patrexes:

makingqueerhistory:

Hi there! We have articles on Sappho, Khnumhotep & Niankhknum, and Zimri-Lim. The post you’re referring to comes from tumblr user @patrexes , this editor’s roommate Avia. I’ve referred to her for the entirety of this answer. She is not a part of this project, so if you like her content, consider supporting her ko-fi. So, from Avia herself:

the post you’re asking about is probably this one, of which i’m the op and afforded the translations. there’s also another post here but personally i’m a little….well, it’s pretty damn [cis voice] if you know what i mean. 

the original texts i excerpted and translated in that post are inanna c [transliteration | cuneiform fragment], inanna i [transliteration], inanna’s descent [transliteration | cuneiform], and the erra epos [transliteration and cuneiform].

inanna i is one of several extant texts which describe inanna’s own genderfluidity (and do so in the first person; it is inanna’s own self-description), and the descent describes the creation of the kurĝarru and gala-tur. erra is not about inanna but describes the kurĝarru again, alongside the assinu, and is nice to have, as an akkadian text rather than a sumerian one.

inanna c, in addition to the classic “to transform men into women and women into men is yours, inanna” quote also describes the creation or transformation of the pilipili, and has this… really cute quote, “dam dam tuku UR-bi LU níĝ dùg ki áĝ-ĝá dùg ^dinana za-kam”, translated typically as “to have a favorite wife to love is yours, inanna”.

the kurĝarru, gala-tur, assinu, and pilipili are all various terms for people which the CAD and ePSD obliquely describe as “cultic performers” and “religious functionaries” because they’re too prim and proper to say “sacred prostitutes”, a term i’m using as a fsswer myself both because “fsswer” just doesn’t have the same ring to it and the specification of full service is too important to just call them sex workers, and because “sacred prostitution” is the generally academically accepted term.

now, while the precise differences between the kurĝarru, gala-tur, assinu, and pilipili, also called ur-sal, sag-ur-sag, and some others are sometimes a little bit lost in translation (it’s unclear, for some, if these are separate categories or simply multiple words for the same people), and “transgender” is a modern word which will not necessarily perfectly encompass an understanding of gender that is some 6000 years old, it’s still quite reasonable to describe these people as overwhelmingly what today we would consider transgender and/or gender non-conforming, and there is evidence suggesting a wide range of personal identity, lifestyles, and forms of embodiment; as wide a range as we find in modern trans communities. 

what’s especially exciting to me, and hopefully to you as well, is that it’s not only that there’s documentation of trans people in sumer, it’s that we as trans and gnc people—as trans and gnc sex workers, even—aren’t even tolerated, but sacred. in this theology, we are created for inanna, in inanna’s own gnc image, as sacred things. in a world that thinks of us as expendable, dirty, subhuman… that’s so important. i really cannot overstate the serenity which comes of seeing yourself in your theology, and being explicitly told that you are valuable, that you are supposed to be this.

but anyway. if you want to do any further research yourself, there’s a surprising amount of scholarship on transness in sumer, and you’ll find german to be a particularly useful scholarly language. there are also some interesting comparative approaches, particularly with roman and hebrew contact. here’s an article on each. fair warning if you dig deeper, though, and aren’t super familiar with academia: the language used in scholarly work tends to be… impolite. transphobia and whorephobia abound here particularly, and they won’t shy from slurs.

hope this information proves helpful!

oh hey yall here’s some sumerian bullshit instead of scandinavian bullshit for once! enjoy