religion, specifically the Christian/Catholic influences? Not to persecute western religion, but how do these societal norms develop, and to such a degree that homosexuality while apparently a natural occurrence in nature, becomes an abhorrent thing to even consider in a person?

As our book Among Cultures says,
“First, studying intercultural relationships increases the knowledge and understanding we have of our world. As we come to know that there are other ways to look at what we thought was obvious, we can learn new ways to deal with old problems. Knowledge of these different perspectives gives us a broader view of our own lives and the problems we face. On the other hand, ignoring or hiding from our differences and avoiding interactions with those different from ourselves creates a comfortable but confining cage that limits our own growth and forebodes further problems in the future. It is my hope that this text functions as a key to unlock any cultural cages in which we may be trapped”. (Hall,Pg.s 21-22)

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