Abstract
How does breaking boundaries and passing identity red lines affect social and personal life? How do people with contradictory identities experience life in a traditional society? What will happen if the material and bodily identity of an individual goes against social norms? This research is a narration of some parts of an intersex life, an individual with a vague, unknown identity who contradicts the common norms of the society. In a traditional society, where gender and sexual identity act as a taboo and a powerful source of identity, people with uncommon (gender and sexual) identities suffer from an unstable social status. The story of Setareh/Saman’s life is told based on the archaeological remains from the debris of destroyed layers of a house in Bam. This is the story of transforming from female to male, the story of limitations, social inequalities and pressures on the individuals and the minorities who are condemned because of who they are.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the ‘Rescue Project of Arg-e Bam after the Earthquake’. We express our gratitude to Dr. S. Mokhtari, former ‘Bam Rescue Project’ director. We also thank O. Garazhian and M. Naeemi for their useful suggestions and instructive comments and Sepideh Saeedi for her help translating the text, and we are very grateful to La’ya Alinia for her editing of the text. Any mistake is the responsibility of the authors.
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Dezhamkhooy, M., Papoli Yazdi, L. Breaking the Borders/Violating the Norms: An Archaeological Survey of an Intersex in a Traditional Society, Bam (South Eastern Iran). Sexuality & Culture 17, 229–243 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-012-9148-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-012-9148-z