The Androgenous Shaman

​

II.

Ethnographic Accounts

Most native North and Central American tribes have had a special, often shamanic position for individuals who have chosen, or been chosen to lead cross-sexual lives. In the next section we will explore the tradition of the "ambisexual" shaman as it prevailed especially in Native America. These examples can help us better understand the significance androgyny had in shamanic cultures, and in particular to the shaman himself. It is important to understand the difference in the ontology of gender when trying to decipher the meaning of androgyny in shamanic cultures. Eliade, for example, calls androgenic practices an "aberration", and apologetically asks us to distinguish between the end in view: obtaining the view of totality of man, and the means adopted: physiological, psychological androgyny. But it is precisely his categorization of the phenomenon as aberration and this separation of ends and means which shamanic cultures do not exactly adhere to and the shaman transcends. 

I will begin by giving an overview of the concept of gender and sexuality in Native America, and then go on to explore the special shamanic roles, practices, rituals, and myths created around the androgyne and the androgynous element. These two components cannot be completely separated, for it is in the particular foundation of these cultures' gender and sexual definition that these androgynous practices have grown. Never the less, the androgynous practices, although particular and unique in their manifestation, are universal in their aim to release humans from their, "one-sided", "differentiated consciousness" as Jung describes it.  

"Two-Spirit people", and the Concept of Gender in Native America

Alternative gender types termed: "third and fourth genders", was a wide spread phenomenon among the North and Central American tribes. This could be seen as a starting point of understanding the role of androgyny in shamanic culture, and of help in deciphering the role of androgyny in creating a different mental reality.  The Western conception of a polar division of the genders, out of which every deviation was considered at least "abnormal", and foul in most cases, did not apply to the Native American tribes before contact with the Western influence and oppression. It is in this cultural context that the androgyne shaman plays his intermediate role. 

Until recently tribal members of an alternative gender role were called by the general name: "berdache". The term, although not derogatory today, probably dates back to European colonialists who used it in a derogatory manner. The term means something close to "sex slave", and could testify to the way in which European society saw homosexuality, transexuality, bi-sexuality or any gender type which did not adhere to the dichotomous Male and Female genders. It was recently that Gay Native Americans and researchers have started to call the different displays of third and forth genders by the general name of "two spirit" instead of "berdache". This name, better describes the identity of these people, and is closer to the spirit of their role and name in the Native American languages.

"Two Spirit" members lived a lifestyle which was an alternative gender role to the male and female roles. The two-spirit specialized work roles, either of the opposite sex, or unique to the two-spirit; they were distinguished in their over all expected behavior, appearance and social role. Many married non two-spirit wives/husbands, of the same sex. Their identity was usually ascribed to divine/supernatural interference, and they usually had spiritual roles in the tribe. In most tribes they are a natural part of tribal life, and many times esteemed members. They were also as any other member of a culture were, each in their own tribe, bound to norms concerning their role and behavior; therefore they are described as a third/third gender. The general term of "Two spirit", which is not ascribed to one particular shamanic culture is not one rigid form of gender role, but a range of manifestation of the gender continuum, which are not strictly male or female. 

Man and women who partnered with same sex "two spirit", as the "two spirit" themselves (in most cases), could, before or after this relationship, have sexual and relationship partners of the opposite sex as well. This is further evidence that the archaic tribal tradition perceived sexuality as a fluid entity, not bound by the dichotomous definition given to it by the Western Christian world. From the following ethnographies it may also be concluded that even though shamanic cultures had a socially constructed concept of gender, there was also an awareness of its relativity, and the need to transcend it. This need was fulfilled by the role of the androgyne shaman, and ritual androgyny. 

It is according to Lawerence Sullivan that the Western polarity of nature and culture, presented as universal, has been one of the single most destructive forces of the last century.   Researchers often go on to link nature with male and culture with female, while Sullivan shows that shamanic cultures do not adhere to this. Males and females as well as plants, the stars, the rocks, and all dwellers of the universe disclose periodicity in a uniquely meaningful tempo. Males, for example are many times said to menstruate, and "menstruation is the best statement of the periodic nature of incarnate human life.  For example in order to give birth [to the initiates of the new generation], men must first be opened up and made to menstruate." Through this insight into the ontology of shamanic cultures we can understand better the inherent flexibility of gender in this system of thought which may be described as such: All dwellers of the universe are interconnected, and are dancing in their unique ways to the same drum. Therefore men and women are not rigidly opposite categories, as we see in the example of men who are said to menstruate. By this example we could also gain further understanding of the way in which shamanic cultures do not necessarily depend on sense perception of material manifestation to create their mental reality. It is actually the contrary; the experiential reality creates physical reality. While in the western system of thought a man cannot menstruate because he does not physically menstruate, it seems that in shamanic cultures physical evidence is not necessarily the first thing that needs to be accounted for. The experiential and ideal reality is just as important, if not more important. Therefore the physical anatomy of a man or a woman does not necessarily bind the person to one experiential existence or another to the extent that it does in western epistemology. 

Influences of the European Colonizing Culture 

As were other practices and lifestyles of the shamanic culture, androgyny and  ritual androgyny encountered at least dismay, at worst persecution from the white Christian dominant culture. Missionaries and colonizers ridiculed displays, of what they saw as sinful sexual deviance. The "two-spirit" people, including two-spirit shamans were usually the first to be killed by colonizers, as in the example of Balboa who set wild dogs to kill the homosexual medicine men of the California tribes. It is not a surprise then, that during mid to late 1800s, the cross gender institution was rapidly disappearing. In the 1900s the fear and indoctrination caused a change in attitude towards homosexual medicine men/women from within the tribes as well. Native Americans, out of fear or in an attempt to fit better within the dominant white Christian culture  that has a clear anti-homosexual agenda in school, army, and other institutions, has suppressed to androgynous element of their culture and religion, along with other elements that didn't sit well with the colonizers system of thought.

In spite of this, in some cases reminiscences of the "old ways" can be found in the new, often syncretistic version of shamanic culture. One example of this is in the case of the Araucanian Indian of South America. In this tribe where ritual transvestism and homosexuality was a prerequisite for the office of the most revered member the "machi" (shaman). Today though they are influenced by Christian values, their belief still preserves its androgynous archaic structure as they invoke: "Father God and old woman who art in Heaven".  

It seems that shamanic culture was perceived as one posing a threat to the colonizers of the "New World". Coming from a culture of a very rigidly polar categorization system, they encountered shamanic culture, headed by the shaman, which dared to live in a plain of consciousness where the polarities of Life and Death, Holy and Profane, sky and earth, pain and pleasure were to be bridged or transcended. The example of sexuality could be seen as a central and fundamental difference and challenge to the colonizers' conceptualization. 

Through the difference in perception of gender as a category of thought much could be learned about the ontological differences of the two cultures, and the dynamics created by these differences. While the western system of categorization is presented as a universal grasp of sexuality including all human kind, different shamanic cultures show a greater diversity of sexual behaviors, who are accepted and even revered through spiritual and shamanic powers attributed to them. The oppression of Native American perception of gender and sexuality, in ritual and in lifestyle is just one of the many beliefs and practices which have suffered serious degradation through contact with the European world.

The "Two Spirit" Shamanic Tradition

Early writings by colonialists and missionaries marvel at the fact that the tribes were not only in acceptance of their two-spirit members, but that these members usually had a special spiritual or shamanic role. As it was written by the French Jesuit missionary Josef François Lafitau in a book about the American Indians of the western Great Lakes of Louisiana and Florida in a condemning, yet honest manner: "They believe they are honored…they participate in all religious ceremonies, and this profession of an extraordinary life causes them to be regarded as people of a higher order, and above the common man." The french explorer Facques Marquette reported that "they are predominantly present at all of the solemn ceremonies of the sacred Calumet pipe, and they are summoned to the councils, and nothing can be decided without their advice". 

In North and Central American tribes the "two spirit" people were usually given a special name, each in their own language, and in accordance with the nature and role of the berdache in that particular culture. For example: the Navajo call their homosexual priesthood "Nadle", the Oglala call homosexual magic men "wintke", the Acoma Peublo people say "Mujerahado" "Man-witch-woman". In every tribe the characteristics and roles of the "two spirit" were a little different; in many cases the "two spirit" was a shaman or had shamanic powers.  Beyond the variations the clear link of the two-spirit to spiritual, shamanic aspects of tribal life are something to be considered. Sue Ellen Jacobs did a study of the references to homosexuality in the written records of the North American tribes. She found that out of ninety-nine tribes which kept written records eighty-eight made reference to homosexuality. Jacobs lists the exact roles played by homosexuals in twenty-one tribes. In her study she discovered that in twelve out of the twenty-one  studied, described transvestites as the shamans of the tribe. In almost all the tribes homosexual men and women had special functions in ceremony, ritual, and healing. According to her study, all denials of homosexuality came from East Coast tribes which were in the heaviest and longest contact with "those segments of white Christian culture that severely punish people who admit to homosexuality." 

It is usually through a distinct initiation that a person becomes a "two spirit" shaman. The metamorphosis might start as early as infancy, as the parents recognize the child's special abilities. The person many times will have visions, of spirits or gods which communicate to her/him the special role which she/he will fulfill in the tribe. The person, at this point might endure injury and hardships during which the initiated shaman will have more visions. Many times a vision-quest supervised by the tribe's shaman was part of the initiate's path to his unique role. It is after these ordeals, that the gender-variant shaman will be initiated by the tribe. The initiation would be a highly elaborate ceremony, during which the tribe would recognize and accept the tribal member in his alternate gender, and his shamanic role. 

Edward Carpenter reports that homosexuals in the Bering Strait, Kmachaldales, the Siberian Chukchee, the Aliets, Inuits and Kodiak Islanders, flourished under the direction and leadership of the shamans. These unique tribal members often became apprentices to the shamans, sometimes becoming shamans themselves. Chukchee boys who put on women's cloths, took up women's work, and had relationships with men were called "Choupans" and often went on to become priests. Mirchea Eliade writes of the Chukchee shaman as one that undergoes a change of sex, and marries men. Although not all Chukchee shamans necessarily continued living as transvestites, having that experience was an inseparable part of the initiation of the shaman. He also reports that this was true (with variations) for the Asiatic Eskimo Kamchadal and Koryak tribes, the North American Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Ute, and the South American: Patagonians and Araucanian.

 The Araucanian "Machi", shamans, although contemporary reports describe them as women it is reported that in the past they were almost exclusively men who dressed and acted as women, and ritual transvestism and the homosexual experience was a prerequisite to become a Machi. The Mojave Indians have a special song cycle for the initiation of the sacred homosexual person, whose role was "highly elaborate and well integrated into Mojave cosmology".The "cross-dressing" shamans were considered exceptionally powerful shamans. One example of such shaman is Masahai. She was a very powerful shaman who specialized in love magic, and healing. 

We have an account of an Chiricahua Apache "woman Warrior" named Lozen who, beyond being a brave warrior, received in a vision quest the power to heal wounds and locate the enemy. She was considered a shield to her people. For many years she spent her life with her partner Dahteste. 

 In the case of the "Manag" (shaman) of the Sea Dyak, androgyny is a mandatory trait, and at the end of the initiation he keeps wearing women's cloths, they took a husband and devoted themselves to the occupations of women. In the case of the Ngadju Dyak of Southern Borneo the shamaness and the asexual priest shaman were bisexual because they were considered as intermediaries between the two cosmos, or "logical plains" the earth, which was regarded as feminine and sky which represented the masculine nature. In their own person they combined these two forces. 

The "two spirit" shamans were many times seen as seers, visionaries and dreamers. An example of such case is that of a Yaqui two-spirit from Northern Mexico, who gained a reputation a a dreamer by the time he was nine-years old. His position as a dreamer and a seer was formalized in a traditional ceremony. He was seen as one which through his dreaming abilities, which were revered by the tribe, bringing guidance and healing to others.

The importance of the transgender/bisexual experience as one that transcends the ordinary experience of the mind, can be drawn from these testimonies. According to Eliade, "ritual androgyny is a well known archaic formula for divine bi-unity", and Androgyny cannot be separated from the archaic structure. Truly connecting to the traits of the opposite gender is considered a special power of the shaman, just as crossing the barrier between life and death, the ability to fly and so forth. I will further elaborate on these themes in later sections of this paper.

​

​

​

​

 12. Eliade M.. (as above)

13. I will elaborate on Jung's theory later on in this paper

14. Third gender usually is ascribed to males who bared and alternative gender roles, and Forth gender types refers to the female. Roscoa Will. (as above): p. 7

15. A more in depth etymological explanation of the word could be found in: Roscoe, Will. Changing Ones: Third and Fourth Genders in Native North America. St. Martin's Press, New York, 1998.

16.   In this paper I will refer to people which take on a gender role, alternative to male and female "two spirit". For more information about "two spirit" and "berdache": Jacobs S., Thomas W., Lang S. Two-Spirit People.. University of Illinois. 1997: p.2,3.

17.  The explanation of the changing semantics is important to our discussion because, language is one means to understand the changing and variance in the relative ontology of gender.

18. The characteristics of the two-spirit has been written by Roscoe W. (as above), who has lived with and studied for many year, the two-spirit role in Native American, shamanic culture. 

19. Many Native American tribes lived by the norm of serial monogamy, as written by- Roscoe Will. "Changing Ones". St. Martin's  Press. NY.1998: p. 141

20. An interesting fact is that "two spirit" people who were outwardly taking on gender traits of the opposite sex whether in cloths, behavior, and profession were given a special title, where as their same sex partners, were not even given a second thought as far as categorizing them into a gender type. This could be seen as powerful evidence to the "matter of factness", of the choice to be with a "two spirit" partner of the same sex.

21. Sullivan Lawrence E. Icanchu's Drum, Macmillan Pub. Company NY1988. p.445

22.  Sullivan Lawrence e. (as above): p. 264

23.  Roscoe W. (as above)

24.   Katz J. (as above)

25. Blackwood Evelyn. "Sexuality and Gender in Certain Native American Tribes: the case of cross-gender women". Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. 1984(10). p. 27-42.

26.  Sullivan Lawrence E. (as above): p. 445

27.  Eliade M. (as above) p. 329

28. Williams, Walter L. The Spirit and the Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture. Beacon Press, London 1992. p. 17

29. Katz Jonathon. Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the USA. New York: Harper and Row, 1985.

30. Jacobs, Sue Ellen Jacobs, "Berdache: a brief review of the Literature," Colorado Andthropologist 1 (1968), in Grahn Judy, "Strange Country This: Lesbianism and North Indian Tribes", Journal of Homosexuality, 1986, May 12(3-4). P. 43-44

31. A vision quest is not unique to the two-spirit shaman, it is a spiritual practice widely used by North American Natives. "the goal of the vision quest is to try to get beyond the rational world by sensory deprivation and fasting." Through elaborate rites and practices a person is prepared, and sent out to a retreat outside of the tribal area, where he awaits spiritual guidance and visions. Williams (as above): p. 27

 32.  Lang Sabine. "Men as Women Women as Men: Changing Gender in Native American Cultures". University of Texas Press. 1998: p. 302,136,235,347 and in Williams Walter L. the Spirit and the Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture. Beacon Press, London 1992: p. 25-30 

33. Edward Carpenter, Intermediate Types Among Primitive Folk: A study in Social Evolution (London: George Allen and Company, 1914), p.18

34. Eliade M., shamanism- Archaic techniques of ecstasy, Bollingen Foundation, NY 1964. p. 257

35.   Wilken Mike, Transformations: shamanism and Homosexuality" (unpublished) in Grahn J.

36. Katz J.

37.  Sullivan Lawrence E. Icanchu's Drum, Macmillan Pub. Company NY1988. p.445

38. Williams, Walter L. (as above): p. 26

​