Title: Gender and sexual diversity among Indigenous people of the Rio Grande Valley - Neta
Headings: Gender and sexual diversity among Indigenous people of the Rio Grande Valley
Gender and sexual diversity among Indigenous people of the Rio Grande Valley
Content: Like several cultures around the world, before European colonization, many indigenous American ethnicities embraced a wide range of sexualities, gender identities, and gender expressions. In some cultures, this meant a belief in third or fourth gender categories and in others there was simply an acceptance of different forms of sexuality and gender identity. Unfortunately, many historians and anthropologists, as well as many contemporary LGBT+ people, tend to make generalizations about these traditions. Other times, they might interpret them through a Western understanding of sexuality and gender. Several articles- for example- make assertions stating that Native Americans “worshiped” or “revered” queer people or generalize and state that Native Americans as a monolithic whole believed in four or five genders while ignoring the individual traditions within cultures and the different ways in which gender might be understood among them. It is important to be clear and avoid these oversimplifications of Native identity and traditions. While many groups did value gender diverse people or people we might today call non-binary, it is incorrect to say that Native people as a whole “worshiped” sexual and gender diversity. And while some groups did have a third or fourth gender categories, each culture has their own nuanced views on gender. In some, people could live as the gender opposite to the one they were assigned at birth while still adhering to more rigid gender roles. In others, there was a greater degree of fluidity when it came to expressions of gender and sexuality.