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Definition 2024


tonocim

tonocim

Palewyami

Noun

tonocim

  1. undertaker, gravedigger
  2. 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 Tachi Yokuts tonochim, Kocheyali Yokuts tonoo'tcim.

See also

References

  • Sabine Lang, Men as Women, Women as Men: Changing Gender (2010, ISBN 0292777957)