PREFACE
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

ix
xv

1.

Introduction
Saskia E. Wieringa and Evelyn Blackwood

1

2.

Sapphic Shadows:
Challenging the Silence in the Study of Sexuality
Evelyn Blackwood and Saskia E. Wieringa

39

PART I

Indigenous Histories, Colonial Legacies

3.

The Politics of Identities and Languages:
Lesbian Desire in Ancient and Modern India
Giti Thadani

67

4.

Lesbians, Men-Women, and Two-Spirits:
Homosexuality and Gender in Native American Cultures
Sabine Lang

91

PART II

Erotic Intimacies and Cultural Identities

5.

"What's Identity Got to Do with It?"
Rethinking Identity in Light of the Mati Work in Suriname
Gloria Wekker

119

6.

Let Them Take Ecstasy: Class and Jakarta Lesbians
Alison J. Murray

139

7.

Women in Lesotho and the (Western) Construction of Homophobia
Kendall

157

PART III

Doing Masculinity: Butches, Female Bodies, and Transgendered Identities

8.

Tombois in West Sumatra:
Constructing Masculinity and Erotic Desire
Evelyn Blackwood

181

9.

Desiring Bodies or Defiant Cultures:
Butch-Femme Lesbians in Jakarta and Lima
Saskia E. Wieringa

206

10.

Negotiating Transnational Sexual Economies:
Female Mahu and Same-Sex Sexuality in "Tahiti and Here Islands"
Deborah A. Elliston

230

PART IV

Nationalism, Feminism, and Lesbian/Gay Rights Movements

11.

How Homosexuality Became "Un-African":
The Case of Zimbabwe
Margrete Aarmo

255

12.

Women's Sexuality and the Discourse on Asian Values:
Cross-Dressing in Malaysia
Tan beng hui

281

13.

Sexual Preference, the Ugly Duckling of Feminist Demands: The Lesbian Movement in Mexico
Norma Mogrovejo

308

INDEX

337