Abstract
ABSTRACT Waria (better known as banci or béncong), who can be provisionally defined as male-to-female transvestites, are wellknown members of contemporary Indonesian society. Waria are best understood not as a third gender but a male femininity. By exploring how waria reconfigure concepts of authenticity, I address the relationship between the waria subject position and Indonesian national culture.
Highlights
Geertz 1983:68), I use ethnographic material on waria to reflect on Western theoretical debates. This bringing together of theory and ethnography is of particular importance given that the study of transgenderism, like lesbian/gay studies in anthropology, “has not been immune to the documentary impulse that brushes aside theory in the rush for
While ETPs such as warok and bissu appear in travelers’ accounts and local histories as early as the 14th century (Andaya 2000:39; Pelras 1996:166; Wilson 1999), it appears that the waria subject position has a recognizable continuity going back only to the early 1800s
As Eddy’s narrative indicates, it appears that one of the biggest shifts in the waria subject position was in the mid-1960s to early 1980s
Summary
Taman Remaja Surabaya (Surabaya Youth Park) can be found on a downtown thoroughfare next to the Surabaya Mall. It is nighttime and the Mall is closed—a hulking, padlocked mass to my left as I pass a sea of motorcycles, becak (pedicabs), and buses pulling up at the curbside. Geertz 1983:68), I use ethnographic material on waria to reflect on Western theoretical debates This bringing together of theory and ethnography is of particular importance given that the study of transgenderism, like lesbian/gay studies in anthropology, “has not been immune to the documentary impulse that brushes aside theory in the rush for ‘facts,’ or to a tendency to reify and idealize ‘traditional’ forms of homosexuality in nonindustrial societies” (Weston 1993:340). This analysis will instead illustrate how waria emphasize a sense of belonging to (and exclusion from) national society and popular culture This is foreshadowed in what might appear to be an insignificant exception: Why was the waria with braided hair who climbed the stage at Taman Remaja not asked to show an identity card?. Drawing a term from waria performance, I will call this the playback of authenticity and argue that this is a question of recognition
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