Bruce Bagemihl - Biological Exuberance

Feit, H. A. (1986) “James Bay Cree Indian Management and Moral Consideration of Fur-Bearers,” in Native People and Renewable Resource Management, pp. 49-62; Mander, In the Absence of the Sacred, pp. 59-61.

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Miller, “People, Berdaches, and Left-handed Bears,” p. 286. Whether direct knowledge of animal homosexuality (rather than transgender) has contributed to indigenous belief systems remains an open question, although it seems quite likely that observation of a species’ same-sex activity may also have been a factor in its status as a shamanic “power animal.” Although there are no specific reports of this in the ethnographic literature (which is, however, notoriously incomplete with regard to matters of sexuality, particularly homosexuality), there are several suggestive cases. In a number of Native American cultures, animals are selected as symbolically important for shamanistic practices because their biology and behavior exhibit particularly salient or “unusual” features. In the Pacific Northwest culture region, for example, “animals that shamans relied on as spirit helpers [including shore birds, sea mammals, otters, and Mountain Goats] were those that inhabit border areas of the environment such as the shoreline, the water’s surface, or the tops of trees. Their behavior was thought to represent their supernatural ability to move through the different zones of the cosmos”—echoing the shaman’s ability to traverse different worlds. (This also corresponds to the well-established ecological principle in Western science that the greatest diversity, flexibility, and environmental richness is to be found in the border zones between major ecosystems, such as the region where forest meets grassland.) This is especially true for the (American) oystercatcher, whose preeminent status as a spirit animal in Tlingit shamanism is based not only on its inhabiting border zones, but also its furtive behavior and habit of being among the first creatures to sound alarm at the approach of danger (likened to the shaman’s function as “guardian” for his or her people) (Wardwell, A. [1996] Tangible Visions: Northwest Coast Indian Shamanism and Its Art, pp. 40–43, 96, 239 [New York: Monacelli Press]; for similar observations concerning totemic or shamanic animals in Yup’ik and New Guinean cultures, see Fienup-Riordan, Boundaries and Passages, pp. 124, 130–31, and Jorgensen, “Echidna and Kuyaam,” pp. 374, 378). Homosexuality is also part of the biological repertoires of many of these species (e.g., various shore birds, sea mammals, and Mountain Goats) or else of their close relatives (e.g., the [Eurasian] Oystercatcher). It is possible, therefore, that observed sexual variance in animals—paralleling the shaman’s straddling of sexual boundaries—might also have contributed to the spiritual importance of such creatures. Another interesting example concerns red ants, which feature prominently as shamanic helpers in a number of indigenous cultures of south-central California (all of which, incidentally, recognize two-spirit people). The religious and cultural importance of ants is tied to their powerful medicinal and hallucinogenic properties as well as their use in ritual activities. This includes the extraordinary practice of swallowing large quantities of live ants to induce visions and the acquistion of spirit-animal helpers. Although no homosexual activity has yet been reported for these species (identified as belonging to the genus Pogonomyrmex ), nor is human gender or sexual variance directly associated with these ant-related beliefs or practices, there are some intriguing clues. Recently, for example, homosexual activity was discovered in a different species of Red Ant ( Formica sub-polita ) endemic to the semidesert regions of the western United States (O‘Neill 1994:96). Moreover, among the Kawaiisu people (where shamanic ant practices are especially prominent), unusual habits of animals are singled out as a potent spiritual sign, and two-spirit people (who may occupy positions of power, e.g., as chiefs) are reported to be particularly attuned to such animal behaviors (Groark, K. P. [1996] “Ritual and Therapeutic Use of ‘Hallucinogenic’ Harvester Ants [ Pogonomyrmex ] in Native South-Central California,” Journal of Ethnobiology 16:1–29; Zigmond, M. [1977] “The Supernatural World of the Kawaiisu,” pp. 60–61, 74, in T. C. Blackburn, ed., Flowers of the Wind: Papers on Ritual, Myth, and Symbolism in California and the Southwest , pp. 59–95 [Socorro, N.Mex.: Ballena Press]). Once again, it is not unreasonable to suppose that indigenous knowledge or observations of homosexuality (or other sexual variance) in red ants might have been an additional factor in their elevation to religious prominence. Certainly these examples are highly speculative, but they suggest some fascinating connections between animal biology, shamanic practices, and two-spiritedness that deserve further investigation.

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Roe 1970:63–64 (American Bison); Powers, Oglala Religion , p. 58; Wissler, “Societies and Ceremonial Associations in the Oglala Division of the Teton Dakota,” p. 92; Dorsey, J. O. (1890) “A Study of Siouan Cults,” p. 379, Bureau of American Ethnology Annual Report 11:361–544.

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Haile et al., Love-Magic and Butterfly People , p. 163. The term nádleeh is also applied to intersexual goats, horses, cattle, and (presumably) other wild game animals. There is also evidence in the Tsistsistas language of possible recognition of transgender in animals: the proper name Semoz is translated as “effeminate bull” (Petter, R. C. [1915] English-Cheyenne Dictionary, p. 196 [Kettle Falls, Wash.: Valdo Petter]). This is not, however, related to the Tsistsistas term for human two-spiritness, hemaneh , although it is possible that this is the name of a two-spirited person.

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Reid, B. (1979) “History of Domestication of the Cassowary in Mendi Valley, Southern Highlands Papua New Guinea,” Ethnomedizin/Ethnomedicine 5:407–32; Reid, B. (1981/82) “The Cassowary and the Highlanders: Present Day Contribution and Value to Village Life of a Traditionally Important Wildlife Resource in Papua New Guinea,” Ethnomedizin/Ethnomedicine 7:149–240.

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Gardner, “A Note on the Androgynous Qualities of the Cassowary,” p. 143. The Sambia and Arapesh, however, are apparently not aware of the bird’s penis (Herdt, Guardians of the Flutes , p. 145; Tuzin, The Cassowary’s Revenge , pp. 80–82). There is no mention of the male cassowary’s phallus in the standard Western scientific reference for sexual behavior in this species (Crome 1976), nor mention of the female’s phallus/clitoris in the species profiles found in comprehensive ornithological handbooks such as Folch, A. (1992) “Ca-suariidae (Cassowaries),” in J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, and J. Sargatal, eds., Handbook of the Birds of the World, vol. 1: Ostrich to Ducks, pp. 90–97 (Barcelona: Lynx Edicións); Marchant, S., and P. J. Higgins, eds., (1990) Handbook of Australian, New Zealand, and Antarctic Birds , vol. 1, pp. 60–67 (Melbourne: Oxford University Press).

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Koch, Year of the Polar Bear, p. 32; Harington, C. R. (1962) “A Bear Fable?” The Beaver: A Magazine of the North 293:4–7; Perry, World of the Polar Bear , p. 91; Miller, “People, Berdaches, and Left-Handed Bears,” p. 286.

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Roe 1970 (especially appendix D: “Albinism in Buffalo,” pp. 715–28); McHugh 1972: 123–29; Banfield, A. W. E (1974) The Mammals of Canada , p. 405 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press); Berger, J., and M. C. Pearl (1994) Bison: Mating and Conservation in Small Populations , p. 34 (New York: Columbia University Press); Pickering, R. B. (1997) Seeing the White Buffalo (Denver: Denver Museum of Natural History Press; Boulder: Johnson Books).