Paul's grasp of the[Holy] Spirit as the sign of the erupting messianic age is at odds with thetwo-spirit thought of Qumran which never became incompatible with law observance.
Thenoun is derived fromtwo +spirit,coined in 1990 at the Third Annual Inter-tribal Native American, First Nations, Gay and Lesbian American Conference held in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, based onOjibweniizh manidoowag(“two spirits”) (coined at the same conference), fromniizh(“two”) +manidoo(“spirit”) +-wag(suffix denoting thethird-personplural of ananimate noun); the term was created to replaceberdache in anthropological literature which was considered offensive.[1][2]
"The elders will tell you the difference between a gay Indian and aTwo-Spirit," he[Joey Criddle] said, underscoring the idea that simply being gay and Indian does not make someone aTwo-Spirit.
The term/identity oftwo-spirit does not make sense unless it is contextualized within a Native American frame[…] Today, most people associate the term with LGBT Natives; however, the work of the two-spirit organizations is more akin with the traditional understanding
Some people criticize the use of the term because it is based on a Western idea that gender, sex, and sexuality are binaries between male and female, and implies that a two-spirit individual has these male and female spirits intertwined within them. It does not reflect traditional understandings of gender variance among Native Americans or First Nations. On the other hand,two-spirit can be seen “as an umbrella term referencing multiple genders, sexes, and sexualities, as well as a self-identity label used by Native American/First Nations people as a way of reconnecting their gender and sexual variance with Native culture and religion/spirituality”.[1]
Central Siberian Yupik:anasik(male-bodied);uktasik(female-bodied)
Cheyenne:he'émane(literally“pretends to be woman”)(male-bodied),he'émáné'e(male-bodied trans person; hermaphrodite; gay man),hetanémáné'e(literally“pretends to be man”)(female-bodied trans person)
Chiwere:mixo'ge(transvestite or transgender person)
Northern Paiute:tüdayapi(literally“dresses like other sex”)(male-bodied)
Ojibwe:ikwekaazo(literally“men who choose to function as women; one who endeavours to be like a woman”)(male-bodied);ininiikaazo(literally“women who choose to function as men; one who endeavours to be like a man”)(female-bodied)
Omaha-Ponca:mix'uga(literally“instructed by the moon”)(male-bodied)
Pawnee:ckúsaat/kúsaat(Skiri Pawnee: male-bodied person who lives and dresses as a woman)
1996,Walter L[ee] Williams, “Two-spirit Persons: Gender Nonconformity among Native American and Native Hawaiian Youths”, inRitch C. Savin-Williams, Kenneth M. Cohen, editors,The Lives of Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals: Children to Adults, Fort Worth, Tex.; Philadelphia, Pa.:Harcourt Brace College Publishers,→ISBN, part 4 (Cultural and Mental Health Issues),page421:
A Hupatwo-spirit male told me: / I was real feminine as a child, from as early as I can remember.[…] Within the family, Indians believe you can be whatever you choose.
The wordberdache was used in the first version of the work, “Family Matters: The Economic and Social Position of the Berdache” in Williams’The Spirit and the Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture (1986),page 50.
1997, Sue-Ellen Jacobs, Wesley Thomas, Sabine Lang, “Introduction”, in Sue-Ellen Jacobs, Wesley Thomas, Sabine Lang, editors,Two-spirit People: Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality, Urbana; Chicago, Ill.:University of Illinois Press,→ISBN,page 4:
[I]t should come as no surprise that many Native American gay, lesbian, transgender, and othertwo-spirit people consider the term "berdache" derogatory.
1997, Ron Rowell, “Developing AIDS Services for Native Americans: Rural and Urban Contrasts”, in Lester B. Brown, editor,Two Spirit People: American Indian, Lesbian Women and Gay Men, Binghamton, N.Y.; London:Harrington Park Press,→ISBN,page88:
In Canada there are now aboriginal (as we are termed in Canadian English) AIDS projects in the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Nova Scotia, due almost entirely to the efforts oftwo-spirit (gay/lesbian) people.
Instead of seeingtwo-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.[…]Two-spirit people were respected by native societies not only due to religious attitudes, but also because of practical concerns.[…]Two-spirit persons assisted their siblings' children and took care of elderly relatives, and often served as adoptive parents for homeless children.
↑1.01.1Kylan Mattias de Vries (2009) “Berdache (Two-spirit)”, inJodi O’Brien, editor,Encyclopedia of Gender and Society (A SAGE Reference Publication), volume 1, Thousand Oaks, Calif.; London:SAGE Publications,→ISBN,page64, column 1:
The termtwo-spirit is translated from the wordsniizh manidoowag from Ojibwa, a subgroup of the Algonquian language spoken in the Manitoba area. The concept and wordtwo-spirit has no traditional cultural significance, and the Ojibwa words were not combined to create the termniizh manidoowag ortwo-spirit until this conference.
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two-spirit on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
, Oxford:Oxford University Press, March 2025.