Fa’afafine

Genere, corpo, persona in Samoa

Authors

  • Maria Carolina Vesce

Keywords:

fa’afafine, gender, personhood, body, Samoa

Abstract

Samoan fa’afāfine are male born people who can behave in extremely feminine way, embodying both female and male qualities. Differently defined by scholars as a third gender, or a “liminal” or “marginal” gender, fa’afāfine define themselves as “a cultural identity”, which is conceivable only within the fa’aSamoa, i.e. the Samoan culture and society. Gay, transgender and transsexual identities are refused as “western medical terminologies” which fail to represent the fa’afafine’s persona. Furthermore, masculinity and femininity, are conceived as a set of practices rather than qualities or properties attached to people. Effeminacy, sex and gender are therefore completely inadequate for fa’afāfine’s experiences and word’s views. Focusing on the data I collected during my fieldwork, I run a circular path, which spin around gender, body, and personhood. Holism, non just as a perspective but as a theory of practice, enable us to look to fa’afāfine as core players, skilled moulders and active citizens of their societies, faraway from the diverted non-hetheronormative subject we’re familiar to in euro-american societies.

Published

2022-04-05

How to Cite

Vesce, M. C. (2022). Fa’afafine: Genere, corpo, persona in Samoa. L’Uomo Società Tradizione Sviluppo, 6(2). Retrieved from https://rosa.uniroma1.it/rosa03/uomo/article/view/17995