Queer Culture in Southeast Asia

Queer Culture of Southeast Asia. When discussing queer culture in modern times, it is automatically classified as a western idea. Queer identities and queer struggles are associated with whiteness, as a white concept. This is one of the many causes of colonization, and how in some way it erased the history of oppressed communities. However, pre-colonization history indicates that queer culture had been developed within ancient civilizations. If we look at ancient civilizations in Latin America, societies had a different ideology of what gender was, and were open to the idea of same-sex interactions. It is no different of Southeast Asia. As we examine several cultures we see that queer culture has a historical context within marginalized communities. The Buginese people are an ethnic group of South Sulanesi, which is a providence in Indonesia. Their origins trace back to 2500 BCE as being ancestors to people with an Austronesian background. Gender, for this ethnic group, is seen as fluid. There are five genders within this ethnic group: male, female, calabai, calalai and Bissu. The Buginese people, like other ethnic groups, believed that male-female identities helped with the structure of the universe. Thus, ritual specialist exhibited androgynous characteristics in order to communicate with spirits. The Bissu, an example of ritual specialist with androgynous characteristics, have the main purpose to give blessings to people, since it is believed that they are possessed by spirits. This ethnic group believes that the Bissu came to be when Batara Guru was sent down to create life in the planet. However, since he was not the best at organizing, so two bissu were sent down to help Batara Guru create a culture that would blossom. In this sense, the Buginese people acknowledge that this culture was created, by two gender non-conforming aides. The Bissu influenced, is also connected to the modern-day Warias of Indonesia. Part of the connection between the Warias and