Omeggid: How Guna Society Recognises People Who Live as Women

Omeggid, which anthropologists gloss as “woman-like” or “looks like a woman”, is the Guna word for people identified as boys at birth who grow up and live as women. Fieldwork in Guna Yala describes them staying with their birth family rather than marrying, and their feminine identity being recognised by the community. Some Guna, though, hear “omeggid” as an insult and prefer “wigudun”.

Foreign travel writing has often turned this into a headline about a “third gender” in a tolerant island paradise. The sources that know the subject best tell a more careful story, with real recognition and real stigma side by side. This page sticks to what those sources say.

What the word means

The most detailed source in print is an ethnography by the anthropologist Diego Madi Dias, published in 2018 in the journal Sexualidad, Salud y Sociedad (SciELO). It is based on twenty-two months of fieldwork among the Guna, most of it in the community of Mammidub. There, omeggid is a vernacular category meaning “looks like a woman”. Spanish-language press in Panama often writes it omeguid and translates it as “como mujer”, like a woman.

The word describes a social position, not a medical one. The article is about how omeggid use kinship terms, calling others brother or sister, to claim a feminine place in family life.

How it is recognised in childhood

According to Madi Dias, in Mammidub it is the women who notice. They recognise it through a child’s clear interest in the visual and material culture associated with women, especially textile art, the mola, and making wini, the bead bracelets women wear. He adds an important nuance: this recognition is not a definitive verdict on who the child is.

That link with molas is no coincidence. The mola is the clearest marker of Guna womanhood, worn as part of women’s everyday blouses, as we explain in molas explained. A boy drawn to cutting and stitching cloth is a boy drawn to the work of the women around him.

Where omeggid live and what they do

Guna society is uxorilocal: when a couple marries, the husband moves into the wife’s family household. Madi Dias describes omeggid as stepping outside that pattern. They do not marry, and they remain attached to their birth family through adult life. Many build a space of their own, from a separate room to a house on another part of the family plot, and their autonomy tends to grow with age.

The article describes omeggid sharing in household work and gives particular weight to hosting and sharing food, which it presents as central to how they are seen. Relationships with men exist, but outside the institution of marriage.

How Guna society regards them

There is no single answer, and anyone who offers one is simplifying.

In the communities Madi Dias studied, the feminine identity of omeggid is considered authentic by their household and by the community. That does not mean uniform approval: he records that some omeggid are praised by young men’s mothers for teaching good conduct, while others are seen as bad company, accused of leading a young man to misbehave. Fear of being left alone also runs through the testimonies he collected.

Guna activists add a harder edge. In a 2026 interview with La Estrella de Panamá, the activist Nandín Solís described being mocked as a child, including at school (La Estrella de Panamá). She recounted presenting herself as omeguid before the Guna General Congress and causing a scandal, and an elderly woman telling her not to use the word because it is used to insult; she was a wigudun, the woman said. Solís also argues that some Guna leaders have taken on discriminatory, macho attitudes from outside, and that a trans woman visiting Guna Yala may be told to cut her hair or not wear make-up. These are her account and her views, and they sit alongside the ethnography rather than cancelling it.

The fair summary is this: the Guna have long had words and a place for these women, families often protect them, and they still face stigma, both inside the comarca and in wider Panamanian society.

Wigudun: the figure behind the name

In Guna tradition, as Madi Dias recounts it, harmonious social life began with the arrival of culture heroes, among them Ibeorgun and his younger brother Wigudun. Today omeggid activists invoke Wigudun as an ancestor, and Solís describes a wigudun as a soul of two spirits that moves between the genders.

The name has been taken up publicly. The Asociación Wigudun Galu, which Solís helped found in 2013, brings together omeggid women of the Guna people. In 2022 the documentary Wigudun, alma de dos espíritus, which follows four of its members as mothers, partners, professionals and leaders, opened in Panamanian cinemas; La Estrella de Panamá reported that it shows the discrimination and stigma they face (La Estrella de Panamá). The association’s president told the paper that, according to legend, Wigudun taught women to make molas.

Which words to use as a visitor

Term	What it means	As a visitor
Omeggid (omeguid)	“Looks like a woman”; the usual term in anthropology	Useful to understand; some Guna hear it as an insult, so do not use it to label anyone
Wigudun	The name of the culture hero; preferred by some Guna trans women	Use it only if a person uses it for herself
Trans woman (mujer trans)	Used by Guna activists and the Panamanian press	Fine if that is how she describes herself
“Third gender”	A label from foreign travel writing	Not a Guna term; better avoided

The practical etiquette is the same that applies to anyone you meet on a Guna community island, with a few points worth stressing:

• Use the name and pronouns a person uses. In most cases that simply means “she”.
• Do not single anyone out. No questions about bodies, no pointing, no treating a person as a sight to see.
• Ask before photographing, as you would with anyone, and accept no as an answer.
• Buy molas from whoever made them. The money goes straight to the maker, whoever she is.

If you are curious, ask your guide about Guna traditions in general rather than about a particular person. Guna words carry their own history, as our post on what Guna Yala means shows, and the people who use them are the ones who decide what they mean.

Frequently asked questions

What does omeggid mean?

It is a Guna word that anthropologists gloss as “looks like a woman” or “woman-like”, and Panamanian press translates as “like a woman”. It refers to people identified as boys at birth who grow up and live as women within Guna society.

Do the Guna have a third gender?

“Third gender” is a label from foreign travel writing, not a Guna term. What the sources describe is a recognised feminine social position, called omeggid, for people identified as boys at birth, along with the figure of Wigudun, whom activists describe as a soul of two spirits.

Are omeggid accepted in Guna society?

Partly, and it depends on whom you ask. Ethnographic fieldwork found their feminine identity recognised by family and community, while Guna activists describe mockery, discrimination and leaders adopting outside prejudices. Both are documented, and neither tells the whole story alone.

Is “omeggid” an offensive word?

It can be. It is the standard term in anthropology, but the activist Nandín Solís recounts an elderly Guna woman telling her that omeguid is used as an insult and that she should say wigudun instead. As a visitor, follow how each person describes herself.

What is Wigudun Galu?

It is an association of omeggid women of the Guna people, founded in 2013 and named after Wigudun, a culture hero of Guna tradition. Four of its members feature in the 2022 documentary Wigudun, alma de dos espíritus.