Cogender

Cogender (also spelled "co-gender", with adjectival form "co-gendered") is a term customarily applied by anthropologists^[1] to Native South Americans (also, Indonesian and other) shamanism in the same sense that the term two-spirit is applied^[who?] (by Native North American themselves) to Native North American shamanism -- in both cases it refers to usually crossdressing (and sometimes homosexual) persons who achieve and maintain shamanic relations with a deity (spirit, spirit guide) through such extraordinary behavior, that particular deity (spirit, spirit-guide) being attracted, fascinated, or even "seduced" by such conspicuously strange, extraordinary display.^{[citation needed]}

Mapuchen

In Chile, among the Mapuche in La Araucanía, in addition to heterosexual female "machi" shamanesses, there are homosexual male "machi weye" shamans, who wear female clothing.^[2] These machi weye were first described in Spanish in a chronicle of 1673 A.D.^[3] Among the Mapuche, "the spirits are interested in machi's gendered discourses and performances, not in the sex under the machi's clothes."^[4] In attracting the filew (possessing-spirit), "Both male and female machi become spiritual brides who seduce and call their filew -- at once husband and master -- to possess their heads ... . ... The ritual transvestism of male machi ... draws attention to the relational gender categories of spirit husband and machi wife as a couple (kurewen)."^[5] (In ISKON -- the International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness -- male premin-devotees are likewise regarded as quasi-female "wives" of the god Kṛṣṇa.) As concerning "co-gendered identities"^[6] of "machi as co-gender specialists"^[7], it has been speculated that "female berdaches" may have formerly existed among the Mapuche^[8].

Indonesia

Among the Saʼadan (eastern Toraja) in the island of Sulawesi (Celebes), Indonesia, there are homosexual male toburake tambolang shamans; although among their neighbors the Mamasa (western Toraja) there are instead only heterosexual female toburake shamanesses.^[9] Among the Iban of Sarawak (in the island of Borneo, Indonesia), there are homosexual male shamans.

Notes

1. ^ e.g. Walter & Fridman, 2004. p. 134 http://books.google.com/books?id=X8waCmzjiD4C&pg=PA134&lpg=PA134&dq=%22co-gendered%22&source=bl&ots=hF2ok-12G3&sig=Q5QQLFRR9r6iuuvWECot1jyMOqA&hl=en&ei=iWyoSZm1GpDamQfIkMXsDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result
2. ^ Bacigalupo, 2007. pp. 111-114
3. ^ Francisco Núñez de Pineda y Bascuñán : Cautiverio felíz y razón de las guerras dilatadas de Chile. Santiago : Imprenta el Ferrocarril, 1863.
4. ^ http://www.buffalo.edu/ubreporter/archives/vol38/vol38n24/articles/BacigalupoShamens.html
5. ^ Bacigalupo, 2007. p. 87
6. ^ Bacigalupo, 2007. pp. 131-133
7. ^ http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/excerpts/exbacsha.html
8. ^ Bacigalupo, 2007. p. 268, n. 5:18
9. ^ VERHANDLINGEN VAN HET KONINKLIJK INSTITUUT VOOR TAAL-, LAND- EN VOLKENKUNDE, 229 = Kees Buijs : Powers of Blessing from the Wilderness and from Heaven. KITLV Pr, Leiden, 2006. p. 140

References

Walter, Mariko Namba & Fridman, Eva Jane Neumann (2004). Shamanism : an Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Practices, and Culture. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1576076458. 

Bacigalupo, Ana Mariella (2007). Shamans of the Foye Tree. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-8240-9306-2.