Two-Spirit (also
two spirit or
twospirit) people, or
berdache was a term created in 1990 in anthropological literature, to describe
Native AmericansThe indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples...
who fulfill one of many mixed
gender roleA gender role is defined as a set of perceived behavioral norms associated particularly with males or females, in a given social group or system. It can be a form of division of labour by gender. It is a focus of analysis in the social sciences and humanities...
s found traditionally among many
Native AmericansNative Americans in the United States is the phrase that describes indigenous peoples from North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of...
and Canadian First Nations indigenous groups. These roles included wearing the clothing and performing the work of both male and female genders. There are many indigenous terms for these individuals in the various Native American languages. According to Gilly, male berdachism "was a fundamental institution among most tribal peoples." Roscoe states that male and female berdaches have been "documented in over 130 tribes, in every region of North America, among every type of native culture."
The term "two-spirit" usually implies a masculine spirit and a feminine spirit living in the same body and was coined in 1990 by contemporary
gayThe term gay was originally used, until well into the mid-20th century, primarily to refer to feelings of being "carefree", "happy", or "bright and showy"; it had also come to acquire some connotations of "immorality" as early as 1637....
,
lesbianLesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
,
bisexualBisexuality is sexual behavior with or physical attraction to both sexes , or a bisexual orientation. People who have a bisexual orientation "can experience sexual, emotional, and affectional attraction to both their own sex and the opposite sex"; "it also refers to an individual’s sense of...
, and
transgenderTransgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to diverge from the normative gender roles....
Native Americans to describe themselves and the traditional roles they are reclaiming.
Terminology
Berdache is a generic term used primarily by anthropologists. It is a loan from
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
bardache implying a male prostitute or catamite. The word's origin is complex: the French derives from the
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
bardaxa or
bardaje /
bardaja via
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by a total of around 70 million in the world. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of Vatican City...
bardasso or
berdasia via
ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
bardaj meaning "kept boy; male prostitute, catamite" from
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
bardaj <
Middle PersianMiddle Persian is the Middle Iranian language/ethnolect of Southwestern Iran that during Sassanid times became a prestige dialect and so came to be spoken in other regions as well. Middle Persian is classified as Western Iranian language...
vartak < Old Iranian
*varta-, cognate to Avestan
varəta- "seized, prisoner," formed from an Indo-European root
*welə- meaning "to strike, wound."
Use of the term has widely been replaced with
two-spirit (except in scholarly literature,) which originated in
WinnipegWinnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, in south central Canada, near the eastern edge of the Canadian Prairies, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers...
, Canada in 1990 during the third annual intertribal Native American/First Nations gay and lesbian conference. It is a
calqueIn linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation....
of the Ojibwa phrase
niizh manidoowag (two spirits). It was chosen to distance Native/First Nations people from non-natives as well as from the words
berdache and
gay.
Definition and historic societal role
These individuals were sometimes viewed in certain tribes as having two spirits occupying one body. Their dress is usually a mixture of traditionally male and traditionally female articles. They have distinct gender and social roles in their tribes.
Two-spirited individuals perform specific social functions in their communities.
In some tribes male-bodied two-spirits held specific active roles which varied by tribe
Native people have often been perceived as "warriors," and with the acknowledgment of two-spirit people, that romanticized identity becomes broken. In order to justify this new "Indian" identity many explained it away as a “form of social failure, women-men are seen as individuals who are not in a position to adapt themselves to the masculine role prescribed by their culture” (Lang, 28). Lang goes on to suggest that two-spirit people lost masculine power socially, so they took on female social roles to climb back up the social ladder within the tribe.
Cross dressing of two-spirit people was not always an indicator of cross acting (taking on other gender roles and social status within the tribe). Lang explains “the mere fact that a male wears women’s clothing does not say something about his role behavior, his gender status, or even his choice of partner…” (62). Often within tribes, a child’s gender was decided by depending on either their inclination toward either masculine or feminine activities, or their intersex status. Puberty was about the time by which clothing choices were made to physically display their gender choice.
Two-spirit people, specifically male-bodied (biologically male, gender female), could go to war and have access to male activities such as sweat lodges. However, they also took on female roles such as cooking and other domestic responsibilities. Today’s societal standards look down upon feminine males, and this perception of that identity has trickled into Native society. The acculturation of these attitudes has created a sense of shame towards two-spirit males who live or dress as females and there is no longer a wish to understand the dual lifestyle they possess.
Two-spirits might have relationships with people of either sex. Female-bodied two-spirits usually had sexual relations or marriages with only females. In the Lakota tribe, two-spirits commonly married widowers; a male-bodied two-spirit could perform the function of parenting the children of her husband's late wife without any risk of bearing new children to whom she might give priority. Partners of two-spirits did not take on any special recognition, although some believed that after having sexual relations with a two-spirit they would obtain magical abilities, be given obscene nicknames by the two-spirited person which they believed held "good luck," or in the case of male partners, receive a boost to their masculinity. Relationships between two two-spirited individuals is absent in the literature with one tribe as an exception, the
TewaThe Tewa are a linguistic group of Pueblo American Indians who speak the Tewa language and share the Pueblo culture. Their homelands are on or near the Rio Grande in New Mexico north of Santa Fe...
. Male-bodied two-spirits regarded each other as "sisters," it is speculated that it may have been seen as
incestIncest is any sexual activity between close relatives irrespective of the ages of the participants and irrespective of their consent, that is illegal or socially taboo. The type of sexual activity and the nature of the relationship between persons that constitutes a breach of law or social taboo...
uous to have a relationship with another two-spirit. It is known that in certain tribes a relationship between a two-spirit and non-two-spirit was seen on the most part as neither heterosexual nor homosexual (in modern day terms) but more "hetero-gender," Europeans however saw them as being homosexual. Partners of two-spirits did not experience themselves as "homosexual," and moreover drew a sharp conceptual line between themselves and two-spirits.
Although two-spirits were both respected and feared in many tribes, the two-spirit was not beyond reproach or even being killed for bad deeds. In the
MohaveMohave and Mojave are both tribally accepted and interchangeably used phonetic spellings for a Native American people known among themselves as the Aha macave...
tribe for instance, they frequently became medicine persons and were likely to be suspected of witchcraft in cases of failed harvest or of death. They were, like any other medicine person, frequently killed over these suspicions (such as the female-bodied two-spirit named Sahaykwisā). Another instance in the late 1840s was of a Crow male-bodied two-spirit who was caught, possibly raiding horses, by the Lakota and was killed.
According to certain reports there had never been an alternative gender among the
ComancheThe Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Originally, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian culture....
. This is true of some
ApacheApache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the American Southwest. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, and are related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
bands as well, except for the
LipanLipan Apache are Southern Athabascan people who are aboriginal to present-day Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and the northern Mexican states of Chihuahua, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, and Tamaulipas prior to the 17th century. Present-day Lipans mostly live throughout the U.S...
,
ChiricahuaChiricahua refers to a group of bands of Apache that formerly lived in the general areas of southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona in the United States, and in northern Sonora and Chihuahua in Mexico Chiricahua (also Chiricahua Apaches, Chiricagui, Apaches de Chiricahui, Chiricahues,...
,
MescaleroMescalero is a Native American tribe of Southern Athabaskan heritage currently living on the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation in southcentral New Mexico. The Mescaleros opened their doors to other Apache bands, the Chiricahua who were imprisoned at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and the Lipan Apaches...
, and southern
Dilzhe'eThe Tonto Apache is a one of the groups of Western Apaches and also refers to one of the three dialects of the Western Apache language ....
. One tribe in particular, the Eyak, has a single report from 1938 that they did not have an alternative gender and they held such individuals in low esteem, although whether this sentiment is the result of acculturation or not is unknown. It has been claimed that the
IroquoisThe Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an indigenous people of North America. In the 16th century or earlier, the Iroquois came together in an association known as the Iroquois League, or the "League of Peace and Power"...
did not either, although there is a single report from
Bacqueville de La PotherieBacqueville de la Potherie, also known as Claude-Charles Le Roy, was a French chronicler of New France.His most famous work is Histoire de I'Amerique septentrionale, an account of French expeditions to the Great Lakes and Mississippi region in the late seventeenth century. This book was written in...
in his book published in 1722,
Histoire de l'Amérique septentrionale, that indicates that an alternative gender existed among them (vol. 3, pg. 41). Many, if not all, tribes have been influenced by European
homophobiaHomophobia is defined as an "irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals", or individuals perceived to be homosexual; it is also defined as "unreasoning fear of or antipathy toward homosexuals and homosexuality", "fear of or contempt for lesbians and gay...
/
transphobiaTransphobia refers to discrimination against transsexuality and transsexual or transgender people, based on the expression of their internal gender identity...
.
It has been claimed that the Aztecs and Incas had laws against such individuals, though there are some authors who feel that this was exaggerated or the result of acculturation, because all of the documents indicating this are post-conquest and any that existed before had been destroyed by the
SpanishThe Spanish Empire was one of the largest empires in world history, and one of the first global empires. It included territories and colonies in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania, from the 15th century through—in the case of its African holdings—the latter portion of the 20th century...
. The belief that these laws existed, at least for the Aztecs, comes from the
Florentine CodexThe Florentine Codex is the name given to 12 books created under the supervision of Bernardino de Sahagún between approximately 1540 and 1585. It is a copy of original source materials which are now lost, perhaps destroyed by the Spanish authorities who confiscated Sahagún's manuscripts...
. According to Dr. Nancy Fitch Professor of History at
California State UniversityThe California State University is one of three public higher education systems in the state of California, the other two being the University of California system and the California Community College system. It is incorporated as The Trustees of the California State University...
,
Modern Self-identified Two-Spirits
- Beth Brant
Beth E. Brant is a Canadian Mohawk writer.-Life:...
- Alec Butler
Alec Butler is a Canadian playwright and filmmaker. Born intersex and raised as a female, he was known as Audrey and identified as a butch dyke before pursuing gender reassignment in 1999, and currently identifies as a Two-Spirit and transman.He was a nominee for the Governor General's Award for...
- Chrystos
Chrystos is a Menominee poet and rights activist. Prior to being published, she worked as a home caretaker, and an activist for Turtle Mountain Band of Chipewa, Norma Jean Croy, and Leonard Peltier.-Life and career:...
- Waawaate Fobister
Waawaate Fobister is a Canadian playwright and actor, whose debut work Agokwe won six Dora Mavor Moore Awards in 2009. The play, which premiered at Toronto's Buddies in Bad Times theatre in 2008, is a gay-themed play which explores the burgeoning attraction between two aboriginal teenagers, one a...
- Carole LaFavor
Carole S. LaFavor is an Ojibwe novelist, activist and nurse. She was a member of the President's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS from 1995-1997 and a foundng member of Positively Native, an organisation that supports Native American people with HIV/AIDS...
- Rod Michano
Rod Michano, is a Canadian First Nations HIV/AIDS activist and educator. He is a member of the Ojibways of the Pic River First Nation in Northern Ontario. His father, Toussaint Michano, a World War II veteran, was a former chief to the Ojibways of the Pic River First Nation...
- Landa lakes
Landa Lakes is a Native American drag performer, artist and political activist based in San Francisco. Thomas is commonly known for his contribution as co-chair for the Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirit's...
See also
- The red road
The red road is a pan-Indian and New Age concept of the right path of life, as inspired by some of the beliefs found in a variety Native American religions....
- List of transgender-related topics
- Hijra (South Asia)
In the culture of South Asia, a hijra , is usually considered a member of "the third gender" — neither man nor woman. Most are physically male or intersex, but some are physically female...
- Anima and animus
- Cogender
Cogender is a term customarily applied by anthropologists to South American Indian shamanism in the same sense that the term two-spirit is applied to North American Indian shamanism -- in both cases it refers to usually crossdressing Cogender (also spelled "co-gender", with adjectival form...
Sources and further reading
- Cameron, Michelle. (2005). Two-spirited Aboriginal people: Continuing cultural appropriation by non-Aboriginal society. Canadian Women Studies, 24 (2/3), 123-127.
- Conley, Craig. Oracle of the twofold deities.
- Jacobs, Sue-Ellen; Wesley Thomas, and Sabine Lang (Eds.). (1997). Two-spirit people: Native American gender identity, sexuality, and spirituality. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-02344-7, ISBN 0-252-06645-6.
- Lang, Sabine. (1998). Men as women, women as men: Changing gender in Native American cultures. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-74700-4, ISBN 0-292-74701-2.
- Medicine, Beatrice. (1997). Changing Native American roles in an urban context and changing Native American sex roles in an urban context. In S.-E. Jacobs, W. Thomas, & S. Lang (Eds.) (pp. 145-148).
- Roscoe, Will. (1991). The Zuni man-woman. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 0-8263-1253-5.
- Roscoe, Will. (1998). Changing ones: Third and fourth genders in native North America. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-17539-6.
- Roscoe, Will; & Gay American Indians. (1988). Living the spirit: A gay American Indian anthology. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-01899-1.
- Schaeffer, Claude E. (1965). The Kutenai female berdache. Ethnohistory, 12 (3), 193-236.
- Schultz, James W. (1916). Blackfeet tales of Glacier National Park. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
- Schultz, James W. (1919). Running Eagle, the warrior girl. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
- Spanbauer, Tom. (1991). The man who fell in love with the moon: A novel. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN 0-87113-468-3.
- Trexler, Richard C. (1995). Sex and conquest: Gendered violence, political order, and the European conquest of the Americas. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-3224-3.
- Williams, Walter L. (1986). The spirit and the flesh: Sexual diversity in American Indian cultures. Boston: Beacon Press. ISBN 0-8070-4602-7.
- Williams, Walter L. & Toby Johnson. (2006) "Two Spirits: A Story of Life With the Navajo". Maple Shade, NJ: Lethe Press. ISBN 1-59021-060-3
- Wolf, Rope. Two-spirit: Belonging [Film]
External links