Men-women', 'women-men': Reflections on the 'trans' reality, in the diverse and inclusive re-reading of the chroniclers and sculptures of ancient Colombia

Abstract

Background: Over the last decades, the new ideological currents from the LGBTQI+
communities, such as what is referred to as ‘transexual’. In coherence with the evidence
from the neuroendocrine etiology of sexual diversity, the medical community has begun to redefine its traditional concepts regarding human sexuality, seen in the changes on ICD-11, which enters into force in 2022.

Objective: Divulgate and sensibilize the medical community about the 'trans' subject from a complementary historical and technical perspective.

Methodology: Using an intersectional approach, we seek to correlate these past narratives with more contemporary literature on the biological etiology of non-binary people. First, we will introduce the 'trans' history in the Americas from the perspectives of doctors who proposed destigmatization from almost a century ago. Then, we will focus on a more
local angle through the rereading and reinterpretation of the writings of colonial Spanish chroniclers and the archeological evidence from three different indigenous cosmogonies between the 16th and 17th centuries, located over the territories currently known as Panamá, Colombia, Ecuador and Perú.

Results and conclusions: We expose social and anthropological factors that could have
an influence on higher incidence of non-binary people in pre-Columbian communities compared to now with the aim of weighing possible hypotheses of multifactorial etiology. Lastly, we evidence the need of situated research focused on the differential care of the ‘trans’ population, and with it, to propose strategies for college curricular programs to cover these current training requirements of the health professionals.