Take an image circulating across social media consisting of a Native American person overlaid with the following text:
“Christian leader, stand on our soil and claim: ‘gay marriage’ has never occurred here. Over 130 tribes in every region of North America preformed millions of same-sex marriages for hundreds of years. Their statements are both hateful and ignorant. Your ‘homosexual,’ was our ‘Two Spirit’ people… and we considered them sacred.”
This is one variation of the multiple images created by activists who believe they are giving a voice to indigenous people. They aim to make connections between the historical struggles of minority groups to current Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, etc. (LGBT+) rights movements. These activists are passionate and well-meaning; however, the misrepresentation and misappropriation is not acceptable. Cultures in which the people live beyond the Western binaries are often cited by anthropologists and sociologist to challenge the Western binaries. These groups, including the Two-Spirit people, are used to study LGBT+ issues. Although these images are problematic, the images can generate discussion about the Two-Spirit people; who they are and their experiences. They can call into question how scholars analyze these experiences and improve the communication of social justice ideals to new audiences, without alienating minority cultures. Exploration into the misappropriation of the Two-Spirit experience by Western social scientists and activists involves discussion about the spiritual, gendered, and sexual nature of Two-Spirit people.
In Western discourse, sex and gender have historically been interchangeable terms. Anthropologically and sociologically, however, these terms are mutually exclusive. Sex refers to the biological traits that distinguish male from female: Y versus X chromosomes, penis versus vagina, etc. Gender describes the social positions, values, and norms that society uses to describe the masculine or feminine experience (Lang 47). In the social sciences, gender is studied across history and cultures. It is then that scholars take note of the differences in the organization of gender, which do not always align with the concept outward physical cues which the West uses to differentiate male and female. Similarly, sexuality is not studied through rigid biological understanding, but rather through historical and social experiences. Thus, sexuality and gender are referred to as social constructions; their meaning and organization are dictated by cultural norms and values. Given that social institutions such as law and medicine shape how society defines sexuality, social scientists acknowledge that there are several gender experiences beyond being exclusively male or female (Laqueur 156-180). Intersex and queer identities— “third sex”—is where the Two-Spirit concept is discussed.
Native American identity depends upon the community, the context, and the history. Thus, gender is more fluid in Native American cultures in comparison to the rigid binary of the West. For example, Two-Spirit people may take on husbands and wives of the opposite gender, rather than sex, as well as have diverse sexual experiences with both men and women. Nevertheless, they are not regarded as homosexual, bisexual, or even transgender. Scholars have documented that throughout history “Two-Spirit people were expected to conform to their gender roles, with feminine Two-Spirit people being matched with a masculine ‘husband’” (Willams).
To further explore the gender fluidity of Native Americans, it is important to study the languages and of the Indigenous peoples. Language is shaped by history and reflects the practices and norms within a culture. For example, the Navajo culture has four gender labels: feminine woman, masculine man, feminine man, and masculine woman. Feminine women (‘asdzáán) are born born biologically female and function socially as women. Masculine men (hastiin) are born biologically male and adopt the role of men. Feminine men (nádleeh) are born biologically male and function socially as women. Masculine women (dilbaa’) are born biologically female but function as men (Jacobs, Thomas, and Lang 157-161). In Canadian Cree, labels include but are not limited to: napêw iskwêwisêhot, a man who dresses as a woman; iskwêw ka napêwayat, a woman dressed as a man; ayahkwêw, a man dressed/living/accepted as a woman; înahpîkasoht, a woman dressed/living/accepted as a man; iskwêhkân, ‘fake woman’, but without negative connotations; napêhkân, ‘fake man’, but without negative connotations (Vowel). In Cherokee, gender labels also include the following: asgayusd’ udant[i/a], s/he feels/thinks like a man; ageyusd udant[i/a], s/he feels/thinks like a woman; nudale ageyha udantedi, different spirited woman; nudale asgaya udantedi, different-spirited man; sgigi, “that way”; uligisdidegi, “flirt”; taliqwo didantvn, s/he has two hearts; utselidv, “special”; and asegi udanto/udant[i/a]/udantedi, strange heart/spirit[ed] (Driskill 5-6).
From these examples, which represent only three of multiple cultural, historical, and linguistic traditions, one can conclude that Native American cultures do not construct gender as the singular possession of masculine or feminine. Thus, “Two-Spirit” is the contemporary term that is used to describe someone whose gender exists outside of the colonial, Western logic (Driskill 5). It is an umbrella term chosen by the and for Native Americans as a challenge to the use of “berdache” and the LGBT+ labels. Further, “Two-Spirit” encompasses the spiritual and ceremonial traditions within Native American identity, further distinguishing it from LGBT+ identities (Driskill 30). Native Americans consider Two-Spirit people to have special qualities; they can “see, hear, taste, smell, and feel” things that others can’t. They are believed to be linked to their ancestral spirits and exist to honor all living things and are thus chosen by their elders to serve the community by fulfilling cultural and religious duties (Stimson 71-73). This shows that Indigenous Two-Spirit identities are connected to community and history, not specifically sexuality or gender.
Sociologists and anthropologists have used Two-Spirit people are as examples of transgenderism. Native Americans have refuted this, which has caught the attention of a small number of scholars who recognized the need for re-examination of “Two-Spirit” from an Indigenous historical perspective. Anthropologist Carolyn Epple, for example, argues that Western scholarship feels a need to categorize Navajo culture in terms of existing frameworks, such as “gay” and “alternate gender” (269-274). Although there are attempts to use Native American terms such as “Two-Spirit”, they are taken out of Indigenous context and re-appropriated to fit Western colonial meanings and the narrow frames of reference of the Western social sciences and activist movements.
Works Cited
- Driskill, Qwo-Li. Asegi Stories. 1st ed. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2016. Print.
- Epple, Carolyn. “Coming To Terms With Navajo Nádleehí: A Critique Of Berdache, “Gay,” “Alternate Gender,” And “Two-Spirit””. American Ethnologist 25.2 (1998): 267-290. Web.
- Jacobs, Sue-Ellen, Wesley Thomas, and Sabine Lang. Two Spirit People. 1st ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997. Print.
- Lang, Sabine. Men As Women, Women As Men: Changing Gender In Native American Cultures. 1st ed. University of Texas Press, 2010. Print.
- Laqueur, Thomas. Making Sex: Body And Gender From The Greeks To Freud. 1st ed. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1990. Print.
- Stimson, Adrian. “Two Spirited For You: The Absence Of “Two Spirit” People In Western Culture And Media”. West Coast Line 40.1 (2006): 69-79. Print.
- Vowel, Chelsea. “Language, Culture, And Two-Spirit Identity.”. âpihtawikosisân. N.p., 2017. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.
- Williams, Walter. “The ‘Two-Spirit’ People Of Indigenous North Americans”. the Guardian. N.p., 2017. Web. 21 Apr. 2017.