Two Spirits, Three Genders, For All People

Two-Spirits, Three Genders, For All PeopleThird-Gender spiritual functionaries in global cultures

Luccia Jalila Rogers, Ph.D.

One evening at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona,

following the premiere of the documentary film, “Two Spirits:

Sex, Gender, and the Murder of Fred Martinez,” (Nibley, 2009)

there was a question and answer session with the director and

producers of the film. After a few comments and questions,

someone started speaking in Diné. The room fell silent. The man

spoke for at least five minutes, possibly longer. About halfway

through, my heart broke and I began to cry along with many, many

others in the audience. I don’t know Diné, but I know I was

experiencing great loss and sadness. The speaker kept talking and

by the time he ended, I realized I felt hopeful. The microphone

was handed to a young man next to the elder who gave a

translation, at least the translation of the part of the comments

to be shared with outsiders, with white people. It was as

follows:

“When the Europeans came, they encountered beings they did

not understand, that they feared and hated. They were blessed by

the Holy People, they were the healers, the counselors, those who

were in between the Holy People and the People, between men and

Two Spirits, Three Genders Rogers1



women, between the People and other tribes. The Spanish killed

them all, throwing them to their dogs. There was a prophecy given

at that time, it is this: “In twenty-one generations, these

people, the nadleh, the people of the rainbow, will return. They

will return in great numbers, not just for the Diné, the People,

but for the whole Earth and the whole of humanity.”

“This is the twenty-first generation.”

But how far back do we find third gender people? An example

is one of the Sumerian Creation myths from more than 4,000 years

ago. The story has Ninmah, a Mother Goddess, fashioning humankind

out of clay. She boasts that she will determine the fate – good

or bad – for all she fashions. Enki, the father god, retorts as

follows.

Enki answered Ninmah: "I will counterbalance whatever fate –

good or bad – you happen to decide." Ninmah took clay from the

top of the abzu [ab = water, zu = far] in her hand and she

fashioned from it first a man who could not bend his outstretched

weak hands. Enki looked at the man who cannot bend his




outstretched weak hands, and decreed his fate: he appointed him

as a servant of the king.

... [Three men and one woman with atypical biology are

formed and Enki gives each of them various forms of status to

ensure respect for their uniqueness] ...

Sixth, she fashioned one with neither penis nor vagina on

its body. Enki looked at the one with neither penis nor vagina on

its body and gave it the name Nibru [eunuch(?)], and decreed as

its fate to stand before the king.

This work began with my dissertation which was published in

2008 (Rogers, 1980). The core topic was the body image of pre-op,

MtF transwomen and how it integrated with their gender identity.

Part of my literature review included historical trans/third

gender/two spirit identities. It is this latter part that has

grown to include public speaking presentations and guest lecturer

invitations at various colleges and community groups. At this

point, it has joined with my lifelong interest and calling to

spiritual service to become this examination of global third




gender persons who served their cultures as spiritual

functionaries.

This paper will serve as an overview of such third gender

persons in their cultures, how and in what capacity they served

their communities, and will include the commonalities and

differences in their roles of spiritual/cultural service.

We will begin with a very brief explanation of terms and

concepts to help the reader join the author in her perspective on

this topic, keeping in mind that each reader holds his or her own

set of expectations and understandings about this topic. Next, we

will begin with brief descriptions of third gender persons

beginning with the Pacific Islands and moving eastward globally

as an organizing method. Greeting the sun in this way is also

symbolic of the author’s desire to shed light on third gender

spiritual functionaries as a common, ancient, and renewed global

phenomenon with potential to touch each culture, society, nation-

state, and most importantly, person in the near future.

Our purpose is to focus upon those people who historically

fit into so-called, “third gender,” roles and identities and




whose purpose in their respective societies was or is to serve as

spiritual functionaries. These roles include shamans, healers,

teachers, keepers of the tribe’s history and stories, ritualists,

undertakers, and intermediaries between the spirit world and this

world, between men and women, between their tribe and other

tribes. We will look into specific global cultures for these

people, how gender was constructed and sustained in these

cultures, how their third gender was an integral part of the

society, or not, which social roles they fulfilled, their

relationship to others in their culture, and whether these

persons and roles are still active today.

We will explore how both orientation and gender identity are

both known and/or intrinsic characteristics as well as being

socially constructed characteristics and/or categories. Each

group, nation, people, culture, or society examined in this study

created and sustained over time sexual orientations, gender

identities, social roles, and gender roles that supported their

cultures, that best reflected their world views, cosmologies, and

religions.




We begin with parsing gender, sex, sex roles, sexual

practices, gender identity, and gender roles. Gender is not sex.

Sex is not gender. Gender is a social construction of function,

role, and identity specific to each human culture. Sex is related

to biology and physiology and is not necessarily linked to gender

and/or gender identity except as a choice by a culture to do so.

This has been very recently complicated by the findings by a

number of studies in which there is a biological and perhaps

genetic link to gender identity.

The first is a study of children between the ages of four

and eight years old that found that children whose gender

identity did not match their assigned-at-birth sex/gender, or

transgender children, clearly and strongly knew their gender

identity despite the apparent evidence of their physiognomy.

Thus, we have children with boy’s bodies who know with no doubt

that they are girls and children with girl’s bodies who know with

no doubt that they are boys. (Eaton, et al, 2015) The researchers

have committed to extending this study to become longitudinal,

covering the next decade or so of their subjects’ lives. This has




significance for these trans children is enormous as the

potential that they may be raised in their known gender, and not

in their birth-assigned, enforced gender is now far greater. This

may well prove to be significant in vast improvements in the

physical and mental health as well as the social, cultural,

career, and life success of these children. Transfolk who have

elected to transform their physical bodies to match their inner,

or known gender identity as adults report significantly higher

rates of suicide attempts, addictions, failed careers, failed

intimate relationships, etc., than the population as a whole. By

being raised as one’s known gender identity just as cisgendered

people are raised, the stresses, strains, and lifelong damage to

the psyche should be avoided.

Additionally, a number of studies in the past 20 years have

found significant differences in the living brains of transfolk

in areas associated with identity as well as genetic differences.

These differences were not the result of trauma nor of the

effects of hormone therapy, but were congenital. The people with

these differences know with no doubt what their gender identity




is and that they have always known it. Researchers are growing

more comfortable with saying their results seem to indicate a

definitive, biological cause for so-called gender identity

disorder. It is significant in that it confirms what transfolk

have been saying for seemingly ever, namely, there is no

conscious decision to, “become,” transgender. One is born

transgender as surely as one is born male/man, or female/woman.

(Zhou, et al, 1995, Krujiver, et al, 2000, Swaab, 2004, Goren,

2006.)

These studies also confirm the self-reports of my

respondents recorded in my dissertation in which they stated they

knew their gender difference by the time they were in elementary

school. (Rogers, 2008)

That there is a biological component to the discord between

the assigned-at-birth gender identity and one’s known gender

identity also supports legislation, changes in social and

cultural norms, and public perception that a transperson chooses

to become a transperson. However, as we see with gay, lesbian, or

bisexual persons who still face religious-based objections to




their orientations as innate and not chosen, there is a long way

to go in United Statian society before science-based proofs of

any identity as innate and not chosen are readily accepted and

cultural attitudes change.

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

Sexual orientation and gender identity are not the same. As

mentioned above, both are innate, or known characteristics and

both generally become evident at part of the usual formation of

identity and personhood that occurs in all humans between the

ages of three and eight years old. This can be very difficult for

the reader whose life has been lived in the mainstream United

Statian or Euro-American culture, steeped as it is within the

binaries of patriarchy. The first of these binaries that concerns

us is sex, which we will define as that related to biology. The

dominant culture holds there are two biological sexes, male and

female. These historically have been determined at birth by the

configuration of the genitalia. Once determined to be male or

female, the child is raised to fit into another binary, that of

man and woman. Patriarchal culture joins biological sex as




determined by genital configuration with social and cultural

roles of man and woman.

Throughout human history, the limits of the sex/gender

binary have been tested and proven lacking by women who’ve led

armies, like Jean d’Arc, nations, movements, and changed the

direction of society. In addition, it ignores and eliminates the

creative and vital energies of the entire segment of society that

doesn’t neatly fit into the sex/gender binary.

This is not a small group of people. An Australian meta-

analysis predicted that four percent of all human births are of a

person whose genitalia are not strictly or specifically male or

female. Other studies speculate the number is only one or two

percent. Taking the higher percentage, this third human sex, not-

male, not-female, number approximately 5.24 million people born

each year. (Sax, 2002, INSA.org, ret. 3-2015) Even the lower

figures result in over a million people a year. These people have

been called hermaphroditic or hermaphrodites, but a more accurate

term would be intersex.




We will assume that intersex humans have existed as long as

there have been humans. Therefore, human societies have always

dealt with their third sex/third gender people in some way. The

Sumerian story above gives credence to this as do mythologies,

stories and recent actions from religions such as Judaism and

Hinduism.

In the former, the Talmud discusses those who are either

androginus, having both male and female external sexual

characteristics, or tumtum, which have neither. In 2002, Reform

rabbi Margaret Wenig organized a seminar at the Hebrew College-

Jewish Institute of Religion specifically to discuss issues

affecting transsexual or intersexed persons. In 2003, Rabbi Wenig

held a similar event at Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.

In the latter, we learn that Sangam Literature uses the

term, “pedi,” to refer to intersex persons. This also refers to

hijras (Winter, 2014).

Recently, since the 1950s, in Euro-American societies, the,

“solution,” to people born intersex has been surgical

intervention very early in life, as early as three days old.




Genital surgery to, “repair,” hypospadeias, close up vaginal

openings so only the penis remains, remove, “excessive,” clitoral

length so it doesn’t appear to be a penis, remove scrotal and/or

testes tissues, create a vagina where none exists, etc., all to

be able to name the child a, “boy,” or, “girl,” so their

socialization into their binary sex/gender identity/role may

begin. However, numerous governmental agencies such as the Human

Rights Commission of San Francisco in 2005, the Senate of

Australia in 2013, the Yogyakarta Principles in 2006, the Swiss

National Advisory Council on Biomedical Ethics in 2012, the

United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and the Council of

Europe in 2013, the World Health Organization and UN Intergency

Report in 2014 have been standing against this kind of surgery,

some going as far as to call it disturbing, inhumane, and cruel.

However, for untold millennia of human history people born

intersex were welcomed, honored, and seen as those literally,

“in-between,” men and women, the spirit world and this world,

their tribe and all other tribes. (Roscoe, 1991, 1995, 1998,

2004, ibid, ed., 1988, 1998, Driscoll, et al, 2011, Trexler, 1995,




Matzner, 2001, Sell, 2001, Goulet, 1992, Stockett, 2005) Their

social roles served all their people, not just their family or

clan or tribe. They were the glue that held the group together.

In cosmologies, they were an integral part of the creation of the

universe. Even in Western cultures, specifically the Greeks,

Plato described the first humans as being joined beings, male and

female together. This, “divine androgyne,” was the ideal for

humanity; a person whose energies, qualities, and personality

perfectly balance the male and female in one being. However,

Western cultures only recognized the patriarchal gender/sex

binary. The divine androgyne was only an ideal, not accepted as a

reality or a possibility at all.

Sexual Orientation

Sexual orientation is important to our exploration since

those who are sexually attracted to the same sex, or who possess

an erotic attraction to the same sex has also been used to

characterize people as, “different from,” men and women. However,

this applies only inasmuch as we recognize first that another

patriarchal binary is gay and straight or heterosexual and




homosexual. Patriarchy recognizes heteronormativity as the

standard for society, going so far as to declare heterosexuality

as, “normal,” and homosexuality as, “deviant,” or, “inverse.”

This becomes more difficult for this study since attempts to

apply labels such as gay or straight turn out to have little

meaning when dealing with non-Western cultures (Driskill, et al,

2011). Even terms created by indigenous peoples for themselves,

such as Two-Spirit, have become less a useful categorization or

umbrella term since each First Nation or Indian tribe or culture

often defined Two-Spirit differently that its neighbors. In fact,

since 1988 when the term Two-Spirit was coined, it has offered

less to anthropologists and others engaged in studying Indian and

First Nations peoples than it was hoped because of that wide

variance in definition and practice. (ibid)

However, it remains helpful as we explore third-gender

persons since many Two-Spirit-identified people claim the

historical roles of third-gender people such as healers,

counselors, shamans, etc. Thus, our title, “Two Spirits, Three

Gender, For all the People.”




A commonality among non-Euro-American cultures is that

sexual activity does not define nor characterize a person. Same-

sex activity is simply sex between people of the same sex. There

is no opprobrium nor shame nor bias attached to it. It is just

sex.

Traditionally, there are not, “Gay people,” nor, “Straight

people,” in indigenous cultures and thus, prior to Euro-American

and Christian missionary colonization, these concepts would be

completely foreign in gender and sex roles schemas, norms, and

mores. However, as we explore these cultures today, we find

ourselves with them attempting to sort out the past, the history,

the traditions, from the present or at least the recent, colonial

past. In the present, we also join with these cultures trying to

recall, rebuild, reclaim, and restore lost stories, practices,

and traditions. Gay, Straight, Bisexual, Transsexual, Assexual,

Two-Spirit, and Third Gender are imperfect definitions, but are

part of the discourse and as such will be included to help the

reader form a more exact picture of the culture, the people, the

story to which we are listening and which we are telling.




Cultural Migration

One of the more fascinating, and admittedly speculative

concepts in our exploration is the similarity of worldviews,

cosmologies, religions, and cultural practices among the cultures

we are exploring. Each has a third gender identity and role that

was vital to the culture in the past and which is being reclaimed

in the present as these cultures release themselves from the

pervasive colonial influence. That these people in the cultures

we will be exploring served a spiritual function such as shaman,

healer, counselor, undertaker, ritualist, and also a social

function such as raising orphaned children, and that these

cultures span the planet is more than a little coincidental.

How did this come to be?

One speculates that humanity is collectively decent enough

to realize that if four percent of all the people born have

ambiguous genitalia, and that perhaps up to ten percent of people

are inclined to participate in social or cultural activities that

do not match those traditionally engaged in by people of their

same biological sex, then these people are simply different,




always have been, always will be, and embody the inbetweeness

that is an essential part of their worldview and religious

practices. However, since this is the same humanity that

continues to fight wars over resources and ideologies, this is

unlikely.

Unless along with migrations of early humans around the

planet that spread languages and DNA, cultural, spiritual, and

religious practices were spread, as well.

Shaman Drums

We can look to a key marker of worldview, cosmology, and

religious practices among early human, non-monotheistic cultures

for evidence that these migrated, as well; the drums of shamans.




The cosmologies and shamanic practices depicted in the drum

art reveal the idea that the universe has an upper, or spirit

world, a middle world, this physical world, and a lower world, or

underworld. The drums also show the animals important to each

culture, stars, moon, sun, plants important to each culture, and

people. The similarities in the artwork on the drums are not

coincidental. Humans migrated around the globe. Humans also




traded with one another, despite the vast distances involved.

Ideas are also traded, often unintentionally, but passed between

cultures, nonetheless.

Since one important and common function of third-gender

people was to be the ambassadors between tribes, nations, and

peoples, it is not a stretch to consider that they accompanied

trade delegations encountering new groups for the first time.

And, as these cultures self-report that their third-gender people

filled similar functions around the planet, it may be a matter

of, “chicken or egg.” Did the third-gender ambassador show a

culture that their third-gender people could serve them is a

similar way? Or did the first encounters of new tribes include at

least one third-gendered person from each tribe greeting one

another on behalf of their respective tribes? We can’t know for

sure.

It is an artifact of colonization and a remnant of hegemony

to not consider the possibility that third-gender people, shaman

drum artwork, cosmologies, religious practices and other such

abstracts were not traded or exchanged along with shells,




feathers, skins, fabrics, jewels, etc. The Euro-American

worldview of, “the Other,” tends to harken back to, “the noble

savages,” who lived simply and were content to stay in one region

their entire lives. The physical evidence reveals trade lines

hundreds or even thousands of miles long. It just makes sense

that the aforementioned abstracts made their way for hundreds and

perhaps thousands of miles.

Another important change in human understanding of third

gender people are the legal actions recently taken by governments

in relation to their third gender citizens.




Third-Gender People

Mahu

Traditional Hawai’ian culture has the Mahu. Historically,

these male-bodied people are raised in an, “in-between,” place.

They are taught tasks that are traditional for men such as

fishing, but also tasks that are traditional for women such as

cooking, or caring for the children. It is not unheard of for

Mahu to have a birth name as a boy, but also be given a girl’s

name or nickname. In dress, they wear both men’s or women’s

clothing, and switch throughout their lives, depending upon the

situation, the task they are doing, their social or intimate

role, or even their mood.

Mahu are also given training and teaching that is culturally

significant and historically, unique to them. They are taught

healing skills, including which plants are medicine and where to

find them. Healing for traditional Hawai’ians includes spiritual

or energetic healing. Iki, a Mahu who lives on Kauai, reported

that traditional Hawai’ians have an alive, vital, and real

awareness of the spirit beings that surround them, but that Mahu




are taught to interact with these spirit beings, to become more

sensitive to them, so they may intercede for healing, for good

fortune, and protection.

Traditional Hawai’ian spirituality includes respecting the

ancestors, and so it’s important in their worldview to know where

the ancestors’ bodies are located. Part of the training of a

young Mahu is being shown where all bodies are buried. The Mahu

then are charged with caring for the graves, so the ancestors may

be honored.

Mahu are taken under the wing of an elder, sometimes a

grandmother or elder aunt, who teaches them the stories of their

family, and their people. They are expected to share these when

asked, and to pass them along to a young Mahu so the stories are

not lost.

Sexually, Mahu are intimate with both men and women.

Socially, they often function as a sort of safety valve for

troubled relationships. Women may go to the home of a Mahu to get

away from their troubles, to gain perspective, solace, and

comfort. Men may go to a Mahu and engage in sex to relieve the




pressure to be unfaithful and it is not considered infidelity. To

be intimate with a Mahu doesn’t make a man, “gay,” since the Mahu

is, “not man,” and, most importantly, traditional Hawai’ian

culture doesn’t have the concept of homosexuality,

heterosexuality, gay, or straight. The activity is simply sex.

There is a tradition of hanai, of caring for children who are

not one’s own. Mahu take in children who are having a hard time

at home, young Mahu whose parents don’t understand because of

modern, post-colonial attitudes about sex and sexuality. Those

familiar with the, “invented families,” such as the drag houses

featured in, “Paris is Burning,” will recognize what modern Mahu

often have done to keep young people safe, to provide a home and

structure. This may not always be what might be considered

wholesome as colonial/modern influences have marginalized the

Mahu so, like many transfolk around the world, their only options

to earn money may be engaging in prostitution or performing in

drag cabarets. The structure of these families includes the

traditional Hawai’ian respect for one’s elders so that the eldest

Mahu, often called, “Auntie,” rules the brood with an often-iron




fist and the younger members respect and obey the elder members.

This is considered very important as this is the structure a

traditional family would have and for the Mahu, and all

traditional Hawai’ians, respect and service are vital part of the

culture.

One very-little-known function of the Mahu in traditional

Hawai’ian society is hula. Historically, Mahu are the ones who

teach hula, who keep the traditions of hula, who are the

performers of hula. There is recognition that hula is performed

for tourists and has become part of the titillation of those

tourists thanks to the, “Othering,” of Hawai’ian women by

Europeans and Americans, but the hula seen by tourists is not the

traditional, sacred dancing done or taught by Mahu. However, Mahu

like Iki have performed around the world, sharing hulu as part of

the sacred task of preserving and teaching Hawai’ian culture.

There is a separation between traditional Mahu and modern-

day transfolk, particularly transvestites. The latter have had a

strong tradition of performing centered around clubs like the

Glade. They value what may be considered, “high drag,” or very




feminine, very glamorous appearance. Some of these often look

down at traditional Mahu for not dressing up in public as women,

for being cowardly. Ironically, many Mahu when they were younger

during the 1960s and 70s performed at the Glade or other clubs,

but as they’ve grown older, their concerns are more about serving

the community, preserving the culture, and caring for others.

But, in a small community such as the queer community of Hawai’i,

there is greater concern for the well-being of the whole and the

differences between two, “varieties,” of transfolk, are set aside

when necessary to organize for legislation, for funding for AIDS

services, etc. At least, that is the hope they share.

Inuit

The Inuit and other North American Arctic peoples have a

traditional religion which includes the figure of the shaman, one

who stands between the spirit world, and a world view in which

there are three worlds, i.e., the spirit realm, this world, and

an underworld in which also dwell sprits. The Inuit shaman lives

like others in the community; hunting, fishing, making clothing,

and so on. However, when someone falls ill, gets injured, or




animals are scare the shaman is called upon to enter the sacred

trance and engage with the spirits to find the source of the

illness or which of them is keeping the seals, etc., from

swimming nearby. This journey of their spirit is risky since they

have to sneak past spirits that will harm a human spirit if

detected. So, part of the trance state of the shaman includes

changing into another animal and/or into the opposite sex. In

this way, the shaman isn’t recognized and can do battle or

persuade their helper spirits to join them in defeating the

spirit causing the disease or blocking the seals from swimming

within range.

This transformation is visible to those who believe. There

is a clip on YouTube in which an Inuit shaman was filmed by an

anthropologist as he drummed and danced into the sacred trance.

The community reacted when the transformation into the shaman’s

spirit animal occurred, but the anthropologist and camera crew

saw nothing. (Cite)

Not all shaman change sex as part of their transformation.

Those who do are valued for this unique ability as they are




truly, “in-between,” not just the worlds, but men and women. They

are sought out for marriage by men and those who marry them gain

status among their people. As with the Mahu, a man who has sex

with a shaman isn’t homosexual or gay, because this concept

doesn’t exist in traditional Inuit societies and because the

shaman is, “not man, not woman,” or a third gender.

One identifier of the shaman is the drum. The artwork on the

drum reflects the shaman’s understanding of the construction and

shape of the universe. It represents the realms and beings the

shaman works with and cares for as part of their responsibility.

The drumming, along with dancing, is how the shaman enters the

sacred trance in which they are transformed. It represents the

heartbeat of the living universe, the rhythm that draws the

shaman into the spirit realm.

Part of the training of the shaman is the creation of their

drum. It becomes imbued with their essence and is a very sacred,

very treasured object because of its power in bringing about the

trance.




We have briefly seen the remarkable similarities among

shaman drums from disparate cultures. We will explore this in

greater depth when we discuss cultural migration.

Ohlone, Yurok, Miwok

Among California Coastal peoples, there were, “societies,”

or organized groups within tribal groups who served their tribes

by caring for the dead and the grieving survivors. Accounts of

anthropologists, etc., of these people from the late 19th/early

20th century reveal much about the differences between a

patriarchal culture with a heteronormative, heterogemonic, binary

sex/gender world view. Descriptions include phrases such as,

“large women,” “women who were surprisingly strong, as strong as

a man,” “women incapable of giving birth,” which paint a vivid

picture of these people, but clearly reveal the observer’s lack

of ability to conceive of a third gender person as reality. The

European, American, or Canadian researchers who reported on these

cultures recognized they knew little of the actual religion

practiced by these peoples, but were uninterested in learning

much as their bias about the religion being, “pagan,” or,




“savage,” led them to keep an arm’s length between them and the

people participating in the various practice and rituals.

These people were seen by their tribes as being closer to

the spirit world because of their third gender status, and so

were not at risk when handling the dead as a man or woman would

be. They cared for the dying, conducting the rituals and

comforting for the dying person, their family, and the tribe.

They prepared the body and buried it, conducting the necessary

rituals. And, finally, comforted and counseled those who grieved

the loss.

They also raised any orphaned children, worked at both,

“women’s,” and, “men’s,” work, depending upon talent and

inclination, and were skilled at finding healing plants.

Diné

Zuni

Hopi

Lakota

Ojibwa

Lap




Muxe

Hjira (India)

Thailand

(These will be inserted and the rest of this paper, which

will serve as the Introduction to a book-length project will be

about 20-30 pages. As this is a panel presentation, I will select

key points and cultures to illustrate the thesis in the time

allotted.)


Two Spirits, Three Genders, For All People

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