Changing Ones: Third and Fourth Genders in Native North America

The term 'berdache' is a little-known, rarely discussed reference to Native American individuals who embodied both genders - what some might classify as 'the third sex.' In Changing Ones, William Roscoe explores the world of berdaches, revealing meaningful differences between Native American culture and contemporary North American culture. Roscoe reveals that rather than being ostracized or forced into obscurity, berdaches were embraced by some 150 tribes, serving as artists, medicine people, religious experts, and tribal leaders. Changing Ones combines the fields of anthropology, sociology, queer theory, gay and lesbian studies, and gender studies to challenge conventional schools of thought and to expand every reader's horizons.

Will Roscoe makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of both Native American culture and alternative gender construction in this extension of the groundbreaking research in The Zuni Man-Woman. More than 150 tribes across America have members who engage in some form of gender identification beyond "male" and "female." Roscoe's study reveals how integral these third and fourth genders, and same-sex marriage, have been to the tribes' societies, in contrast to the intolerance demonstrated by the Judeo-Christian culture of the descendants of European invaders. His analysis of these tribes, rooted in the empirical evidence of their histories, also provides a fascinating counterpoint to theories about homosexual identity rooted solely in modern, Western preconceptions.