Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

damnitineedaname t1_j5x8xq7 wrote

Reply to comment by half3clipse in First Navajo woman becomes Speaker of the Navajo Nation Council by AudibleNod

Counterpoint.

Navaho Nations Council Elect First Female Speaker

Clear, concise, and shorter than the current title.

3

UnicornOnTheJayneCob t1_j5xgfcq wrote

I explained this in another comment, but because of the Navajo conception of gender, saying it like that wouldn’t actually be whole or complete! To a Diné reader, it might even be LESS clear.

You can, for example, be female but not a woman. (You can be a masculine-spirited person with a female body, or a person with a female body whose spirit switches between masculine and feminine. Neither are termed “women”, and have their own gender names).

Traditionally, women do not become clan chiefs, though they participate in tribal leadership in other ways. So a role like this is significant for a person who plays a traditional feminine role among the people.

2

rokhana t1_j5xjh0e wrote

I was under the impression that Náhleeh and Dilbaa simply meant feminine man and masculine woman respectively, men and women who are gender-nonconforming. Is this incorrect?

2

UnicornOnTheJayneCob t1_j5ypeq2 wrote

I am not an elder or anything, but from what I was taught, it isn’t incorrect, but also it is sort of a shorthand, you know? Putting it that way is just a really good way of simplifying it at all without having to go into the whole structure of traditional society and myth, the different gender roles and the somewhat thorny issue of sexuality, how it all interacts with colonization/history, etc.

1