tonochim

Southern Valley Yokuts

Noun

tonochim

1. (Tachi) undertaker, gravedigger
2. (Tachi) male-bodied person who dresses and lives as a woman

Usage notes

• Use of this term as a reference to the people who in English have come to be termed "two-spirits" was due to the fact that such people traditionally worked as gravediggers, embalmers and professional mourners among the Yokuts.
• Compare Palewyami Yokuts tonocim, Kocheyali Yokuts tonoo'tcim.

See also

• two-spirit

References

• Sabine Lang, Men as Women, Women as Men: Changing Gender (2010, →ISBN