The concern of this thesis is the position of people of alternative genders in Coast Salish culture,
not only in the past, but in the present. How were individuals with such a difference treated? What forces
constrained them? What factors afforded them opportunity? Were such genders even recognized? With
these questions in mind, field work was conducted with the permission of the Std: Id Nation throughout the
summer of 1998. This paper is based on interviews conducted then and subsequent interviews with people
from other Coast Salish groups. In addition, local ethnographic materials—with reference to field notes
whenever possible—and traditional stories were analyzed from the perspective of Coast Salish
epistemology. Alternative genders need to be understood foremost in the cultural contexts in which they
occur, only then can comparisons proceed from a secure foundation.
Research revealed a paradoxical situation. Oral traditions in which the alternately gendered are
despised, occur side-by-side with traditions in which such people were honoured for the special powers
they possessed. Individuals and families operated in the space generated by this paradox, playing the
"serious games" to which Ortner alludes (1996:12-13). The absence of a "master narrative" in Coast
Salish culture accounts for some, but not all of these contradictions. Equally relevant are persistent
patterns of secrecy, personal autonomy, kin solidarity, differential status, and differential gender flexibility
that both restrict the social field and offer stress points that were, and are, manipulated in individual and
collective strategies. Given a world view in which transformation was the norm, and in which the
disadvantaged could become powerful overnight by revealing the power they had hidden, some
alternatively gendered people were able to maximize their potential and become significant forces. No
formal roles offered sanction, instead an ad hoc approach marked the response to alternative genders and
the outcome rested on the position of the individual and her/his family, and their ability to maneuver
within multiple constraints. It was this potential to transform a stigmatized status into an honoured role
that made the position of the alternatively gendered paradoxical. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/9813 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Young, Jean C. |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Format | 3788655 bytes, application/pdf |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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