Spirit
and the Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture
by Walter
L. Williams
Walter L. Williams's excellent research has
produced one of the most extensive studies of the berdache culture
among Native Americans. Unlike the larger American society, Native
Americans historically have respected, and in many tribal nations
venerated, homosexuals. Williams explains the berdache as a
custom, its social roles, and the berdache history, including its
introduction to the European concept of sin and intolerance of
sexual diversity. The word berdache applies almost
exclusively to males, mainly because historical records only
relate dealings with aboriginal males, but Williams also includes
a chapter on female sexual diversity, using the word amazon
to describe these often warriorlike women.
Winner of the Gay Book of the Year Award from
the American Library Association, the Ruth Benedict Award from the
Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists, and an award from the
World Congress for Sexology, this is an academic yet popularly
written study by Walter L. Williams, professor of anthropology and
gender studies at the University of Southern California. Based
upon extensive archival research and by interviewing Indian people
on many reservations (including Lakota Sioux, Navajo, and Yucatan
Maya), Williams documents how many Native American religions and
cultures venerate androgynous "two-spirit" people. Such
persons, who are classified as neither men nor women, but another
gender, are respected as spiritually gifted, hard-working
contributors to their extended families and communities. The
traditional and modern roles of both feminine males and masculine
females are covered in this book, as well as their socially
accepted same-sex marriages. A concluding chapter looks at other
cultures around the world which have offered respected and
accepted social positions for such gender variant persons. -- Walter
L. Williams
Changing
Ones : Third and Fourth Genders in Native North America
by Will
Roscoe
Will Roscoe makes a valuable contribution to our
understanding of both Native American culture and alternative
gender construction in this extension of the groundbreaking
research in The
Zuni Man-Woman. More than 150 tribes across America have
members who engage in some form of gender identification beyond
"male" and "female." Roscoe's study reveals
how integral these third and fourth genders, and same-sex
marriage, have been to the tribes' societies, in contrast to the
intolerance demonstrated by the Judeo-Christian culture of the
descendants of European invaders. His analysis of these tribes,
rooted in the empirical evidence of their histories, also provides
a fascinating counterpoint to theories about homosexual identity
rooted solely in modern, Western preconceptions.
The
Zuni Man-Woman by Will
Roscoe
For this book The Zuni Man-Woman William Roscoe
received the 1991 Margaret Mead Award presented by the American
Anthropological Association and the Society for Applied
Anthropology; and along with the high academic award, he has
written an extremely readable book. For those interested in the
impact of the dichotomous world-view of Western society on an
individual's role in that society, this book provides an
eye-opening experience. "Gender", the role assignment or
assumption that individuals undergo, is clearly compared with
"sex" characterized by individual sexual practices.
Based on a study of Zuni gender roles illustrated by the life of
berdache We'wha during the Nineteenth Century, Roscoe leads the
reader to examine a third gender choice available in that
matrilineal society. This "third gender" provided an
avenue for the expression of variations in both sex and gender
which allowed individuals to make unique contributions to their
communities. Their contributions crossed the barriers imposed by
traditional views of masculinity and femininity. The social,
religious and artistic contributions made possible by an accepted
"third gender" benefited Zuni society by increasing the
pool of individuals who could contribute their talents to that
society. Today American gender roles are shifting also, and
this author gives us historical evidence that many societies have benefited
from uncoupling "gender" and "sex" in the
public imagination. As a result of this author's research, it is
possible to view the employed mother's syndrome of trying to
"do it all" and the questions men have about their
inclinations toward artistic ventures, nurturing activities, and
service to others in a new light. The historian Roscoe provides
rich examples from a variety of Native American societies that
avoided the trap of either/or gender identities. Further he
provided a detailed review of the impact of both Zuni and Puritan
ethics on the well being of the Zuni and the "American"
tribes and their individual members. If you are interested
in Southwestern Native Americans, the Nineteenth Century politics
of ethnic absorption or extermination, or the impact of gender
roles on individual opportunities and on the strength of a
society, then you must read the contribution of this historian. --
Anonymous Review
