View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by DigitalCommons@Florida International University Florida International University FIU Digital Commons FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations University Graduate School 3-26-2015 Trans Terrains: Gendered Embodiments and Religious Landscapes in Yogyakarta, Indonesia David B. Esch Florida International University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd Part of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons, Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Esch, David B., "Trans Terrains: Gendered Embodiments and Religious Landscapes in Yogyakarta, Indonesia" (2015). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1829. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/1829 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the University Graduate School at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Miami, Florida TRANS TERRAINS: GENDERED EMBODIMENTS AND RELIGIOUS LANDSCAPES IN YOGYAKARTA, INDONESIA A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in RELIGIOUS STUDIES by David Brian Esch 2015 To: Dean Michael R. Heithaus College of Arts and Sciences This thesis, written by David Brian Esch, and entitled Trans Terrains: Gendered Embodiments and Religious Landscapes in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, having been approved in respect to style and intellectual content, is referred to you for judgment. We have read this thesis and recommend that it be approved. _________________________________________ Jason Ritchie _________________________________________ Iqbal Akhtar _________________________________________ Whitney Bauman, Major Professor Date of Defense: March 26, 2015 The thesis of David Brian Esch is approved. ________________________________________ Dean Michael R. Heithaus College of Arts and Sciences ________________________________________ Dean Lakshmi Reddi University Graduate School Florida International University, 2015 ii DEDICATION To the Pesantren Waria Al-Fatah, for opening hearts and minds in the spirit of the Prophet and in the Light of the Bestower of Form and Compassion. I also dedicate this work to my LGBTQ tribe who is murdered every day because others are not yet capable of seeing. And to Linda, Lynn, and Michael, better known as Mom, Dad, and Brother. Thank you for your love. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank my committee for their guidance with this thesis, especially my major advisor, Dr. Whitney Bauman, who encouraged me to strap on the abject bringing what is outside in, and Dr. Iqbal Akhtar for contributing to my understanding of Islam in its Sufi flavor. I want to acknowledge the professors that have imparted their knowledge and kindness to the larger project that is me: Dr. Christine Gudorf for her warm and brilliant advice on theory and Indonesian culture; Dr. Steven Vose for his love of the iconic, aniconic, and iconoclastic; Dr. Nathan Katz for his passionate and engaging courses in Indian religions; Dr. Albert Wakau for his aid on how to ask the right question at the right time; Dr. Dennis Wiedman who revealed how the qualitative can parlay into the quantitative for a stronger analysis, and Dr. Kimberly Harrison for elucidating the consequences of rhetorical context. I also wish to thank the Department of Religious Studies and Department of English at Florida International University for their succor during my graduate program. I am inspired by the members of the waria community for their courageous spirits and silver tongues; this work would not have been possible without their grit, guts, and graciousness. I have benefited from the support of Gadjah Mada University’s Center for Religious and Cross-Cultural Studies program and the generosity of a Henry Luce Fellowship. This project was also made possible by all the friends who transcribed and translated, the colleagues who commented and critiqued, and a family who challenges me to listen and love deeper. Lastly, I wish to thank the students in my classroom who ever-expand my angle of vision and remind me that a quality of connection is what makes for persuading others into more joy and power. iv ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS TRANS TERRAINS: GENDERED EMBODIMENTS AND RELIGIOUS LANDSCAPES IN YOGYAKARTA, INDONESIA by David Brian Esch Florida International University, 2015 Miami, Florida Professor Whitney Bauman, Major Professor Transgendered Indonesians live in the fourth most populated nation in the world with more Muslims than any other country. This thesis summarizes an ethnography conducted on one religiously oriented male-to-female transgender community known in the city of Yogyakarta as the waria. This study analyzes the waria’s gender and religious identities from an emic and etic perspective, focusing on how individuals comport themselves inside the world’s first transgender mosque-like institution called a pesantren waria. The waria take their name from the Indonesian words wanita (woman) and pria (man). I will chart how this male-to-female population create spaces of spiritual belonging and physical security within a territory that has experienced geo- religio-political insecurity: natural disasters, fundamentalist movements, and toppling dictatorships. This work illuminates how the waria see themselves as biologically male, not men. Anatomy is not what gives the waria their gender, their feminine expression and sexual attraction does. Although the waria self-identity as women/waria, in a religious context they perform as men, not women. v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 1 Methods and Theory .................................................................................................................... 3 Approach ...................................................................................................................................... 6 Research Design .......................................................................................................................... 7 Concept Map .............................................................................................................................. 12 Significance ................................................................................................................................ 13 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................................... 15 Gender as a World of Meaning .................................................................................................. 17 Gender Congruence ................................................................................................................... 19 Implicit and Explicit Gender........................................................................................................ 22 Contexualized Gender ............................................................................................................... 25 Beyond Binaries ......................................................................................................................... 28 CHAPTER THREE: WARIA IDENTITY ......................................................................................... 33 Identification Cards .................................................................................................................... 34 Waria History .............................................................................................................................. 37 Gender Completion .................................................................................................................... 39 Waria Marriage ........................................................................................................................... 42 Waria Family .............................................................................................................................. 44 Nested Gender ........................................................................................................................... 45 Complicating Gender ................................................................................................................. 51 Gender Expression .................................................................................................................... 55 Identity Building .......................................................................................................................... 55 CHAPTER FOUR: WARIA BIOCAPITAL ....................................................................................... 60 Victim of Silicone ........................................................................................................................ 65 Trapped Opportunities ............................................................................................................... 66 Wizards ...................................................................................................................................... 67 Public Secret .............................................................................................................................