Men as Women, Women as Men : : Changing Gender in Native American Cultures / / Sabine Lang.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Texas Press Complete eBook-Package Pre-2000
• VerfasserIn: Lang, Sabine,
• TeilnehmendeR: Vantine, John L.
• Place / Publishing House: Austin : : University of Texas Press, , [2022]; ©1998
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

As contemporary Native and non-Native Americans explore various forms of "gender bending" and gay and lesbian identities, interest has grown in "berdaches," the womanly men and manly women who existed in many Native American tribal cultures. Yet attempts to find current role models in these historical figures sometimes distort and oversimplify the historical realities. This book provides an objective, comprehensive study of Native American women-men and men-women across many tribal cultures and an extended time span. Sabine Lang explores such topics as their religious and secular roles; the relation of the roles of women-men and men-women to the roles of women and men in their respective societies; the ways in which gender-role change was carried out, legitimized, and explained in Native American cultures; the widely differing attitudes toward women-men and men-women in tribal cultures; and the role of these figures in Native mythology. Lang's findings challenge the apparent gender equality of the "berdache" institution, as well as the supposed universality of concepts such as homosexuality.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- LIST OF MAPS, TABLES, AND FIGURES -- PREFACE -- PART ONE Introduction, Background, and Definitions -- Chapter One: INTRODUCTION -- Chapter Two EARLY SOURCES: MISSIONARIES AND TRADERS, PHYSICIANS AND ETHNOLOGISTS -- Chapter Three TWENTIETH-CENTURY RESEARCH -- Chapter Four GENDER IDENTITY, GENDER ROLE, AND GENDER STATUS -- PART TWO Gender Role Change by Males -- Chapter Five E CROSS-DRESSING AND MIXED GENDER ROLES -- Chapter Six CROSS-DRESSING AND THE FEMININE GENDER ROLE -- Chapter Seven FEMININE ACTIVITIES WITHOUT CROSS-DRESSING -- Chapter Eight THE IMITATION OF "FEMININITY" AND INTERSEXUAUITY -- Chapter Nine WOMEN-MEN AS "SHAMANS," MEDICINE PERSONS, AND HEALERS -- Chapter Ten OTHER SPECIALIZED OCCUPATIONS OF WOMEN-MEN -- Chapter Eleven PARTNER RELATIONSHIPS AND SEXUALITY -- Chapter Twelve ENTRANCE INTO THE STATUS OF WOMAN-MAN -- Chapter Thirteen WOMEN-MEN IN NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURES: IDEOLOGY AND REALITY -- PART THREE Gender Role Change by Females -- Chapter Fourteen CROSS-DRESSING AND MIXED GENDER ROLES -- Chapter Fifteen MEN-WOMEN IN MASCULINE OCCUPATIONS -- Chapter Sixteen STATUS, RELATIONSHIPS, AND ENTRANCE RITUALS OF MEN-WOMEN -- Chapter Seventeen WARRIOR WOMEN AND MANLY-HEARTED WOMEN -- PART FOUR The Cultural Context of Gender Role Change -- Chapter Eighteen ATTITUDES TOWARD WOMEN-MEN AND MEN-WOMEN -- Chapter Nineteen GENDER ROLE CHANGE AND HOMOSEXUALITY -- Chapter Twenty GENDER ROLE CHANGE IN NATIVE AMERICAN ORAL TRADITIONS -- Chapter Twenty-one CONCLUSION -- REFERENCES -- INDEX