Aug. 25th, 2008
http://www.bilerico.com/2008/08/blinded_me_with_science_devolution_of_th.php
Anthropological research has revealed a long list of non-European cultures with more than two recognized sex and gender roles. Traditions of social gender role transition independent of birth sex include the Tahitian and Hawaiian Mahu, The Madagascar Sekrata, Hindu Tantric and Hijra Sects, Islamic Xanith, Khawal, and Sufi Traditions and others. Native American scholars now use the term Two Spirit to describe sex and gender traditions, common among First Nations, that are beyond dichotomy.
Here in Colorado where I write today, Two-Spirit (male-to-female) women, such as the Navajo Nadle, the Lakota Winkte and the Cheyenne He man eh, held respected roles in healing and spiritual leadership. Gender transcendence was not only a normal variation of human life but sacred, a sign of a person especially close to the spirits. As a young boy, the great Chief Crazy Horse of the Lakota Sioux was blessed by a Winkte shaman in a secret naming ceremony. Possessing a secret Winkte name marked social status and conferred spiritual protection, good health and long life. Later, he married at least one Winkte wife, in addition to his wives born female.
Like the coral reef fish, these proud Native American nations thrived for millennia, apparently unaware of any "adaptive disadvantage." That was, perhaps, until European intolerance appeared on the plains in the form of the Seventh Cavalry and compulsory missionary and reservation schools, which drove these ancient traditions into the closet. Among human societies, the anomaly is not the existence of gender diversity but the repression of it, isolated to relatively few cultures, including our own.
I'd love to point out that first part to people in my old school who told me I was sinful-including one girl who was Native American. I want to tell so many people here that OUR society is the strange one. Many other societies recognized the gender spectrum, before European society imposed the two-gender system. Look at the gods of other places-hell, in the Isles there is a god who, depending on the version you read, is actually a goddess.
*sigh*
Anthropological research has revealed a long list of non-European cultures with more than two recognized sex and gender roles. Traditions of social gender role transition independent of birth sex include the Tahitian and Hawaiian Mahu, The Madagascar Sekrata, Hindu Tantric and Hijra Sects, Islamic Xanith, Khawal, and Sufi Traditions and others. Native American scholars now use the term Two Spirit to describe sex and gender traditions, common among First Nations, that are beyond dichotomy.
Here in Colorado where I write today, Two-Spirit (male-to-female) women, such as the Navajo Nadle, the Lakota Winkte and the Cheyenne He man eh, held respected roles in healing and spiritual leadership. Gender transcendence was not only a normal variation of human life but sacred, a sign of a person especially close to the spirits. As a young boy, the great Chief Crazy Horse of the Lakota Sioux was blessed by a Winkte shaman in a secret naming ceremony. Possessing a secret Winkte name marked social status and conferred spiritual protection, good health and long life. Later, he married at least one Winkte wife, in addition to his wives born female.
Like the coral reef fish, these proud Native American nations thrived for millennia, apparently unaware of any "adaptive disadvantage." That was, perhaps, until European intolerance appeared on the plains in the form of the Seventh Cavalry and compulsory missionary and reservation schools, which drove these ancient traditions into the closet. Among human societies, the anomaly is not the existence of gender diversity but the repression of it, isolated to relatively few cultures, including our own.
I'd love to point out that first part to people in my old school who told me I was sinful-including one girl who was Native American. I want to tell so many people here that OUR society is the strange one. Many other societies recognized the gender spectrum, before European society imposed the two-gender system. Look at the gods of other places-hell, in the Isles there is a god who, depending on the version you read, is actually a goddess.
*sigh*