in Native Hawaiian and Tahitian cultures are people who embody both male and female spirit. They have traditional spiritual and social roles within the culture, similar to Tongan and Samoan . The terms “third gender” and “in the middle” have been used to help explain māhū in the English language.
According to present-day kumu hula Kaua'i Iki:Kaua'i Iki, quoted by Andrew Matzner in 'Transgender, queens, mahu, whatever': An Oral History from Hawai'i. Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context Issue 6, August 2001
Historically, was a respectful term for people, but with colonization the word was denigrated and used as an insult to refer to homosexuals. More recently, there has been an effort to recapture the original dignity and respect accorded the term māhū.
History In the pre-colonial history of Hawai'i, were notable healers, although much of this history was elided through the intervention of Christian missionaries. According to Joan Roughgarden, the lacked access to political power, were unable to aspire to leadership roles, and "Perceived as always available for sexual conquest by men." The first published description of occurs in Captain William Bligh's logbook of the Bounty, which stopped in Tahiti in 1789, where he was introduced to a member of a "class of people very common in Otaheitie called Mahoo... who although I was certain was a man, had great marks of effeminacy about him."William Bligh. Bounty Logbook. Thursday, 15 January 1789.
A surviving monument to this history is the Healer Stones of Kapaemāhū on Waikiki Beach, which commemorate four important who first brought the healing arts from Tahiti to Hawaiʻi.James Boyd. Traditions of the Wizard Stones Ka-Pae-Mahu. 1907. Hawaiian Almanac and Annual. These are referred to by Hawaiian historian Mary Kawena Pukui as , or literally a row of .Mary Kawena Pukui. Place Names of Hawaii, 2nd Ed. 1974. University of Hawaii Press. The term is misleadingly defined in Pukui and Ebert's Hawaiian dictionary as "n. Homosexual, of either sex; hermaphrodite."Mary Kawena Pukui, Samuael H Ebert. Hawaiian Dictionary. 1986. University of Hawaii Press. The assumption of same-sex behavior reflects the conflation of gender and sexuality that was common at that time.The term "transgender" was not in use yet during the time the earliest sources were written, and has undergone significant changes in definition over time. While technically coined in the 1960s, the term transgender was rarely published until the 1990s and did not see wide usage until the 2000s. The idea that are biological mosaics appears to be a misunderstanding of the term hermaphrodite (now known as intersex), which in early publications by sexologists and anthropologists was used generally to mean "an individual which has the attributes of both male and female;" this led to homosexual, bisexual, and gender nonconforming individuals being mislabeled as "hermaphrodites" in the medical literature.Webster's International Dictionary of the English Language. 1890. Merriam Company. The history of Kapaemahu was revived through an animated film, a picture book, and a museum exhibition at the Bishop Museum.
In 1891, when painter Paul Gauguin first came to Tahiti, he was thought to be a by the indigenous people, due to his flamboyant manner of dress during that time. His 1893 painting Papa Moe (Mysterious Water) depicts a drinking from a small waterfall.Stephen F. Eisenman. Gauguin's Skirt. 1997.
Missionaries to Hawai'i introduced biblical laws to the islands in the 1820s; under their influence, Hawai'i's first anti-sodomy law was passed in 1850. These laws led to the social stigmatization of the in Hawai'i. Beginning in the mid-1960s, the Honolulu City Council required trans women to wear a badge identifying themselves as male.
In American artist George Biddle's Tahitian Journal (1920–1922) he writes about several friends in Tahiti, of their role in native Tahitian society, and of the persecution of a friend Naipu, who fled Tahiti due to colonial French laws that sent and homosexuals to hard labor in prison in New Caledonia. Rae rae is a social category of that came into use in Tahiti in the 1960s, although it is criticized by some as an abject reference to sex.
In contemporary cultures
In the 1980s, and fa'afafine of Samoa began organizing, as . In 2021, a group of Kānaka Maoli formed a subgroup of the Hawaiʻi LGBT Legacy Foundation called the māhūi that developed a ceremony to open Honolulu Pride month at the Kapaemahu monument in Waikīkī, now repeated every October.
In 2003, the term mahuwahine was coined within Hawaii's queer community: (in the middle) + wahine (woman), the structure of the word is similar to Samoan fa'a (the way of) + fafine (woman/wife). The term mahuwahine resembles a transgender identity that coincides with Hawaiian cultural renaissance. The corresponding term is mahukane (māhū + kane (man)). However, in contemporary usage, māhū is used for all genders.
Notable contemporary , or mahuwahine, include activist and kumu hula Hinaleimoana Kwai Kong Wong-Kalu, kumu hula Kaumakaiwa Kanaka'ole, and kumu hula Kaua'i Iki; and within the wider LGBTQ+ community, historian Noenoe Silva, activist Ku‘u-mealoha Gomes, singer and painter Bobby Holcomb, and singer Kealii Reichel.
In many traditional communities, play an important role in carrying on Polynesian culture, and teaching "the balance of female and male throughout creation". Modern carry on traditions of connection to the land, language preservation, and the preservation and revival of cultural activities including traditional dances, songs, and the methods of playing culturally-specific musical instruments. Symbolic tattooing is also a popular practice. Modern do not alter their bodies through what others would consider gender reassignment surgery, but, just as any person in Hawaiian/Tahitian society, dress differently for work, home, and nights out.
Strong familial relationships are important in culture, as kinship bonds within all of Hawaiian/Tahitian cultures are essential to family survival. When possible, the maintain solid relationships with their families of origin, often by becoming foster parents to nieces and nephews, and have been noted for being especially "compassionate and creative". This ability to bring up children is considered a special skill specific to people. also contribute to their extended families and communities through the gathering and maintaining of knowledge, and the practicing and teaching of hula traditions, which are traditionally handed down through women.
In situations where they have been rejected by their families of origin, due to homophobia and colonization, have formed their own communities, supporting one another, and preserving and teaching cultural traditions to the next generations. In the documentary Kumu Hina, Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu visits one of these communities of elders up in the mountains, and meets with some of the who were her teachers and chosen family when she was young.
See also Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu – contemporary , teacher and Hawaiian cultural worker Kumu Hina (2014) – documentary film about Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu Kapaemahu - cultural monument in Hawaiʻi LGBT rights in Hawaii Rae-rae Fa’afafine, similar group in Samoa and American Samoa Bakla, similar third gender concept in the Philippines Bissu, similar third gender concept among the Bugis people of Indonesia Two-spirit, a pan-Indigenous umbrella term for all traditional Native American identities that do not fit into the Western gender binary or heterosexual roles
Footnotes
References and sources
Eisenman, Stephen F., (1999). Gauguin's Skirt. London: Thames and Hudson. . Matzner, Andrew (2001). O Au No Keia: Voices from Hawai'i's Mahu and Transgender Communities
External links Kumu Hina: A Place in the Middle – a -oriented website. "Coming Out & Overcoming – A Visit With Hinaleimoana Wong" – interview with Hinaleimoana Wong, by Ehu Kekahu Cardwell, from Voices of Truth documentary program by the Koani Foundation "The Beautiful Way Hawaiian Culture Embraces a Particular Kind of Transgender Identity" – short "Queer Voices" column on the topic in The Huffington Post