Binabinaaine or pinapinaaine (with the meaning of "becoming a woman" in

Gilbertese Gilbertese (), also known as Kiribati (sometimes ''Kiribatese'' or ''Tungaru''), is an Austronesian language spoken mainly in Kiribati. It belongs to the Micronesian branch of the Oceanic languages. The word ''Kiribati'', the current name of th ...

) are people who identify themselves as having a

third-gender Third gender or third sex is an identity recognizing individuals categorized, either by themselves or by society, as neither a man nor a woman. Many gender systems around the world include three or more genders, deriving the concept either from ...

role in

Kiribati Kiribati, officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the central Pacific Ocean. Its permanent population is over 119,000 as of the 2020 census, and more than half live on Tarawa. The st ...

and

Tuvalu Tuvalu ( ) is an island country in the Polynesian subregion of Oceania in the Pacific Ocean, about midway between Hawaii and Australia. It lies east-northeast of the Santa Cruz Islands (which belong to the Solomon Islands), northeast of Van ...

, and previously in the

Gilbert and Ellice Islands The Gilbert and Ellice Islands (GEIC as a colony) in the Pacific Ocean was part of the British Empire from 1892 to 1976. It was a British protectorate, protectorate from 1892 to 12 January 1916, and then a crown colony, colony until 1 January 1 ...

which reunited the two archipelagoes. These are people whose sex is assigned male at birth, but who embody female gendered behaviours. The term comes from

and has been loaned into Tuvaluan; it can be used as a noun, a verb or an adverb. The more rarely used term in Tuvaluan is . There are similarities between the societal roles that binabinaaine share with other gender liminal communities from the Pacific, including the Samoan fa'afafine and the Tongan fakaleiti. According to anthropologist

Gilbert Herdt Gilbert H. Herdt (born February 24, 1949) is Emeritus Professor of Human Sexuality Studies and Anthropology and a Founder of the Department of Sexuality Studies and National Sexuality Resource Center at San Francisco State University. He founded ...

, binabinaaine are known for their performances (dancing and singing mainly) and their ability to comment on the appearance and behaviour of Gilbertese and Tuvaluan men. Herdt also wrote that some Tuvaluans view binabinaaine as a "borrowing" from Kiribati whence other "'undesirable' traits of Tuvaluan culture, like sorcery, are thought to have originated", but those ideas are mainly spread by Protestant churches as

Church of Tuvalu The Christian Church of Tuvalu ( Tuvaluan: ''Te Ekalesia Kelisiano Tuvalu'', EKT), is a Christian church and is being the single largest religious denomination in the country. This status entitles it to "the privilege of performing special servic ...

originated from Samoa, where the equivalent of binabinaaine also exists. He also described how, in

Funafuti Funafuti is an atoll, comprising numerous islets, that serves as the capital of Tuvalu. As of the 2017 census, it has a population of 6,320 people. More people live in Funafuti than the rest of Tuvalu combined, with it containing approximately 6 ...

, young women are often friends with older binabinaaine.

References

{{Sexual identities Gender in Oceania Gender systems Culture of Tuvalu Third gender Transgender topics in Oceania Society of Tuvalu Indigenous LGBTQ culture Culture of Kiribati Gender in Kiribati Gender in Tuvalu