Lahiri gender system

Pre-colonial Lahiri peoples had a unique gender system, which, like most aspects of traditional life, was severely impacted by colonisation. Although most modern day Lahiri people do not adhere strictly to, or necessarily identify at all with these traditional roles, the system does survive to some extent, especially in more rural villages. However, it is generally held that much understanding of these roles has been lost through acts of cultural genocide.

The traditional Lahiri gender system had many parallels to other Lahani, Puzimmese, and Ekuosian systems, both in terms of having more than two genders, and some of the specific gender roles. This was a ternary system based on formalized divisions of labour, and did not reflect physical sexual characteristics in any way.

Understanding of the traditional system is based on oral Lahiri records, writings by colonial scholars, and the self-determination of modern Lahiri people. As such, the understanding is coloured through the perspective of the colonial systems that were enforced after it.

Evolution of the system

It is often theorized that the three-gender system, built strictly around division of labour in space, arose originally as a social class, clan, or moiety system...

An alternative theory is that three gender roles, originally strongly associated with physical sex, simply lost their physical associations over time...

Traditional Lahiri system

The traditional system recognizes three roles, known in Old Thap as [TBD, placeholders "stayer, fisher, inlander"]. These terms are thought to be calqued from a Sañuan language, such as Qaila'u (where the terms are sēyōmo, ñāmo, and lanēmo, but were adopted into Lahiri languages early during in the Lahiri migration

As their purported etymology indicates, originally the division of the three genders was home/offshore/inland, or more functionally, homekeepers/ fishermen/ gatherers. Over time, the 'inland' gender expanded to include long-distance voyages overland to trade with other settlements. In a number of Lahiri peoples, this shifted the paradigm to a "stayer, leaver, voyager" system, where the "leavers" could go offshore or inland—but typically only a day at a time—while "voyagers", also called "wanderers", may not even have a single village they consider home.

Gender roles

[Stayers]

[stayers] (translated as 'homekeeper, villager') were the only gender with the right to own land. They took up responsibilities and professions that required remaining within the village for the day; for example, childminding, construction, weaving, cooking and food processing.

This gender resembles in many ways the seen of the Adzo-Neviric gender system; during Neviran colonisation of Lahan, this was often made official, with most [stayers] being legally registered as seen.

[Fishers]

[fishers] ('those who go offshore') were those who traveled out to sea every day to fish. In some Lahiri societies—especially non-coastal ones—this also included those who went into the forests to forage, and therefore in many senses was more of a 'food-gathering' or 'daily-leaving' role.

Many [fishers] also specialized in the making and maintaining of watercraft and hunting tools, although this work could also be performed by [stayers]. Elderly [fishers] would often continue the manufacture of hunting weapons after retirement, and sometimes people with physical disabilities (congenital or acquired) that prevented them from sailing or participating in certain activities could prove themselves to be [fishers] through extensive production of the tools necessary for these trades.

[fishers] could not own land in their own right, but could gain rights to it through marriage to a [stayer]. Until marriage, they would live with their parents or siblings, or else take up residence in the ('bachelor barracks') that were common in many villages. [fishers] married to a [stayer] would have shared legal ownership of the [stayer]'s home, which they could extend to their dependent children or aging parents, but not to any additional spouses of their own.

[Inlanders]

[inlanders] ('those who go into the wilderness') took longer journeys for days, weeks, months, or longer, as traveling traders, entertainers, and messengers...

Like [fishers], [inlanders] could not own property in their own right, and typically lived with family or in a bachelor barracks until marriage...

Gendering

Children were considered genderless, and would choose a role sometime after puberty, after having undertaken general education and typically completing short apprenticeships in more than one gendered area of labour.

Elders and those who become incapable of traveling had their previous gender recognized, and were generally tasked with teaching and other less physically demanding work. Those who were born with physical disabilities limiting travel were generally [stayers], although in some places they were considered genderless (such places tended not to treat the disabled very well). Elders and the disabled could live with family or in the bachelor barracks.

Gender was generally not to be changed, and steering children towards one particular gender or another was typically frowned upon, although after disasters, wars, or other events too greatly unbalance a population, it was allowed. Temporary changes in behaviours considered gendered, however, were common; for example, [leavers] and [voyagers] who are in late pregnancy, have recently given birth, or are recovering from an illness or injury, will generally stay at home. Likewise, [stayers] and [leavers] of particular skill may be called on long voyages to distant villages to assist with a crisis. This does not generally invalidate or cause a change of their gender.

Sexuality and marriage

Since gender, irrespective of sexual characteristics, was the system on which legality was based, laws and practices regarding sexual orientation were focused almost exclusively around the matching of gender roles among pre-colonial Lahiri. For example, same-gender marriage did not occur in most Lahiri populations; marriage was used as a means of ensuring social cohesion and the sharing of resources between the three different roles, most importantly the exchange of shelter (owned by the [stayers]) for resources (provided by [fishers] and [inlanders]). ...

Same-gender sexual contact was not prohibited, although in many societies extramarital sex was frowned upon.

Polygamous marriage was common. Although [stayers] were by far the most numerous gender, they did not represent a majority or even half of the population (most estimates place them around 40%), and so the remaining 60% of [fishers] and [inlanders] were statistically disadvantaged for landholding rights (which they could only acquire by marrying a [stayer]). It was therefore not uncommon for a [stayer] to have two to three spouses. On the other hand, [inlanders]—especially those who went on extended journeys—would often have spouses in more than one village, and therefore a home to go to at both ends of their expeditions. [Fishers] were the gender least likely to have multiple spouses, although triads—with one member of each gender, all married to each other—were not unheard of.