Ancient Mesopotamia: Gender Was Already Complex

Ajouté : 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Hey there, this is Abby Leon, the trans girl next door.

[00:00:09]As you know, we've been looking at gender across cultures. But what happens when we go further back? Not to another country and not to another tradition, but the very beginning of civilization itself. Because long before modern identities, before the West society was actually a thing. Actually, even before the idea of society as we know it, there were already people who didn't fit into men or women. And to understand that, we have to start with a goddess. We are talking about Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization. A region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that today would be Iraq, parts of Syria, Turkey and Iran. This is one of the first recorded civilization in human history.

[00:00:49]We're talking about roughly 3,500 to 4,000 years before the common era. At this time, writing had just been invented. Cities were forming and religion was starting to shape everything. And within that ancient world, gender was already more complex than we tend to assume. But before we talk about people here, I told you we need to talk about a goddess. One of the most complex and powerful deities in the region was Inanna, and later known as Ishtar. She was the goddess of love, the goddess of sexual desire, and she was also the goddess of war, the goddess of political power, and the goddess of transformation. She had this duality like creation and destruction or pleasure and violence. In ancient hymns, she was described as the one who can turn a man into a woman and a woman into a man. The one who confuses the categories of gender. This blows my mind. This is almost prehistorical, almost. And this is not just marginal mythology. This was central. There's even a myth where she descends into the underworld and she's stripped of all of her symbols of power, almost like a ritual of transformation. So from the very beginning, we are dealing with a divine figure that does not respect fixed categories. And people who served there didn't fit neatly into categories, either. Groups like gala, assinnu, and kurgarru. The gala were temple priests of Inanna. They performed ritual laments and sacred music. Many were assigned at male at birth, yet they used a dialect called emesal, a form of speech associated with women. So, you have male assigned individuals speaking in a feminine language within sacred roles.

[00:02:26]We already see that in other cultures.

[00:02:28]This is very interesting how this is repeating with kitara and makushas and two-spirit people. Uh I'm sorry, I forgot to mention the mahu, as well.

[00:02:38]That would make four of them. And with this, I'm trying to make reference to people who is not a part of the binary of men and women, and yet they are considered something as a third gender, and always related to something spiritual. Like, this is not random.

[00:02:52]This has been going on since the creation of society itself. The assinnu appear in Akkadian texts, and they are linked to Ishtar temples. They are described in ways that suggest non-conformity of gender expression, roles outside traditional masculinity, and a possibility of same-sex relations.

[00:03:09]So, they were clearly people outside the binary and the norm. And then we have the kurgarru, figures associated with rituals, transformation, and disruption.

[00:03:18]In some myths, they were created by the gods themselves to intervene in moments of change. They existed in between male and female, between order and chaos, and between structure and transformation.

[00:03:30]So, these figures were meant to challenge. So, now we need to ask, were these people fully accepted? Not exactly, but they weren't erased, either. They had a place, mostly within religious life, within temples and within rituals, which means something important. They were visible. They were recognized, and they were integrated in specific ways. But that doesn't necessarily mean they were equals. Some texts suggest a level of respect. Others hint discomfort. So, here is not a simple answer. What we find is something a little bit more complex. Like, they weren't hidden, but it's not like they were free, either. So, they were in a place between acceptance and limitation, and recognition, and what's different.

[00:04:11]Kind of where we are today. So, yeah.

[00:04:13]There's something about this that really stayed with me. We're talking about one of the first documented civilizations in human history. I mean, it's huge. The moment humans start writing things down.

[00:04:25]The moment where humans start organizing societies. That honestly completely blows my mind. Because it makes you wonder, if this was already part of humanity from the start, then what are we really arguing about today? It's all just in our ancient DNA. If you made it this far in the video, thank you so much. As I always tell you, please leave a like, leave a comment, and subscribe.

[00:04:46]You can follow me as well on my social media. It's completely free, and it really, really helps me grow. You can join the channel membership to support my content. And if you want to give me a little extra support, you can donate as much as you want through PayPal me.

[00:04:58]Thank you all so much for watching. This was Ivelisse Leon, and I'll be reading you in the comment section.

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