"In Between"_A Study Of The Cultural Phenomenon Of The "Ko Pu Luo" As A Sexual Minority Among The Jinuo

In our human society, speaking of people’s emotional patterns, the heterosexuality still occupies a dominant, even hegemonic position. Based on that, it brings us the stereotype of social gender and the gender dichotomy containing only male and female. The two make us think that everything consists of two opposite sides, just like only distinguishing the color of black and white, therefore ignoring the existence of things in between.In this thesis, it chooses the "Kopuluo" of Jinuo ethnic group living in Jinuo Mountain, Xishuangbanna District, Yunnan Province as the object of study, which is regarded as a minor group having the intermediate gender. Meanwhile, it tries to rely on Queer Theory and shows how the "Kopuluo" exists in the society of Jinuo ethnic group. The "Kopuluo" is the addressing of people who are neither male nor female in the society of Jinuo ethnic group. They are considered as the persons not conforming to the norms of heterosexuality. And they mainly have features as follows:female have masculine temperament; male show obvious femininity; they change their gender by operations; though their biological sex conforms to their social gender, they live with the same sex or gender persons without any kinship between each other. These features of the "Kopuluo" in Jinuo ethnic group can be found in the diverse kinds of male and female "Kopuluo". The thesis can be divided into three chapters:in chapter one, it describes the female "Kopuluo" who establish families with the same gender persons; in chapter two, it writes about the other female "Kopuluo"; in chapter three, it is about the male "Kopuluo". And one of the male "Kopuluo" receives the sex-change operation and becomes a female. These "Kopoluo" are quite similar to "Queer" on their physical figures, and they all show the inconsistency to some extent in terms of their biological sex, social gender and lust.From this thesis, we can draw some conclusions:the phenomenon of the "Kopuluo" in Jinuo ethnic group indicates that gender diversity is the normality of our human society. The "Kopuluo" group includes some homosexuals and accepts all groups of people, who do not obey the pattern of heterosexual marriages and families, but it does not equal the homosexual group completely; meantime, as a kind of personal identity, the "Kopuluo" is flowing and changing, and it is a tactic choice of people’s life style; in "Kopoluo" group, it exists the families of the same sex or gender people, this pattern supports us a new perspective to rethink the heterosexual marriages and families, and that will play a great role in creating our human-oriented and harmonious society.