University of Arizona Press

Chapter Title: TWO-SPIRIT MUXE ZAPOTEC IDENTITY

Book Title: Behind the Mask

Book Subtitle: Gender Hybridity in a Zapotec Community
Book Author(s): ALFREDO MIRANDÉ
Published by: University of Arizona Press. (2017)
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1k3s9w2.11

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 6
Two-Spirit Muxe Zapotec
Identity
Two-Spirit affirmed their [ Native] belonging to cultural traditions by dis-
placing anthropological terms and—notably berdache—setting a new basis
and method for indigenous knowledge. After the term’s proposal, scholars writ-
ing from within non-Native intellectual histories tended to understand that
Two-Spirit replaced berdache, but most tended to miss how the term mas-
sively shifted the bases of knowledge production by interrupting anthropologi-
cal authority to define Indigenous truth.
Q w o -L i D r i s k i ll , C h r i s F i n l e y, B r i a n J o s e p h G i ll e y,
a n d Sc ot t L a u r i a M o r g e n s e n ( 2 0 1 1 , 1 0 )

T
he quotation above refers to a conference held in 1993 and 1994
and two workshops sponsored by the American Anthropological As­
so­ciation and the Wenner-Gren Foundation, which brought together
Two-Spirit organizers and anthropologists to reexamine anthropological
writing on the berdache. The workshops resulted in the 1997 publication of
Two-Spirit People: Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality
(Jacobs, Thomas, and Lang 1997). While Two-Spirit People brought together
academic and Native activists and resulted in non-Native contributors dis­
carding the term “berdache” in favor of “two-spirit,” it failed to integrate an in­
digenous methodology and theory into the work.

Despite Two-Spirit People questioning anthropological authority over indig­

enous people, its format seemed to reproduce it, in that the opening and closing
sections highlighted non-Native anthropologists doing academic theory, while
most interventions by Two-Spirit people appeared in between or were bracketed
as personal narratives rather than as scholarship. (Driskill, Finley, et al. 2011, 13)

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 16 4 chap ter 6

While the Two-Spirit People conference failed to establish a clear break with
hegemonic Western conceptions of the berdache, it did set the stage for subse­
quent two-spirit writing and scholarship that sought to decolonize queer and
third-gender indigenous research and theory.1
In this chapter I explore the concept of two-spirit and the phenomenon of
the berdache among North American Native groups. Although the muxes of
Juchitán are a unique Zapotec sexual/cultural system, they have more in com­
mon with, and might be better understood by examining them within, indig­
enous traditions rather than through the Western gender binary.
Two-spirit, or “two-spirited,” is an English term that refers to gender con­
structions and roles that occur in many indigenous communities outside the
Western gender binary as well as to Native people who are now reclaiming and
redefining these roles within their respective communities (Driskill, Justice,
et al. 2011, 4). Just as two-spirit shifted the bases of knowledge production by
challenging anthropological authority to define indigenous truth, so does the
term “muxe” shift the focus of analysis from external nonindigenous traditions
to Zapotec conceptions of a third gender that is neither male nor female but
muxe, and proudly Zapotec.
Although distinct from two-spirit North American indigenous groups, mu­
xes in El Istmo de Tehuantepec self-identify and are recognized by the com­
munity as having a separate and distinct third-gender category and status.2 In
the previous chapter, Florencio Mendoza, the retired Zapotec teacher, described
muxes as “una cultura,” or as a separate culture. Another Zapotec teacher, José
Abél Acevedo, agreed that muxes are accepted by everyone in the society and
believes they have ancient origins in Zapotec culture. He and Bettie, a mother
and hair stylist, defined “muxe” as a Zapoteco word that means someone who is
biologically male but has the social characteristics of a woman. Although bio­
logically male, muxes see themselves and are seen by others as being neither
male nor female, but muxe. Finally, muxes identify with women, or lo femenino,
and distinguish themselves from gays in that their sexual partners are “hom­
bres,” rather than other muxes or gay men.
This discussion seeks to extend the analysis of the findings of this study by
placing muxes within a global theoretical context that draws parallels between
anthropological writings on the berdache among North American Indian
communities and academic and journalistic accounts of the muxe experience.
It also addresses the need to link the muxe experience to indigenous configu­
rations of sexual identity and behavior. I argue, in other words, that Zapotecs

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 T wo-Spirit Muxe Z apotec Identit y  165

have developed a particular system of gender categories and lifestyles that,

while similar in some respects to two-spirit and other third-gender systems else­
where, retains it own internal logic and distinctiveness.

Anthropological and Historical

Descriptions of the Berdache

Faced with gender nonconforming males among numerous Native American

communities, early anthropologists settled on the term “berdache,” a variation
of bardaje, which was used by French explorers to signify a boy kept for un­
natural purposes (Roscoe 1991, 5). The berdache tradition shaped two streams of
academic writing in the twentieth century (Driskill, Finley, et al. 2011, 11). The
term was first used in the early part of the twentieth century to examine “devi­
ant” sexual practices, “notably among gender-transitive males who had sexual
and domestic relations with men in tribal societies” (2011, 11). Berdaches were
first seen as “failed” or incomplete men and women who had weird desires or
could not conform to the norms of their gender (Blackwood 1997, 284). Anthro­
pologists in turn extrapolated from the berdache experience in Native Ameri­
can tribes to explain contemporary social roles in society worldwide (Driskill,
Finley, et al. 2011, 11).
The status of the berdache was reexamined once again in the 1980s in re­
sponse to feminist interventions when anthropologists began to call into ques­
tion conventional constructions of gender and sexuality (Driskill, Finley, et al.
2011, 11). In short, anthropologists like Harriet Whitehead (1981) and Charles
Callender and Lee Kochems (1986) focused on the berdache and “became
concerned with discovering the reasons why American Indians had ‘tolerated’
same-sex sexuality and gender variance while Euro-Americans remained hos­
tile, misogynist, and heterosexist” (Driskill, Finley, et al. 2011, 11). This suggests
parallels of the view Europeans had of New World sexuality and, specifically,
the hostile view Cortés and the friars that accompanied him had of the practice
of sodomy (see chapter 2).
Those in the anthropology of the berdache tradition also noted that while
berdaches were generally recognized as biological males, they became women
in a social sense by assuming the dress and the work of women, and by prefer­
ring the tools of the female trades (Callender and Kochems 1986, 169–71). These
“gender crossers” often donned women’s clothes and assumed female duties like

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 166 chap ter 6

basket weaving and acorn pounding (Kroeber 1925, 46; Fletcher and La Flesche
[1911] 1972, 132), or spontaneously adopted female speech patterns (Whitehead
1981, 88). The muxes of Juchitán are similarly “gender crossers,” who often dress
in women’s clothing and assume female voices and duties and/or work that is
specifically designated for muxes.
Because the cross-gendering person was anatomically a man and socially a
woman, many American Indian groups saw the berdache as a mixed creature,
as a “woman-man,” part man and part woman, or a third sex or gender (White­
head 1981, 88). Not surprisingly, the berdaches not only assumed specific roles
with specialized duties, but were also often imbued with special powers since
they could assume the tasks of men or women. Among the Yokuts, for example,
berdaches were corpse handlers, whereas among other groups, they tended to
the ill and carried provisions for war parties (Whitehead 1981, 89).
Although the berdache were found among many North American Indian
groups, in looking at same-sex relations cross-culturally, anthropologists have
also noted the importance of distinguishing between behaviors that are institu­
tionally and normatively accepted and those that may occur spontaneously but
are not accepted. In a classic article, Harriet Whitehead observed that “cultural
processes (and psychological ones as well) operate in quite different fashion
in behaviors that are formally instituted as opposed to those that are sponta­
neously expressed” (1981, 81–82). Although data on spontaneous same-sex ex­
pression are limited, the rate of its expression appears to be independent of its
societal acceptance and may be high in places where it is condemned, as in the
United States, or low where it is accepted, as among Trobriand Islanders (81).
Societal acceptance, in turn, will undoubtedly influence identity, self-esteem,
and interiority. In contrast to the New Guinea belief that “manhood” is con­
tained in semen, so that a boy was believed to become a man through sexual
intercourse with older men (Herdt 1984), in the anthropology of the berdache
tradition, scholars like Whitehead noted that among many indigenous groups
of North America, it was possible for a man to become, in socially important
respects, a woman. Male-to-female cross-gendering, which generally took the
form of biological males dressing and assuming the tasks of women, has been
much more prevalent than female to male cross-gender transitions (Lang 1998,
261) and was frequently reported by early travelers, missionaries, and anthro­
pologists (Whitehead 1981, 85; Katz 1976, 29). According to Whitehead, gender
crossing was the practice of the person of one “anatomic sex assuming part
or most of the attire, occupation, and social—including marital—status of the

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 T wo-Spirit Muxe Z apotec Identit y  167

opposite sex for an indeterminate period” (1981, 85). There is also evidence that
berdaches were highly respected by Indian communities (Greenberg 1986, 180).
Much like muxes, berdaches’ most common way of transitioning was
through exhibiting behaviors or characteristics of the opposite sex at an early
age. Parents and relatives invariably reported observing feminine characteristics
in a young boy. Gender-crossing behaviors might also be indicated by dreams
or visions. Less common was the practice of a person being taken captive, inte­
grated into the household of a captor, and assuming the status of  “wife” socially
and sexually (Whitehead 1981, 86).
One of the harshest academic critiques of the berdache tradition is provided
by historian Ramón Gutiérrez (2007), who focuses specifically on accounts of
American Indian men in the Southwest. Gutiérrez notes that a number of his­
torians and anthropologists were fascinated by the discovery of the berdache
and saw it potentially as a path, if not to gay liberation, at least to greater soci­
etal tolerance for gender-variant individuals (2007, 19). When Spanish soldiers
and missionaries first saw Native American men performing women’s work,
dressed as women, and offering receptive sexual services to men, they were
quick to link this phenomenon to the bardaje, a word derived from the Arabic
term berdaj, which referred to a male prostitute (2007, 20; see the conclusion,
this volume).
One of the first accounts was found in the narratives of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza
de Vaca, a survivor of the ill-fated Narváez expedition off the Florida coast in
1528. In 1536 he observed that when he came across the three lone survivors of
the expedition, “I saw a wicked behavior [diablura] and it is that I saw one man
married [casado] to another, and these are effeminate impotent men. . . . And
they go about covered like women, and they perform the tasks of women, and
they do not use a bow, and they carry very great loads” (Gutiérrez 2007, 21).
After Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca’s account was published in Spain, it became the
primary source for Francisco López de Gómara’s Historia general de las Indias
([1552] 1954; see chapter 2, this volume).
After examining evidence on the history of the berdache tradition, Gutiér­
rez concludes that in México’s north and in what was to become the American
Southwest, the bardaje was not a culturally celebrated and permissive status
that encompassed both the masculine and the feminine but a status of subor­
dination and humiliation that individuals were forced to accept (2007, 26). He
adds, “Conquest narratives, travelers’ accounts, and ethnographies indicate that
the social status of the berdache had meaning primarily in the sociopolitical

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 168 chap ter 6

world of men,” and the berdache were said to be under male ownership (27).
Gutiérrez concludes by noting that a universal representation of conquest is the
victors asserting their virility and dominance by transforming the losers into
effeminates (27).
Contrary to Gutiérrez’s negative depiction of the anthropology and history
of the bardaje tradition, anthropologists have long observed that acceptance of
same-sex social and sexual relations was widely reported among North Ameri­
can Indian communities within every type of social and economic organiza­
tion (Roscoe 1991, 24). According to Will Roscoe, male and female berdaches
(women assuming traditional male roles as warriors and chiefs or male work
and occupations) have been documented in more than 130 North American
tribes across the continent, ranging from Alaska to Florida, including the
Pueblo Indians of Arizona, the Acoma, Hopi, Isleta, Laguna, Santa Ana, Santo
Domingo, San Felipe, San Juan, Tesuque, and Zuni (1991, 5). Female-to-male
berdaches were much less common and reported among a relatively small num­
ber of Native American groups (Lang 1998, 261).
In traditional Native societies, moreover, berdaches, like muxes, were ac­
cepted, integral, and valued members of their respective communities. Euro­
pean cultures, on the other hand, were incapable of adequately describing or
understanding the place of berdaches in Indian society (Blackwood 1997, 285).
The Zuni, for example, differentiated between sex and gender identity. Whereas
sex was fixed at birth, gender involved an evolution from the original maternal
common ground shared by males and females to adult roles (Roscoe 1991, 144).
Among the Zuni, a person’s identity was never fixed but was situationally
determined, as “[t]he social and religious experiences of both men and women
modulated across a range of gender positions and identities” (1991, 144). Since
men were technically not permitted to be present at a birth, for example, if a
medicine man was summoned to assist at childbirth “he was temporarily re­
ferred to as grandmother” (144).
The Zuni ihamanas, or boys with female tendencies, underwent the first
male initiation rite but not the second. The ihamana was seen as an incom­
plete, or “unfinished,” male who could participate in certain male activities, like
kachina dancing, men’s work, and even farming, but not warfare and hunting,
which were part of the second male initiation (Roscoe 1991, 144). Similarly, he
could not undergo certain female rites of passage linked to biological func­
tions he did not possess, but he did learn some women’s lore and rituals when
he joined female members in observing domestic rites. Thus, “[t]he Ihamana

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 T wo-Spirit Muxe Z apotec Identit y  169

was, in functional terms, a nonwarrior or nonaggressive male, a crafts specialist

rather than a primary producer, an individual who combined elements of male
and female social, economic, and religious roles” (Roscoe 1991, 145). The mode
of dress of the Zuni man-woman, We’wha, for example, was based more on
social convention than on personal choice. As an unfinished male, he could not
wear male symbols, but he was always recognized by his family and community
as a male, as illustrated by the fact that he always wore pants beneath his dress
(145).
The response to whether We’wha was viewed as a man or a woman was that,
like the muxe, he was “neither.” He represented a third-gender status, distinct
from the gender status not only of men and women but also of transsexuals or
transgender persons. “The man who becomes a woman contributes to society
as a woman. But the berdache made unique contributions, as we have seen in
the case of We’wha and . . . society [b]enefited by having three, instead of two,
genders” (146). Having three genders as a reference point not only increased op­
tions geometrically for sexual identity and behavior but challenged the gender
binary by making it possible to recognize various combinations of gender traits
(146).
Whereas the Western gender binary is based on fixed biological concep­
tions of gender (Blackwood 1997, 285), the Zuni readily distinguished between
being male biologically and “acting like a man.” In their worldview, one’s status
as man, woman, or ihamana was the result of culture, and adopting the traits of
more than one gender was a desirable trait for all Zuni. Members of this third
gender “were considered an affirmation of humanity’s original, pre-gendered
unity—representatives of a form of solidarity and wholeness that transcended
the division of humans into men and women. The third gender role was one of
native North America’s most striking social inventions” (Roscoe 1991, 146).
While Western cultures adhered to a sexual/gender dichotomy (Blackwood
1997, 285) and considered nonconforming behavior deviant and unwanted, in­
digenous cultures were more accepting of gender variations. Sabine Lang’s 1998
work, Men as Women, Women as Men (translated from the German), for example,
offers a comprehensive look at Native American cultures and finds that a third-
gender status was institutionalized and that a radical departure between one’s
biological sex and one’s chosen gender role was more readily accepted (Lang
1998, 219). Generally, the woman-man was believed to be “two-spirit” and to
have been born with a dual nature; the two-spirit was accepted but such ac­
ceptance normally depended on some proof that the individual was in fact a

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 170 chap ter 6

man imbued with feminine tendencies. Proof that the individual was indeed
a woman-man had to be demonstrated in tests such as the choice of objects
during a berdache test or a dream or vision, and such tests varied from group to
group. It was also not uncommon for a boy to be allowed to wait until puberty
to decide whether he wanted to assume a feminine gender role. As with the
muxes, fathers might attempt to force feminine sons to assume a masculine
role, but ultimately the boy’s decision to adopt the woman-man status was nor­
mally accepted once the child gave proof of his woman-man nature in a cultur­
ally accepted way. “Regardless of whether a dream or vision finally supported
the change of gender role through a supernatural legitimation, an interest in
activities and (often, but by no means always) clothing of the opposite sex often
became noticeable during childhood” (219).
Table 1 identifies common characteristics shared by the Native American
two-spirit person and the Zapotec muxe third gender. In Juchitán, especially in
the poorer and more historically indigenous sections of the city, like la séptima
sección, it is not unusual to see boys as young as eight or nine dressed in femi­
nine attire. Similarly, if a boy among the Bella Coola and surrounding tribes
demonstrated an unusual skill in performing women’s tasks, the parents would
conclude that he would prefer to be a girl and begin to dress him in feminine
clothing and to treat him like a girl (Lang 1998, 219). Among the Omaha and
Ponca, one could identify the mixu’ga during childhood because, like muxe chil­
dren, they were constantly playing with girls (221).
In a small number of tribes, such as the Aleut, Kaniagmiut, Juaneño, Luseño,
and probably among the Illinois, Yuma, and Zuni, the family played a signifi­
cant part in gender role assignment and often assigned the feminine role to a
boy shortly after birth. Rather than acquiring the status of woman or even girl,
he acquired a unique status, such as shupan among the Aleut and Kaniagmiut
(Lang 1998, 223). In other tribes, as in certain Zapotec families, the family af­
fected the gender status of a child in that women-men preferably came from
certain families or descent groups, as their relatives had supposedly also been
women-men (223).
It thus appears that in many tribes, a boy’s interest in feminine activities
emerged and was often recognized in early childhood. Among the Kato, Pomo,
Yuki, and Lassik, for example, men could make baskets without reflecting on
their masculinity, but a boy who was a maker of fine baskets was suspected of  hav­
ing opposite-sex gender inclinations (Essene 1942, 65). One of the most interest­
ing phenomenon observed across a number of Native American communities

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 T wo-Spirit Muxe Z apotec Identit y  171

Table 1.  Similarities Between Two-Spirit and Muxe Third Gender

Two-Spiri t M uxe

Cross-gender identification in childhood Cross-gender identification in childhood

Help with feminine tasks Help with feminine tasks (household
(acorn pounding, basket weaving) chores)
Gender evolution into puberty Gender evolution into puberty
Expert at basket weaving Excel in embroidery, dress making
Transition into third gender through Transition into third gender through velas,
rites of passage, visions, dreams, or quinceañeras
tests and rituals
Don feminine dress Don Zapotec feminine dress, makeup, and
jewelry
Community recognition as incomplete, Socially recognized as muxe, not man or
unfinished male, man-woman, woman
woman-man

is that women-men were widely reported not only to assume feminine tasks
but also to equal and often surpass women in the performance of such tasks
(Lang 1998, 241). A popular explanation for this view is that women-men were
generally perceived to be physically strong. Coalhuiltecan, for example, were
highly valued for their strength as load carriers, and the Juaneño kwit and the
Luseño cuut were considered to be especially robust housewives (241). The Zuni
also viewed the ihamana as great helpers with household tasks because they
did double the amount of work and performed the most physically demanding
tasks (241). Muxes in Juchitán are similarly recognized, especially by mothers,
for being household helpers, hard workers, and exceptional in the performance
of women’s tasks.
Not only were women-men recognized for their physical strength but they
were also known for being great housewives (Lang 1998, 242). Crow bate, for
example, were known for having the best and most beautiful tipis and were
considered to be experts in handiwork and culinary arts (Simms 1903, 580).
Like the muxes, women-men’s superiority in handicrafts has been particularly
stressed, perhaps because it requires a special talent over and above the dili­
gence required for women’s everyday activities (Lang 1998, 242).

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 172 chap ter 6

Lang attributes the cultural importance placed on having women-men at­

tain perfection in feminine occupations to the fact that there was no ritual to
mark the transition to this status. Because there was generally no “public le­
gitimation of his status enacted at a particular point in time, the woman-man
had to legitimate his status continually, so that no doubt was cast on him or his
status by the community” (246). Given that carrying out of women’s tasks was
considered the major distinguishing characteristic of the woman-man, perfect­
ing feminine occupations served to legitimate and reinforce the woman-man’s
special status in the community. In Juchitán, muxes are similarly recognized for
their strong work ethic and excellent embroidery skills. One respondent also
commented that muxes might surpass women in performing household tasks.
Entrance into the woman-man role varied from society to society, but the
putting on of women’s clothes generally coincided with entrance into woman-
man status, and in societies that stressed the ambivalence of this status, a com­
bination of male and female attire was worn. “Occasionally, such a hybrid cos­
tume was also the expression of external influences which, to a great extent,
made it impossible for women-men to cross-dress completely” (Lang 1998,
252). This is reminiscent of muxes like Enrique and Mandis, who might assume
feminine Zapotec attire but are unable to cross-dress because they work in tra­
ditional occupations.
In addition to dressing in feminine clothing and performing feminine tasks,
women-men performed most aspects of the feminine role (Lang 1998, 252), in­
cluding everyday handiwork, artistic handiwork, and the raising of his/her own
(adoptive) or relatives’ children, the imitation of the feminine voice and intona­
tion, and in a few instances, physiological characteristics like menstruation, preg­
nancy, and childbirth (252).
Like muxes, women-men sometimes also entered into sexual relationships,
usually with men, which ranged from casual contacts to relationships that
lasted for years. But women-men did not typically enter into permanent bonds
and like the muxes usually lived alone or in their birth family (Lang 1998, 254).
Unmarried women-men generally had sexual contacts with numerous men, in­
cluding married men and fathers, as well as young unmarried single men (255).
Similar to muxes, women-men were popular as sexual outlets because they
could be visited when the men’s wives were unable or not allowed to have sexual
intercourse as a result of menstruation, pregnancy, or other taboo conditions.
Lang argues, however, that it would be wrong to classify these relationships as
homosexual in the Western sense of the word because the men involved, like

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 T wo-Spirit Muxe Z apotec Identit y  173

the mayate, did not perceive themselves as homosexual and led completely het­
erosexual daily lives. “The women-men likewise did not regard such relation­
ships as homosexual, because they after all did not possess straightforwardly
unambiguous masculine gender identity, and their gender status differed from
the masculine gender status of their partners” (1998, 255).
The phenomenon of women-men, or berdache, varied considerably across
Indian cultures, and the only element held in common by males cited in the
literature as berdache is a distinct preference for women’s work as opposed to
men’s work (Lang 1998, 255). All the other dimensions, such as cross-dressing,
specialized occupations, or their status as holy or sacred persons, were added to
this basic element. Lang compiled a comprehensive table detailing role changes
among women-men in one hundred indigenous societies. The most common
characteristic found among 90 percent of the tribes was doing women’s work,
followed by cross-dressing in 84 percent of the tribes. Interestingly, having sex
with men was found in only about 33 percent of the cases (256).
This minimal definition of the two-spirit as a person of one physiological sex
assuming the status or role of the opposite sex is, according to Lang (1998, 7),
more conducive to understanding berdaches within their own cultural traditions
than to impose Western standards by labeling the practice as a form of homo­
sexuality or designating it as “transvestism.” In short, “the berdache phenome­
non basically comprises all of those cases in which males voluntarily performed
women’s work within the framework of a special, culturally defined gender sta­
tus” (256).
After an extensive analysis of the gender practices among many tribes, Lang
concludes that several cultural patterns are associated with the initiation of
males into the woman-man status. The first indication of gender role change
was typically manifested in childhood (239). If neither dream nor visions were
viewed as essential for a gender role change, and a boy’s inclination toward femi­
nine activities was insufficient to justify the transition, he was subjected to a test
during puberty to determine whether he was serious about his decision. Second,
when visions or dreams were considered central to making the transition, a stan­
dardized vision or dream served to legitimate the change in gender role (239).
Third, when neither dreams nor visions played a significant cultural role, empha­
sis was placed on personal inclinations, and the woman-man status was cultur­
ally defined, connected to special roles and privileges, and the would-be woman-
man ultimately had to decide whether to make the transition. Finally, in some
instances, the person’s desire to assume the role and generally the clothing of

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 174 chap ter 6

the opposite sex was sufficient to make the transition without requiring dreams,
visions, tests, or rituals, but the person had to make a final binding decision at
sometime in his life (239).
Like West and Zimmerman (1987), Callender and Kochems (1986) made an
important analytical distinction between two gender levels: gender category and
gender status. Although culturally constructed, gender category designates the
biologically identified classes consisting of males and females (1986). Gender
status, on the other hand, is less directly tied to anatomical differences. At the
gender status level, one can be classified as “not-male” without necessarily be­
ing classified as female. Male berdaches were not attempting to achieve social
recognition as females, since this was impossible, but rather they “were assigned
to a particular gender status designated by a special label” (166). Like muxes
and hijras, these “not-men” assumed a gender-mixing status that combined at­
tributes of men and women, which differentiated them from women as well as
from men (166).
Despite the tendency of Westerners to equate gender crossing with ho­
mosexuality, there is no reason to believe that same-sex sexual preference or
same-sex object choice behavior itself was used as a basis for reclassifying a
person to a gender-crossing status. Whitehead notes, “In contradistinction to
occupational and clothing choice, cross-sex erotic choice is never mentioned as
one of the indicators of a budding berdache” (1981, 95). Callender and Kochems
add that “not-men” limited sexual acts to partners belonging to other gender
statuses, men or women, and that it was “intercourse with persons outside their
status, rather than homosexual acts per se, that most consistently defined the
sexual aspects of the gender-mixing status” (1986, 171–72). Similarly, the gender
status of muxes is generally defined by intercourse with persons outside their
status, rather than by homosexual acts per se.

“Talking Back”:
Two-Spirit Indigenous Identity

From this overview of two-spirit literature, it is clear that in the 1990s, indig­
enous people challenged the prevailing gender binary in North America as gay,
lesbian, and third-gender persons targeted the anthropology of the berdache
and sought to “displace colonial knowledge by making Native knowledge the
methodological ground of research by and for Native peoples” (Morgensen

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 T wo-Spirit Muxe Z apotec Identit y  175

2011, 139). The emergence of two-spirit identity represented a critique not only
of the anthropology of the berdache but also of Western notions of gender and
sexuality (Driskill, Finley, et al. 2011, 11). Will Roscoe’s award-winning book,
The Zuni Man-Woman, came in response to the anthropology of the berdache
and turned the focus of research away from individual identity to indigenous
cultural perspectives by arguing that the Zuni ihamana represented a third-
gender status, which was “less about sexual identity and more about the cultural
categories of indigenous communities” (Driskill, Finley, et al. 2011, 12). Muxe
identity is similarly less about sexual identity and more about Zapotec cultural
categories and practices. Many respondents in this study indicated that they
had muxe relatives and pointed out that families in a number of indigenous
neighborhoods in Juchitán were known to speak Zapoteco and have a history
of muxes among their relatives. The Intrépidas, in turn, have dedicated them­
selves to the preservation of their indigenous roots.
Having discussed attempts by two-spirit people to decolonize the anthro­
pology of the berdache, in the next chapter I turn to an examination of contem­
porary Mexicano/Latino configurations of sexual identity and behavior and
their influence on muxe and Zapotec conceptions of gender and sexuality.

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