This PBS website provides both an interactive map as well as a video ("Two Spirits") about gender diversity in Navajo culture. The website states:
"On nearly
every continent, and for all of recorded history, thriving cultures have
recognized, revered, and integrated more than two genders. Terms such as
transgender and gay are strictly new constructs that assume three things: that
there are only two sexes (male/female), as many as two sexualities
(gay/straight), and only two genders (man/woman).
"Yet hundreds
of distinct societies around the globe have their own long-established
traditions for third, fourth, fifth, or more genders. Fred Martinez, for
example, was not a boy who wanted to be a girl, but both a boy and a girl — an
identity his Navajo culture recognized and revered as nádleehÃ. Most
Western societies have no direct correlation for this Native “two-spirit”
tradition, nor for the many other communities without strict either/or
conceptions of sex, sexuality, and gender. Worldwide, the sheer variety of
gender expression is almost limitless. Take a tour and learn how other cultures
see gender diversity."
No comments:
Post a Comment