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- Title
TRANSFORMATIONS OF GENDER IN NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURES.
- Authors
Lang, Sabine
- Abstract
The themes of transformation and ambiguity that pervade Native American oral traditions and concepts of the supernatural resonate in the life cycles of individuals as well. The institution of two-spirit (formerly referred to as "berdache"), where individuals partially or completely take up the social role of the opposite sex, provides a striking example of this. Just as there is often no clear distinction between animate and inanimate, human and non-human in the natural world, humans may be neither men nor women, or both, or may become transformed from one gender into another upon the agency of the supernatural or due to their own preferences. This contribution will explore the status of women-men and men-women in Native American cultures within the context of world views that appreciate and recognize change, transformation, and ambiguity as essential features of the nature of things. The manifestation of both masculine and feminine traits, or the discrepancy between physical sex and gender role, was thus (at least traditionally) generally not viewed as deviant but as an expression of an individual's being, or even as a special gift bestowed upon him or her by the supernatural.
- Subjects
TWO-spirit people; SOCIAL life &; customs of Native Americans; GENDER-nonconforming people; MULTIGENDER people; NATIVE American LGBTQ+ people; GENDER expression; GENDER identity; NATIVE American ethnic identity; GENDER roles &; society
- Publication
Litteraria Pragensia: Studies in Literature & Culture, 2011, Vol 21, Issue 42, p70
- ISSN
0862-8424
- Publication type
Article