Trans and travesti presence in anthropology

Abstract

The dialogue from Panel Four of the First Central-Western Anthropology Seminar: “Retakes and Resistances in Contemporary Brasil” – anthropologies, counter-epistemologies, and research by trans anthropologists – serves as a basis for rethinking how transgender individuals occupy academic and knowledge spaces. This article addresses the inclusion of transgender and transvestite individuals in the debate of Brazilian anthropology. It questions how concepts of knowledge, epistemology, and the right to speak traverse through a Western and binary framework, which fails to encompass the experiences of transgender and transvestite women. The goal is to investigate how the experiences of transgender and transvestite women alter analytical perspectives in anthropology. The writings emphasize that transgender people not only break with classical anthropology but also challenge current epistemological and ontological perspectives. Thus, including these narratives within the anthropological scope broadens the field to address issues of intersectionality, colonialism, and agency in the post-contemporary context.