trans genders in indigenous south american communities

[NRT]

has this been discussed before? i heard in some indigenous communities they have trans women or T girls living as part of the culture without any contact from the west . anyone have more info? i was told they are not in Brazil but in other countries, maybe Bolivia, Peru Colombia

[Fitzcarraldo]

Where did you hear that?

[Stavros]

Not sure if these ideas existed before contact with 'moderns' -but here are two contrasting views

The Gender Fluid Tribes of the Colombian Amazon - Transgender World (trans-express.lgbt)

Brazilian Anthropologists Say Killing Twin, Disabled, or Transgender Children (Even When Their Parents Object) Ought to Be Tolerated, So Long as the Perpetrators are from One of Those ... Er ... Unassimilated Indigenous Tribes (reason.com)

(Volokh Conspiracy has some articles of dubious reasoning, so treat with caution).

[Imatwork]

My wife's family are from Ecuador and live just outside Quito in San Rafael.They also have an apartment in Tonsupa on the Esmeraldas,which is on the Pacific Coast.I went there in 2010,just myself and my 10 month old daughter so they could meet her for the first time,I have Spanish at the 'get by' level. So we stayed for a couple of weeks at the San Rafael home then went to the beach for a couple of weeks to the apartment.
Tonsupa beach is about a kilometer on a curve and the tourists mainly keep to the Northern end while the locals go to the Southern to obviously enjoy themselves but also to do a bit of Trade for people to purchase, Empanadas,BBQ,San Coche etc.So myself daughter and her family end up at the Locals end and her Dad knew one family amongst many that were preparing Cuye BBQ .This family was Mum Dad a Son maybe 10 or so and a Daughter about 20 or so who was trans and I would say on hormones. The arms and Adams apple was the give away, but tall,noticeable natural breasts and your typical South American bum,long dark hair and extremely attractive. My wife's Dad obviously saw me looking at her and told me that they now lived there in Tonsupa. He told me they were Indigenous from Otovalo in the Andean foothills and that the daughter was Chico (Boy) Linda (Pretty feminine tense) and everyone knew her in the community and she entered beauty contests and did modelling with no problems at all.
The Otovalan women still wear traditional clothes frequently consisting of croquet tops,long skirts and Trilby Hats and they almost always are to be found smoking a pipe of the Swiss curved ornate type.
Anyway the daughter was just drop dead gorgeous and trans and happy with her lot as it seemed to me.
The Cuye (Giant BBQ hamster) was delicious.
Mel B went on holiday there one year and was photographed on the Northern End of the beach near our apartment, you can find those on Google, as you would.

[Luke Warm]

Native American tribes here sometimes had “two spirit” members. This was hundreds of years ago, before Europeans landed here (and certainly before mass media influences, obviously). In some cases, Two Spirit people were exalted as having super-natural insights because they could exist simultaneously in two different realms (masculine earth and feminine sky, I think?) In some cases they were the tribe healers or shaman.