Two-spirit: Difference between revisions
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'''Two-Spirit''' (also '''two spirit''' or, occasionally, '''twospirited''') is a modern, pan-Indian, umbrella term used by some Indigenous North Americans to describe Native people in their communities who fulfill a traditional [[third gender]] (or other [[gender-variant identities worldwide|gender-variant]]) ceremonial and social role in their cultures.<ref name=Estrada>{{cite journal|last1=Estrada|first1=Gabriel|title=''Two Spirits'', ''Nádleeh'', and LGBTQ2 Navajo Gaze|journal=American Indian Culture and Research Journal|date=2011|volume=35|issue=4|pages=167–190|doi=10.17953/aicr.35.4.x500172017344j30|url=https://www.scribd.com/document/318264790/Two-Spirits-Nadleeh-and-Navajo-LGBTQ2-Gaze-pdf}}</ref><ref name=NYT2 /><ref name=NCIA>{{cite journal|last1=Pruden|first1=Harlan|last2=Edmo|first2=Se-ah-dom|title=Two-Spirit People: Sex, Gender & Sexuality in Historic and Contemporary Native America|journal=National Congress of American Indians Policy Research Center |date=2016|url=http://www.ncai.org/policy-research-center/initiatives/Pruden-Edmo_TwoSpiritPeople.pdf}}</ref> | '''Two-Spirit''' (also '''two spirit''' or, occasionally, '''twospirited''') is a modern, pan-Indian, umbrella term used by some Indigenous North Americans to describe Native people in their communities who fulfill a traditional [[third gender]] (or other [[gender-variant identities worldwide|gender-variant]]) ceremonial and social role in their cultures.<ref name=Estrada>{{cite journal|last1=Estrada|first1=Gabriel|title=''Two Spirits'', ''Nádleeh'', and LGBTQ2 Navajo Gaze|journal=American Indian Culture and Research Journal|date=2011|volume=35|issue=4|pages=167–190|doi=10.17953/aicr.35.4.x500172017344j30|url=https://www.scribd.com/document/318264790/Two-Spirits-Nadleeh-and-Navajo-LGBTQ2-Gaze-pdf}}</ref><ref name=NYT2 /><ref name=NCIA>{{cite journal|last1=Pruden|first1=Harlan|last2=Edmo|first2=Se-ah-dom|title=Two-Spirit People: Sex, Gender & Sexuality in Historic and Contemporary Native America|journal=National Congress of American Indians Policy Research Center |date=2016|url=http://www.ncai.org/policy-research-center/initiatives/Pruden-Edmo_TwoSpiritPeople.pdf}}</ref> | ||
The term ''two-spirit'' was created in 1990 at the Indigenous [[lesbian]] and [[gay]] international gathering in Winnipeg, and "specifically chosen to distinguish and distance Native American/First Nations people from non-Native peoples."<ref name="de Vries 2009">{{cite book|last1=de Vries|first1=Kylan Mattias|editor1-last=O'Brien|editor1-first=Jodi|title=Encyclopedia of gender and society|date=2009|publisher=SAGE|location=Los Angeles |isbn=9781412909167 |page=64 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_nyHS4WyUKEC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0|accessdate=6 March 2015|chapter=Berdache (Two-Spirit)}}</ref> The primary purpose of coining a new term was to encourage the replacement of the outdated and considered offensive, anthropological term, ''berdache.''<ref name=NativeOut101/> While this new term has not been universally accepted—it has been criticized as a term of erasure by traditional communities who already have their own terms for the people being grouped under this new term, and by those who reject what they call the "western" [[gender binary|binary]] implications, such as implying that Natives believe these individuals are "both male and female"<ref name="de Vries 2009" />—it has generally received more acceptance and use than the anthropological term it replaced.<ref name=Pember1/><ref name=NativeOut101> | The term ''two-spirit'' was created in 1990 at the Indigenous [[lesbian]] and [[gay]] international gathering in Winnipeg, and "specifically chosen to distinguish and distance Native American/First Nations people from non-Native peoples."<ref name="de Vries 2009">{{cite book|last1=de Vries|first1=Kylan Mattias|editor1-last=O'Brien|editor1-first=Jodi|title=Encyclopedia of gender and society|date=2009|publisher=SAGE|location=Los Angeles |isbn=9781412909167 |page=64 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_nyHS4WyUKEC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0|accessdate=6 March 2015|chapter=Berdache (Two-Spirit)}}</ref> The primary purpose of coining a new term was to encourage the replacement of the outdated and considered offensive, anthropological term, ''berdache.''<ref name=NativeOut101/> While this new term has not been universally accepted—it has been criticized as a term of erasure by traditional communities who already have their own terms for the people being grouped under this new term, and by those who reject what they call the "western" [[gender binary|binary]] implications, such as implying that Natives believe these individuals are "both male and female"<ref name="de Vries 2009" />—it has generally received more acceptance and use than the anthropological term it replaced.<ref name="Pember1" /><ref name=NativeOut101>{{cite web|url=http://nativeout.com/twospirit-rc/two-spirit-101/ |title= Two Spirit 101 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141210110520/http://nativeout.com/twospirit-rc/two-spirit-101/ |archive-date=2014-12-10 |work=NativeOut|quote=The Two Spirit term was adopted in 1990 at an Indigenous lesbian and gay international gathering to encourage the replacement of the term berdache, which means, 'passive partner in sodomy, boy prostitute.'|access-date=23 Sep 2015}}</ref><ref name=BMedicine>{{cite journal |last=Medicine |first=Beatrice |date=August 2002 |title=Directions in Gender Research in American Indian Societies: Two Spirits and Other Categories |url=http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1024&context=orpc |journal=Online Readings in Psychology and Culture |publisher= International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology |volume=3 |issue=1 |page=7 |issn=2307-0919 |doi=10.9707/2307-0919.1024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121208071034/http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1024&context=orpc |archive-date=2012-12-08 |accessdate=2016-06-25 |quote=At the Wenner Gren conference on gender held in Chicago, May, 1994... the gay American Indian and Alaska Native males agreed to use the term "Two Spirit" to replace the controversial "berdache" term. The stated objective was to purge the older term from anthropological literature as it was seen as demeaning and not reflective of Native categories. Unfortunately, the term "berdache" has also been incorporated in the psychology and women studies domains, so the task for the affected group to purge the term looms large and may be formidable.|doi-access=free }}</ref> | ||
"Two Spirit" was not intended to be interchangeable with "LGBT Native American" or "Gay Indian";<ref name=NYT2/> rather, it was created in English (and then translated into Ojibwe), to serve as a pan-Indian unifier, to be used for general audiences instead of the traditional terms in Indigenous languages for what are actually quite diverse, culturally-specific ceremonial and social roles, that can vary quite widely (if and when they exist at all).<ref name=Estrada/><ref name=NYT2/><ref name="de Vries 2009" /> Opinions vary as to whether or not this objective has succeeded.<ref name="de Vries 2009" /><ref name=Pember>{{cite web|url=https://rewire.news/article/2016/10/13/two-spirit-tradition-far-ubiquitous-among-tribes/|title='Two Spirit' Tradition Far From Ubiquitous Among Tribes|publisher=Rewire (website)|first=Mary Annette |last=Pember |date=Oct 13, 2016|accessdate=October 17, 2016 |quote= }}</ref> The decision to adopt this new, pan-Indian term was also made to distance themselves from non-Native gays and lesbians,<ref name=Jacobs2-3,221/> as the term and identity of two-spirit "does not make sense" unless it is contextualized within a Native American or First Nations framework and traditional cultural understanding.<ref name=NCIA/><ref name=NYT1>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/fashion/08SPIRIT.html?_r=0|title=A Spirit of Belonging, Inside and Out|work=The New York Times|date=8 Oct 2006|accessdate=28 July 2016}}</ref><ref name=Vowel-1>{{cite book|last1=Vowel|first1=Chelsea|editor1-last=|editor1-first=|title= Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Métis & Inuit Issues in Canada|date=2016|publisher=Highwater Press|location=Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada|isbn=978-1553796800|page=|accessdate=|chapter=All My Queer Relations - Language, Culture, and Two-Spirit Identity |ref=harv}}</ref> However, the gender-nonconforming, LGBT, or third and fourth gender, ceremonial roles traditionally embodied by Native American and FNIM people, intended to be under the modern umbrella of two-spirit, can vary widely, even among the Indigenous people who accept the English-language term. No one Native American/First Nations' culture's gender or sexuality categories apply to all, or even a majority of, these cultures.<ref name="de Vries 2009" /><ref name=Pember/> | "Two Spirit" was not intended to be interchangeable with "LGBT Native American" or "Gay Indian";<ref name=NYT2/> rather, it was created in English (and then translated into Ojibwe), to serve as a pan-Indian unifier, to be used for general audiences instead of the traditional terms in Indigenous languages for what are actually quite diverse, culturally-specific ceremonial and social roles, that can vary quite widely (if and when they exist at all).<ref name=Estrada/><ref name=NYT2/><ref name="de Vries 2009" /> Opinions vary as to whether or not this objective has succeeded.<ref name="de Vries 2009" /><ref name=Pember>{{cite web|url=https://rewire.news/article/2016/10/13/two-spirit-tradition-far-ubiquitous-among-tribes/|title='Two Spirit' Tradition Far From Ubiquitous Among Tribes|publisher=Rewire (website)|first=Mary Annette |last=Pember |date=Oct 13, 2016|accessdate=October 17, 2016 |quote= }}</ref> The decision to adopt this new, pan-Indian term was also made to distance themselves from non-Native gays and lesbians,<ref name=Jacobs2-3,221/> as the term and identity of two-spirit "does not make sense" unless it is contextualized within a Native American or First Nations framework and traditional cultural understanding.<ref name=NCIA/><ref name=NYT1>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/fashion/08SPIRIT.html?_r=0|title=A Spirit of Belonging, Inside and Out|work=The New York Times|date=8 Oct 2006|accessdate=28 July 2016}}</ref><ref name=Vowel-1>{{cite book|last1=Vowel|first1=Chelsea|editor1-last=|editor1-first=|title= Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Métis & Inuit Issues in Canada|date=2016|publisher=Highwater Press|location=Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada|isbn=978-1553796800|page=|accessdate=|chapter=All My Queer Relations - Language, Culture, and Two-Spirit Identity |ref=harv}}</ref> However, the gender-nonconforming, LGBT, or third and fourth gender, ceremonial roles traditionally embodied by Native American and FNIM people, intended to be under the modern umbrella of two-spirit, can vary widely, even among the Indigenous people who accept the English-language term. No one Native American/First Nations' culture's gender or sexuality categories apply to all, or even a majority of, these cultures.<ref name="de Vries 2009" /><ref name=Pember/> | ||
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{{quote|At the conferences that produced the book, ''Two-Spirited People'', I heard several First Nations people describe themselves as very much unitary, neither "male" nor "female," much less a pair in one body. Nor did they report an assumption of duality within one body as a common concept within reservation communities; rather, people confided dismay at the Western proclivity for dichotomies. Outside Indo-European-speaking societies, "gender" would not be relevant to the social personae glosses "men" and "women," and "third gender" likely would be meaningless. The unsavory word "berdache" certainly ought to be ditched (Jacobs et al. 1997:3-5), but the urban American neologism "two-spirit" can be misleading.<ref name=Kehoe>{{cite web|last=Kehoe |first=Alice B.| authorlink=Alice Beck Kehoe |title=Appropriate Terms|work=SAA Bulletin|publisher=Society for American Archaeology 16(2), UC-Santa Barbara|date=2002 |issn= 0741-5672|url=https://www.saa.org/publications/saabulletin/16-2/saa14.html | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20041105120021/https://www.saa.org/publications/saabulletin/16-2/saa14.html |archivedate= 2004-11-05 |doi = |accessdate= 2019-05-01}}</ref>}} | {{quote|At the conferences that produced the book, ''Two-Spirited People'', I heard several First Nations people describe themselves as very much unitary, neither "male" nor "female," much less a pair in one body. Nor did they report an assumption of duality within one body as a common concept within reservation communities; rather, people confided dismay at the Western proclivity for dichotomies. Outside Indo-European-speaking societies, "gender" would not be relevant to the social personae glosses "men" and "women," and "third gender" likely would be meaningless. The unsavory word "berdache" certainly ought to be ditched (Jacobs et al. 1997:3-5), but the urban American neologism "two-spirit" can be misleading.<ref name=Kehoe>{{cite web|last=Kehoe |first=Alice B.| authorlink=Alice Beck Kehoe |title=Appropriate Terms|work=SAA Bulletin|publisher=Society for American Archaeology 16(2), UC-Santa Barbara|date=2002 |issn= 0741-5672|url=https://www.saa.org/publications/saabulletin/16-2/saa14.html | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20041105120021/https://www.saa.org/publications/saabulletin/16-2/saa14.html |archivedate= 2004-11-05 |doi = |accessdate= 2019-05-01}}</ref>}} | ||
Some who enthusiastically took up the term and used it in the media said that this new, English-language term carried on the full meaning and implications of the Indigenous-language terms used in-community for the specific traditional, ceremonial roles that the anthropologists had referred to<ref name=Criddle>{{Cite | Some who enthusiastically took up the term and used it in the media said that this new, English-language term carried on the full meaning and implications of the Indigenous-language terms used in-community for the specific traditional, ceremonial roles that the anthropologists had referred to<ref name=Criddle>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY21Iirhp5o |title=Frameline Voices: Two Spirits |date=2007 |last=Fertig |first=Ruth |type=Documentary film | access-date = May 3, 2019| publisher = Frameline| time = :40|quote=This is a tradition that extends back tens of thousands of years.}}</ref> - emphasizing the role of the Elders in recognizing a two-spirit person, stressing that "Two Spirit" is not interchangeable with "LGBT Native American" or "Gay Indian";<ref name=NYT2>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/fashion/08SPIRIT.html?_r=0|title=A Spirit of Belonging, Inside and Out|work=The New York Times|date=8 Oct 2006|accessdate=28 July 2016 |quote='The elders will tell you the difference between a gay Indian and a Two-Spirit,' [Criddle] said, underscoring the idea that simply being gay and Indian does not make someone a Two-Spirit.}}</ref> and that the title differs from most western, mainstream definitions of sexuality and [[gender identity]] in that it is not a modern, self-chosen term of personal sexual or gender "identity", but is a sacred, spiritual and ceremonial role that is recognized and confirmed by the Elders of the Two Spirit's ceremonial community.<ref name=Estrada/><ref name=NYT2/> Talking to The New York Times in 2006, Joey Criddle said, | ||
{{quote|The elders will tell you the difference between a gay Indian and a Two-Spirit," ... underscoring the idea that simply being gay and Indian does not make someone a Two-Spirit.<ref name=NYT2/>}} | {{quote|The elders will tell you the difference between a gay Indian and a Two-Spirit," ... underscoring the idea that simply being gay and Indian does not make someone a Two-Spirit.<ref name=NYT2/>}} | ||
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Since historically, many "berdache/two-spirit" individuals held religious or spiritual roles, the term ''two spirit'' creates a disconnection from the past. The terms used by other tribes currently and historically do not translate directly into the English form of ''two spirit'' or the Ojibwe form of ''niizh manidoowag''.<ref name="de Vries 2009" /></blockquote> | Since historically, many "berdache/two-spirit" individuals held religious or spiritual roles, the term ''two spirit'' creates a disconnection from the past. The terms used by other tribes currently and historically do not translate directly into the English form of ''two spirit'' or the Ojibwe form of ''niizh manidoowag''.<ref name="de Vries 2009" /></blockquote> | ||
While some have found the term a useful tool for intertribal organizing, "the concept and word ''two-spirit'' has no traditional cultural significance".<ref name="de Vries 2009" /> Not all tribes have ceremonial roles for these people, and the tribes who do usually use names in their own languages.<ref name=terms> | While some have found the term a useful tool for intertribal organizing, "the concept and word ''two-spirit'' has no traditional cultural significance".<ref name="de Vries 2009" /> Not all tribes have ceremonial roles for these people, and the tribes who do usually use names in their own languages.<ref name="terms">{{cite web|url=http://nativeout.com/twospirit-rc/two-spirit-101/two-spirit-terms-in-tribal-languages/|title= Two Spirit Terms in Tribal Languages |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150102172337/http://nativeout.com/twospirit-rc/two-spirit-101/two-spirit-terms-in-tribal-languages/ |archive-date=2015-01-02|work=NativeOut}}</ref><ref name="NativeOut101" /> | ||
=== Traditional Indigenous terms === | === Traditional Indigenous terms === | ||
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===''Berdache''=== | ===''Berdache''=== | ||
Before the late twentieth-century, non-Native (i.e. non-Native American) anthropologists used the term ''berdache'' ({{nowrap|{{IPAc-en|b|ər|ˈ|d|æ|ʃ|}}}}), in a very broad manner, to identify an indigenous individual fulfilling one of many mixed gender roles in their tribe. Often in their writings they applied this term to any male who they perceived to be [[homosexual]], [[bisexual]], or [[effeminate]] by Western social standards, leading to a wide variety of diverse individuals being categorized under this imprecise term. At times they incorrectly implied that these individuals were [[intersex]] by calling them "hermaphrodites".<ref name=AnthroGeneralizations> | Before the late twentieth-century, non-Native (i.e. non-Native American) anthropologists used the term ''berdache'' ({{nowrap|{{IPAc-en|b|ər|ˈ|d|æ|ʃ|}}}}), in a very broad manner, to identify an indigenous individual fulfilling one of many mixed gender roles in their tribe. Often in their writings they applied this term to any male who they perceived to be [[homosexual]], [[bisexual]], or [[effeminate]] by Western social standards, leading to a wide variety of diverse individuals being categorized under this imprecise term. At times they incorrectly implied that these individuals were [[intersex]] by calling them "hermaphrodites".<ref name="AnthroGeneralizations">{{cite web|url=http://www.phenomenologycenter.org/course/berdache.htm |title=How to become a Berdache: Toward a unified analysis of gender diversity|last=Roscoe|first=Will |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226235121/http://www.phenomenologycenter.org/course/berdache.htm |archive-date=February 26, 2009 |quote=This pattern can be traced from the earliest accounts of the Spaniards to present-day ethnographies. What has been written about berdaches reflects more the influence of existing Western discourses on gender, sexuality and the Other than what observers actually witnessed.}}</ref> The term ''berdache'' has always been repugnant to Indigenous people. De Vries writes, "Berdache is a derogatory term created by Europeans and perpetuated by anthropologists and others to define Native American/First Nations people who varied from Western norms that perceive gender, sex, and sexuality as binaries and inseparable."<ref name="de Vries 2009" /> The term has now fallen out of favor with anthropologists as well. It derives from the French ''{{lang|fr|bardache}}'' (English equivalent: "[[wikt:bardash|bardash]]") meaning "passive homosexual", "catamite"<ref name=bardash>{{cite web|url=http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/bardash|title=Definition of "bardash" – Collins English Dictionary|accessdate=7 June 2015}}</ref> or even "under-age boy prostitute".<ref name=NativeOut101/> ''Bardache'', in turn, derived from the Persian {{big|{{lang|fa|برده}}}} ''barda'' meaning "captive", "prisoner of war", "slave".<ref>{{cite book |last=Steingass |first=Francis Joseph |url=http://dsalsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.0:1:8571.steingass |title=A Comprehensive Persian-English dictionary, including the Arabic words and phrases to be met with in Persian literature |location=London |publisher=Routledge & K. Paul |date=1892 |page=173}}</ref><ref name="Two Spirit People" /><ref>{{cite book |last=Roscoe |first=Will |title=Changing ones: Third and fourth genders in native North America |location=New York |publisher=St. Martin's Press |date=1998|ref=harv}} Page 7.</ref><ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/vulnerable |chapter="vulnerable" |title=The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language |edition=Fourth |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company |date=2004}}</ref> Spanish explorers who encountered these individuals among the Chumash people called them ''"{{lang|es|joyas}}"'', the Spanish for "jewels".<ref>{{cite book |author1=Kent Flannery |authorlink1=Kent V. Flannery |author2=Joyce Marcus |authorlink2=Joyce Marcus |title=The Creation of Inequality |date=15 May 2012 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-06469-0 |pages=70–71}}</ref> | ||
Use of ''berdache'' has now been replaced in most mainstream and anthropological literature by ''two spirit'', with mixed results. However, the term ''two spirit'' itself, in English or any other language, was not in use before 1990.<ref name="de Vries 2009" /> | Use of ''berdache'' has now been replaced in most mainstream and anthropological literature by ''two spirit'', with mixed results. However, the term ''two spirit'' itself, in English or any other language, was not in use before 1990.<ref name="de Vries 2009" /> | ||