Changing Ones: Third and Fourth Genders in Native North America

by Will Roscoe

Book Overview

The term 'berdache' is a little-known, rarely discussed reference to Native American individuals who embodied both genders - what some might classify as 'the third sex.' Berdaches were known to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312175396
• ISBN13: 9780312175399
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Amazing book ! highly recommend this book

Amazing book. Arrived on time and in good condition. Can not recommend this book highly enough.

Two-spirit people limited to homosexuality?

The book was an easy and enjoyable read. Roscoe makes the historical documents and stories a lot more accessible than just an offering of dry comments. I loved how he related the two spirited of then to those of today and how he discribed the many forms of discrimination they must face both then and now. The only issue I find with this book is that, although he states that historically those of two spirits were not necessarily homosexual, nor were they limited to the activities of one gender over another but many times participated in both, he doesn't mention modern day two spirit people who identify as bisexual except in the context of a modern "problem", alongside alcoholism, drug use and prostitution. He does this while alluding to bisexuality being accepted historically and stating how some two spirit people had children, which at the time, was impossible without both genders being involved. I find it interesting that although Roscoe is doing humanity a service by providing this kind of education to all as well as liberation those two spirit who may still feel alone in their reservations amid so much persecution; he is shortchanging the very essence of the Two Spirit person, denying ALL it's many shades. This only perpetuates the poisonous discrimination the gay movement has fought so hard to dismantle, yet keeps alive within it's own community. In this aspect, I would consider this writing as the gay community has considered many of the first writings on homosexuality- up to a certain point, discriminating and ignorant. However, besides that it's an excellent book considering what is available out there.

The best book on the topic

By starting with life experiences of some individual male and female berdache, Roscoe literally captivates readers, before carrying us into the comparative, theoretical, analytical second half which is sophisticated but clearly written. Will Roscoe's work on North American berdache/"two spirit" is far and away the most theoretically sophisticated and historically systematic work in a burgeoning field. While many people have been pawing at a few historical records and fantasizing a great deal, he has systematically gone through a multilingual literature, showed how the discourse unfolded in specific European national traditions, and sorted out continuities and discontinuities in space and in time (both in the discourse and in the phenomena of Native American cultural survivla, insofar as it can be glimpsed through Christianity-distorted lenses). Although Roscoe's primary focus is on historical records of "berdache," he has also discusses contemporary "gay Indians," building on his earlier book _Living the Spirit_. My only regret is that Roscoe did not include his article "Was We'Wah [the Zuni "man-woman' he wrote an earlier book about] a homosexual?" in this book. _Changing Ones_ is the single indispensable book on the subject of gender and sexuality of Native American gender-mixing roles.

A fantastic resource on Native American 3rd/4th genders

Will Roscoe has compiled a wonderful and invaluable overview of a long-neglected topic. As he notes in the introduction to this volume, our language is currently burdened by an archaic and often unhelpful lexicon in addressing 'third and fourth genders' so commonly encountered in pre-Columbian North America. This book includes a compilation of the historical and current literature, and readers will find the extensive Glossary and the Tribal Index to be of great use as a source for further investigation. Roscoe's will undoubtedly remain one of the most useful contributions in this are