Berdache Origin Myth - Winnebago A berdache is a man who, in conformity with social convention, assumes a woman's role in every respect. The Hotcâk word for "berdache" was dedj‡ngtcowinga, "blue lake woman." A young man became a berdache if and only if during his fasting vision quest, he was blessed by Moon and ordered by this spirit to "take up the skirt." If he failed to do this, it was thought that the moon would take his life. Part of his blessing was the power to foresee the future, and the virtue of being able to excel anyone in the performance of women's duties. [1] Berdaches have the reputation of being the cleverest people, the sort who would be good at gambling. [2] Berdaches were once held in high esteem, and although said to be shameless, they wanted for nothing and were often taken to wife by men. [3] In contradistinction, men who showed cowardice in battle could be forced to assume the role of women upon pain of death. These men were not considered berdaches nor were they held in any other status than contempt. [4] The berdache, albeit in mirror image form: he is physically a man, but he does not carry on the essential function of men (to fight). It is this mirroring that recalls a blue lake: it is the color of the sky, but it lies opposite the welkin: it is low rather than high, facing up rather than down. Furthermore, on its clear, unmuddied surface, it reflects everything around it, only as a mirror does: all is reversed: left is right, right is left; top is bottom, bottom is top. In cultures that assign left to females and right to males, up to males and down to females, such inversion is a rich model of the condition of the berdache. Such a living coincidentia oppositorum is naturally very wákâtcâk ("holy"). As such, not having powers of war, nor of life in its essence (reproduction), his wakâ expresses itself in terms of prophesy. Just as right has become left, and top has become bottom, so the future has become as history, to be seen in the mind's eye as if a remembrance of things past. Contrary to what the raconteur thought, this is actually a good story. The raconteur probably felt the current, white inspired shame about berdaches and thought the subject matter was what made the story "bad." Contemporary men who would have been berdaches in classical times, are called by the word cîange, which nowadays translates as "fag." Notes: [1] Nancy Oestreich Lurie, "Winnebago Berdache," American Anthropologist 55, #1 (1953): 708-712. [2] Paul Radin, "The Chief of the Heroka," [unpublished] Winnebago Notebooks (American Philosophical Society Library) #33, p. 52. [3] Lurie, "Winnebago Berdache"; Radin, "The Chief of the Heroka," 50-53. [4] Lurie, "Winnebago Berdache." Come visit us at. "Keeper of Stories". http://www.newkeeperofstories.com/