Re: Nandani from Andrew Larsen on 2005-06-20 (Glorantha Digest Vol 11)

From: Andrew Larsen <aelarsen_at_mac.com>
Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2005 18:51:49 -0500

> From: Nils Weinander <nils_at_weinander.org>
> Subject: Re: Nandan
> To: glorantha_at_rpglist.org
> Message-ID: <42B6D912.20802_at_weinander.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> Stephen Tempest:

>> 
>> Incidentally, as a side issue, do people think that there will be as
>> many men who follow Nandan as women who follow Vinga?  And if not, why
>> not?

>
> I think there are far fewer followers of Nandan than there
> are of Vinga. Vingans are still women, in all respects, who
> take on predominantly male tasks. Nandans on the other hand
> are regarded as women in men's bodies. I think that there
> are more women with a call to battle and adventure than there
> are transsexual men.

> This difference is interesting, as there is thus no place for
> men who want to take on predominantly female tasks but still
> are men, who marry women etc. Are there no male healers,
> herbalists, visionaries etc. in heortling society?

I don't think that Nandani are simple male transsexuals, although certainly some of them are. Since Nandani are essentially men living as women, they qualify as a 'third sex', similar to the Berdache tradition among some Native Americans or the Tritiya-Prakriti of India (to use just one of several terms). These are men who occupy a female position socially, to the point of being able to marry other men (and there are similar traditions in some cultures for women living as men). From a modern western standpoint, these are two people in a homosexual relationship, but to the culture, it is not homosexual, since you have people of different genders (as opposed to sex) being married.

Playing around broadly with this concept, a Nandani could be 1) a transsexual in the modern western sense [a man who wants/needs/is called to a female body], with the ability to get pregnant and do other things that only a woman can do biologically. 2) a homosexual man who wishes to have a male partner. The subcult of Nandani provides one of the cultural outlets for male homosexual desire, along with Heler and probably Eurmal. 3) a man who wishes to function culturally as a woman because he wishes to perform female functions, such as cooking, cleaning, weaving, healing, etc. Obviously, YGWV, but I think a broad definition of Nandani is most interesting for game play.

It wouldn't surprise me if Chalana Arroy also had some sort of gender blurring going on, so that male healers would tend to operate in a feminine fashion. And, in reverse, the cults of Vinga and Babeester Gor are cultural outlets for lesbianism in Heortling society, but not all Vingans and Gori are lesbians.

Andrew E. Larsen

End of Glorantha Digest, Vol 11, Issue 204