The Spirit and the Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture

About this book

Winner of the: Gay Book of the Year Award American Library Association; Ruth Benedict Award Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists; Award for Outstanding Scholarship World Congress for Sexology Authors note: Shortly after the second revised edition this book was published in 1992 the term "Two-Spirit Person" became more popular among native people than the older anthropological term "berdache." When I learned of this new term I began strongly supporting the use of this newer term. I believe that people should be able to call themselves whatever they wish and scholars should respect and acknowledge their change of terminology. I went on record early on in convincing other anthropologists to shift away from use of the word berdache and in favor of using Two-Spirit. Nevertheless because this book continues to be sold with the use of berdache many people have assumed that I am resisting the newer term. Nothing could be further from the truth. Unless continued sales of this book will justify the publication of a third revised edition in the future it is not possible to rewrite what is already printed Therefore I urge readers of this book as well as activists who are working to gain more respect for gender variance mentally to substitute the term "Two-Spirit" in the place of "berdache" when reading this text. -- Walter L. Williams Los Angeles 2006