Whirl

"Two-Spirit People (also Two Spirit or Twospirit) is an umbrella term sometimes used for what was once commonly known as berdaches/bərˈdæʃɨz/, Indigenous North Americans who fulfill one of many mixed gender roles found traditionally among many Native Americans and Canadian First Nations communities.

Third gender roles historically embodied by Two-Spirit people include performing work and wearing clothing associated with both men and women. The presence of male two-spirits "was a fundamental institution among most tribal peoples." Male and female two-spirits have been "documented in over 130 tribes, in every region of North America."

                        

"Androgyny is a term derived from the Greek words ανήρ, stem ανδρ- (anér, andr-, meaning man) and γυνή (gyné, meaning woman), referring to the combination of masculine and feminine characteristics. Sexual ambiguity may be found in fashion, gender identity, sexual identity, or sexual lifestyle. It could also refer to biological intersex physicality, especially with regards to plant and human sexuality.^"

                           

"Before the late twentieth century, the term berdache was widely used by anthropologists as a generic term to indicate "two-spirit" individuals; however, this term has become considered increasingly outdated and considered offensive. (Based on the French bardache implying a male prostitute or catamite, the word originates in Arabic bardaj: البَرْدَجُ" meaning "captive, captured.") Spanish explorers who encountered two-spirits among the Chumash people called them "joyas", Spanish for "jewels".

Use of the berdache term has widely been replaced with Two-Spirit, which itself gained widespread popularity in 1990 during the third annual intertribal Native American/First Nations gay and lesbian conference in Winnipeg. Two-Spirit is a term chosen to distinctly express Native/First Nations gender identity and gender variance, in addition to replacing the otherwise imposed terms of berdache and gay.

"Two-spirited" or "two-spirit" usually indicates a person whose body simultaneously manifests both a masculine and a feminine spirit. The term can also be used more abstractly, to indicate presence of two contrasting human spirits (such as Warrior and Clan Mother) or two contrasting animal spirits (which, depending on the culture, might be Eagle and Coyote). However, these uses, while descriptive of some aboriginal cultural practices and beliefs, depart somewhat from the 1990 purposes of promoting the term.

There are many indigenous terms for Two-Spirit individuals in the various Native American languages — including Lakota: wíŋkte,Navajo: nádleehé, and Mohave: hwame.^"

"For humans, androgyne (/ˈændrədʒaɪn/ an-drə-jyn) in terms of gender identity is a person who does not fit neatly into the typical masculine and feminine gender roles of their society. Androgynes may also use the term "ambigender" or "polygender" to describe themselves. Many androgynes identify as being mentally between woman and man, or as entirely genderless. They may identify as "non-gendered", "gender-neutral", "agendered", "between genders", "genderqueer", "multigendered", "intergendered", "pangender" or "gender fluid"."

                                                  Dimensions height 20 cm

                                                                    width  22 cm

                                                                    depth  4 cm

                                       

                                       

A statuette of Aphroditus in the anasyromenos pose. The ancient Greeks and Romans believed the pose had apotropaic magical power.


                                        
Herm of Aphroditus at theNationalmuseum in Stockholm.



                                        

Bronze statuette, Roman imperial, 1st-3rd century AD.


                                        

Greek terracotta figurine, late 4th century BC, National Museum of Magna Grecia.