This volume focusses on the voluntary and involuntary, temporary or permanent transformation of gender identity, and shows how, across different cultures, processes of gender transformation are shaped within, and constrained by, social and political context. From medical responses to biological ambiguity, legal responses to cases brought by transsexuals, the historical role of the eunuch in Byzantium, the social transformation of gender in Northern Albania and in the Southern Philippines, to North American 'drag' shows, English pantomime and Japanese kabuki theatre.