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the berdache: Once upon a time in this great land there was a special caste of people that were sometimes called Two-Spirited. They were born little boys, but somewhere along the line they decided that they were really supposed to be ladies. Traditionally this happened during a spiritual encounter with the Moon: if the Moon told you that you were to "take up the skirt," then you risked the Moon's wrath by sticking to your gender category. This wasn't the same kind of decision that people make today. For one thing, the roles of each gender were clearly, if not rigidly drawn. The people of Two Spirits put on women's dress and did women's work. Sometimes they even took husbands. Now, these people of Two Spirits weren't homosexual as we understand the term. They were not men living with men. They were women living with men. They were special and honoured within their society, as they were considered to lay claim to the special power of the liminal. Only they understood both genders, and sometimes they were called upon to mediate disputes between man and woman. They had special access to the spirit world, and many of them became shamans or healers. These days, these people are referred to as "berdache" (from the Persian bardaj - a word meaning male prostitute, typically a passive pretty young man). Their presence was documented in 120 different societies, notable exceptions being war-like tribes. The first surviving European mention of this behavior is the "soft men" mentioned in the 1542 account of Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca. It is a mistake to think that all Europeans reacted in the same way to this phenomenon, but it can be safely assumed that they were all shocked by this system, a culturally-accepted lifestyle that so deeply transgresses the idea of biological determinism. Some extorted the Two Spirits to wear clothes of their "proper gender." Some set dogs on the Two Spirit people. There are also about 40 different societies that appeared to have a system where a "manly hearted woman" could be a man. Some of the same things apply, such as the ability to take a wife if these former-women desired. Interestingly enough, there are still places in Eastern Europe where it is okay to declare one of your daughters a boy if you cannot get the help you need any other way. What should you take away from this? I don't know. Perhaps that a place once existed where girls could be boys and boys could be girls without worrying that a truckful of angry young men was about to bear down on them. (Before you revive the ideological chestnut of the Noble Savage with his holistic patterns of sexuality, know that there are also recorded instances where a biological male who acted cowardly in battle was punished by forcing him to assume the role of a woman. He was granted no special status in return for taking up the skirt. So there you go.)
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