CHANGING ONES Third and Fourth Genders in Native North America [SOLD]

CHANGING ONES Third and Fourth Genders in Native North America 

by Will Roscoe

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press, New York

Hardback with slip cover, first edition, 1998. 320 pages, new condition, illustrated.

“Changing Ones describes individuals with complex sexual and gender identities playing key roles in their tribes.  As Roscoe shows, sexual and gender differences were accepted because of the unique contributions those differences made.

“Drawing on a series of case studies, Changing Ones goes on to explore the theoretical implications of multiple genders for the fields of anthropology, history, and gender studies, and concludes by offering some intriguing suggestions regarding the social origin of gender diversity and its role in human history in North America and elsewhere.  A fascinating and comprehensive exploration of an overlooked dimension of native North America, Changing Ones also challenges many assumptions, old and new, about the nature of human sexual and gender diversity.”

Gender diversity—in the form of third and fourth gender roles—is one of the most common and least understood features of native North America.  Such roles have been documented in over 150 tribes throughout the continent. Widely accepted, often considered holy, berdaches, as they have been termed, combine the work and social roles of men and women along with traits unique to their status.