num_pages: 310
description: 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.
language: English
title: With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India
titlecomplete: With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India
genres: LGBT, Feminism, Gender Studies, India, Gender, Ethnography, Nonfiction, Academic, Queer, Anthropology
ratings_count: 149
publisher: University of Chicago Press