A 20th Century Anthropologist Confronting Gender and Sexual Diversity
Renowned French anthropologist Pierre Clastres (1934-1977) focused most of his research on the Paraguayan “Indian” people. He is best known for his unique theory of non-state power, which is frequently disputed. He also wrote two lesser-known papers about specific types of gender inversion. These groundbreaking publications, which were published in 1966 and 1972, before the 1980s surge in anthropological research on “homosexuality” in non-Western countries, offer important insights into gender and sexual diversity. Two things represent the strong boundary between the masculine and feminine worlds among the Guayaki: the bow (men hunt), and the basket (women carry). Yet Clastres reveals the existence of two basket-carrying men that are very dissimilar from one another. One of the study’s contributions is that one of the two men carrying the basket is also described as a kyrypy-meno (anus-making love) and accepted as such. This study encourages us to investigate the intersection of gender and sexuality, two elements that are too frequently addressed separately. It also enables us to think of gender diversity as paradoxically assuring a gender hierarchy based on the opposition of two relatively stable and hierarchical categories (men/women).