Two-spirit people : Native American gender identity, sexuality, and spirituality

Jacobs, Sue-Ellen, (editor). Thomas, Wesley, 1954- (editor). Lang, Sabine, (editor).

Summary: This landmark book combines the voices of Native Americans and non-Indians, anthropologists and others, in an exploration of gender and sexuality issues as they relate to lesbian, gay, transgendered, and other "marked" Native Americans. Focusing on the concept of two-spirit people--individuals not necessarily gay or lesbian, transvestite or bisexual, but whose behaviors or beliefs may sometimes be interpreted by others as uncharacteristic of their sex--this book is the first to provide an intimate look at how many two-spirit people feel about themselves, how other Native Americans treat them, and how anthropologists and other scholars interpret them and their cultures.

Record details

ISBN: 9780252066450
ISBN: 0252023447
Physical Description: print
xiii, 331 pages : illustrations (1 colour) ; 24 cm.
Publisher: Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [1997].

Content descriptions

General Note:	"Illini Books edition"--T.p. verso.
Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Introduction / Sue-Ellen Jacobs, Wesley Thomas (Navajo), and Sabine Lang -- Part 1: Rebuilding Anthropological Narratives Concerning Two-Spirit People -- 1. Is the "North American Berdache" Merely a Phantom in the Imagination of Western Social Scientists? / Sue-Ellen Jacobs -- 2. The Northern Athapaskan "Berdache" Reconsidered On Reading More Than There Is in the Ethnographic Record / Jean-Guy A. Goulet -- 3. Cross-Dressing and Shamanism among Selected Western North American Tribes / Arnold R. Pilling -- 4. Various Kinds of Two-Spirit People: Gender Variance and Homosexuality in Native American Communities / Sabine Lang -- 5. Traditions of Gender Diversity and Sexualities: A Female to Male Transgendered Perspective / Jason Cromwell -- Part 2: Questions of terminology -- 6. Changing Native American Roles in an Urban Context and Changing Native American Sex Roles in an Urban Context / Beatrice Medicine -- 7. Navajo Cultural Constructions of Gender and Sexuality / Wesley Thomas -- 8. A Navajo Worldview and Nadleehi: Implications for Western Categories / Carolyn Epple -- 9. M. Dragonfly: Two-Spirit and the Tafoya Principle of Uncertainty / Terry Tafoya -- Part 3: Two-spirit as a lived experience: life stories -- 10. I Am a Lakota Womyn / Beverly Little Thunder -- 11. Traditional Influences on a Contemporary Gay-Identified Sisseton Dakota / Michael Red Earth -- 12. A Postcolonial Colonial Perspective on Western [Mis]Conceptions of the Cosmos and the Restoration of Indigenous Taxonomies / Anguksuar [Richard LaFortune] -- 13. Navajo Warrior Women: An Ancient Tradition in a Modern World / Carrie House -- 14. I Ask You to Listen to Who I Am / Doyle V. Robertson -- 15. A "Berdache" by Any Other Name ... Is a Brother, Friend, Lover, Spouse: Reflections on a Mescalero Apache Singer of Ceremonies / Claire R. Farrer -- Part 4: Comments, reflections and generalizations -- 16. Gender Statuses, Gender Features, and Gender/Sex Categories: New Perspectives on an Old Paradigm / Lee M. Kochems and Sue-Ellen Jacobs -- 17. On the Incommensurality of Gender Categories / Alice B. Kehoe -- 18. You Anthropologists Make Sure You Get Your Words Right / Clyde M. Hall -- 19. The Dilemmas of Desire: From "Berdache" to Two-Spirit / Gilbert Herdt -- 20. Native American Genders and Sexualities: Beyond Anthropological Models and Misrepresentations / Evelyn Blackwood -- Part 5: Dealing with homophobia -- 21. Dealing with Homophobia in Everyday Life / Claire R. Farrer.
Awards Note:	1997 Winner of the Ruth Benedict Prize for an edited book given by the Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists.