Information on the “berdache”
October 21, 2017
To the student who requested a reading list on the history of “berdache” in anthropology:
This should be a good place to start.
Books
Berdache Books
| Cover | Year | Info |
|---|---|---|
 | 1986 | The Spirit and the Flesh : Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture. Beacon Press, Boston |
 | 1987 | Gay Spirit: Myth and Meaning (1st ed.) St. Martin’s Press, New York. |
 | 1995 | Queer Spirits: A Gay Men's Myth Book. Roscoe, Will. Boston: Beacon Press |
 | 1997 | Two-spirit People : Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality. Edited by Jacobs, Sue-Ellen, Wesley Thomas, and Sabine Lang. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. |
 | 1998 | Changing Ones: Third and Fourth Genders in Native North America. (1st ed.) Roscoe, Will. New York: St. Martin's Press |
 | 2006 | Becoming Two-Spirit: Gay Identity and Social Acceptance in Indian Country. Brian Joseph Gilley. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln |
Articles
1937 Devereux, George. “Mohave Soul Concepts.” American Anthropologist 39(3).
1938. Hill, W W. “Note On The Pima Berdache.” American Anthropologist 40(2).
1953. Lurie, Nancy Oestreich. “Winnebago Berdache.” American Anthropologist 55(5).
1955. Angelino, Henry, and Charles L Shedd. “A Note on Berdache.” American Anthropologist 57(1).
1969. Munroe, Robert L, John W M Whiting, and David J Hally. “Institutionalized Male Transvestism and Sex Distinctions.” American Anthropologist 71(1).
1981. Whitehead, H. “The Bow and the Burden Strap: A New Look at Institutionalized Homosexuality in Native North America.” In Ortner & Whitehead (eds), Sexual Meanings, pp. 80–115.
1998. Epple, Carolyn. “Coming to Terms with Navajo nádleehí: A Critique of Berdache, ‘Gay,’ ‘Alternate Gender,’ and ‘Two-Spirit’.” American Ethnologist 25(2).
1998. Visweswaran, K. “‘Wild West’ Anthropology and the Disciplining of Gender.” In H Silverberg (ed), Gender and American Social Science: The Formative Years, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.
2010. Gilley, Brian .J. “Native Sexual Inequalities: American Indian Cultural Conservative Homophobia and the Problem of Tradition.” Sexualities 13(1), pp. 47–68.
I will add to this over time. Thank you for asking!
Dr. White
©2017, C. Todd White
