Makes sense considering the Balkans is one of the few areas in Europe where the genders other than male/female weren’t entirely wiped out by the western gender binary (though numbers are still very small, there’s only like 12 living burrnesha left in Albania from what I’m aware). The practice died down when women gained rights under socialism, as many were living as burrnesha to have the same privileges as men, but there were still those who lived as burrnesha because of reasons other than restrictive gender roles (identity being the main one)
Makes sense considering the Balkans is one of the few areas in Europe where the genders other than male/female weren’t entirely wiped out by the western gender binary (though numbers are still very small, there’s only like 12 living burrnesha left in Albania from what I’m aware). The practice died down when women gained rights under socialism, as many were living as burrnesha to have the same privileges as men, but there were still those who lived as burrnesha because of reasons other than restrictive gender roles (identity being the main one)
I had to look that up but man that’s fascinating.
The german wiki quotes a 2017 study of 24 of them, the english one quotes a 2022 study with your twelve
I have never heard of this, thanks for posting it!