imported>Snapdragon789 at 01:46, 24 March 2026

2026-03-24T01:46:12Z

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In Peru, the pre-colonial Incas recognized '''qariwarmi''', a [[nonbinary]] [[Androgyne|mixed-gender]] role.

Andean Studies scholar Michael Horswell writes that [[Third Gender|third-gendered]] ritual attendants to ''chuqui chinchay'', a jaguar deity in Incan mythology, were "vital actors in Andean ceremonies" prior to Spanish colonisation. Horswell elaborates: "These ''qariwarmi'' (men-women) shamans mediated between the symmetrically dualistic spheres of Andean cosmology and daily life by performing rituals that at times required same-sex erotic practices. Their transvested attire served as a visible sign of a third space that negotiated between the [[masculine]] and the [[feminine]], the present and the past, the living and the dead. Their shamanic presence invoked the [[androgynous]] creative force often represented in Andean mythology."<ref>Horswell, Michael J. (2006). ''Transculturating Tropes of Sexuality, ''Tinkuy'', and Third Gender in the Andes'', introduction to "Decolonizing the Sodomite: Queer Tropes of Sexuality in Colonial Andean Culture". {{ISBN| 0-292-71267-7}}. [http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/excerpts/exhordec.html Article online].</ref> Richard Trexler gives an early Spanish account of religious 'third gender' figures from the Inca empire in his 1995 book "Sex and Conquest":

<blockquote>And in each important temple or house of worship, they have a [[man]] or two, or more, depending on the idol, who go dressed in women's attire from the time they are children, and speak like them, and in manner, dress, and everything else they imitate [[women]].<ref>Trexler, Richard C. (1995). ''Sex and Conquest.'' Cornell University Press: Ithaca. p. 107</ref></blockquote>

In Quechua language, the word "qari" (also spelled "qhari" or "quari", pronounced "hah-ree" or "kah-ree") means "man", and warmi" (also spelled "huarmi", pronounced "wahr-mee") means "woman". "Qhariwarmi" can also be translated as "married [cisheterosexual] couple," according to Aulex.org Quechua-Spanish dictionary.

==References==
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Qariwarmi - Revision history

imported>Snapdragon789 at 01:46, 24 March 2026