Editing Third gender (section)

===Pre-Columbian Americas===
====Mesoamerica====
The ancient [[Maya civilization]] may have recognised a third gender, according to historian Matthew Looper. Looper notes the androgynous Maize Deity and masculine [[Lunar deity|Moon goddess]] of [[Maya mythology]], and iconography and inscriptions where rulers embody or impersonate these deities. He suggests that a Mayan third gender might also have included individuals with special roles such as healers or [[divination|diviners]].<ref>Looper, Matthew G. (2001). ''Ancient Maya Women-Men (and Men-Women): Classic Rulers and the Third Gender'', In: "Ancient Maya Women", ed. Traci Ardren. Walnut Creek, California: Alta Mira, 2001.</ref>

Anthropologist and archaeologist Miranda Stockett notes that several writers have felt the need to move beyond a two-gender framework when discussing prehispanic cultures across [[mesoamerica]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stockett |first=M. K. |year=2005 |title=On the Importance of Difference: Re-Envisioning Sex and Gender in Ancient Mesoamerica |journal=World Archaeology |volume=37 |issue=4 |pages=566–578 |doi=10.1080/00438240500404375 |jstor=40025092 |s2cid=144168812}}<br />In addition to Looper (above) and Joyce (below), Stockett cites:<br />Geller, P. (2004). ''Skeletal analysis and theoretical complications.'' Paper presented at Que(e)rying Archaeology: The Fifteenth Anniversary Gender Conference, Chacmool Archaeology Conference, University of Calgary, Calgary.<br />{{Cite journal |last=Joyce |first=R. A. |year=1998 |title=Performing the Body in Pre-Hispanic Central America |journal=RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics |volume=33 |issue=33 |pages=147–165 |doi=10.1086/RESv33n1ms20167006 |jstor=20167006 |s2cid=165021067}}
<br />Lopez-Austin, A. (1988). ''The Human Body and Ideology: Concepts of Ancient Nahuas'' (trans T.O. de Montellano and B.O. de Montellano). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.</ref> and concludes that the [[Olmec]], [[Aztec]] and [[Maya peoples]] understood "more than two kinds of bodies and more than two kinds of gender." Anthropologist Rosemary Joyce agrees, writing that "gender was a fluid potential, not a fixed category before the Spaniards came to Mesoamerica. Childhood training and ritual shaped, but did not set, adult gender, which could encompass third genders and alternative sexualities as well as "male" and "female." At the height of the Classic period, Maya rulers presented themselves as embodying the entire range of gender possibilities, from the male through the female, by wearing blended costumes and playing male and female roles in state ceremonies." Joyce notes that many figures of Mesoamerican art are depicted with male genitalia and female breasts, while she suggests that other figures in which chests and waists are exposed but no sexual characteristics (primary or secondary) are marked may represent a third sex, ambiguous gender, or androgyny.<ref>Joyce, Rosemary A. (2000). ''Gender and Power in Prehispanic Mesoamerica.'' Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. {{ISBN|978-0-292-74065-5}}</ref>

====Inca====
Andean Studies scholar Michael Horswell writes that third-gendered ritual attendants to ''chuqui chinchay'', a [[jaguar]] deity in [[Incan mythology]], were "vital actors in Andean ceremonies" prior to [[Spanish Empire|Spanish colonisation]]. Horswell elaborates: "These ''quariwarmi'' (men-women) [[shaman]]s mediated between the symmetrically dualistic spheres of Andean cosmology and daily life by performing rituals that at times required same-sex erotic practices. Their transvested attire served as a visible sign of a third space that negotiated between the masculine and the feminine, the present and the past, the living and the dead. Their shamanic presence invoked the androgynous creative force often represented in Andean mythology."<ref>Horswell, Michael J. (2006). ''Transculturating Tropes of Sexuality, ''Tinkuy'', and Third Gender in the Andes'', introduction to "Decolonizing the Sodomite: Queer Tropes of Sexuality in Colonial Andean Culture". {{ISBN|0-292-71267-7}}. [http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/excerpts/exhordec.html Article online].</ref> [[Richard Trexler]] gives an early Spanish account of religious 'third gender' figures from the [[Inca empire]] in his 1995 book "Sex and Conquest":

{{blockquote|And in each important temple or house of worship, they have a man or two, or more, depending on the idol, who go dressed in women's attire from the time they are children, and speak like them, and in manner, dress, and everything else they imitate women. With them especially the chiefs and headmen have carnal, foul intercourse on feast days and holidays, almost like a religious rite and ceremony.<ref>Trexler, Richard C. (1995). ''Sex and Conquest.'' Cornell University Press: Ithaca. p. 107</ref>}}

====Indigenous North Americans====
With over 500 surviving [[Indigenous North American]] cultures, attitudes about sex and gender are diverse. Historically, some communities have had social or spiritual roles for [[Two-spirit#Traditional Indigenous terms|people]] who in some way may manifest a third-gender, or another gender-variant way of being, at least some of the time, by their particular culture's standards. Some of these ways continue today, while others have died out due to colonialism. Some communities and individuals have adopted the pan-Indian neologism [[Two-spirit]] as a way of honoring contemporary figures and organizing intertribally.<ref name="de Vries 2009" /><ref name=Pember/><ref name=Kehoe/>

==== Inuit ====
[[Inuit religion]] states that one of the first [[angakkuq]] was a third gender being known as Itijjuaq who discovered the first [[amulet]].<ref name="inuit-third-gender">{{Cite journal |last=D'Anglure |first=Bernard |date=November 2005 |title=The 'Third Gender' of the Inuit |journal=Diogenes |volume=52 |issue=4 |page=138 <!-- |pages=134-144 --> |doi=10.1177/0392192105059478 |s2cid=145220849}}</ref>

Historically, [[Inuit]] in areas of the [[Northern Canada|Canadian Arctic]], such as [[Igloolik]] and [[Nunavik]], had a third gender concept called ''[[sipiniq]]'' ({{Langx|iu|ᓯᐱᓂᖅ}}).<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Issenman |first=Betty Kobayashi |title=Sinews of Survival: the Living Legacy of Inuit Clothing |publisher=UBC Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-7748-5641-6 |location=Vancouver |pages=214 |oclc=923445644}}</ref> A ''sipiniq'' infant was believed to have changed their physical sex from male to female at the moment of birth.<ref name=":10">{{Cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Eric Alden |last2=Smith |first2=S. Abigail |last3=Anderson |first3=Judith |last4=Mulder |first4=Monique Borgerhoff |last5=Burch |first5=Ernest S. |last6=Damas |first6=David |last7=Graburn |first7=Nelson H. H. |last8=Remie |first8=Cornelius H. W. |last9=Roth |first9=Eric Abella |last10=Wenzel |first10=George W. |display-authors=2 |date=1994 |title=Inuit Sex-Ratio Variation: Population Control, Ethnographic Error, or Parental Manipulation? [and Comments and Reply] |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2744084 |journal=Current Anthropology |volume=35 |issue=5 |pages=617 |doi=10.1086/204319 |issn=0011-3204 |jstor=2744084 |s2cid=143679341}}</ref> ''Sipiniq'' children were regarded as socially male, and would be named after a male relative, perform a male's tasks, and would wear [[Inuit clothing|traditional clothing]] tailored for men's tasks. This generally lasted until puberty, but in some cases continued into adulthood and even after the ''sipiniq'' person married a man.<ref name=":112">{{Cite book |last=Stern |first=Pamela R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cngl1Ho6uFwC&q=sipiniit&pg=PA12 |title=Daily Life of the Inuit |date=16 June 2010 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0-313-36312-2 |pages=11–12 |language=en}}</ref> The [[Netsilik Inuit]] used the word ''kipijuituq'' for a similar concept.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Walley |first=Meghan |date=2018 |title=Exploring Potential Archaeological Expressions of Nonbinary Gender in Pre-Contact Inuit Contexts |journal=Études/Inuit/Studies |volume=42 |issue=1 |pages=269–289 |doi=10.7202/1064504ar |issn=0701-1008 |jstor=26775769|s2cid=204473441 |doi-access=free }}</ref>