View source for Intersex people in history

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{{Intersex sidebar}}
[[Intersex]], in humans and other animals, describes variations in [[sex]] characteristics including [[chromosome]]s, [[gonad]]s, [[sex hormones]], or [[genital]]s that, according to the UN [[Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights]], "do not fit typical binary notions of [[male]] or [[female]] bodies".<ref name="unfe-fact">{{Cite web | author = <!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> | publisher = United Nations [[Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights]] | title = Free & Equal Campaign Fact Sheet: Intersex | date = 2015 | url = https://unfe.org/system/unfe-65-Intersex_Factsheet_ENGLISH.pdf | access-date = 28 March 2016 | url-status=live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304071043/https://unfe.org/system/unfe-65-Intersex_Factsheet_ENGLISH.pdf | archive-date = 4 March 2016 }}</ref><ref name="Dreger">{{cite book |last=Domurat Dreger |first=Alice |author-link = Alice Dreger |title=Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex |year=2001 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=USA |isbn=978-0-674-00189-3 }}</ref>{{Page needed|date=August 2021}} Intersex people were historically termed [[hermaphrodite]]s, "congenital eunuchs",<ref name="mason">Mason, H.J., Favorinus’ Disorder: Reifenstein's Syndrome in Antiquity?, in Janus 66 (1978) 1–13.</ref><ref>Nguyễn Khắc Thuần (1998), "Việt sử giai thoại (History of Vietnam's tales), vol. 8, Vietnam Education Publishing House, p. 55"</ref> or even congenitally "frigid".<ref name="Richardson">{{Cite book| publisher = Preddon Lee Limited | last = Richardson| first = Ian D.| title = God's Triangle| date = May 2012 | isbn = 9780957140103 }}</ref>{{Page needed|date=August 2021}} Such terms have fallen out of favor, now considered to be misleading and stigmatizing.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Dreger|first1=Alice D|last2=Chase|first2=Cheryl|last3=Sousa|first3=Aron|last4=Gruppuso|first4=Phillip A.|last5=Frader|first5=Joel|date=18 August 2005|title=Changing the Nomenclature/Taxonomy for Intersex: A Scientific and Clinical Rationale.|url=http://www.aissg.org/PDFs/Dreger-Nomenclature-2005.PDF|journal=Journal of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism|volume=18|issue=8|pages=729–33|doi=10.1515/JPEM.2005.18.8.729|pmid=16200837|s2cid=39459050|access-date=27 July 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220154642/http://www.aissg.org/PDFs/Dreger-Nomenclature-2005.PDF|archive-date=20 December 2016}}</ref>
Intersex people have been treated in different ways by different cultures. Whether or not they were socially tolerated or accepted by any particular culture, the existence of intersex people was known to many ancient and pre-modern cultures and legal systems, and numerous historical accounts exist.
==Ancient history==
===Sumer===
A [[Sumer]]ian [[creation myth]] from more than 4,000 years ago has [[Ninmah]], a [[mother goddess]], fashioning humanity out of clay.<ref name="The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature">{{cite web |url=http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.1.1.2# |title=The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature |access-date=9 December 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081224092841/http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.1.1.2 |archive-date=24 December 2008 }}</ref> She boasts that she will determine the fate – good or bad – for all she fashions:
{{blockquote|Enki answered Ninmah: "I will counterbalance whatever fate – good or bad – you happen to decide.
Ninmah took clay from the top of the abzu [ab: water; zu: far] in her hand and she fashioned from it first a man who could not bend his outstretched weak hands.
Enki looked at the man who cannot bend his outstretched weak hands, and decreed his fate: he appointed him as a servant of the king.
(Three men and one woman with atypical biology are formed and Enki gives each of them various forms of status to ensure respect for their uniqueness)
...Sixth, she fashioned one with neither penis nor vagina on its body. Enki looked at the one with neither penis nor vagina on its body and gave it the name ''Nibru'' (eunuch(?)), and decreed as its fate to stand before the king.<ref name="The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature" />}}
=== Ancient Judaism ===
{{Unreferenced section|date=June 2021}}
In traditional Jewish culture, intersex individuals were either ''[[androgynos]]'' or ''[[Tumtum (Judaism)|tumtum]]'' and took on different gender roles, sometimes conforming to men's, sometimes to women's.{{explain|date=October 2018}}
===Ancient Indian Subcontinent===
The [[Tirumantiram]] [[Tirumular]] recorded the relationship between intersex people and [[Shiva]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Maraikkappatta Pakkangal: மறைக்கப்பட்ட பக்கங்கள்|last=Winter |first=Gopi Shankar|year=2014 |publisher=Srishti Madurai |isbn=9781500380939 |oclc=703235508 }}</ref>{{explain|date=September 2018}}
Due to the presence of intersex traits, Ardhanarishvara is associated with the ''[[Hijra (South Asia)|hijra]],''<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=Third Sex, Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History|publisher=Zone Books|year=1996|editor-last=Herdt|editor-first=Gilbert|location=New York|chapter=Hijras: An Alternative Sex and Gender Role in India}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=August 2021}} a third sex category that has been accepted in South Asia for centuries.<ref name=":3" />{{Page needed|date=August 2021}} After interviewing and studying the ''hijra'' for many years, [[Serena Nanda]] writes in her book ''Neither Man Nor Woman: The Hijras of India'' as follows: "There is a widespread belief in India that ''hijras'' are born [[hermaphrodite]]s [intersex] and are taken away by the ''hijra'' community at birth or in childhood, but I found no evidence to support this belief among the ''hijras'' I met, all of whom joined the community voluntarily, often in their teens."<ref>Nanda, Serena. Neither Man Nor Woman: The hijras of India, p. xx. Canada: Wadworth Publishing Company, 1999</ref>{{Page needed|date=August 2021}}
According to [[Gilbert Herdt]], the ''hijra'' differentiate between "born" and "made" individuals, or those who have physical intersex traits by birth and those who become ''hijra'' through penectomy, respectively.<ref name=":3" />{{Page needed|date=August 2021}} According to Indian tradition, the ''hijra'' perform a traditional song and dance as part of a family's celebration of the birth of a male child; during the performance, they also inspect the newborn's genitals to verify its sex. Herdt states that it is widely accepted that if the child is intersex, the ''hijra'' have a right to claim it as part of their community.<ref name=":3" />{{Page needed|date=August 2021}} However, Warne and Raza argue that an association between intersex and hijra people is mostly unfounded but provokes parental fear.<ref name="warne2008">{{Cite journal| doi = 10.1007/s11154-008-9084-2| issn = 1389-9155| volume = 9| issue = 3| pages = 227–236| last1 = Warne| first1 = Garry L.| last2 = Raza| first2 = Jamal| title = Disorders of sex development (DSDs), their presentation and management in different cultures| journal = Reviews in Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders| date = September 2008| pmid=18633712| citeseerx = 10.1.1.469.9016| s2cid = 8897416}}</ref> The ''hijra'' are mentioned in some versions of the ''[[Ramayana]]'', a [[Hinduism|Hindu]] epic poem from around 300 BCE,<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ramayana-Indian-epic|title=Ramayana {{!}} Indian epic|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=2018-10-03|language=en}}</ref> in a [[myth]] about the hero [[Rama]] instructing his devotees to return to the city [[Ayodhya (Ramayana)|Ayodhya]] rather than follow him across the city's adjacent river into banishment. Since he gives this instruction specifically to "all you men and women," his ''hijra'' followers, being neither, remain on the banks of the river for fourteen years until Rama returns from exile.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Reddy|first=Gayatri|date=Spring 2003|title="Men" Who Would Be Kings: Celibacy, Emasculation, and the Re-Production of Hijras in Contemporary Indian Politics|journal=Social Research|volume=70|pages=163–200|doi=10.1353/sor.2003.0050 |s2cid=142842776 }}</ref>
In the [[Tantra|Tantric]] sect of Hinduism, there is a belief that all individuals possess both male and female components. This belief can be seen explicitly in the Tantric concept of a Supreme Being with both male and female [[sex organ]]s, which constitutes "one complete sex" and the ideal physical form.<ref name=":3" />{{Page needed|date=August 2021}}
===Ancient Greece===
According to [[Leah DeVun]], a "traditional Hippocratic/Galenic model of sexual difference – popularized by the late antique physician [[Galen]] and the ascendant theory for much of the Middle Ages – viewed sex as a spectrum that encompassed masculine men, feminine women, and many shades in between, including hermaphrodites, a perfect balance of male and female".<ref name="devun-2018">{{Cite journal| doi = 10.1057/s41280-018-0080-8| issn = 2040-5960| volume = 9| issue = 2| pages = 132–146| last = DeVun| first = Leah| title = Heavenly hermaphrodites: sexual difference at the beginning and end of time| journal = Postmedieval| date = June 2018| s2cid = 165449144}}</ref> DeVun contrasts this with an Aristotelian view of intersex, which argued that "hermaphrodites were not an intermediate sex but a case of doubled or superfluous genitals", and this later influenced Aquinas.<ref name="devun-2018" />
===Ancient Rome===
[[File:Ermafrodito, affresco Romano di Ercolano (1–50 d.C., Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli) - 02.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Hermaphroditus in a wall painting from [[Herculaneum]] (first half of the 1st century AD)]]
{{Further|Hermaphroditus|Aphroditus|Sexuality in ancient Rome#Hermaphroditism and androgyny}}
Pliny notes that "there are even those who are born of both sexes, whom we call hermaphrodites, at one time ''[[androgyn]]i''" (''andr-'', "man," and ''gyn-'', "woman", from the Greek).<ref>Pliny, ''Natural History'' 7.34: ''gignuntur et utriusque sexus quos hermaphroditos vocamus, olim androgynos vocatos''; Veronique Dasen, "Multiple Births in Graeco-Roman Antiquity," ''Oxford Journal of Archaeology'' 16.1 (1997), p. 61.</ref> However, the era also saw a historical account of a congenital eunuch.<ref name = "Philostratus" />
The Sicilian historian [[Diodorus Siculus|Diodorus]] (latter 1st-century BC) wrote of "hermaphroditus" in the first century BCE:
{{blockquote|Hermaphroditus, as he has been called, who was born of Hermes and Aphrodite and received a name which is a combination of those of both his parents. Some say that this Hermaphroditus is a god and appears at certain times among men, and that he is born with a physical body which is a combination of that of a man and that of a woman, in that he has a body which is beautiful and delicate like that of a woman, but has the masculine quality and vigour of man. But there are some who declare that such creatures of two sexes are monstrosities, and coming rarely into the world as they do they have the quality of presaging the future, sometimes for evil and sometimes for good.<ref>{{Cite book| publisher = Harvard University Press| last = Diodorus Siculus| author-link = Diodorus Siculus| others = C H Oldfather (trans.)| title = Library of History (Book IV)| location = Cambridge, MA| series = Loeb Classical Library Volumes 303 and 340| date = 1935| url = http://www.theoi.com/Text/DiodorusSiculus4A.html#6| url-status=live| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080927074542/http://www.theoi.com/Text/DiodorusSiculus4A.html#6| archive-date = 2008-09-27}}</ref>}}
Diodorus also recalled the lives of [[Diophantus of Abae]] and [[Callon of Epidaurus]], both of whom had conditions which would correspond with intersex conditions.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last1=Markantes|first1=Georgios|last2=Deligeoroglou|first2=Efthimios|last3=Armeni|first3=Anastasia|last4=Vasileiou|first4=Vasiliki|last5=Damoulari|first5=Christina|last6=Mandrapilia|first6=Angelina|last7=Kosmopoulou|first7=Fotini|last8=Keramisanou|first8=Varvara|last9=Georgakopoulou|first9=Danai|last10=Creatsas|first10=George|last11=Georgopoulos|first11=Neoklis|date=2015-07-10|title=Callo: The first known case of ambiguous genitalia to be surgically repaired in the history of Medicine, described by Diodorus Siculus|url=http://www.hormones.gr/8581/article/callo:-the-first-known-case-of%E2%80%A6.html|journal=Hormones|volume=14|issue=3|pages=459–461|doi=10.14310/horm.2002.1608|pmid=26188239|doi-access=free}}</ref>
[[Isidore of Seville]] (''c.'' 560–636) described a hermaphrodite fancifully as those who "have the right breast of a man and the left of a woman, and after coitus in turn can both sire and bear children."<ref>[[Isidore of Seville]], ''Eytmologiae'' 11.3. 11.</ref> Under Roman law, as many others, a hermaphrodite had to be classed as either male or female.<ref>Lynn E. Roller, "The Ideology of the Eunuch Priest," ''Gender & History'' 9.3 (1997), p. 558.</ref> [[Will Roscoe]] writes that the hermaphrodite represented a "violation of social boundaries, especially those as fundamental to daily life as male and female."<ref>[[Will Roscoe]], "Priests of the Goddess: Gender Transgression in Ancient Religion," ''[[History of Religions (journal)|History of Religions]]'' 35, no. 3 (Feb., 1996): 195-230.</ref>
In [[Religion in ancient Rome|traditional Roman religion]], a hermaphroditic birth was a kind of ''[[prodigium]]'', an occurrence that signalled a disturbance of the ''[[pax deorum]]'', Rome's treaty with the gods.<ref>Veit Rosenberger, "Republican ''nobiles'': Controlling the ''Res Publica''," in ''A Companion to Roman Religion'' (Blackwell, 2007), p. 295.</ref> But Pliny observed that while hermaphrodites were once considered [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#portentum|portents]], in his day they had become objects of delight (''deliciae'') who were [[human trafficking|trafficked]] in an exclusive slave market.<ref>Plutarch, ''Moralia'' 520c; Dasen, "Multiple Births in Graeco-Roman Antiquity," p. 61.</ref> According to historian [[John R. Clarke (historian)|John R. Clarke]], depictions of Hermaphroditus were very popular among the Romans:
{{blockquote|Artistic representations of Hermaphroditus bring to the fore the ambiguities in sexual differences between women and men as well as the ambiguities in all sexual acts. ... (A)rtists always treat Hermaphroditus in terms of the viewer finding out his/her actual sexual identity. ... Hermaphroditus is a highly sophisticated representation, invading the boundaries between the sexes that seem so clear in classical thought and representation.<ref>Clarke, ''Looking at Lovemaking'', pp. 54–55.</ref>}}
In c.400, [[Augustine]] wrote in ''The Literal Meaning of Genesis'' that humans were created in two sexes, despite "as happens in some births, in the case of what we call androgynes".<ref name="devun-2018" />
Historical accounts of intersex people include the [[sophist]] and [[philosopher]] [[Favorinus]], described as a [[eunuch]] (εὐνοῦχος) by birth.<ref name = "Philostratus">Philostratus, VS 489</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Swain | first1 = Simon | year = 1989 | title = Favorinus and Hadrian | journal = ZPE | volume = 79 | pages = 150–158 }}</ref> Mason and others thus describe Favorinus as having an [[intersex]] trait.<ref name="mason" /><ref>Horstmanshoff (2000) 103 n. 39</ref><ref>Eugenio Amato (intr., ed., comm.) and Yvette Julien (trans.), ''Favorinos d'Arles, Oeuvres I. Introduction générale - Témoignages - Discours aux Corinthiens - Sur la Fortune'', Paris: Les Belles Lettres (2005).</ref>
A broad sense of the term "eunuch" is reflected in the compendium of ancient [[Roman law]]s collected by [[Justinian I]] in the 6th century known as the Digest or [[Pandects]]. Those texts distinguish between the general category of eunuchs (''spadones'', denoting "one who has no generative power, an impotent person, whether by nature or by castration",<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3D%2344853
|title=Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, ''A Latin Dictionary''|access-date=21 October 2006}}</ref> D 50.16.128) and the more specific subset of ''castrati'' (castrated males, physically incapable of procreation). Eunuchs (''spadones'') sold in the slave markets were deemed by the jurist [[Ulpian]] to be "not defective or diseased, but healthy", because they were anatomically able to procreate just like [[monorchid]]s (D 21.1.6.2). On the other hand, as [[Julius Paulus]] pointed out, "if someone is a eunuch in such a way that he is missing a necessary part of his body" (D 21.1.7), then he would be deemed diseased. In these Roman legal texts, ''spadones (eunuchs)'' are eligible to marry women (D 23.3.39.1), institute posthumous heirs (D 28.2.6), and adopt children (Institutions of Justinian 1.11.9), ''unless'' they are ''castrati''.
==Middle Ages==
=== Islam ===
By the eighth century CE, records of Islamic legal rulings discuss individuals known in Arabic as ''khuntha.'' This term, which has been translated as "hermaphrodite," was used to apply to individuals with a range of intersex conditions, including [[Mixed gonadal dysgenesis|mixed gonadal disgenesis]], male [[hypospadias]], [[partial androgen insensitivity syndrome]], [[5α-Reductase deficiency|5-alpha reductase deficiency]], gonadal [[aplasia]], and [[congenital adrenal hyperplasia]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Gesink|first=Indira Falk|date=July 2018|title=Intersex Bodies in Premodern Islamic Discourse|journal=Journal of Middle East Women's Studies|volume=14|issue=2|pages=152–173|doi=10.1215/15525864-6680205|s2cid=149824248}}</ref>
In Islamic law, [[inheritance]] was determined based on sex, so it was sometimes necessary to attempt to determine the biological sex of sexually ambiguous heirs.<ref name=":1" /> The first recorded case of this sort has been attributed to the seventh-century [[Rashidun Caliphate|Rashidun]] caliph named '[[Ali]], who attempted to settle an inheritance case between five brothers in which one brother had both a male and female [[Urinary meatus|urinary opening]]. 'Ali advised the brothers that sex could be determined by site of urination in a practice called ''hukm al-mabal''; if urine exited the male opening, the individual was male, and if it exited the female opening, the individual was female. If it exited both openings simultaneously, as it did in this case, the heir would be given half of a male inheritance and half of a female inheritance.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite journal|last1=Haneef|first1=Sayed Sikandar Shah|last2=Abd Majid|first2=Mahmood Zuhdi Haji|date=December 2015|title=Medical Management of Infant Intersex: The Juridico-Ethical Dilemma of Contemporary Islamic Legal Response|journal=Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science|volume=50|issue=4|pages=809–829|doi=10.1111/zygo.12220}}</ref> Later, in the thirteenth century CE, [[Shafi‘i|Shafi'i]] law expert Abu Zakariya al-Nawawi ruled that an individual whose sex could not be determined by ''hukm al-mabal'', such as those with urination from both openings or those with no identifiable sex organs, was assigned the intermediary sex category ''khuntha mushkil''.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":4" />
Both [[Hanafi]] and [[Hanbali]] lawmakers also recognized that [[puberty]] could clarify a new dominant sex in intersex individuals who were labeled ''khuntha,'' male, or female in childhood. If a ''khuntha'' or male developed female secondary sex characteristics, performed vaginal sex, lactated, menstruated, or conceived, this person's legal sex could change to female. Conversely, if a ''khuntha'' or female developed male secondary sex characteristics, performed penetrative sex with a woman, or had an erection, their legal sex could change to male. This understanding of the effect of puberty on intersex conditions appears in Islamic law as early as the eleventh century CE, notably by [[Ibn Qudamah|Ibn Qudama]].<ref name=":1" />
In the sixteenth century CE, [[Ibrāhīm al-Ḥalabī|Ibrahim al-Halabi]], a member of the [[Hanafi]] school of [[jurisprudence]] in Islam, directed slave owners to use special gender-neutral language when freeing intersex slaves. He recognized that language manumitting "males" or "females" would not directly apply to them.<ref name=":1" />
[[File:Treegratian.jpg|thumb|An illustration from a 13th-century manuscript of the ''[[Decretum Gratiani]]'']]
=== Christianity ===
In ''Abnormal'' (''Les anormaux''), [[Michel Foucault]] suggested it is likely that, "from the Middle Ages to the sixteenth century ... hermaphrodites were considered to be monsters and were executed, burnt at the stake and their ashes thrown to the winds."<ref>{{cite book | last = Foucault | first = Michel | author-link = Michel Foucault | title = Abnormal: Lectures at the Collège de France 1974-1975 | date = 2003 | publisher = Verso | page = 67}}</ref>
However, Christof Rolker disputes this, arguing that "Contrary to what has been claimed, there is no evidence for hermaphrodites being persecuted in the Middle Ages, and the learned laws did certainly not provide any basis for such persecution".<ref name="rolker-2014" /> [[Canon Law]] sources provide evidence of alternative perspectives, based upon prevailing visual indications and the performance of gendered roles.<ref name="Rolker">{{Cite journal| last = Rolker| first = Christof| title = Double sex, double pleasure? Hermaphrodites and the medieval laws| journal = For a German Version, See Christof Rolker, der Hermaphrodit und Seine Frau. Körper, Sexualität und Geschlecht Im Spätmittelalter, in: Historische Zeitschrift 297 (2013), 593–620| access-date = 2016-08-27| date = 2013| url = https://www.academia.edu/4101811| url-status=live| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151208015108/http://www.academia.edu/4101811/Double_sex_double_pleasure_Hermaphrodites_and_the_medieval_laws| archive-date = 2015-12-08}}</ref> The 12th-century ''[[Decretum Gratiani]]'' states that "Whether an hermaphrodite may witness a testament, depends on which sex prevails" ("Hermafroditus an ad testamentum adhiberi possit, qualitas sexus incalescentis ostendit.").<ref>Decretum Gratiani, C. 4, q. 2 et 3, c. 3</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://geschichte.digitale-sammlungen.de/decretum-gratiani/kapitel/dc_chapter_1_1585 | title = Decretum Gratiani (Kirchenrechtssammlung) | work = Bayerische StaatsBibliothek ([[Bavarian State Library]]) | date = February 5, 2009 | url-status=live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161220084841/http://geschichte.digitale-sammlungen.de/decretum-gratiani/kapitel/dc_chapter_1_1585 | archive-date = December 20, 2016 }}</ref>
In the late twelfth century, the canon lawyer [[Huguccio]] stated that, "If someone has a beard, and always wishes to act like a man (excercere virilia) and not like a female, and always wishes to keep company with men and not with women, it is a sign that the male sex prevails in him and then he is able to be a witness, where a woman is not allowed".<ref name="Raming">{{cite book | title = A History of Women and Ordination | last1 = Raming | first1 = Ida | last2 = Macy | first2 = Gary | last3 = Bernard J | first3 = Cook | publisher = [[Scarecrow Press]] | date = 2004 | page = 113}}</ref> Concerning the ordination of 'hermaphrodites', Huguccio concluded: "If therefore the person is drawn to the feminine more than the male, the person does not receive the order. If the reverse, the person is able to receive but ought not to be ordained on account of deformity and monstrosity."<ref name="Raming" />
[[Henry de Bracton]]'s ''De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae'' ("On the Laws and Customs of England"), c. 1235,<ref>[[Henry de Bracton]]. (2009). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 17 March 2009, from [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/76746/Henry-de-Bracton Encyclopædia Britannica Online] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090324063654/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/76746/Henry-de-Bracton |date=2009-03-24 }}</ref> classifies mankind as "male, female, or hermaphrodite",<ref>{{cite book | last = de Bracton | first = Henry | author-link = Henry de Bracton | title = On the Laws and Customs of England | edition = Thorne | language = en | volume = 2 | page = 31 | url = http://bracton.law.harvard.edu/Unframed/English/v2/31.htm | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161029012110/http://bracton.law.harvard.edu/Unframed/English/v2/31.htm | archive-date = 2016-10-29 | access-date = 2016-10-02 }}</ref> and "A hermaphrodite is classed with male or female according to the predominance of the sexual organs."<ref>{{cite book | last = de Bracton | first = Henry | author-link = Henry de Bracton | title = On the Laws and Customs of England | edition = Thorne | language = en | volume = 2 | page = 32 | url = http://bracton.law.harvard.edu/Unframed/English/v2/32.htm | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161029005847/http://bracton.law.harvard.edu/Unframed/English/v2/32.htm | archive-date = 2016-10-29 | access-date = 2016-10-02 }}</ref>
The thirteenth-century canon lawyer [[Henry of Segusio]] argued that a "perfect hermaphrodite" where no sex prevailed should choose their legal gender under oath.<ref>Henrici de Segusio, Cardinalis Hostiensis, Summa aurea, Venice 1574 here at col. 612.</ref><ref name="rolker-2014">{{Cite journal| doi = 10.7767/zrgka-2014-0108| issn = 2304-4896| volume = 100| issue = 1| pages = 178–222| last = Rolker| first = Christof| title = The two laws and the three sexes: ambiguous bodies in canon law and Roman law (12th to 16th centuries)| journal = Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte: Kanonistische Abteilung| date = 2014-01-01| s2cid = 159668229| url = http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:352-0-262414}}</ref>
=== Archaeology ===
A 2021 study in the ''European Journal of Archaeology'' concluded that a grave from 1050 to 1300 in [[Hattula]], [[Finland]], containing a body buried in feminine clothing with brooches, furs and a hiltless sword, which earlier researchers speculated to be two bodies (a male and female) or a powerful woman, was one person with [[Klinefelter syndrome]] and that "the overall context of the grave indicates that it was a respected person".<ref>Jon Henley, ''[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/09/1000-year-old-remains-in-finland-may-be-non-binary-viking-researchers-say 1,000-year-old remains in Finland may be non-binary Iron Age leader]'', 9 August 2021, ''The Guardian'': "If the characteristics of Klinefelter syndrome were evident, Moilanen said, the person 'might not have been considered strictly a female or a male in the early Middle Ages community. The abundant collection of objects buried in the grave is proof that the person was not only accepted, but also valued and respected.'"</ref><ref>Ulla Moilanen, Tuija Kirkinen, Nelli-Johanna Saari, Adam B. Rohrlach, Johannes Krause, Päivi Onkamo, Elina Salmela, "A Woman with a Sword? – Weapon Grave at Suontaka Vesitorninmäki, Finland", in the ''European Journal of Archaeology'', 1-19 (15 July 2021), doi:10.1017/eaa.2021.30</ref>
==Early modern period==
The 17th-century English jurist and judge [[Edward Coke]] (Lord Coke), wrote in his ''[[Institutes of the Lawes of England]]'' on laws of succession stating, "Every heire is either a male, a female, or an hermaphrodite, that is both male and female. And an hermaphrodite (which is also called ''Androgynus'') shall be heire, either as male or female, according to that kind of sexe which doth prevaile."<ref>[[Edward Coke|E Coke]], The First Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England, Institutes 8.a. (1st Am. Ed. 1812).</ref><ref>{{Cite journal| volume = 41| last = Greenberg| first = Julie| title = Defining Male and Female: Intersexuality and the Collision Between Law and Biology| journal = Arizona Law Review| date = 1999| ssrn = 896307|pages =  277–278}}</ref> The ''Institutes'' are widely held to be a foundation of [[common law]].
A few historical accounts of intersex people exist due primarily to the discovery of relevant legal records, including those of [[Thomas(ine) Hall]] (17th-century United States), [[:es:Eleno de Céspedes|Eleno de Céspedes]], a 16th-century intersex person in Spain {{in lang|es}}, and [[Fernanda Fernández]] (18th-century Spain).
In 2019 the Smithsonian Channel aired a documentary "American's Hidden Stories: The General was Female?" with evidence that [[Casimir Pulaski]], the important [[American Revolutionary War]] hero, may have been intersex.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Katz |first1=Brigit |title=Was the Revolutionary War Hero Casimir Pulaski Intersex? |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/was-revolutionary-war-hero-casimir-pulaski-intersex-180971907/ |access-date=March 21, 2020 |publisher=Smithsonianmag.com |date=April 9, 2019}}</ref>
In a court case, heard at the [[Castellania (Valletta)|Castellania]] in 1774 during the [[Order of St. John]] in [[Malta]], 17-year-old Rosa Mifsud from [[Luqa]], later described in the ''British Medical Journal'' as a [[pseudo-hermaphrodite]], petitioned for a change in sex classification from female.<ref name="ventura">{{cite book|last=Savona-Ventura|first=Charles|date=2015|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SrA_CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA115|title=Knight Hospitaller Medicine in Malta [1530–1798]|publisher=Lulu|page=115|isbn=978-1326482220|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170206104951/https://books.google.com.mt/books?id=SrA_CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA115|archive-date=2017-02-06}}</ref><ref name="cassar1954"/> Two clinicians were appointed by the court to perform an examination. They found that "the male sex is the dominant one".<ref name="cassar1954"/> The examiners were the [[Chief physician|Physician-in-Chief]] and a senior surgeon, both working at the [[Mediterranean Conference Centre|Sacra Infermeria]].<ref name="cassar1954">{{cite journal|last=Cassar|first=Paul|date=11 December 1954|journal=British Medical Journal|title=Change of Sex Sanctioned by a Maltese Law Court in the Eighteenth Century|url=https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/bitstream/handle/123456789/10931/OA-Change%20of%20sex%20sanctioned%20by%20a%20maltese%20law%20court%20in%20the%20eighteenth%20century.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y|volume=2|issue=4901|page=1413|pmid=13209141|pmc=2080334|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170205234540/https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar//handle/123456789/10931|archive-date=5 February 2017|doi=10.1136/bmj.2.4901.1413}}</ref> The [[Grand Masters and Lieutenancies of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre|Grandmaster]] himself made the final decision that Mifsud would, from that point forward, wear only male garb.<ref name="ventura"/>
[[Maria Dorothea Derrier]]/Karl Dürrge was a German intersex person who made their living for 30 years as a [[Human subject research|human research subject]]. Born in Potsdam in 1780, and designated as female at birth, they assumed a male identity around 1807. Traveling intersex persons, like Derrier and [[Katharina/Karl Hohmann]], who allowed themselves to be examined by physicians were instrumental in the development of codified standards for sexing.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Johnson |first=Matthew |date=2005 |title=This is Not a Hermaphrodite: The Medical Assimilation of Gender Difference in Germany around 1800 |journal=[[Canadian Bulletin of Medical History]] |volume=22 |issue=2 |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |location=Toronto, Canada |pages=233–252 |issn=0823-2105|doi=10.3138/cbmh.22.2.233|pmid=16482692 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Sera |first=Stephanie |date=April 2019 |title=Ein unvollendetes Porträt. Der Hermaphrodit Maria Derrier/Karl Dürrge in medizinischen Fallberichten des frühen 19. Jahrhunderts |journal=[[L'Homme]] |volume=30 |issue=1 |publisher=École des hautes études en sciences sociales |location=France |pages=51–68 |issn=2194-5071 |doi=10.14220/lhom.2019.30.1.51 |s2cid=166501980 |language=de |trans-title=An Unfinished Portrait: The Hermaphrodite Maria Derrier / Karl Dürrge in Medical Case Reports of the Early 19th Century}}</ref>
==Mid-modern period==
[[File:Tượng Lê Văn Duyệt.jpg|thumb|Bronze statue of [[Lê Văn Duyệt]] in his tomb|alt=A golden-coloured statue of a man in a gown on a seat with a sword on his knees. In front there is a polished wooden table with goldleaf and a blue and white porcelain vase with yellow flowers. Behind him is a wooden altar with lights and incense holders. The altar has the same design as the table. The wall is cream-coloured.]]
During the [[Victorian era]], medical authors attempted to ascertain whether or not humans could be hermaphrodites, adopting a precise biological definition to the term.<ref>{{Cite book| publisher = Johns Hopkins University Press| isbn = 978-0-8018-9155-7| last = Reis| first = Elizabeth| title = Bodies in Doubt: an American History of Intersex| location = Baltimore| pages = 55–81| date = 2009}}</ref> During this period, doctors introduced the terms "true hermaphrodite" for an individual who has both ovarian and testicular tissue, verified under a microscope, "male pseudo-hermaphrodite" for a person with testicular tissue, but either female or ambiguous sexual anatomy, and "female pseudo-hermaphrodite" for a person with ovarian tissue, but either male or ambiguous sexual anatomy.
Historical accounts including those of Vietnamese general [[Lê Văn Duyệt]] (18th/19th-century) who helped to unify Vietnam; [[Gottlieb Göttlich]], a 19th-century [[Intersex rights in Germany|German]] travelling medical case; and [[Levi Suydam]], an intersex person in 19th-century USA whose capacity to vote in male-only elections was questioned.
The memoirs of 19th-century intersex Frenchwoman [[Herculine Barbin]] were published by [[Michel Foucault]] in 1980.<ref>{{cite book | last = Barbin | first = Herculine | author-link = Herculine Barbin | year = 1980 | others = introd. [[Michel Foucault]], trans. Richard McDougall | title = Herculine Barbin: Being the Recently Discovered Memoirs of a Nineteenth-century French Hermaphrodite | publisher = Pantheon Books | location = New York | isbn = 978-0-394-50821-4}}</ref> Her birthday is marked in [[Intersex Day of Remembrance]] on 8 November.
==Contemporary period==
[[File:Phall-O-meter%27, Intersex Society of North Wellcome L0031936.jpg|thumb|The [[Phall-O-Meter]] satirizes clinical assessments of appropriate clitoris and penis length at birth.]]
{{Further|History of intersex surgery|Intersex human rights}}
The term intersexuality was coined by [[Richard Goldschmidt]] in the 1917 paper ''Intersexuality and the endocrine aspect of sex''.<ref>{{Citation | doi = 10.1210/endo-1-4-433 | last1 = Goldschmidt | first1 = R. | author-link = Richard Goldschmidt | year = 1917 | title = Intersexuality and the endocrine aspect of sex | url = https://zenodo.org/record/1448726| journal = Endocrinology | volume = 1 | issue = 4| pages = 433–456 | postscript = . }}</ref><ref>[[Magnus Hirschfeld|Hirschfeld, M.]] (1923) 'Die Intersexuelle Konstitution.' Jahrbuch fuer sexuelle Zwischenstufen, 23, 3–27.</ref><ref>{{cite web | last = Voss | first = Heinz-Juergen | title = Sex In The Making - A Biological Account | url = http://DasEndeDesSex.blogsport.de/images/voss_2011_sex_in_the_making.pdf | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110601000121/http://dasendedessex.blogsport.de/images/voss_2011_sex_in_the_making.pdf | archive-date = 2011-06-01 | access-date = 2018-01-04 }}</ref> The first suggestion to replace the term 'hermaphrodite' with 'intersex' came from British specialist Cawadias in the 1940s.<ref name="Cawadias, A. P. 1943">Cawadias, A. P. (1943) ''Hermaphoditus the Human Intersex'', London, Heinemann Medical Books Ltd.</ref> This suggestion was taken up by specialists in the UK during the 1960s.<ref>Armstrong, C. N. (1964) "Intersexuality in Man", IN ARMSTRONG, C. N. & MARSHALL, A. J. (Eds.) ''Intersexuality in Vertebrates Including Man'', London, New York, Academic Press Ltd.</ref><ref>Dewhurst, S. J. & Gordon, R. R. (1969) ''The Intersexual Disorders'', London, Baillière Tindall & Cassell.</ref> Historical accounts from the early twentieth century include that of Australian Florrie Cox, whose marriage was annulled due to "malformation frigidity".<ref name="Richardson" />
Since advances in surgery have made it possible for intersex conditions to be concealed, many people are not aware of how frequently intersex conditions arise in human beings or that they occur at all.<ref>{{cite journal | author-link = Alice Dreger | first = Alice Domurat | last = Dreger | title = "Ambiguous Sex"--or Ambivalent Medicine?" | journal = [[Hastings Center Report]] | date = May 1998 | volume = 28 | issue = 3 | pages = 24–35| doi = 10.2307/3528648 | jstor = 3528648 | pmid = 9669179 }}</ref> Dialog between what were once antagonistic groups of activists and clinicians has led to only slight changes in medical policies and how intersex patients and their families are treated in some locations.<ref>{{Cite journal| last = Dreger| first = Alice| author-link = Alice Dreger| title = Malta Bans Surgery on Intersex Children| journal = The Stranger SLOG| date = 3 April 2015| url = http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/04/03/22001053/malta-bans-surgery-on-intersex-children| url-status=live| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150718144253/http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/04/03/22001053/malta-bans-surgery-on-intersex-children| archive-date = 18 July 2015}}</ref> Numerous civil society organizations and human rights institutions now call for an end to unnecessary "normalizing" interventions.
The first public demonstration by intersex people took place in Boston on October 26, 1996, outside the venue in Boston where the [[American Academy of Pediatrics]] was holding its annual conference.<ref name="holmes">{{cite web |url=http://intersexday.org/en/max-beck-morgan-holmes-boston-1996/ |title=When Max Beck and Morgan Holmes went to Boston |last=Holmes |first=Morgan |author-link=Morgan Holmes |date=17 October 2015 |work=[[Intersex Day]] |access-date=2015-10-24 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151020004238/http://intersexday.org/en/max-beck-morgan-holmes-boston-1996/ |archive-date=20 October 2015 }}</ref> The group demonstrated against "normalizing" treatments, and carried a sign saying "Hermaphrodites With Attitude".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.isna.org/books/chrysalis/beck |title=Hermaphrodites with Attitude Take to the Streets |last=Beck |first=Max |author-link=Max Beck |website=[[Intersex Society of North America]] |access-date=2015-10-24 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151005043221/http://www.isna.org/books/chrysalis/beck |archive-date=2015-10-05 }}</ref> The event is now commemorated by [[Intersex Awareness Day]].<ref name="driver">{{cite web |url=http://intersexday.org/en/origin-intersex-awareness-day/ |title=The origins of Intersex Awareness Day |last1=Driver |first1=Betsy |date=14 October 2015 |work=[[Intersex Day]] |access-date=2015-10-24 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151020004155/http://intersexday.org/en/origin-intersex-awareness-day/ |archive-date=20 October 2015 }}</ref>
==See also==
* [[Timeline of intersex history]]
==Footnotes==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
{{Commons category|Intersex in history}}
{{Intersex}}
[[Category:Intersex history]]