two-spirit

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See also: two spirit

English

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Wikipedia

Pronunciation

  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /tuːˈspɪɹɪt/, /ˈtuːˌspɪɹɪt/

Etymology 1

Modern English calque of Ojibwe niizh manidoowag (“two spirits”), itself a modern term (both originating in 1990), from niizh (“two”) + manidoo (“spirit”).[1] Replaced berdache (considered offensive) in anthropological literature.

Noun

two-spirit (plural two-spirits)

  1. A Native (North) American gender-variant, homosexual or bisexual person (especially one belonging to a traditional tribal third-gender, fourth-gender or transgender cultural category that has a ceremonial role).
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Usage notes
  • "Nations and tribes used various words to describe various genders, sexes and sexualities. Many had separate words for the Western constructs of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, intersex individuals, [etc] ... Even these categories are limiting, because they are based on Western language and ideas rooted in a dichotomous relationship between gender, sex, and sexuality. This language barrier limits our understanding of the traditional roles within Native American/First Nations cultures."[2]
  • "Although two-spirit implies to some a spiritual nature, that one holds the spirit of two, both male and female, traditional Native Americans/First Nations peoples view this as a Western concept. Since historically many "berdache/two-spirit" individuals held religious or spiritual roles, the term two spirit creates a disconnection from the past. The terms used by other tribes currently and historically do not translate directly into the English form of two spirit or the Ojibwa form of niizh manidoowag."[3]
Synonyms
  • berdache (offensive, no longer in contemporary use)
Translations

Adjective

two-spirit (not comparable)

  1. Pertaining to or being a two-spirit.
    • 1996, Ritch C Savin-Williams and Kenneth M Cohen, The Lives of Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals: Children to Adults, page 421:
      A Hupa two-spirit male told me: ‘I was real feminine as a child, from as early as I can remember.’
    • 1997, Sue-Ellen Jacobs, Wesley Thomas, and Sabine Lang, Two-spirit People, page 4:
      With this etymology, it should come as no surprise that many Native American gay, lesbian, transgender, and other two-spirit people consider the term ‘berdache’ derogatory.
    • 2010, Walter L Williams, The Guardian, 11 Oct 2010:
      Instead of seeing two-spirit persons as transsexuals who try to make themselves into "the opposite sex", it is more accurate to understand them as individuals who take on a gender status that is different from both men and women.
Synonyms
Translations

See also

References

references
  • Bullough, Vern L. and Bonnie. (1993). Crossdressing, Sex, and Gender. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press
  • Cameron, Michelle. (2005). Two-spirited Aboriginal people: Continuing cultural appropriation by non-Aboriginal society. Canadian Women Studies, 24 (2/3), 123-127.
  • Dynes, Wayne R., Homolexis Glossary (2008), berdache: In recent years, efforts have been made to replace berdache with "two-spirit." In 1993, a group of anthropologists and natives issued guidelines that formalized these preferences. "Berdache," they argued, is a term "that has its origins in Western thought and languages." Scholars were urged to discard it, inserting "[sic]" following its appearance in quoted texts. In its place they were encouraged to use tribally specific terms for multiple genders or the term "two-spirit." This attempt at rebranding recalls the shifts from homosexual to gay to queer to GLBT. As the noted scholar Will Roscoe observed, "[u]nfortunately, these guidelines create as many problems as they solve, beginning with a mischaracterization of the history and meaning of the word ‘berdache.’ As a Persian term, its origins are Eastern not Western. Nor is it a derogatory term, except to the extent that all terms for nonmarital sexuality in European societies carried a measure of condemnation. It was rarely used with the force of ‘faggot,’ but more often as a euphemism with the sense of ‘lover’ or ‘boyfriend.’ Its history, in this regard, is akin to that of ‘gay,’ ‘black,’ and ‘Chicano’—terms that also lost negative connotations over time."
  • Jacobs, Sue-Ellen; Wesley Thomas, and Sabine Lang (Eds.). (1997). Two-spirit people: Native American gender identity, sexuality, and spirituality. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. →ISBN, →ISBN.
  1. ^ Kylan Mattias de Vries in Jodi O'Brien, Encyclopedia of Gender and Society, volume 1 (2009, →ISBN
  2. ^ Kylan Mattias de Vries in Jodi O'Brien, Encyclopedia of Gender and Society, volume 1 (2009, →ISBN p. 64
  3. ^ Kylan Mattias de Vries in Jodi O'Brien, Encyclopedia of Gender and Society, volume 1 (2009, →ISBN p. 64
  4. ^ Cheyenne Dictionary of Fisher, Leman, Pine, and Sanchez
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lua error in Module:quote at line 897: |date= should contain a full date (year, month, day of month); use |year= for year

Etymology 2

From two +‎ spirit.

Adjective

two-spirit (not comparable)

  1. (theology) Involving two spirits; especially, pertaining to the doctrine of dualism espoused in the so-called Treatise on the Two Spirits in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
    • 1957, The Harvard Divinity School bulletin (Harvard University Press), page 133:
      Paul's grasp of the Spirit as the sign of the erupting messianic age is at odds with the two-spirit thought of Qumran which never became incompatible with law observance.
Translations
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