By Independent Lens • August 12, 2015
PBS - A Map of Gender-Diverse Cultures

This text and the language in the corresponding map (below) was updated in consultation with a world gender expert* in October, 2023.

NOTE to teachers and students: Some school or corporate domains block custom Google Maps so you may need to log in under a different or personal email address to see the map.

Throughout recorded history and since time immemorial, thriving cultures have recognized, revered, and integrated more than two genders. Terms such as transgender, gay, or bisexual are Western constructs that often assume three things: that there are only two sexes (male/female), as many as three sexualities (gay/straight/bisexual), and only two genders (man/woman).

Even after the end of the modern era and as the colonial period wanes, hundreds of distinct Indigenous societies around the globe still retain their own long-established traditions for third, fourth, fifth, or more genders. The subject of Two Spirits, Fred Martinez, for example, was not a boy who wanted to be a girl, but both a boy and a girl—an identity his Navajo culture recognized and revered as nádleehí. Meanwhile, Hina of Kumu Hina is part of a native Hawaiian culture that has traditionally revered and respected mahu, those who embody both male and female spirit. It’s not uncommon for third gender people to perform critical spiritual and religious functions in their communities.

Among many Indigenous societies, two prominent features often distinguish the lives and social roles of third gender persons from those of cisgender persons or contemporary transgender persons in non-Indigenous societies. The first is that many Indigenous terms for third gender people contain both the word for “man” and “woman” in their construction, and that third gender people are seen as embodying both of those genders in diverse ways. The second is that the history of many third genders is in the community role of religious specialists, which also takes diverse forms, depending on the beliefs of diverse cultures. While not all third gender persons are defined in these terms, across our species, this phenomenon of the third gender religious specialist, healer, or spiritual worker has been part of our collective identity and human experience since time immemorial.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, we’ve seen tremendous expansion of the role that transgender, gender diverse, and third gender people have in society, following the tenuous establishment of civil rights for gay and lesbian people in many nations and increased access to gender-affirming care in the transgender community. Many Indigenous transgender people who also identify as third gender are familiar to large audiences via their participation in popular media or social media activism. Third gender people, like the Japanese-Samoan, fa’afafine artist Yuki Kihara, now participate in major global cultural events and function not just as representatives of their gender-based community, but of their nation. Kihara had both a solo exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and represented New Zealand at the 2021 Venice Biennale. [For more: “LGBTQIA+ Pride and Two-Spirit People” in Smithsonian Voices.]

In the 21st century, many third gender people choose to take advantage of gender-affirming care, and identify, in addition to being third gender, as transgender. As access to gender-affirming care parallels healthcare access, and both third gender and Indigenous persons are often marginalized economically, it is not as readily available to many Indigenous transgender people, and within Indigenous cultures, medical transition is often seen as separate or secondary to social transition.

Within Western societies, despite centuries of suppression, there are still traces of a past when third or fourth or more genders were recognized within many cultures and societies. In rare cases, they presently exist. An example of this would be the burrnesha of Albania, women who give up their social role as women to live as men. Likewise, within Jewish culture and law, as many as eight genders have been historically recognized, and in diverse ways.

Take a tour with this world map, and learn how many cultures see gender diversity.

*Note: The 2023 update for this text and the map was made in consultation with Badly Licked Bear, an educator, writer, artist, and mutual aid worker. They are a storyteller who teaches storytelling by storytelling and they tell circle-shaped stories. Their work is rooted in shifting identity, Looney Tunes, BDSM, deep observation, and their lived experience as an Indigiqueer transfemme.

Explore the map

*Some school or corporate domains block custom Google Maps so you may need to log in under a different or personal e-mail address to see the map.