Koekchuch is an extinct

gender identity Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the ...

recorded among the

Itelmens The Itelmens (Itelmen: Итәнмән, russian: Ительмены) are an indigenous ethnic group of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. The Itelmen language is distantly related to Chukchi and Koryak, forming the Chukotko-Kamchatkan langua ...

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part ...

. These were male assigned at birth individuals who behaved as women did, and were recorded in the late 18th century and early 19th century. The Russian researcher of Siberia and Kamchatka,

Stepan Krasheninnikov Stepan Petrovich Krasheninnikov (russian: Степа́н Петро́вич Крашени́нников; – ) was a Russian explorer of Siberia, naturalist and geographer who gave the first full description of Kamchatka in the early 18th cent ...

, in his “Description of the Land of Kamchatka” (''Описании земли Камчатки'') describes Koekchuch as “people of the transformed sex” () - a special category of men who “go in women’s dresses, do all the women’s work and don't socialize with men” (). According to Krasheninnikov’s description, the Koekchuch also served as

concubines Concubinage is an interpersonal and sexual relationship between a man and a woman in which the couple does not want, or cannot enter into a full marriage. Concubinage and marriage are often regarded as similar but mutually exclusive. Concubi ...

. Krasheninnikov notes similar phenomena not only among the Itelmens, but also among the

Koryaks Koryaks () are an indigenous people of the Russian Far East, who live immediately north of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Kamchatka Krai and inhabit the coastlands of the Bering Sea. The cultural borders of the Koryaks include Tigilsk in the south ...

, however, the latter kept koekchuch, unlike Itelmens, “not in honor, but in contempt”.

References

LGBT in Russia Gender in Asia Gender systems History of Siberia 18th century in LGBT history 19th century in LGBT history Third gender Transgender in Asia {{Gender-studies-stub Indigenous LGBT culture