This past weekend Randolph School put on a production of "To See the Stars," a play about the strikes of women shirt waist factory workers in New York City. Although the play was not about the Triangle Factory, it gave me perspective on the daily lives of the girls on strike and of the ethnic diversity among the girls. The play was very well done and I enjoyed watching my fellow students perform.

     Native American cultures are often misunderstood as "savage" because of their differences from Eastern culture. In the process of discovering why differences even exist, we come to better understand what is intrinsic to humanity and what is not. The study of cultures which have developed separately from the status quo (as defined by Eastern cultures) helps us redefine what is "normal" and what is "human."One of the touchiest topics in today's modern world is sexuality. Very few people are comfortable accepting anything other than heterosexuality, or even discussing sexuality in general. Native Americans, on the other hand, view sexuality as one with spirituality, where spirituality is something common to every living being.

     Native Americans never looked down on expressing one's sexuality, be it heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, trisexual (where partners include opposite sex, same sex, and self) , or asexual. Polygamy is a widely known characteristic of Native cultures which supports this claim. While one wife was pregnant or nursing, it was common for the husband to seek out other sexual partners. For this reason, divorce was not a major ordeal for Native Americans. Such a societal setup is almost entirely rape and prostitution free. Freely expressing one's sexualtiy, from heterosexual to asexual, was also encouraged among the adolescents of these cultures. A study was done on the sexual activity of adolescents in relation to interconnectedness with those around them, and increased interconnectedness was found in older, more sexually active individuals, a trait highly valued in Native cultures.

Click here to read more about evidence of acceptance of sexuality in Native American cultures.

     Sexuality was not only encouraged in Native American cultures, however. It was viewed as an expression of one's spirituality as well. Native Americans define spirituality as their tribe's set of beliefs about creation, how the world works, and the significance of each individual. Interconnectedness is a main theme across Native American spiritualities. It then follows that individuals who are more interconnected, so to speak, have an increased significance in society. As sexuality was seen as a manifestation of spirituality, Natives believed that homosexual/bisexual/trisexual/hermaphroditic individuals had a higher power and authority. These individuals are now known as "two-spirits," because they are believed to have a window into both genders, either physically (as in the case with hermaphroditism) or psychologically (as in the case with sexualities other than heterosexual and asexual). The most famous example of a two-spirit is the Zuni Man-Woman, from a Tewa Indian Pueblo.

The picture above is of a hermaphroditic Zuni Man-Woman. In the Tewa culture, the sun represents man and the moon represents woman. Men were also seen as the right side of society, while women were seen as the left. Men also did not wear as much clothing as women for the purpose of ease during hunting (depicted by the bow and arrow). Women worked as hunter-gatherers (depicted by the ears of corn). In Hopi depictions of the Zuni Man-Woman, the woman half has the hair up in a bun, representing the fact she is an eligible, unmarried woman. In Plains Indian cultures, two-spirits were often made chiefs.

Above is a picture of a Hopi two-spirit with the characteristic hair style.

Click here to read more about sexuality AND spirituality in Native American Cultures.

Link here to pictures.

Before anthropologists began to see that in studying Native American sexuality they were learning about the inherent tendencies of humans, they, perhaps inadvertently, made Native cultures seem extremely wrong and savage. The term used by early anthropologists to describe two-spirits was "berdache," a term which in french means "sodomite." Luckily, we are now finally uncovering the truth about Native American beliefs, values, and views on sexuality and spirituality.

Link to above picture here

Other links I used (and which influenced my ideas) are below:

Video on Sexuality and Spirituality in Indigenous Cultures This video opened my mind to how the study of sexuality across cultures is something that is not one dimensional.

Study on Relationship Between Adolescent Sexual Activity and Interconnectedness with Friends, Family, & Community Members This study gave scientific support to the connection (identified by many Native American cultures) between spirituality and sexuality.

Native Americans Before the Arrival of European Religion(s) This site helped spark my interest in sexuality and spirituality, where I had originally been interested only in Native American religion (which I now know is properly referred to as spirituality).

Two-spirit People: Native American Gender Identity, Spirituality, and Sexuality This ebook was my main source. My favorite part was reading about one of the author's experiences going to live in the Tewa culture (where she had to pick up most of the language when she got there) to research berdache misconceptions.