From Susan's Place Transgender Wiki
[edit] Gender Diversity: Crosscultural Variations by Serena Nanda
This book is one of the first attempts by a cultural anthropologist to present the concept of cross-cultural gender variation in the form of a small introductory volume designed for undergraduate students. Nanda is well known within anthropology for her studies of the transgendered Hijra of India. This book--a paperback of 128 pages--attempts to summarize information on specific groups or categories of transgendered peoples among North American Indians, as well as in India, Brazil, Southeast Asia, Polynesia, and in contemporary Euro-American cultures. It's an ambitious goal for a slim volume designed as a supplementary text, and, as such it has some strengths and many weaknesses.
There is an excellent review of this book, written by Andrew Matzner, which was published in Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context, No. 6, 2001. This review is available online at http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue6/matzner_review.html. It is an extensive, fair and well-reasoned review, and it is recommended that readers consult that article for further reference.
