two-spirit
See also: two spirit
English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
A calque of Ojibwe niizh manidoowag (“two spirits”), from niizh (“two”) + manidoo (“spirit”).[1] Replaced berdache, which had come to be considered offensive.
Noun
two-spirit (plural two-spirits)
- A Native (North) American who is non-cisgender, non-binary or gender-variant (especially one belonging to a traditional tribal third-gender, fourth-gender or transgender category), or who is non-heterosexual.
- 2009, James Neill, The Origins and Role of Same-Sex Relations in Human Societies, page 38:
- Because of their spiritual powers, sex with a two-spirit was often considered to bring good luck.
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Usage notes
Synonyms
- berdache (now often considered offensive)
Translations
gender-variant Native American
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Adjective
two-spirit (not comparable)
- Pertaining to or being a two-spirit.
- 1996, Ritch C Savin-Williams and Kenneth M Cohen, The Lives of Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals: Children to Adults, page 421:
- A Hupa two-spirit male told me: ‘I was real feminine as a child, from as early as I can remember.’
- 1997, Sue-Ellen Jacobs, Wesley Thomas, and Sabine Lang, Two-spirit People, page 4:
- With this etymology, it should come as no surprise that many Native American gay, lesbian, transgender, and other two-spirit people consider the term ‘berdache’ derogatory.
- 2010, Walter L Williams, The Guardian, 11 Oct 2010:
- Instead of seeing two-spirit persons as transsexuals who try to make themselves into "the opposite sex", it is more accurate to understand them as individuals who take on a gender status that is different from both men and women.
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Synonyms
Translations
of a Native American: gender-variant
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See also
- hermaphrodite (two-spirits were formerly often called hermaphrodites)
- berdachism
- acault
- sworn virgin
References
references
- Bullough, Vern L. and Bonnie. (1993). Crossdressing, Sex, and Gender. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press
- Cameron, Michelle. (2005). Two-spirited Aboriginal people: Continuing cultural appropriation by non-Aboriginal society. Canadian Women Studies, 24 (2/3), 123-127.
- Dynes, Wayne R., Homolexis Glossary (2008), berdache: In recent years, efforts have been made to replace berdache with "two-spirit." In 1993, a group of anthropologists and natives issued guidelines that formalized these preferences. "Berdache," they argued, is a term "that has its origins in Western thought and languages." Scholars were urged to discard it, inserting "[sic]" following its appearance in quoted texts. In its place they were encouraged to use tribally specific terms for multiple genders or the term "two-spirit." This attempt at rebranding recalls the shifts from homosexual to gay to queer to GLBT. As the noted scholar Will Roscoe observed, "[u]nfortunately, these guidelines create as many problems as they solve, beginning with a mischaracterization of the history and meaning of the word ‘berdache.’ As a Persian term, its origins are Eastern not Western. Nor is it a derogatory term, except to the extent that all terms for nonmarital sexuality in European societies carried a measure of condemnation. It was rarely used with the force of ‘faggot,’ but more often as a euphemism with the sense of ‘lover’ or ‘boyfriend.’ Its history, in this regard, is akin to that of ‘gay,’ ‘black,’ and ‘Chicano’—terms that also lost negative connotations over time."
- Jacobs, Sue-Ellen; Wesley Thomas, and Sabine Lang (Eds.). (1997). Two-spirit people: Native American gender identity, sexuality, and spirituality. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. →ISBN, →ISBN.
- ↑ Jodi O'Brien, Encyclopedia of Gender and Society, volume 1 (2009, →ISBN
- ↑ Sabine Lang, Men as Women, Women as Men (2010), page xv
- ↑ Cheyenne Dictionary of Fisher, Leman, Pine, and Sanchez
Etymology 2
Adjective
two-spirit (not comparable)
- (theology) Involving two spirits; especially, pertaining to the doctrine of dualism espoused in the so-called Treatise on the Two Spirits in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
- 1957, The Harvard Divinity School bulletin (Harvard University Press), page 133:
- Paul's grasp of the Spirit as the sign of the erupting messianic age is at odds with the two-spirit thought of Qumran which never became incompatible with law observance.
- 1957, The Harvard Divinity School bulletin (Harvard University Press), page 133:
Translations
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