Return to
course by
clicking on
BACK arrow
above.

Berdache

Berdache is a person and a kind of gender found in some Native American cultures - neither man, nor woman but a third way of being an adult member of those communities - the gender is not founded on sexual activity or inclination.

The person pictured below, a Zuni, a male, had specific responsiblities within tribe that were not ascribed to warriors, or women. Though much of the 'job description of this person sounded to me like Zuni 'women's work' and the clothing and hairstyle are closer to Zuni woman's apparel than to men Zuni clothing at the turn of the 19th century, the Zuni recognized that from time to time a special person would be born in their tribe who would follow a third path.

"The "berdache" I refer to in "Mudheads" is the anthropological term
for a third or fourth gender person in many native tribes across the American continents. They were often honored and assumed scared roles in their tribes. When the Europeans arrived, many persecuted these people. The conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa, for example,
upon discovering some berdaches in what is now Panama,
threw them to the dogs, which ate them alive. "
(Walter L. Williams, The Spirit and the Flesh: Sexual Diversity
in American Indian Culture, Boston: Beacon, 1986)

The word "Berdache" is of French origin - it has some negative connotations in that language (courtesan, 'boy-kept-for-pleasure'). Current Native American activists in this field prefer "Two-spirit" as the English word used to refer to this third gender as it occurs in their tribes.