Meaning of berdache | Babel Free

Definitions

Among Native Americans, a person who identifies with any of a variety of gender identities which are not exclusively those of their biological sex; a transgender person.

dated, ethnic, offensive, slur

Equivalents

Examples

“These culturally bound assumptions have⟳ bedevilled the entire anthropological literature on the berdache in Native American cultures, and it is because of this that I have⟳ followed the lead⟳ of Angelino and Shedd when referring to the phenomenon of the berdache-transgenderal, for as Fitzgerald (1977) points out: "A berdache . . . may be a transvestite, but a transvestite need⟳ not be a berdache; and neither need⟳ be homosexual."”

“Gender is the sociocultural designation of biobehavioral and psychosocial qualities of the sexes; for example, woman (female), man (male), other(s) (e.g., berdaches²). Notions of gender are culturally specific and depend⟳ on the ways in which cultures define⟳ and differentiate human (and other) potentials and possibilities. While many people in Western society may think⟳ first of heterosexual women and men when the word "gender" is mentioned, there are more gender possibilities than just those two.”

“Male berdache have⟳ been documented in nearly 150 North American societies, while female berdache (females who take⟳ on the lifeways of males) appear⟳ in half as many groups.”

CEFR level