How the Sexes Have Been Counted in World History

For much of human recorded history, sex has been determined by genital observation of infants who are then socialized as boys or girls or categorized as hermaphrodites - a third sex. Sex has also been subject to revision on the basis of genital ambiguity, castration, comportment or sexual orientation, producing widespread world historical patterns of counting the sexes in multiples greater than two. There is a growing corpus of comparative anthropological evidence, relating to numerous extant cultures, of individuals who have traditionally occupied a specific social reality that is neither that of a man nor a woman. This evidence suggests the need to be more attuned to the possibility of multiple sexes and to consider that across cultures and historically, the sexes have not generally been counted according to the modern Western binary of male-female. In recent decades, the increased visibility and legal status of transgender, queer, nonbinary, and intersex individuals in contemporary cultures now makes modern cultures again more open to third sexes. This should not be viewed as a particularly odd or modern development" rather it is far more consistent with historical traditions than the binary system still most frequently taken to be the norm.