Transvestism is a feature of many Arctic and Subarctic cultures, but it is a mistake to assume this is "Queer" or related to the LGBTI spectrum. Most of the time, these practices were related to religious beliefs or local traditions, which involved raising children as the opposite sex or symbolic gender changes. Below are notes on various practices that involved female-to-male transvestism among the Aleut, Ingalik, Inuit, Kaska, Yup'ik, Ojibwe, Chukchi, and Koryak.
Qa'cikicheca (Chukchi)
In "The Chukchee. Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History", Bogoras (1909) includes a section on "SEXUAL PERVERSIONS AND TRANSFORMED SHAMANS." He describes three different stages of gender "transformation", where the third stage is the most complete. According to Bogoras (1909), qa'cikicheca means "similar to a man". Most of his information is dedicated to their male-bodied counterparts, but he provides two examples of the female-bodied qa'cikicheca.
The first example is a widow with three children who underwent a spiritually-motivated gender "transformation" in middle age:
The case of qa'cikicheca, that is, of a woman transformed into a man, is still more remarkable than that of the “soft man.” I obtained detailed information of only two or three instances. One was of a widow of middle age, who had three half-grown children of her own. She received at first an “inspiration” of a more usual kind, but later the “spirits” wanted to change her to a man. Then she cut her hair, donned the dress of a male, adopted the pronunciation of men, and even learned in a very short time to handle the spear and to shoot with a rifle. At last she wanted to marry, and easily found a quite young girl who consented to become her wife.
The transformed one provided herself with a gastrocnemius from the leg of a reindeer, fastened to a broad leather belt, and used it in the way of masculine private parts. I have said before that the gastrocnemius of a reindeer is used by Chukchee women for the well-known unnatural vice. After some time the transformed husband, desiring to have children by her young wife, entered into a bond of mutual marriage with a young neighbor, and in three years two sons were really born in her family. According to the Chukchee interpretation of mutual marriage, they were considered her own lawful children. Thus this person could have had in her youth children of her own body, and in later life other children from a wedded wife of hers.
The second example is a young girl:
Another case was that of a young girl who likewise assumed man's clothing, carried a spear, and even wanted to take part in a wrestling-contest between young men. While tending the herd, she tried to persuade one of the young herdswomen to take her for a husband. On closer acquaintance, she tried to introduce the same implement, made of a reindeer gastrocnemius tied to a belt, but then was rejected by the would-be bride. This happened only a few years ago; the transformed woman is said to have found another bride, with whom she lives now in her country on the head-waters of the Chaun River.
At a glance, this second case appears to be a true case of masculine female gynephilia (congenital sexual inversion). However, another possibility is that she is a girl who was raised as a boy due to her tribe's customs. In the next section, d'Anglure (2018) explains why it is a mistake to assume that cross-gender behavior is motivated by sexual orientation, especially among Siberian peoples like the Chukchi.
Sipiniq (Inuit)
According to d'Anglure (2018), sipiniq means "Individual who changed sex while being born", where the term sipijuq describes a sipiniq who is a natal female. He provides the following cultural context:
Cross-dressing has been observed in many Siberian peoples, notably the Chukchi— who live the closest to the Yupiit of Siberia and St. Lawrence Island. It has also been practised by their Amerindian neighbours in mainland Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. Study of this subject is usually biased. Cross-dressed individuals were long believed to be homosexual, but only a tiny minority actually were. In fact, they should be viewed through the lens of gender rather than sexual orientation. When Jane Murphy (1974, 64) conducted research among the Yupiit of St. Lawrence Island in the mid-1950s, she wrote that “sexual deviance was not, however, ignored in their system of morals. Homosexuality, for example, was severely disapproved of even though the transgender shamans who sometimes practiced homosexuality were thought to be the most powerful.”5
Traditionally an Inuk from Canada’s Central Arctic could not choose to live with someone of the same sex to form a family. Family formation had to be with someone of the opposite sex. Same-sex relationships were one of several workarounds for single men and women, a kind of palliative sex before marriage or after the loss of a spouse. Other workarounds included zoophilia and incest, which were considered deviant.
Cross-dressing most often involved children who at birth had received the name and identity of a deceased person of the opposite sex. This would be done either to fulfill a wish that the person had made while alive or after death, by appearing in a dream to one of the future parents, or to protect the baby from lethal forces that had made the mother miscarry several times before. The new identity, so it was thought, would protect the baby from evil spirits. This was the case with Iqallijuq (Chapter 1).
Another pre-birth scenario involved the sipiniq, a fetus who decided before leaving the womb to change sex and choose the tools of the opposite sex, laid out near the exit to the small womb-igloo (as with Iqallijuq in Chapter 1 and Aumarjuat, “Big Ember,” in Chapter 8). A shaman could also authorize a gender change to heal a seriously ill child. The child would receive a new name and identity from someone of the opposite sex or even from one of the shaman’s helping spirits to prevent evil spirits from recognizing the child. Again, this was the case with Iqallijuq (Chapter 1).
Note 5 reads: "After administering Rorschach tests to Chukchi and Yupit children in Chukotka, Jean Malaurie (1992), who seemed unfamiliar with Murphy’s work, thought he could see a serious problem of doubt in the children’s choice of sexual identification. He thought he could “observe traits relating to intrapsychic conflicts, linked very probably to repressed homosexuality.” This conclusion is astonishing coming from a social science researcher who glosses over the distinctions between gender and sex, and between symbolic gender change and sexual orientation."
d'Anglure (2018) provides an extensive description of a woman named Iqallijuq, who describes her experience as a sipijuq. Iqallijuq's parents raised her as a boy until her first period because they believed she was the reincarnation of her maternal grandfather Savviuqtalik. She was not homosexual or part of the LGBTI spectrum.
The following interview excerpt is found under d'Anglure's (2018) description of "NEONATAL TRANSSEXUALISM":
"I saw people entering. I could make out my father and Uviluq. We then moved to my father’s tent, and my parents slept once more together. I was a sipiniq [transsexual] because Savviurtalik had wanted to live again as a woman and not as a man. He no longer wanted to hunt because hunting took too much effort and for him meant a high risk of getting cold. So I had become a girl after changing sex at birth. I previously had a penis but then got a vulva; this is how it is with sipiniit [transsexuals]"
d'Anglure (2018) states the following under his description of "TRANSGENDERING OF CHILDREN":
"The girl became a woman and a potential mother, as shown by her periods. She now had to wear the clothing required by tradition and get ready to start a family with the man chosen for her. Iqallijuq later told me the following incident. After her mother made her a pair of woman’s trousers, she pulled them on and, furious to see her gender identity so pointedly challenged by this piece of woman’s clothing, she tore them apart. It took her time to accept wearing woman’s clothing and to learn the tasks that a woman should know to keep house. Her mother refused to teach her. Her aunts and female cousins helped her learn, and later her first mother-in-law. But she never forgot her male upbringing. And the different men she married greatly valued her double ability to be both a good housewife and a prized hunting and travelling companion."
Iqallijuq was not homosexual, and d'Anglure (2018) describes her marriage: "Several years after Rasmussen and Freuchen passed through the Igloolik region, Iqallijuq became the wife of Ukumaaluk, Ataguttaaluk’s son-in-law, and moved to the same camp as her mother-in-law’s."
The following is from d'Anglure's (2018) interview with Iqallijuq:
IQALLIJUQ: Aakka innaarauliq&ungali aunaariurnialiq&unga ilaa sipinikuunnirama Savviuqtalik angutaujumalaurningimmat arnaujumalilaurnirmat. No, when I was a young adult and started my periods, because Savviuqtalik had not wanted to be male but wanted to be female instead. Angunasuqattanngurnirami ilaa angunasuk&uni aksuruluarnirami ikkiiqattanngurnirami arnaulilaurama sipillunga usuqalauraluaq&unga uttuktaarniq&unga taimanna sipisuungunnirmata . . . He no longer wanted to go hunting because he had got tired of hunting, as it was exhausting, and he got tired of being cold. So my body went through the sipiniq process. I had a penis but then I ended up with a vagina. That is how they would spipijuq [sic]
KUBLU: Angutaulauraluaq&utit arnannguq&utit? You had started out as a boy but you became a girl
IQALLIJUQ: Ii usuqalauraluaq&utik uttuktaaraangamik sipisuungungmata taimanna angutaulauraluaq&unga arnanngurnirama . . . Yes. When children start out with a penis and end up with a vagina, the term is sipijuq. So, in that manner I was a boy and then became a girl . .
KUBLU: Angutisiutinik annuraaqaq&utiit? You were dressed as a boy?
IQALLIJUQ: Ii angutisiutinik annuraaqainnattiaq&unga aunaariurniluktaannut ilauqattalaurama ataatakulunni, ataatagali ukiatuinnaqtillugu upirngaakkut juunmi inuulauq&unga ukiatuinnaqtillugu tuqulaurmat ataatallattaara imaaq&uni. Yes, I was always dressed in boys’ clothing up to the time I started menstruating. I used to accompany my ataatakuluk. My ataata, my biological father, died by drowning in the fall after I was born. I was born in June. Tavva taimanngat angutisiutinik annuraaqainnaq&unga aglaat angutaunasugiinnaq&unga arnaunasuginngit&unga. So, I was always dressed as a boy and therefore I never considered myself to be a girl. Asuila innaulilirama aunaariurama anaanama minguttinnaaqtumik atigiliuliq&uninga qarliliurniaq&uningalu atigiliurliraminga asuila qialiq&uni ataatani ataataginasugilluninga ilaa attiarimut taimanna annurajjiurumanngikkaluaq&uniuk ataatani ataatagigaminga qialiq&uni. So, when I grew up and started menstruating, my anaana made me a minguttinnaaqtuq atigi and made qarliik for me as well. When she made the atigi for me, she started crying because she considered me to be her father, since I was named for him. She did not want to clothe her father as such, and I was her father, which is why she was crying. Tavva arnannguq&unga kisiani aunaariurama arnaunasuginngiinnaq&unga. Then I became female, though I never thought of myself as female until I started my periods. Suli taima naluliqpara nalulinngikkaluaq&ugu taanna. There is still more but I’ve forgotten it, though I know this part.
Tayagigux' (Aleut)
Roscoe (2019) claims that tayagigux' is an Aleut term for "two-spirit": "Terms for a female two spirit include hwame: in Mohave, hetaneman in Cheyenne (figure 3.1), and tayagigux’ in Aleut. Sometimes the same word was used for both male and female two spirits: tw!inna'ek in Klamath, t’übás in Northern Paiute, and tangowaip in western Shoshone."
Roscoe's (2019) description contains at least one error, as the term "tangowaip" is misspelled. According to Hall (1997), the correct spelling is "tainna wa'ippe", where "taikwahni wa'ippena'" is used for women.
Under the section "The Traditional Kodiak and Aleutian Islanders’ Non- sacralized, Trans-generational, Trans-gender Role", Murray (2002) explains where tayagigux' comes from: "Nearly two centuries after the initial Russian contact, Iokalson’s (1933:71) fragments on what was by the time of his fieldwork fading memories of Aleutian culture, listed Aleut terms for a man transformed into woman (ayagígux’) and a woman transformed into a man (tayagígux'), marking the former with “in tales.” Surely, ayagígux is the same word rendered into German by Merck as “aijahnhuk,” and recorded by Davydov (1812:53) as akhutschik’."
Below is the lone reference to tayagígux' from Iokalson (1933):
To the list of relationship names the following terms may be added:
Ayagígux'—A man transformed into a woman (in tales); hermaphrodite.
Tayagígux'—A woman transformed into a man.
No other information is provided about the female-bodied tayagígux'.
Murray (2002) provides additional information about the male-bodied akhutschik: "There are here, on Kodiak, men with tattooed chins, who perform only female work, live with the women, and like these, often have two men. Such men are known as akhutschik. They are not despised, but rather enjoy honor in the communities and are mostly magicians. The Koniag who has an akhutschik instead of a wife is even considered as being lucky.
The father or mother designate the son as an akhutschik in early childhood
if he appears feminine. It sometimes happens that the parents previously
hoped to have a daughter, and, when disappointed, they make the new-born
son an
akhutschik.
(Davydov 1812:53; quoted in Holmberg 1985:52-3)"
Whether the reverse was true of tayagígux' is unknown.
"Transformed" Shamans (Koryak)
Under "Profession-Defined Homosexuality (I): Transformed Shamans", Murray (2002) describes a Koryak counterpart to the Chukchi qa'cikicheca: "It should be stated here that I did not learn of transformations of women shamans into men among the Koryak of today, which transformations are known among the Chukchee under the name qa'cIkIcheca (“a man-like woman” [Bogoraz 1900:xvii]). We find, however accounts of such transformations in the tales; and the conception of the change of sex is the same in both cases." These tales were recorded by Vladimir Iokalson
An indigenous term for these "transformations of women shamans into men" is not provided. Murray (2002) notes that "There were no transformed individuals for Iokalson to query, even had he wished to explore the psychodynamics of sexual transformation among the Koryak. However, the myths reproduced above provide some basis for interpreting motivation."
Murray (2002) describes two myths that involve a White-Whale woman named Mití, which exemplifies tayagigux'. In both myths, Murray (2002) notes that "the White-Whale women change into men and seek women as sex partners without any shamanistic rationale." However, these are temporary, symbolic gender changes that are motivated by the tribe's local traditions, not sexual orientation.
"How Big-Raven transformed himself into a Woman" (Tale 127) describes Mití and a man named Big-Raven temporarily undergo symbolic gender changes. They revert back by the end of the myth.
Big Raven said, "Let me transform myself into a woman." He cut off his penis and made a needle-case of it; from his testicles he fashioned a thimble; and from the scrotum a work-bag. He went to a Chukchee camp and lived there for some time, refusing, however, all the young people who offered to take him for a wife.
Then Mití [a White Whale woman of considerable independence] ran short of food. She dressed herself like a man and tied a knife to her hip. From her stone maul she made a penis. She came to the Chukchee camp, driving a reindeer team, and remained there to serve for Big-Raven's marriage price. She proved to be so nimble and active that very soon she was given the bride.
They lay down together. "Now how shall we act?" Mití asked Big-Raven.
He answered, "I do not know." After awhile his penis and testicles returned to their proper place, and he was transformed into his former state. Then he could play the husband and said to Mití, "Let us do as we did before."
In the morning, they exchanged clothes and went home.
[Told in the village of Opu'ka]
"Ememqut and White-Whale Woman" (Tale 116) describes another, rather convoluted, myth that involves Mití and Big-Raven. Like Tale 127, this involves temporary gender transformation. After running away from Big-Raven, Mití temporarily transforms into a man after a seal eats her heart:
It was at the time when Big-Raven lived. A small spider was his sister. Picvu'cin, the hunting deity, wished to marry her. At that time Big-Raven became very ill, and was unable to leave his bed. "Picvu'cin," he said, "you are my brother-in-law-to-be. Do something for me, go in search of my illness." Picvu'cin beat his drum, found the illness, and said to Big-Raven, "Take your team tomorrow and go to the seashore." In the morning Big-Raven started with his team of dogs. After awhile he was able to sit erect upon the edge; then he tried to stand up; and soon he was able to run along, and direct his dogs. At the mouth of the river he saw a water-hole, and in that hole he found a White-Whale woman, Mití by name, whom he took for his wife. He carried her home. In due time she gave birth to Emémqut, who soon grew to be a man, and who also took a White-Whale woman for his wife.
Then Emémqut went for a walk, and found there Withered-Grass-Woman, whom he also took for his wife. After that he brought home Fire-Woman, and then KIncesa. These four women lived together without quarreling, until finally, Emémqut found Dawn-Woman. She began to quarrel with all the others. The White-Whale woman said, "I am his first wife. I am the oldest woman. I shall go away." Big-Raven's people sat up for several nights watching, to prevent her leaving the house. At last Big-Raven's lids dropped, and he said, "I want to sleep."
Then she ran away. She reached a lake, and there her heart was swallowed by a seal. She transformed herself into a man, and married a woman of the Fly-Agaric people. Emémqut went in search of her. While on his way, he found a brook from which he wanted to take a drink of water. He smelled smoke coming up from beneath. He looked down, and saw a house on the bottom. His aunt Amíllu and her servant KIjíllu were sitting side-by-side in the house. While he was drinking from the brook, his tears fell into the water, and dropped right through his aunt's house, moistening the people below.
“Oh!” they said, “it’s raining.” They looked upward and saw
the man drinking. “Oh!” they said. “There is a guest.” Then KIjíllu said, “Shut your eyes and come down.” He closed his
eyes,
and immediately found a ladder by which he could
descend. “Give him food,” said Amíllu. The servant picked up a
tiny minnow from the floor, in the corner, all split and dried. She
brought also the shell of a nut of the stone pine and a minnow’s
bladder, not larger than a fingernail. Out of the latter, she poured
some oil into the nutshell and put it before Emémqut with the
dried fish. “Shut your eyes and fall to.”
He thought, “This is not enough for a meal,” but he obeyed,
and with the first moment dipped his hand into the fish-oil, arm
and all, up to the elbow. He opened his eyes and a big dried
king-salmon lay before him, but the side of the oil-bowl. He ate
of the fish. seasoning it with oil.
Then his aunt said, “Thy wife is on the lake and her heart has
been swallowed by a seal. She has turned into a man and wants
to marry a woman of the Fly-Agaric people.”
He went to the lake and killed the seal. Then he took out his
wife’s heart and entered the house of the Fly-Agaric people. An
old woman lived in the house. He put the heart on the table and
hid himself in the house. His wife, who had assumed the form of
a man, lived in that house. In a short time she came in from the
woods, and said, “I am hungry.”
“There’s a seal’s heart on the table,” said the old woman.
“Have it for your meal.”
She ate the heart and immediately she remembered her hus-
band. He came out of his hiding place. They went home, and
lived there. That’s all.
[Told in the village of Pallán]
Although it is not explicitly stated, it is implied that Miti turned back into a woman, as Murray (2002) explains: “No mention is made of the wife resuming female form and dress, but, then the mythological figures seem to have been quite casual about sex-changes (not to mention subsequent sexual liaisons) of their spouses."
Uktasik (Siberian Yup'ik)
Uktasik seems to be a counterpart to the Chukchi qa’cikicheca, as described by Jane M. Murphy.
This first excerpt is described under the section on "Soul Loss":
"Many of the St. Lawrence folk tales deal with the experiences of shamans and their spirit-familiars in such pursuits...In Eskimo ideology, the soul and the name are one phenomenon, and names are not sex-linked. The Eskimos believe in reincarnation through the successive generations of a family. When a person dies, he is believed to be reincarnated in the child upon whom his name is conferred. If the soul of a patient is constantly being attacked by evil spirits, however, the shaman may decide that a new name-soul will protect the patient from illness.
This kind of ritual was described as the shaman's "changing everything and making everything right." The customary prescription for a girl would be that she cut her hair like a boy's, start smoking a pipe, wear boy's clothing, and associate with male groups. For a boy, it would be to don girl's clothing and feminine demeanor. Such other kinds of disguise as blackening the teeth might also be advised. Despite the decline in shamanism, a number of villagers had experienced this kind of therapy in their early years and then had gradually resumed their normal sex roles. Presumably, if shamanistic belief were still orthodox and intact, some of these people would have maintained the sexual metamorphosis and might possibly therefore have been recruited to the ranks of the shamans who practiced transvestism and homosexuality. During the 1954-55 field trip, one ten-year old girl was undergoing the change-of-name-and-sex therapy and for several years had dressed and behaved like a boy. She was the daughter of one of the remaining adherents to the Eskimo religion-and the practitioner of familistic shamanism mentioned earlier. Her deviance in dress was not very noticeable, however, in present-day circumstances-in which girls commonly wear blue jeans-and an outsider might easily have attributed it to "tomboyism" had it not been specifically pointed out." (Murphy, 1974, pp. 62-63)
This next excerpt is described under the section on "Sex":
"Sex. Both men and women shamanized, although it appears that men had a greater likelihood of being extraordinarily successful than did women. Sexual deviance, however, in the form of transvestism and homosexuality did characterize the role to some extent. An early report on the Population of Anadyr District by Gondatti and cited by Bogoras17 indicated that at Indian Point the "transformed shamans have a great and baleful influence.”* Gondatti tried to counteract this influence, and Bogoras believed that he had been successful because, when Bogoras himself visited there, he saw only an invalid transvestite who had assumed female dress as a child to relieve himself of his chronic ailment.
Nevertheless, the tradition of transvestism and homosexuality either separately or as part of shamanizing has not been entirely extinguished on St. Lawrence Island. The St. Lawrence term for "soft man" or "womanly man' is anasik, and the counterpart for women is uktasik. In 1940, one informant recalled a "transformed" male visitor from Siberia who believed himself to be pregnant. He was so ashamed that he committed suicide by having himself abandoned on another island, and the story goes that the following year the corpses of an adult and a child were found where he had been left. In Gambell itself, the previous site of a ningloo [sic.] house was pointed out as the abode of five men who lived together. They were all reputed to look like women and to dress in the female fashion. None of them hunted, and they were provided for by neighbors. All were said to be "good singers"— a comment that may have been an oblique reference to shamanism but not necessarily so. Another man was remembered as having had a feminine appearance and as never having had sexual intercourse with a woman, although he was considered a good hunter.
In the village population between 1940 and 1955, one man was said to be anasik and another "partly anasik," but neither one shamanized. It thus seems evident that, by mid-century, this aspect of the shaman's role had been suppressed, however effective it may once have been in underscoring the exceptional natures of those who became shamans. Nor can it be determined from the available materials that people who had pronounced anasik or uktasik tendencies in their personalities necessarily became shamans. In all probability, such characteristics were one factor in selective recruitment, but in other cases it was reported that, during the shaman initiation, the "call" from the spirit-familiar might include instructions that the candidate become sexually "transformed," exactly as a shaman might prescribe for a patient." (Murphy, 1974, pp. 74-75)
The asterisked note refers to Bogoras (1909):
* Bogoras used the term "transformation" to refer to all stages of the process of identifying with the opposite sex. Some of the more completely "transformed" male shamans for example, were reputed to lose the male desires altogether, to practice homosexuality in culturally recognized marriages with other men, and even to acquire the organs of women. Others similarly called "transformed" were known to be homosexual, to practice transvestism, to be allied to other men in marriage but to have female mistresses on the side, and even to produce children by them.
As previously stated, d'Anglure (2018) would disagree with Murphy's (1974) description of homosexuality. Furthermore, most of Murphy's (1974) description is dedicated to the male-bodied anasik, with only a passing mention of the female-bodied uktasik. See d'Anglure's (2018) detailed description of sipiniq for cultural context that likely applies to the uktasik.
Girls Raised as Boys (Ojibwe, Inuit, Kaska)
Lang (1998) notes that "For the Ojibwa, Greenland Inuit, and the Kaska, supernatural legitimation did not play a role; the parents made the decision to bring their daughters up as sons (Honigmann 1954:130; Kjellström 1973:180; Landes 1937:119; Mirsky 1937b:83). As noted, such cases do not really constitute gender role change."
Landes (1937) describes the following practice among the Ojibwe:
"Sometimes, when a girl is the only child, she is treated like a boy in all respects, and there fore is sent out to dream. Indeed, her parents do not think of her as fundamentally different from a boy; she is simply the second-best possibility…Some girls are reared like boys. This is often the case when there are no boys in the family, and the father takes his daughter as his companion. Sometimes this happens when a girl is the particular favorite of her father. Or a woman, long widowed, may have developed the masculine arts of hunting, trading, and fishing, and rear her daughter in the same way. There is a considerable group of girls and women who like to live alone or in the company of another woman. These girls have to develop certain masculine techniques in order to maintain themselves. Not all these women are permanent bachelors, but they live alone for as long as they choose. Women who have learned male hunting techniques and male attitudes regarding private property also have visions pertinent to men's work; while at the same time they are skilled in women's work. Such women are given the same recognition as men. Female shamans are solicited to cure and teach men and women alike, and female warriors are given the male title of "brave."” (pp. 119-121)
Lang (1998) cites the above passage to claim that these girls-reared-like-boys would enter "relations with women" "or men". Although they were said to sometimes co-habit with other women, it is not specified whether these relationships were sexual.
Unrelated to girls-reared-like-boys, Landes (1969) provides additional commentary the Ojibwe view of homosexuality ("sex abnormalities"):
"There have always been occasional men and women who were single all their lives. They are simply called bachelors, with no judgements involved. The women, as they lived alone and had to support themselves, necessarily undertook such masculine activities as trapping, canoe-making, even hunting. The skilled ones were generally respected. One of the men. John Wilson's mother's brother, said he did not marry because he did not like women. No sex abnormalities were known of these people; indeed, the Emo people could not understand the description of the berdache.
Sex abnormalities were individual, not institutional. In the one instance known it was punished, but it could be punished only privately. At Hungry Hall, Kavanaugh's mother's sister Avas accused of abnormal relations with her niece. The accusation was private: "Their children looked so queer" (hydrocephaly), that the husbands of these women called a medicine man, a tcisaki, to divine the cause. The tcisaki said that the homosexual relations of the two women had caused the children to be sick. In fact, this was current gossip. The husband of the niece thereupon beat up his wife; and the husband of the aunt left her. The women did not deny the accusation." (pp. 54-55)
Mirsky (1937, pp. 83-84) provides the following example among the Inuit ("CASE 10"):
At Imarsavik (Southeast Greenland) there were twenty-five persons with only five hunters. The fathers, therefore, trained their daughters to hunt seals from the kaiak. A girl of twenty owned a kaiak and was a famous hunter. She was the only child of a man who was a dwarf. Another girl, who had three sisters but no brothers, also owned a kaiak and her younger sister was going to get one soon. These girls behaved and dressed like men, and they were treated by the other inhabitants as though they were. When offered presents, they did not choose any of the things women fancied, but took rather iron arrowpoints and knives (p. 76, note).
As with the Ojibwe, these are not homosexuals but girls raised as boys by their parents.
Lang (1998) cites Honigmann (1954:130) in claiming that the female transvestites of the Kaska had "relations with women" "and not with men".
"Female homosexuals simulated copulation by "getting on top of each other." Such women were often transvestites, but no male transvestites could be recalled." (Honigmann, 1954, p. 130)
Honigmann (1954) also describes the following scenario: "Sometimes if a couple had too many female children and desired a son to hunt for them in later years, they selected a daughter to be 'like a man'. When she was about five years old the parents tied the dried ovaries of a bear to her inner belt. She wore this amulet for the rest of her life in order to avoid conception. The girl was raised as a boy She dressed in masculine attire and performed male allocated tasks, often developing great strength and usually becoming an outstanding hunter. She screamed and broke the bow and arrows of any boy who made sexual advances to her. 'She knows that if he gets her then her luck with game will be broken'. Apparently such a girl entered homosexual relations." (p. 130)
At first, the above seems to be a clear description of masculine female gynephilia (congenital sexual inversion). However, Honigmann's descriptions are disputed by Goulet (1996), who argues that these are "misleading and unwarranted" "reconstructions of pre-contact Kaska culture".
In his critical review of "The Kaska girl raised to be 'like a man'", Goulet (1996) carefully scrutinizes Honigmann's information sources, noting the following:
"Honigmann never reported that he met Kaska parents who selected a girl to be 'like a man', nor encountered women who had been so selected. He was simply told that, in the past, this sometimes occurred...Hongimann's reference to homosexual women who were 'often transvestites', is immediately followed by his discussion of a daughter selected 'to be "like a man" and who in adult life 'apparently...entered homosexual relationships'. This last suggestion probably reflects his belief that, if some female transvestites were homosexuals, the girl raised and dressed as a boy might be among them. Honigmann could not be more specific about the girl's sexual orientation partly because he wrote this paragraph four years after leaving the field, when he had no further access to his Kaska male informants..."
"...the Kaska girl raised as a boy, and performing so-called male tasks, is not atypical in doing so, and it is unjustified to conclude that she occupies the status of 'berdache'...we do not know if the girl raised as a boy to be a hunter actually avoided conception all through her life..."
"...Honigmann's data do not support his presentation of the Kaska girl 'dressed in masculine attire' and performing 'male allocated tasks'. To identify the girl as a 'berdache' because she combined social attributes of male and female' (Callender & Kochems 1983a: 443) is to miss the point that all Kaska women combined these attributes, as, to a lesser degree, did men. The conclusion that 'a real "berdache" category' (Callender & Kochems 1983a: 444) existed among the Kaska is unfounded."
Girls Raised as Boys (Kodiak Island)
Girls raised as boys are also described by Murray (2002): "In the North Pacific, on Kodiak Island, east of the Alaska Peninsula, Father Gideon noted in 1804 that parents who had wanted a boy, but produced a girl, might give her a masculine name and raise her as a son (Valaam Monastery 1978:121). What the sexual expectations were in such a case were not recorded."
The full excerpt from Valaam Monstery (1978) is but a passing mention to girls-raised-as-boys: "The taions were established when Shelekhov arrived on Kadiak—before that each village had its own anaiugak or chief. He obligatorily had to have his own kazhim...An anaiugak would name his successor in good time before he himself died. To do this he would summon all to the kazhim, and he himself would take his candidate there, dressing him in his own best clothes. Then he would declare him his succesor in front of them all. It was then the task of the chosen man to treat all those who had assembled there. At this time the women would not be present but those maids who had been given a male name and were kept in place of a son, had the right to attend the gathering. In order for them to gain entry to the kazhim in this way, their fathers were obliged to make gifts to the anaiugak which were three times greater than the others gave for men..."
Chelxodeleane (Ingalik)
According to Pruden & Edmo, chelxodeleane means "man pretender".
Osgood (1958) provides the following description of Ingalik "man pretenders" in his section on "Aberrations" (pp. 261-):
Although it would be unreasonable to conclude that overt homosexuality is unknown among the Ingalik, no explicit evidence was discovered and it may be assumed that the society is not one in which such behavior is commonly acknowledged. On the other hand, the role of both male and female impersonators is clearly accepted. The role of these individuals known in the literature of northwest America as berdaches or transvestites is not easily defined.
Unfortunately, in a sense, transvestites are not so common among the Ingalik as to make the gathering of information an easy matter. The facts that can be set forth are as follows: Ingalik society includes both male and female transvestites, the former being called “woman pretenders” and the latter “man pretenders.” Each dresses and, in general, assumes the social role of an individual of the opposite sex, but there is no indication that transvestites are normally sexual inverts. On the contrary, it must be presumed on the available evidence that these individuals are rather asexual and sometimes narcissistic, rather than being homosexual, heterosexual, or bisexual. On the other hand, quite possibly, these latter variations of behavior may sometimes occur.
After providing some information about male-bodied "woman pretenders", Osgood (1958) provides the following description of a "man pretender":
Female transvestites enter their unusual role by complaining to their mothers in childhood that they do not like being dressed as a girl. If the child insists, it is expected that the mother will give in—as so often to children among the Ingalik—and fashion boy’s clothing for her daughter. Also it follows that when the mother tries to teach the girl a woman’s handicrafts, the child cannot or will not learn. On the other hand, she enjoys her association with her father and learns a man’s work with relative ease. Such a “man pretender” goes to the kashim and talks with the boys. She also takes her bath in the kashim like a man and her contemporaries do not recognize that she is a female. This is possible in part because young men sometimes do not perceive what is obvious, in part because female transvestites may have little development of their breasts, and also because it is easy to avoid telltale exposure of the genitals. The following story is the account of such ready deception.
One day a male cousin of a female transvestite asked “him” why “he” did not get married. Later the question was asked again in a joking manner.
“When you get old, what will you do? I want another place to go and get a meal.”
The cousin says nothing. Later the questioner continues with his queries.
“What did you think about my suggestion? Did you really consider it?”
Finally the transvestite says, “Girls have nothing to do with me.”
“Why?”
“I am not a good fellow.”
At this the cousin says that he will try to find a good-looking girl and arrange that they meet, but the transvestite says that “he” does not want her. Nonetheless, the helpful cousin goes away and tells his wife to ask a certain girl for his relative. The young wife is equally naive and agrees. During the day she meets the selected girl and tells her what a fine boy and hard worker her husband’s cousin has proved to be.
“Did he tell you to ask me?” inquires the young woman.
“No, I just want you to marry him and live in the house together with us,” replies the wife, adding that she will pass on the word to her husband’s cousin to have an intermediary ask the girl’s mother for approval of the marriage. The girl, of course, could not do anything without this formality.
The young wife relayed the discussion to her husband and suggested that he proceed with the arrangements. Encountering his cousin, he took him to one side and they sat down to talk. When he told him what had happened the “man pretender” became both embarrassed and angry.
“What’s the matter with you. I did not ask for the girl,” and with that he left.
Early the next day the young man looked for his offended cousin but could not find him, so he went to the house of the latter’s mother. She said that her child had refused to stay in her house any longer. Then she explained.
“You don’t really know that boy. He is a girl. Otherwise he would have married long ago. Actually he is much older than you and you have shamed him. He told me all about it last night.”
The young man went home and told these extraordinary facts to his wife who was equally surprised. The next morning he went to hunt for his cousin. He traveled all day long in his canoe, going up first one slough and then another until at last he found him building a bark house. The “man pretender” told him to go away and not to come ashore. The cousin however explained the whole situation whereupon the runaway relented. He said that he was very much ashamed and that if his cousin had not first explained his ignorance before coming ashore, he would have killed him.
Commenting on the above passage, Lang (1998) writes "Osgood told of a “man pretender” who reacted in a very indignant manner when her male cousin—who allegedly took her for a man—wanted to marry her off to a woman."
For these reasons, it is a mistake to assume that the
chelxodeleane were masculine female gynephiles (congenital sexual inverts). In this respect, they seem to be similar to the Balkan "
sworn virgins".
Related Blog Posts
References
Bogoras, W. (1909). The Chukchee. Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History; v. VII; Publications of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition [1975 reprint from the edition of 1904-1909, Leiden and New York]
d'Anglure, B. S. (2018). Inuit Stories of Being and Rebirth: Gender, Shamanism, and the Third Sex (Vol. 6). Univ. of Manitoba Press.
Hall, C. M. (1997). You anthropologists make sure you get your words right. Two-spirit people: Native American gender identity, sexuality, and spirituality, 272-275.
Honigmann, J. J. (1954). The Kaska Indians: an ethnographic reconstruction. Yale University Publications in Anthropology, no. 51 New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, p. 130.
Goulet, J.-G. A. (1996). The `Berdache’/`Two-Spirit’: A Comparison of Anthropological and Native Constructions of Gendered Identities Among the Northern Athapaskans. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2(4), 683–701. https://doi.org/10.2307/3034303
Jochelson, W. [Iokalson, V.] (1933). History, Ethnology and Anthropology of the Aleut. Washington: Carnegie Institution.
Landes, R. (1937.) The Ojibwa of Canada. In Cooperation and Competition Among Primitive People, ed. Margaret Mead, 87–126. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Landes, R. (1969). Ojibwa sociology. Columbia University Press.
Lang, S. (1998). Men as women, women as men: Changing gender in Native American cultures. University of Texas Press.
Mirsky, J. (1937). The eskimo of Greenland. In Cooperation and competition among primitive peoples (pp. 51-86). McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.
MURPHY, J.M. (1974). ‘Psychotherapeutic Aspects of Shamanism on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska.’ In A. Kiev (ed.), Magic, Faith, and Healing. New York and London: The Free Press, 53-83.
Murray, S. O. (2002). VLADIMIR IOKALSON'S REPORTS OF NORTHEASTERN SIBERIAN TRANSFORMED SHAMANS. Pacific Homosexualities, 7, 313.
Osgood, C. (1940) Ingalik material culture
Osgood, C. (1958) Ingalik Social Culture, Yale University Publications in Anthro- pology, no. 53. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.
Pruden, H., & Edmo, S. (2016, October). Two-spirit people: Sex, gender & sexuality in historic and contemporary Native America. In National Congress of American Indians Policy Research Center. https://archive.ncai.org/policy-research-center/initiatives/Pruden-Edmo_TwoSpiritPeople.pdf
Roscoe, W. (1987). Bibliography of Berdache and Alternative Gender Roles Among North American Indians. Journal of Homosexuality, 14(3–4), 81–172. https://doi.org/10.1300/J082v14n03_06
Roscoe, W. (2019). Sexual and gender diversity in Native America and the Pacific Islands. Identities and place: Changing labels and intersectional communities of LGBTQ and two-spirit people in the United States, 58-88.
Valaam Monastery. (1978) [originally published in 1894]. The Russian Orthodox Religious Mission in America, 1794-1837. Fairbanks, Alaska: Limestone Press.
.jpg)
Comments
Post a Comment