Transfemininity, the Divine and Community: Practices of Memory among the Jōgappas in rural South India

Abstract

This paper focuses on the so called jōgappas in the rural North of today’s Karnataka, South
India and explores examples of their cultural practices which deal with aspects of
transfemininity, the divine and community. Jōgappas originate from various caste, religious
and tribal backgrounds, but form a distinct community of initiated and transfeminine devotees
of the regional goddess Ellamma. Their transfemininity challenges the dominant gender norm,
placing the jōgappas on the margins of society. The religious tradition of Ellamma, however,
provides alternative meaningful interpretations and divine legitimations for the jōgappas’
transfemininity, which empower the jōgappas to express their norm-defying identity openly
and to claim a respected position within society. Concepts and norms that are formative here,
are passed on and appropriated, articulated, internalized, remembered, reinforced and (re-
)negotiated through various kinds of oral narratives and ritual practices, and invoke the
goddess Ellamma as the origin of the jōgappas’ identity and as supreme power above all. In
this paper, I look at such alternative and empowering literary and performative modes of
expression based on material from my own ethnographic fieldwork, mainly interviews with
jōgappas. I construe these modes of expression as practices of memory and explore their role
for the resistive identity and community formation among the jōgappas.