#assinnu

I'd like to tell you about an ancient Mesopotamian trans person, the assinnu, but as soon as I even type that phrase, I'm in trouble.

Firstly, do we really know how the ancient Mesopotamians thought about gender, how they categorised people, or are we just projecting our own categories onto them? This isn't an abstract, theoretical question, it's mucked up all sorts of anthropology. I mean, Sumerian doesn't even use gender.

Secondly, if we can't be sure we can use our own categories for a civilisation thousands of kilometres and thousands of years away , how do we know whether "trans" is the right word? We can't even agree amongst ourselves on who is supposed to call themselves which term.

And thirdly, our information is limited and often unclear.

Having got those caveats out of the way, let's talk about the assinnu. This term is applied to a class of people who engaged in ritual activity, like chanting, singing, dancing, prophecy, and making food sacrifices.

There's evidence that the assinnu had a special gender or sexuality, and was associated with other groups who were similarly special. The word itself means something like "man-woman". In an epic, there's a line about the assinnu which says: "those who in order to bring about awe/religious awe in people, Ishtar turned their maleness into femaleness". This could mean cross-dressing during ritual, or it could mean a change of gender, whether including physical changes to the body or not.

I'm being very cautious here. Plenty of scholars have strong opinions on the assinnu and similar groups. They had an established, recognised role in society, but were they outcast sex workers? Bawdy drag queens? Honoured priests? Ancient cousins of the people sometimes called hijras? What we are sure about is that the earliest mentions of the assinnu date back four thousand years. Gender diverse people weren't invented last week.

More on sex and gender in various times and places over at my Dreamwidth, including two postings on the assinnu.