A Fifth Gender That Bridges the Human and Spirit Worlds

The Bugis people of South Sulawesi in Indonesia traditionally recognise five gender categories rather than the two most societies work with, and bissu occupy the position considered to combine masculine and feminine qualities into a single unified whole, a totality that neither ordinary men nor ordinary women are held to possess on their own. This combined nature is what traditionally qualified bissu to serve as ritual specialists mediating between the human community and the spirit world, presiding over ceremonies tied to agriculture, royal courts and life cycle events in Bugis indigenous cosmology.

Davies' ethnographic study of gender among the Bugis documents the keris, the ceremonial dagger widely associated with Indonesian court and ritual culture, as part of the ritual regalia bissu historically employed in their ceremonial functions, particularly in the courts of Bugis kingdoms such as Bone and Wajo, where bissu held recognised positions attending the ruler and presiding over palace rites. Becoming a bissu traditionally involved recognised signs identified in childhood, a perceived combination of gendered traits and behaviour the community read as marking the child for this particular ritual vocation rather than treating bissu status as a role anyone could simply choose to take up.