American
Indian Sexual/Gender
Constructions
and Spirituality
Introduction
I chose to write this paper, because I wanted to understand how American Indians could consider the sexually queer among them the most spiritual and respected members of the tribe, while in “Western” [i] Christian European culture the sexually queer have sometimes been labeled the least spiritual and least respected members of society. This paper seeks to begin exploring native visioning of sexual and gender constructions and the spirituality that is assigned to those constructions.
Language Constructions and “Western” Influence
As a non-native white lesbian woman of European Lutheran descent, I find it necessary to begin with the acknowledgement that my epistemology and way of being in the world vary radically from the epistemology and ways of being of early American Indians. Because I was born on the cusp of the millennium generation, I have the ability and yearning to transcend and redefine some of the worldviews I was acculturated into. Post Modern culture and academic training shape my thinking and writing. Yet, it is important to remember that I am not native and that I can only have a limited understanding of the primary and secondary texts I have studied.
Beyond my own limited understanding, there is also a history of “Western” and Christian European systems of thinking that have influenced every part of native culture and thought in both blatant and subtle ways. The most obvious influence of the Christian European influence can be seen in the assimilation of American Indians through missionary work. This missionary influence introduced and taught homophobia to reservation populations.[ii] In more subtle ways, “Western” thinking has shaped the records and research it has gathered in order to try and understand indigenous thought. Despite effort, many researchers and authors have been unable to fully explore native thought construction because they are so thoroughly embedded in “Western” thought. Researchers have been unable to separate themselves from what they are studying.[iii] Will Roscoe, in his article “How to be a Berdache,” argues that “Western” thought has kept researchers from being able to understand the worldview of the American Indians that they are studying, producing ideas that are “reductionist and inaccurate.”[iv]
The influence of “Western” and Christian European thought has not only shaped the record of native ways of knowing and being, but it is has also dramatically changed the language used to describe it. “Western” thinkers used the term “berdache” from Persian and Arabic[v] roots to describe native gender constructions. However, in their creation of a new term, they also added a negative connotation to the term. The French were the first to add berdache to their dictionary, defining it as:
…the passive homosexual
partner. The term has also been
translated as "kept boy" or "male prostitute." The Oxford
English Dictionary cross-references "berdache" to "catamite,"
which is translated as "a boy kept for unnatural purposes." With this
etymology, it should come as no surprise that some contemporary American
Indians and First Nations people have come to consider the term berdache
derogatory and insulting to the image and identity of gay, lesbian,
transgender, and other Two-spirit people.[vi]
As is the case with many words that have been tools of violence and oppression, it is hard to tell what the best term to use is. Like the terms: queer; dyke; and fag, it may be possible to liberate the term and use “berdache” as a term of empowerment. But, like the aforementioned terms, it may also only be liberating when those who are oppressed use the term.
For the purpose of this paper, I will use language that is true to my status in this study. I will reject the “Western” Christian European term “berdache,” in an attempt to reject the heterosexism that created it. Also, I will not use one of the more than 145 native articulations I have uncovered, because I am not native and I cannot begin to understand the intricacies of their meaning. Instead, I will use the term Two-spirit because of its place as the term in the middle. Two-spirit is neither embedded in “Western” thought or in ancient American Indian constructions.[vii] For this reason, it is the most appropriate term for me to use in this paper.
American Indian Sexual/Gender Constructions
Just as language has been constructed by society, sexual and gender constructions are socially constructed and it is important to look at how the American Indians have constructed their anatomical sex and gender within their culture(s). American Indians historically have held a fluid construction of anatomical sex. Nearly 150 American Indian tribes have been documented as having male Two-spirit members and nearly half of these groups also have female Two-spirits.[viii] The key features of the Two-spirit’s role are:
…in order of importance, productive
specialization (crafts domestic work for male [two-spririt’s] and warfare,
hunting and leadership roles in the case of female [two-spririts]), supernatural
sanction (in the form of an authorization and/or bestowal of powers from
extrasocietal sources) and gender variation (in relation to normative
cultural expectations for male and female genders).[ix]
While there are key aspects of the roles of Two-spirits, there are also roles that have varied within tribes over time and circumstance:
For example, multiple
gendered male-bodied people of the Tewa world, kwi-sen, are men empowered with
maternal characteristics and as principle elders of the community assume the
care of the people (their "children"). Kwi-sen (woman+man) are
"sacred mothers" in their communities; their specialized duties are
not public nor are they for public discussion. At specific ceremonial times
(closed to non-Tewa people), they will appear in the plaza to conduct
appropriate calendrical rituals.[x]
Some Two-spirits completely abandoned the role/sex of their birth by cross-dressing and taking on the work of the opposite sex. Some crossed boundaries so much that they truly believed they took on the qualities of the opposite sex. Some male Two-spirits lived so completely as women that they simulated menstruation and childbirth. Some Two-spirits (called contraries) not only crossed boundaries, but they did everything backwards: “Some made a show of doing everything backwards, walking backwards, riding horses seated backwards, to be a living symbol that reminded people of the need for balance.”[xi]
However, some two-sprit’s did not take on the entire role of the opposite sex. Some female Two-spirits only assumed male attire while they were hunting or participating in warfare.[xii] Sexual behavior is also variable. Most often, where there is written record, the intimate partners of Two-spirits are non-Two-spirit members of the same sex (although there are several records of Two-spirits who appear to have been bisexual or heterosexual).[xiii]
Everything about Two-spirits is spiritual in a native context. A large majority of tribes consider Two-spirits to be holy:
Two-spirits
were healers, artists, prophets, whatever their personal vision impelled them
to be. The native world had great respect for personal vision. If you were born
a boy, but came back from your first vision quest at 13 years and said your
vision told you to live as a woman, your choice was honoured [sic]. You even
got a new name celebrating your choice! Likewise the woman who said she wanted
to live as a man, love as a man, even fight as a man, was able to do that freely.[xiv]
Two-spirits are not only spiritual in their form and function, but even the way Two-spirit’s come to know they are a Two-spirit is spiritual. Why are Two-spirits considered spiritual leaders? In Plains tribes, the merit system encouraged Two-spirits to pursue spirituality. “The Plains spiritual economy lent itself to the kind of development whereby [Two-spirits] could augment gender difference with spiritual power – both acquired in the same way.”[xv]
In addition to the merit Two-spirit’s gained in pursuing spirituality, Two-spirit’s were naturally good spiritual leaders because of their unique position between women and men. Two-spirits were thought to be the best mediators in conflicts between men and women because they are able to move between both worlds.
Two-spirits
are the leaders of many of the most sacred native rituals, though the role of
the Two-spirit varied by tribe.
Two-spirits played a central role in Cheyenne ceremonies:
In the old Cheyenne 'New Life Lodge' (Sun Dance), the men danced in their woman, meaning that they wore skirts, while women celebrants often wore men's items of clothing. At the centre [sic] of the people's dancing circle was the two-forked Sun Dance Tree, symbol of life. The Sun Dance is one of the Cheyennes' biggest ceremonies, celebrating their awareness that New Life is not possible without the magic energies that flow from twin-ness.[xvi]
Unfortunately, homophobia on reservations has caused the role of Two-spirit people to change over time. Increased homophobia has decreased the number of Two-spirit people to perform traditional Two-spirit functions:
The absence of recognizable and specifically trained transgender people has led to erasure of the traditional transgender roles and the institutionalization of intense homophobia on reservations, as gay and lesbian homosexuality came to be the focus of social attention, marked as social deviance imported from the white world.[xvii]
American Indians were able to utilize the unique gifts of Two-spirits, because their sexual constructions were fluid. Two-spirits were spiritual beings, shaped by visions and tribes that respected and valued them. However, after Western society introduced homophobia into the culture of the reservation, the number of Two-spirits started to disappear and their roles have been replaced and forgotten.
[i] “Western” is in quotes because it is an ethnocentric social construction that is recognized only because of the arbitrary way we have tried to render a round world in a dualistic flat ideological construction. The west is only the west because of the perceived power given to (or taken by) a mostly white educated, affluent society.
[ii] Thomas, Wesley, and Jacobs, Sue-Ellen, “’—and we are still here.’: from berdache to Two-spirit people,” American Indian Culture and Research Journal v. 23 no2, 1999, electronically retrieved, [http://www.socqrl.niu.edu/forest/SOCI454/Berdachex.html].
[iii] Roscoe, Will, “How to Become a Berdache: Toward a Unified Analysis of Gender Diversity,” Third Sex, Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History, Ed. Herdt, Gilbert, Zone Books, 1994, 360-72.
[iv] Roscoe, 320.
[v] The Persian and Arabic form was used to describe the passive person in a male homosexual relationship.
[vi] Thomas and Jacobs.
[vii] Thomas and Jacobs; see the chart at the end of this paper, where I have listed all of the tribes I could unvcover that recognized Two-Spirits.
[viii] Roscoe, 330; Latham, Kristina, “The Berdache - Transgenderism Among Native-Americans,” electronically retrieved, [http://www.msu.edu/~lees/Kristina/Berdache.htm].
[ix] Roscoe, 332.
[x] Thomas and Jacobs.
[xi] Warren, Patricia Nell, “Being With Two Spirits,” Sacred Hoop Magazine, Issue 12, November 1996, electronically retrieved, [http://www.sacredhoop.demon.co.uk/HOOP-35/Two-spririts.html].
[xii] Roscoe, 335.
[xiii] Although these distinctions can only be made from a “Western” standpoint, because two-spririt’s appear to have been characterized more as a third gender and this does not fit in the “Western” idea of linear sexuality; Roscoe, 335.
[xiv] Warren.
[xv] Roscoe, 353.
[xvi] Warren.
[xvii] Thomas and Jacobs.