Indigenous gender & sexuality #1 | Misrepresentations

In recent decades, various indigenous cultures have become increasingly cited in discussions of gender identities and roles. In many cases, various claims have been made concerning the alleged acceptance of specific non-binary gender identities within traditional indigenous cultures.

Illustrator Noah Grigni is a case in point. On his tumblr blog, he writes “It bothers me when people act like the idea of identifying as transgender or third gender is a new concept, or a trend which started recently in the West”, adding “Non-binary understandings of gender have existed since ancient times”.

It bothers me when people act like the idea of identifying as transgender or third gender is a new concept, or a trend which started recently in the West. Let’s be honest: the west is thousands of years late to the party, and we’re just now catching up. Hijras are mentioned in the Kama Sutra, which was written in 400 BC. Non-binary understandings of gender have existed since ancient times. [1]

This is a common claim in pop culture, but it is a highly over-simplified way of describing a much more complex issue. In fact, many traditional cultures have only recently started engaging concepts such as non-conforming gender identities and roles, and in many cases indigenous people are struggling to find space for non-conformity within their traditional culture. In some cases these non-conforming identities and roles are rejected by traditionally minded indigenous people, who see them as illegitimate Western inventions being imported into a culture in which they have never existed.

In other cases, non-indigenous people make claims about indigenous gender identities and roles which are demonstrably false. Sometimes the terms and concepts to which they refer are entirely modern, and not traditional at all. The term “two-spirit” is a case in point.

In an article for the British newspaper The Independent, Katherine Davis-Young claims that two-spirit is “an umbrella term for non-binary definitions of gender and sexuality from Native American traditions”, further claiming that the term “takes inspiration from terminology in the Ojibwe language for men who filled women’s roles in society, or women who took on men’s roles”.

Two-Spirit, an umbrella term for non-binary definitions of gender and sexuality from Native American traditions, takes inspiration from terminology in the Ojibwe language for men who filled women’s roles in society, or women who took on men’s roles.

However, this is untrue. Firstly the term is not an umbrella term for non-binary definitions of gender and sexuality. Secondly it is not a term from Native American traditions. Thirdly it does not take any inspiration from Ojibwe terminology for people fulfilling non-traditional gender roles.

Professor of Sociology Kylan Mattias de Vries, notes that the term was created “In 1990, at the third annual Native American/First Nations gay and lesbian conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada”. [3]

This English term was not a translation of an original Ojibwe term, nor did it represent a traditional Ojibwe concept or cultural practice. De Vries explains “The concept and word two-spirit has no traditional cultural significance”, and adds that the corresponding term in the Ojibwe language was also created at this time. He observes “Because this term was recently created, it has no linguistic equivalent or meaning in other nations and tribes”. [4]

Award winning journalist Mary Annette Pember, an Ojibwe woman, describes her discomfort with this term, and its lack of cultural connection to the native peoples with whom it is associated. Taking particular issue with the fact that the “two spirit” concept has been used to misrepresent the traditional culture of native people, she writes “As a journalist and Ojibwe woman, I am troubled by the claims that Native peoples historically described LGBTQ folks as two-spirited and celebrated them as healers and shamans, because the claims are mostly unfounded or only partially true”. [5]

Pember’s concerns are borne out by the fact that misrepresentations of the term “two-spirit” are not only ubiquitous in pop culture, but also widespread even in current academic discourse. The book “Transphobic Hate Crime”, written by Dr Joanna Jamel of Kingston University and published in 2018, says “Within First Nation Native American culture, trans people are referred to as being two-spirited people”. [6]

Yet as Pember explained two years before, this sweeping statement is a completely inaccurate generalization. Not only is it untrue that trans people are referred to as two spirited in First Nation Native American culture, this statement fails to reveal the modern origin of the phrase, and the fact that it was created specifically to categorize traditional indigenous roles using non-traditional, non-indigenous, Western frames of reference.

This is an issue on which Pember comments specifically. Pember identifies the fact that well-meaning non-indigenous Westerners have co-opted indigenous terms in order to represent indigenous cultures as holding to modern Western concepts which did not exist in those traditional indigenous cultures. She writes “My concern is not so much over the use of the words but over the social meme they have generated that has morphed into a cocktail of historical revisionism, wishful thinking, good intentions, and a soupcon of white, entitled appropriation”. [7]

Pember’s reference to white entitled appropriation is particularly relevant, and should be taken particularly seriously by well-meaning non-indigenous allies of indigenous people. It is an unfortunate fact that white Western people have historically viewed indigenous cultures through a lens which valued those cultures insofar as they were interpreted as upholding socio-cultural norms and ethical values which Western people considered important. The trope of the noble savage emerged in seventeenth century literature as a depiction of pre-modern indigenous people as ethically naive, morally innocent, intrinsically virtuous, in harmony with nature, and free from social conflict.

This romantic primitivism viewed indigenous people as representatives of humans in their natural and unspoiled state, and Western writers attributed to them various ethical and social values which were considered admirable in Western culture, regardless of whether or not those values were actually recognized by the indigenous people they were describing. In some cases, Western writers attributed to indigenous people entire speeches which they could not possibly have made, full of Western terminology and concepts which were unknown to them, in order to depict these people as ideal representatives of Western values. As Pember’s article demonstrates, this eighteenth century tendency has unfortunately never disappeared.

Two commonly circulated urban myths will serve as an illustration. One is the Legend of the Rainbow Warriors. This is a short text represented as a genuine prophecy made by a member of the North American native peoples. The text reads as follows.

When the earth is ravaged and the animals are dying,
A new tribe of people shall come unto the earth
from many colors, classes, creeds and who by their actions
shall make the earth green again.
They will be known as the warriors of the rainbow.

The text is attributed to various sources, such as “Old Native American Prophecy”, Cree Woman Elder Eyes of Fire, and Chief Spirit Hawk. In each case the source is clearly intended to sound authentic to Western ears, without any reference to accurate representation of indigenous culture. The story of how this text originated and was later coopted by the environmental group Greenpeace, is too long and complicated to address in detail here, and is really a subject for a later video. A brief description will suffice for now.

The text originates from a book published in 1962 called Warriors of the Rainbow: Strange and Prophetic Dreams of the Indians. The authors were William Willoya and Vinson Brown, two American evangelical Christians who wrote the book as a Christian religious tract attempting to preach to the native peoples of North America. Although the book describes itself as quote “This is a touching story of a great grandmother instilling the Indian spirit in her great grandson” end quote, it is completely fictional.

The book is full of pious sounding evangelical Christian theology, and late twentieth century Western environmental concerns. It is a shameless fraud, made worse by the fact that it completely misrepresents and exploits an indigenous voice for personal gain. It is an extraordinary travesty that a pseudo-prophecy from this false narrative is still being circulated widely in the twenty first century, perpetuated by ignorant Westerners who fondly believe they are promoting environmental values and native American concerns.

Another example of Western romantic primitivism, is the urban myth of the African birth song. As with the previous example, little time will be spent here on this painfully offensive stereotype which completely misrepresents the indigenous people it claims to depict accurately.

Briefly, the story claims that before a child is born in an African village, the mother sits under a tree until the name of the child somehow comes to her. Subsequently she teaches it to her husband, they “sing the song of the child”, which is described as vaguely as it sounds. The song is supposedly taught to “the midwives and the old women of the village”, sung during the pregnancy, and sung again at the child’s birth. Subsequently, the song is sung again to the child every time they are injured, or do something praiseworthy, or commit a wrongdoing, as well as at their puberty. The complete impracticality of this exercise, even in a very small village, is readily apparent.

Award winning Latinx activist Aida Manduley shreds this myth with sharp words which are worth quoting at length.

“The “African birth song” is a half-baked invention of a White man that essentializes the “African experience” and does not event attempt to give any real details because it relies on collective ignorance about Africa that centers the world on a White axis. The text above does not provide any sources or even NAME this African tribe (though other versions do, but I’ll get into that later). The story uses exotification, the Noble Savage Myth, and people’s ignorance to make others feel warm n’ fuzzy and perpetuate incorrect narratives in the name of New Agey birth BS.” [8]

So much for romantic primitivism, and misguided Western efforts to depict indigenous people as the noble upholders of modern Western values. Let’s return now to Mary Annette Pember ‘s article critiquing Western commentary on the alleged “two-spirit” gender identity in Ojibwe culture.

Pember’s article is particularly important for its portrayal of gender identity and roles in traditional Ojibwe society. She quotes Ojibwe tribe member Anton Treuer, Professor of Ojibwe linguistics, commenting on traditional Ojibwe views of gender identities and roles. Treuer writes “Sex usually determined one’s gender, and therefore one’s work, but the Ojibwe accepted variation” . He also writes that the Ojibwe described men who wanted to function as women with a term meaning “one who endeavours to be like a woman”, and that the Ojibwe described women who wanted to function as men with a term meaning “one who endeavours to be like a man”. [9]

This information provides a useful insight into how the Ojibwe traditionally viewed gender identities and roles. The past tense is used here specifically to highlight the fact that the traditional Ojibwe view is being referred to. Firstly the Ojibwe viewed gender itself as typically determined by sex. They did not view sex and gender as distinct from each other. Biological sex usually determined an individual’s gender. Secondly, they viewed roles in society as strictly gendered. Men were expected to act in one way, and women were expected to act in a different way. So biological sex not only determined a person’s gender, it also determined their social roles. Thirdly, the Ojibwe viewed gender in strictly binary terms; man and woman. They did not have a term for a third gender, and they did not have a term for non-binary gender. A man who wanted to function as a woman was still gendered as a man. He was described as a man who performed as a woman. Likewise a woman who wanted to function as a man was still gendered as a woman. She was described as a woman who performed as a man.

Pember quotes Treuer as saying that people in Ojibwe society who chose the gender roles of the opposite sex, “assumed their roles based on spiritual dreams or visions”, and that the roles were consequently considered sacred.[10]

This is nothing like the Western understanding of gender identity. There is nothing here about a man having a spiritual experience after which he realises that he is actually a woman, or a woman having a dream or vision which convinces her that she is actually a man. There is no reference to gender identity at all. Instead there is a strict sexual binary, which produces a strict gender binary, which in turn produces strict gender binary roles. The socially accepted method of taking on the role of the opposite sex is a spiritual experience which does not involve any change in either sex or gender. The individual remains a man or a woman, just as they were before, and engages in the socially accepted performativity of their new gender role, within specific accepted cultural conventions. This is not only the case with the Ojibwe people, it is very typical of indigenous people all around the world.

Misrepresentations of indigenous sexual identities and gender roles by non-indigenous people, are widespread. Independent Lens, a documentary series produced by the United States Public Broadcasting Service, displays on their website a map of the world providing information on gender terminology within various indigenous groups. They write “On nearly every continent, and for all of recorded history, thriving cultures have recognized, revered, and integrated more than two genders”. They go on to say “Terms such as “transgender” and “gay” are strictly new constructs that assume three things: that there are only two sexes (male/female), as many as two sexualities (gay/straight), and only two genders (man/woman)”. [11]

However, examining their list of 36 terms, a very clear pattern emerges. Firstly, a surprising number of these terms are relatively recent, sometimes dating back no more than two hundred years, sometimes emerging only within the last century, or even the last fifty years. Clearly these are not all traditional roles which have existed for all of recorded history. Some of them are clearly the direct result of contact with Europeans, who brought new concepts of gender. Some of them are demonstrably the product of colonialism, and not traditional indigenous culture at all. Some of them were short lived cultural practices in local communities, one of them is an example of religious fanaticism by a tiny Christian sect, and several of them are best described as child abuse.

Secondly, virtually all of these terms are defined specifically on the basis of a strict male/female gender binary, and on the basis of specific gender roles for men and women. In almost every case the terms specifically identify the individual as a man or a woman (not as a third gender), who is either performing the traditional role of the opposite sex, or who is taking on the appearance of the opposite sex, typically through dressing in traditionally gendered clothing and body decoration.

• 17 of the terms refer to a man who performs the traditional role and work of a woman; this person is defined as a man who acts like a woman
• 7 of the terms refer to a man who takes on the traditional gendered clothing and body decoration of a woman; this person is defined as a man who looks like a woman
• 7 of the terms refer to a woman who performs the traditional role and work of a man; this person is defined as a woman who acts like a man
• One of the terms refers to a woman who takes on the traditional gendered clothing and body decoration of a man; this person is defined as a woman who looks like a man

In each of these cases, the individual’s gender is identified according to a strict binary; they are identified as a man or a woman. Additionally, virtually every term is completely reliant on a culture of traditional gender roles and appearance; men are expected to do men’s work, women are expected to do women’s work, men are expected to wear men’s clothes, and women are expected to wear women’s clothes. The remaining terms don’t fit neatly into the previous categories.

Three of these terms describe men or women taking on the dress of the opposite sex, to participate in religious or magical rituals. This is what the PBS site says about them.

• The Ankole people “elected a woman to dress as a man and thereby become an oracle to the god Mukasa”
• Male shamans of the Bangala people “would dress in women’s clothing in order the gain the ability to solve crimes such as murder”
• The Incan Quariwarmi, who were male shamans, “wore androgynous clothing”

None of these cases involve a third gender identity which is neither man nor woman. In each of these cases, the individual is defined according to a typical gender binary (man or woman), and binary gendered clothing.

A man wears the clothing of a woman, a woman wears the clothing of a man, or a man wears androgynous clothing. There are no gender identities described here.

• Ankole, “Prior to colonization, the Ankole people in what is now Uganda elected a woman to dress as a man and thereby become an oracle to the god Mukasa”
• Bangala (DR Congo), “In the centuries before European colonists arrived, the Bangala people’s animist beliefs were carried by shamans would dress in women’s clothing in order the gain the ability to solve crimes such as murder”
• Quariwarmi (Inca, Peru), “In pre-colonial Andean culture, the Incas worshipped the chuqui chinchay, a dual-gendered god. Third-gender ritual attendants or shamans performed sacred rituals to honor this god. The quariwarmi shamans wore androgynous clothing as “a visible sign of a third space that negotiated between the masculine and the feminine, the present and the past, the living and the dead. Their shamanic presence invoked the androgynous creative force often represented in Andean mythology,” according to scholar Michael J. Horswell”

Two of these terms describe children whose parents choose their gender for them, based on perceptions of the child’s physical appearance.

The sekrata are described as boys who were thought to have a feminine appearance, and therefore raised by their parents as girls.

• Sekrata, “little boys thought to have a feminine appearance were raised as girls”

The Mamluks are described as girls who were thought to have a male appearance, and therefore raised by their parents as boys.

• Mamluks, During the Mamluk Sultanate in what is now Egypt from the 1200s to the 1700s, young girls who we perceived to have masculine traits were celebrated and raised as boys and afforded all of the legal and societal advantages”

These two terms describe children being identified by their parents according to a traditional gender binary. The children are identified as boys or girls, not as a third gender. Additionally, the parents view gender as determinable simply by physical appearance, and as an identity which can legitimately be chosen for children by their parents, and enforced on them by society. Such views are completely rejected by modern gender studies and gender variance advocates.

Forcing children to accept traditional binary gender identities and roles simply on the basis of their physical appearance, without any reference to their self-identity, is identified by some gender variance advocates as child abuse.

One of these terms describes young boys who were dressed by adults in girls’ clothing, and required to dance for the entertainment of men. The practice existed in the Ottoman empire between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries.

This role was defined according to a traditional gender binary. Young boys were dressed in gender coded clothing, and expected to perform feminine gender roles such as dancing. This role would end once the boys reached puberty, developing deeper voices and facial hair. The boys were also given to men who paid money to exploit them sexually.

• köçek, “From the 17th through the 19th centuries, the köçek were a cultural phenomenon in which young men dressed in women’s attire and formed traveling dance troupes who performed sexually suggestive dances. Although they were not necessarily gay, they were traditionally available to the highest male bidder”
• köçek, “A dancer’s career would last as long as he was beardless and retained his youthful appearance”

This is not the description of a gender identity. It is the description of a male/female gender binary, gendered clothing, and the systematic sexual molestation of children.

One of these terms refers to an extremist Christian sect dating from the late eighteenth century. This sect required men to be castrated, and required women to undergo genital mutilation and mastectomies or breast mutilation. These practices were mandated by the sect’s religious beliefs, and were compulsory for members, not voluntary.

• Skoptsy, “The community, discovered in 1771 in Western Russia, believed that Adam and Eve had had halves of the forbidden fruit grafted onto their bodies in the form of testicles and breasts. Therefore, they routinely castrated male children and amputated the breasts of women to return themselves the state prior to original sin”

The sect viewed gender in strictly binary terms, and members were mutilated specifically in order to remove the outward appearance of their gender. Members who underwent this mutilation were still identified as men and women. They were not identified as a third gender, or identified as non-gendered. These beliefs very clearly had nothing to do with gender identity. This is simply enforced sexual mutilation.

One of these terms, guevedoche, refers to children born in the Dominican Republic with a genetic defect. The congenital condition of 5-alpha-reductase deficiency causes defective development of the male sexual organs in children born with male chromosomes, resulting in underdeveloped genitals which often appear ambiguous, and sometimes appear female. Pre-modern cultures had no understanding of this condition, and typically identified the gender of the child according to the appearance of their genitalia, or identified them as neither male nor female.

• Guevedoche (Dominican Republic), “ With undifferentiated genitalia, they generally were raised as girls, but began developing male traits at puberty.

Guevedoche is not a gender identity. It is a term used to describe chromosomally male children born with a congenital condition (5-alpha-reductase deficiency), resulting in underdeveloped genitalia. In most cases, children born this way were raised by their parents as girls, dressed as girls, told they were girls, and were expected to adhere to traditional female roles. In such cases the child typically feels uncomfortable with this, but only regains their male gender identity after puberty, when their genitalia developed more completely.

The majority of guevedoche identify as male after puberty, though some maintain a female identity. This is not a description of a third gender, and the society in which the guevedoche are born adhere to a strict gender binary which identifies children as either boys or girls, and which identifies guevedoche as girls simply because their genitalia look more female than male. The parents view gender as determinable merely by physical appearance, and as an identity which can legitimately be chosen for children by their parents, and enforced on them by society. Such views are completely rejected by modern gender studies and gender variance advocates.

This PBS map therefore is extremely misleading, and potentially harmful to non-indigenous understandings of indigenous groups. It should be noted that most of the descriptions contain little or nothing in the way of substantiating evidence, and those which do typically cite or link to non-academic pop culture descriptions, sometimes containing basic errors of spelling and grammar, which does not inspire confidence in the source. Descriptions of these terms in actual scholarly literature, are not only far more cautious and nuanced, but far more rigorous in their research.

Subsequent videos in this series will examine gender identities and roles in a range of indigenous groups, to debunk pop culture misunderstandings and myths about them, and present verifiable facts from reliable scholarly sources.

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[1] Noah Grigni, “Noah Grigni,” Noah Grigni, 8 June 2017, https://ngrigni.tumblr.com/post/161591077349/another-recent-illustration-i-did-for-the-gender.

[2] Katherine Davis-Young, “Two-Spirit: Meet the Native Americans Embracing LGBT+,” The Independent, 5 April 2019, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/native-americans-lgbt-two-spirit-a8853561.html.

[3] “In 1990, at the third annual Native American/First Nations gay and lesbian conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, the term two-spirit was designated as a replacement for berdache.”, Kylan Mattias de Vries, “Berdache (Two-Spirit),” in Encyclopedia of Gender and Society. Vol. 1&2, ed. Jodi A O’Brien (Los Angeles [etc.: Sage, 2009), 64.

[4] “The concept and word two-spirit has no traditional cultural significance, and the Ojibwa words were not combined to create the term niizh manidoowag, or two-spirit, until this conference. Because this term was recently created, it has no linguistic equivalent or meaning in other nations and tribes.”, Kylan Mattias de Vries, “Berdache (Two-Spirit),” in Encyclopedia of Gender and Society. Vol. 1&2, ed. Jodi A O’Brien (Los Angeles [etc.: Sage, 2009), 64.

[5] “As a journalist and Ojibwe woman, I am troubled by the claims that Native peoples historically described LGBTQ folks as two-spirited and celebrated them as healers and shamans, because the claims are mostly unfounded or only partially true.”, Mary Annette Pember, “‘Two Spirit’ Tradition Far From Ubiquitous Among Tribes,” Rewire.News, 13 October 2016, https://rewire.news/article/2016/10/13/two-spirit-tradition-far-ubiquitous-among-tribes.

[6] “Within First Nation Native American culture, trans people are referred to as being two-spirited people;”, Joanna Jamel, Transphobic Hate Crime (Springer, 2017), 9.

[7] “My concern is not so much over the use of the words but over the social meme they have generated that has morphed into a cocktail of historical revisionism, wishful thinking, good intentions, and a soupcon of white, entitled appropriation.”, Mary Annette Pember, “‘Two Spirit’ Tradition Far From Ubiquitous Among Tribes,” Rewire.News, 13 October 2016, https://rewire.news/article/2016/10/13/two-spirit-tradition-far-ubiquitous-among-tribes.

[8] Aida Manduley, “The REAL Origin of the African Birth Song,” Aida Manduley, LCSW, 10 March 2015, http://aidamanduley.com/2015/03/10/the-real-origin-of-the-african-birth-song/.

[9] “In Treuer’s stunning book The Assassination of Hole in the Day about the great 19th-century Ojibwe chief, he notes, “Sex usually determined one’s gender, and therefore one’s work, but the Ojibwe accepted variation. Men who chose to function as women were called ikwekanaazo, meaning ‘one who endeavors to be like a woman. Women who functioned as men were called ininiikaazo, meaning, one who endeavors to be like a man.””, Mary Annette Pember, “‘Two Spirit’ Tradition Far From Ubiquitous Among Tribes,” Rewire.News, 13 October 2016, https://rewire.news/article/2016/10/13/two-spirit-tradition-far-ubiquitous-among-tribes.

[10] “He further notes, “the role of ikwekanaazo and ininiikaazo in Ojibwe society was considered to be sacred, often because they assumed their roles based on spiritual dreams or visions.””, Mary Annette Pember, “‘Two Spirit’ Tradition Far From Ubiquitous Among Tribes,” Rewire.News, 13 October 2016, https://rewire.news/article/2016/10/13/two-spirit-tradition-far-ubiquitous-among-tribes.

[11] “On nearly every continent, and for all of recorded history, thriving cultures have recognized, revered, and integrated more than two genders. Terms such as “transgender” and “gay” are strictly new constructs that assume three things: that there are only two sexes (male/female), as many as two sexualities (gay/straight), and only two genders (man/woman).”, “Interactive Map: Gender-Diverse Cultures,” Independent Lens, 11 August 2015, http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/content/two-spirits_map-html/.