Ilan Peled. Masculinities and Third Gender: The Origins and Nature of an Institutionalized Gender Otherness in the Ancient Near East. Alter Orient und Altes Testament, Band 435. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2016, 333 pp., 109.00 €.
*I’d like to express my gratitude to Ugarit-Verlag for providing a review copy in exchange for my honest opinion.
In his first published monograph, Ilan Peled tracks the phenomenon of persons born male whose masculine identities were considered ambiguous. Consequently, Peled classifies these people as third gender. Through the monograph he explores several ambiguous figures: gala, kalû, kulu’u, assinnu, kurgarrû, lu-sag / ša rēši, and a few less known third gender figures. Third gender, as a byproduct of socialization, and the concept of hegemonic masculinity, and thereby subordinated masculinities, are his two primary methodological approaches. Importantly, his argument places stakes in several fields: Gender Studies, Sociology, Assyriology, Biblical Studies, and Anthropology.
Chapter One briefly examines aeteological…
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