Paper short abstract:

Among the Maale people transgender individuals have been present since a long time. The following paper discusses the circumstances under which those individuals lived and still live and the challenging experiences of an anthropologist studying transgender issues in this small rural community.

Paper long abstract:

The Maale, a small agro-pastoralist group in the south of Ethiopia promised to be an interesting place for research on transgender issues. In the past transgender individuals carried out women's tasks at the king's compound, which is a male domain. This cultural practice was stopped by a modernizing king at the beginning of the 20th century. But still today, men, who decide to live as social women, are present among the Maale.

Carrying out research on that topic is more than a challenging task. The Maale are a small rural community, where anthropologists can only survive being adopted by a host-family. A researcher is physically dependent on the goodwill of the hosts and because of the indispensable social involvement in the society one also wants to please the hosts with one's research and its outcomes. In my case those facts lead to a general change of the research focus.

In my paper I will discuss the life of transgendered individuals among the Maale today and in historical perspective. At the same time I want to show the practical problems and ethical concerns of an anthropologist working on a sensitive topic that among the small face-to-face society, where she is working in, leads to disquiet.