In a hierarchy-based society such as Burma's, every difference carries a difference in prestige. Men and women differ in a lot of ways, but men's prestige outranks in principle that of their wives. What about men who do not enter into social relations in normal ways, that is, do not marry and have children? Transgendered men (those whose gender-presentation and/or sexuality contravenes the expected) give up much of the status advantage their biological sex would usually grant them. Monks enjoy much greater prestige than their sex alone would furnish them. How do these men, one set positioned at the lower margin, the other at the upper margin, of Burmese society, negotiate their status in a society in which they hold long-recognized but still distinctive roles?



Seminar Co-Hosted by CHL Island and Mainland SE Asia Departments