Are there pseudohermaphroditic people on Malo island?

1. Pigs, not people: the Narave as Malo’s documented intersex case

Ethnographic and genetic research identifies the Narave (or Naravé) pig as a male pseudohermaphroditic domestic pig native to northern Vanuatu and especially associated with Malo Island, where intersex pigs have been reported in villages such as Avunatari and where sacred “Narave” animals have cultural significance ^{[1] [2] [3]}. Genetic studies examining mitochondrial DNA sampled pseudohermaphroditic Narave pigs from Malo and confirmed their distinct lineage and relationship to other Vanuatu sacred pigs, documenting a biological basis for the pig phenotype in those animals rather than a human epidemiology ^[3].

2. Scientific framing: why “pseudohermaphroditism” is an outdated human clinical label

Medical and classification sources make clear that “pseudohermaphroditism” is an older, increasingly deprecated term for human conditions in which gonadal sex and external genital appearance differ; modern practice prefers “differences (or disorders) of sex development” (DSD) and the international disease classification has been revised accordingly ^[1]. That shift in terminology matters because contemporary reporting and research on human intersex conditions use DSD frameworks and genetic diagnostics, which are not present in the sources linked to Malo Island.

3. No sourced evidence of pseudohermaphroditic humans on Malo Island

The material provided documents intersex in pigs on Malo repeatedly ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]} and discusses human DSD conditions more generally in clinical literature ^{[5] [6] [7] [8]}, but none of the sources supplied report a community or elevated incidence of pseudohermaphroditism among Malo’s human population. An overview that lists island populations with unusual genetic conditions mentions high frequencies of male pseudohermaphroditism among some Pacific tribes broadly, but it does not link that claim to Malo specifically in the supplied excerpt ^[9]. Therefore, there is no documented, sourced basis here to assert that pseudohermaphroditic people are present on Malo Island.

4. Why confusion spreads: sacred pigs, local terminology, and outsider reporting

Multiple popular and academic pieces spotlight the Narave pig’s unusual anatomy and ritual status, and casual readers or secondary sources can conflate animal intersex phenomena with human conditions when local terms (e.g., narave) or sensational phrasing are translated without care ^{[1] [4] [10]}. The strongest, peer‑reviewed evidence in the set links the phenomenon to pigs — including biochemical and genetic studies pointing to enzyme deficiencies and inherited patterns that produce male pseudohermaphroditism in pigs — rather than to human epidemiology on Malo ^{[3] [11] [4]}.

5. Limitations, alternative perspectives, and what would change the conclusion

This analysis is limited to the supplied sources: none document human DSD prevalence on Malo Island, so the defensible conclusion is that the reported pseudohermaphroditism on Malo refers to Narave pigs, not people ^{[1] [2] [3]}. Alternative possibilities exist — for instance, unpublished local medical records, anthropological fieldwork not included here, or oral histories could reveal human cases — but those are not present in the material provided and therefore cannot be asserted; conversely, broad statements that Pacific islands can have elevated DSD frequencies in small, isolated populations are discussed in comparative contexts elsewhere but are not tied to Malo’s human population in these sources ^{[9] [4]}. If primary medical surveys, genetic studies, or reliable ethnographic fieldwork documenting human DSD on Malo were produced, the conclusion would need revisiting.