The World Beyond BetterMost > Anything Goes
A question on religion
David In Indy:
--- Quote from: injest on June 23, 2007, 12:18:07 am ---David I have a question.
I think I read somewhere ( ::) ) that 'berdaches' got 'married' to warriors in the tribe. Were the men that married them considered homosexual?
Would you (from todays' viewpoint) consider the warriors to be gay?
--- End quote ---
Warriors would somtimes be married to a wink'te, if the tribe was fortunate enough to have a wink'te. This was considered a great honor for the warrior. But the warrior would probably also be married to a female. I don't know the complete answer to that question Jess. Maybe I can find something about it on the Internet.
But I do know TWO things:
1. It did happen.
2. It was considered a great honor.
And as Daniel pointed out, gay men were often married to chiefs as well.
Kerry:
--- Quote from: David on June 23, 2007, 12:43:16 am ---No, you're correct Kerry. Berdache is considered offensive, especially by gay Native Americans. I flinched a little when I read it in Daniel's post, but he was correct to use it in his message. Because it's a word used quite often, especially among white, Christian people. In fact, I think it was the Christian missionaries who first used that word. Most Sioux will use the word "wink'te" when referring to gay people. Other tribes have their own words. Wink'te literally means "half man" in Lakota.
Most Native people interpret the word berdache to mean "hermaphrodite" which obviously is totally inaccurate. I suppose the early missionaries didn't have any other word to use, so they picked that one. ???
--- End quote ---
Many thanks for your response, David. Now that I think about it, I suspect it was probably from you, at another thread, that I read about the term "berdache."
David In Indy:
I know we have a few other Native American Bettermostian members here as well. It would be interesting for them to chime in here with their knowledge of this subject. Hopefully they will. :D
Daniel:
I certainly did not mean anything inflammatory or derogatory by use of the term. The book I retrieved it from seemed very gay-friendly so I assumed it was an acceptable term. I apologize if I caused you any stress or pain by using it.
David In Indy:
--- Quote from: Daniel on June 23, 2007, 02:06:45 am ---I certainly did not mean anything inflammatory or derogatory by use of the term. The book I retrieved it from seemed very gay-friendly so I assumed it was an acceptable term. I apologize if I caused you any stress or pain by using it.
--- End quote ---
NO! I'm glad you used it!! :)
I said so in my previous post. Maybe you didn't see it Daniel. You didn't cause me any stress or pain at all! :)
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