Native American Women and Berdachism
Research into Native American Women and Berdachism:
A Review of the Literature
The purpose of this paper is to explore the lives and different roles of Native American women. In this paper we will discuss the term berdache, what it means and how it played an important role in the lives of Native American women. Furthermore we will be discussing an article by DRK, in titled A Native American Perspective on the Theory of Gender Continuum. This article will help us discover how berdachism seemed to blur the lines between male and female roles.
In the article by DRK, entitled A Native American Perspective on the Theory of Gender Continuum, (1) the author points out how Native Americans seem to recognize more then two genders categorizes. Unlike most Americans who only accept male and female gender categories, many different tribes could have as many as five different categories for gender roles. One such category was referred to as Two- Spirit; the Europeans later dubbed this Berdache. Quoted from Shadi Rahimi, “The term "Two-Spirit" refers to a belief among some tribes that there are people who manifest both masculine and feminine spiritual qualities.”(3) In further detail this category referred to a man or women that had the outer appearance of one sex, but felt like the opposite sex on the inside. An example of this would be a man who had genitals of a man but displayed behaviors of a woman. This term was also used to describe a child born with both genitals, clinically referred to as a Hermaphrodite. So how did this affect the traditional roles of a man or women? In order to answer this we must first understand the different roles.
What Are The Traditional Gender
Roles Within a Tribe?
Traditionally, women played the role of the mother/caretaker of the people. Their jobs included cooking, cleaning, tending to the children, gardening, beadwork, weaving, pottery and providing shelter for their families. In addition, some women could also earn enough
A Review of the Literature
The purpose of this paper is to explore the lives and different roles of Native American women. In this paper we will discuss the term berdache, what it means and how it played an important role in the lives of Native American women. Furthermore we will be discussing an article by DRK, in titled A Native American Perspective on the Theory of Gender Continuum. This article will help us discover how berdachism seemed to blur the lines between male and female roles.
In the article by DRK, entitled A Native American Perspective on the Theory of Gender Continuum, (1) the author points out how Native Americans seem to recognize more then two genders categorizes. Unlike most Americans who only accept male and female gender categories, many different tribes could have as many as five different categories for gender roles. One such category was referred to as Two- Spirit; the Europeans later dubbed this Berdache. Quoted from Shadi Rahimi, “The term "Two-Spirit" refers to a belief among some tribes that there are people who manifest both masculine and feminine spiritual qualities.”(3) In further detail this category referred to a man or women that had the outer appearance of one sex, but felt like the opposite sex on the inside. An example of this would be a man who had genitals of a man but displayed behaviors of a woman. This term was also used to describe a child born with both genitals, clinically referred to as a Hermaphrodite. So how did this affect the traditional roles of a man or women? In order to answer this we must first understand the different roles.
What Are The Traditional Gender
Roles Within a Tribe?
Traditionally, women played the role of the mother/caretaker of the people. Their jobs included cooking, cleaning, tending to the children, gardening, beadwork, weaving, pottery and providing shelter for their families. In addition, some women could also earn enough
References: Copyright@ Will Roscoe, 1998 ISBN 0-312-22479-6 Copyright@ Sabine Lang, 1998 ISBN 0-292-74701-2