Some European commentators, from early frontier explorers to modern anthropologists, also were influenced by their own homophobic prejudices to distort native attitudes. However, many of the documents that report negative reactions are themselves suspect, and should be evaluated critically in light of the preponderance of evidence that suggests a respectful attitude. Some documentary sources suggest that a minority of societies treated two-spirit persons disrespectfully, by kidding them or discouraging children from taking on a two-spirit role. With over a thousand vastly different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, it is important not to overgeneralise for the indigenous peoples of North America. Most of the evidence for respectful two-spirit traditions is focused on the native peoples of the Plains, the Great Lakes, the Southwest, and California. The emphasis of Native Americans is not to force every person into one box, but to allow for the reality of diversity in gender and sexual identities. This alternative gender status offers a range of possibilities, from slightly effeminate males or masculine females, to androgynous or transgender persons, to those who completely cross-dress and act as the other gender. Instead of seeing two-spirit persons as transsexuals who try to make themselves into "the opposite sex", it is more accurate to understand them as individuals who take on a gender status that is different from both men and women. Rather than the physical body, Native Americans emphasised a person's "spirit", or character, as being most important. Since the ancestors of Native Americans migrated from Siberia over 20,000 years ago, and since reports of highly respected androgynous persons have been noted among indigenous Americans from Alaska to Chile, androgyny seems to be quite ancient among humans. Quite similar religious traditions existed among the native peoples of Siberia and many parts of Central and southeast Asia. Therefore, many Native American religions, rather than stigmatising such persons, often looked to them as religious leaders and teachers. Thus, they are honoured for having two spirits, and are seen as more spiritually gifted than the typical masculine male or feminine female. Since everything that exists is thought to come from the spirit world, androgynous or transgender persons are seen as doubly blessed, having both the spirit of a man and the spirit of a woman. American Indian traditionalists, even today, tend to see a person's basic character as a reflection of their spirit. Rather than emphasising the homosexuality of these persons, however, many Native Americans focused on their spiritual gifts. Both the Spanish settlers in Latin America and the English colonists in North America condemned them as "sodomites". Because these androgynous males were commonly married to a masculine man, or had sex with men, and the masculine females had feminine women as wives, the term berdache had a clear homosexual connotation. The most common term to define such persons today is to refer to them as "two-spirit" people, but in the past feminine males were sometimes referred to as "berdache" by early French explorers in North America, who adapted a Persian word "bardaj", meaning an intimate male friend. Native Americans have often held intersex, androgynous people, feminine males and masculine females in high respect.
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