Qwariwarmi

Qwariwarmi, Quariwarmi, Qhariwarmi, or Qariwarmi is a third gender in Peru, the pre-colonial Inca civilization had shamans called quariwarmi. Qwariwarmi means "men-women," and describe AMAB people that live as a mixed-gender role.

Andean Studies scholar Michael Horswell writes: "These quariwarmi (men-women) shamans mediated between the symmetrically dualistic spheres of Andean cosmology and daily life by performing rituals that at times required same-sex erotic practices. Their transvested attire served as a visible sign of a third space that negotiated between the masculine and the feminine, the present and the past, the living and the dead. Their shamanic presence invoked the androgynous creative force often represented in Andean mythology."

Richard Trexler also gives an early Spanish account of religious quariwarmi figures from the Inca empire in his 1995 book "Sex and Conquest": He states "And in each important temple or house of worship, they have a man or two, or more, depending on the idol, who go dressed in women's attire from the time they are children, and speak like them, and in manner, dress, and everything else they imitate women."

Admittedly, quariwarmi is an identity that is very rare even in modern times. There is very little information on quariwarmi in Peruvian sources other than oral traditions, and even less in English, as the information is lost in time, however there still are quariwarmi individuals who exist in modern day, however small that number may be.

Flag

The quariwarmi flag was coined by an anomynous through Tumblr user pride-color-schemes on January 29th of 2017. The choice of colors for the bars come from colors use for depictions of Inti, (a very important deity to Native Peruvians,) while the jaguar comes from the Golden Jaguar that quariwarmi perform rituals to.

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