Berdache has been a very interesting topic, and one that I have never heard about before. There seems to be much concern about two spirited people in the Native community. Leading to hate, discrimination, hate crimes, and some are even disowned from their communities. Because of what may happen to a berdache, they often live underground hiding it, or pretend to be straight in public, conforming to the "norm." The extreme is that many leave the reserve for the city where they are welcomed to be who they want to be. As Jacobs noted, "some commit suicide and others leave for the city"(Jacobs, 23). This she feels is unfortunate because the community is sometime losing important members of their nation. If they were to stay, many berdache would be living in constant fear that something horrible may happen to them. This problem could be blamed on misinterpretations and misuse of the term "berdache." This is one problem I am going to address, and also, has the term "berdache" been created by scholars?

One person noted that as a result of colonialism this (two spirited people), was started. One native person felt that "people like that had learned such ways from the white people"(Jacobs, 25) To me this would seem like intolerance for sexual diversity, on the part of the new settlers. Perhaps, as was noted in the book, "the problem of the berdache has developed, I believe, from an overemphasis on its sexual aspects. This is due to an obsession on the part of western travellers, missionaries with primitive and sexual 'odd customs'"(Jacobs, 29)

From the book I read, it came across that two-spirited people have always been discriminated against. However, Hasten noted that before the present berdache were highly respected in the community. "Rather than being shunned or hated, the "berdache" was often a powerful and valued member of the community-not simply male or female." They have the liberty to behave in concert with his or her own desires. This is not the situation today. Most leave the reserve for the city where they can "fit in" better.

Hill noted in his article that two spirited people are also called nadle. "The concept of nadle is well formulated, and their cultural role well sustained in the mythology. In the tales dealing with creation and emergence of the Navaho the pursuits and activities of the nadle are out lined. They are described as being wealthy and as having control of wealth."(Hill 273-4) A family that has a nadle was considered to be fortunate, because they were highly respected members of the community. However, this is no longer the case. It could be said that it is almost a bad thing to be a berdache.

I would like to know why all of a sudden they are not really accepted. Is it because of how society believes each gender should act and dress? Hasten sort of touches on this. She felt that "gender is a cultural construction, one which has, in fact been constructed differently by other cultures." I can somewhat relate to this. My friends and I were out one day and saw a man wearing something resembling a dress (I am not sure of the proper word). They commented that he must be gay. It is a cultural thing for him. Each society defines how each gender should act, and what is acceptable.

It could be said that they (berdache) have become unaccepted as a result of mainstream society. It (society) has determined socially and culturally what is accepted as the "norm."

Hasten noted one reason why they were accepted, and perhaps some nations still accept this. She noted that "the traditional Diné Navaho scholar, D. B., told Carolyn Epple, all of the sexual organs are both "male and female, inseparable and distinct. At the tip of the penis is a little vagina, while on the vulva is a little penis. That is how it is said in Navaho." However, because of misuse of the word, there are negative connotations associated with berdache.

Although the term "berdache" has not always existed, the concept of a berdache has. Schnarch noted that "if we follow some of the mythology, the berdache was the first gender, preceding not only European arrival in this land, but men and women as well."(Schnarch, 117)

It is only dress which distinguished them. As we know, gender defines how we act, and what we wear. However, the example given by Hasten was that, if a women is to wear a business suit with a tie, the only foreseeable problem is not that she is wearing "men's clothes," but she is seen as to have access to power. Whereas if a man wore a dress in public he would be regarded as a transvestite. She notes that he may not be a transvestite, but rather some men enjoy the feeling of the fabric, so they wear it. Some still enjoy women, it does not mean that he is a homosexual.

I believe that she has summed up her article the best way possible and for me this sort of just made everything click for me. She concluded that "the fact is that cultures providing a "berdache" status likely did so in order to avoid the designation of homosexuality by shifting genders, and did in most cases prohibit the equivalent of "homosexual" behaviour: Homo- gendered sexual activity was not acceptable, and two males who both identified as men could not freely engage in sexual activity under any circumstance. Therefore, if homosexuality has ever been "institutionalized," and if there have ever been more than two genders, it has apparently not been among the peoples native to North America." However, negative connotations have been classified under berdache, such as they are homosexual, or transvestites.

From what I have been reading the last couple of weeks there seems to be a problem with gender and sex. One being sociocultural and the other biological, respectively.(Murray, 59) The problem is that berdache has been misconstrued to mean several things, "it has been described as and confused with, intersexed, institutionalized homosexuality, transvestism, gender crossing or transsexuals."(Schnarch, 114) Schnarch feels that these characterizations are a result of "misunderstandings of the nature of the status resulting from an ethnocentric perspective that is unable or unwilling to conceptualize more than two sexes or genders."(Schnarch, 114)

In Murray's article he notes that on a recent trip to a doctors office the form to be filled included M F T (male, female, transition).(Murray, 60) This explains the point Schnarch is trying to make where society only wants to accept two sexes/genders. It was okay if they circled "in transition", because within a certain period of time a person would then become male or female legally. However, the berdache role is not synonymous with the male or female gender role (Schnarch, 115).

Berdache have been classified as being homosexual, as well as others which I have noted above. However, this is false. Schnarch claimed there were two reasons why this assumption is false. The main reason was because to be homosexual there would have to be berdache-berdache sexuality. This does not occur in berdache society.

After revisiting Jacobs' chapter, I have realized that one of the main issues surrounding the North American Berdache is if it was created by scholars or if it has been a term that has liberated. Jacobs enjoys the term "berdache" for it "has been an important symbol of potential liberation from gender identity construction, homophobia, and sexuality containment for some lesbian/gay/two-spirited First Nations as well as for non-Natives."

She feels that when it comes to the study of berdache that not many scholars consult Native Americans. She notes that "I had reacted to what anthropologists and other social

scientists had written about Native American instuitions; in Indian voices were in the writing I found."

Also, in 1988 "a number of non-native anthropologists and others had published articles about Native American homosexuality that were based on library research. Few of these studies were done in collaboration with Native Americans."

It would seem that it could be made up by academics, but from what I have read, it also seems that it is an actual entity. From the information I have, I cannot say that I am leaning in one direction or another. Much like Jacobs, I am sitting on the fence. Within this chapter she asks the question "is the North American berdache merely a phantom in the imagination of Western anthropologists?" She feels "yes and no. I use the words imagination and phantom in the post modern sense, noticing that not only anthropologists but also a lot of other people (academics, and non academics) use the idea of the North American berdache to represent a cultural category of significance to American Indians."

Clyde M. Hall. He is a Native anthropologist, who wished to give information about berdache. I got the impression that it was not until recently that two-spirited people have been labelled berdache by anthropologists. He noted that "and how they want to dress, and how they want to act. Do you think that the old-time people who are now referred to by anthropologists as 'berdache' for the most part used that word as part of their vocabulary? I do not think so, because they were just manifesting who they were. And how they lived. It was something that was given to them by Spirit-this way of living."(274)

From Hall, it would seem that the term "berdache" was created as a label, perhaps by anthropologists and social scientists. I believe people need a label so they can "know" what something is. I say "know" meaning that we never really know something until we actually study it.

Getting away from these stereotypes is difficult. They are not male or female, resulting in a need for another gender classification rather than only male and female. "Female berdaches are a third gender and male berdaches are a fourth gender."(Schnarch, 117)

This brings me to the question if Berdache was created by scholars. It would seem, at least the term was. In Two-spirit people Clyde Hall noted that two-spirited people have always existed. However, it was not until recently that they have been "berdache"(Jacobs, Thomas, Lang 274). This has made me wonder if the term berdache is a step towards recognition as another gender classification.

From the information I have gathered, I believe I conclude by saying the concept of a berdache has always existed. However, it has not been until recently the term has been coined and applied to two-spirited people, perhaps by scholars or by First Nations to distinguish themselves from homosexuals-because they are not. They are a class on their own.