Women's Role In The Iroquois Society

Theda Perdue`s Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change, 1700-1835, is a book that greatly depicts what life had been like for many Native Americans as they were under European Conquering. This book was published in 1998, Perdue was influenced by a Cherokee Stomp Dance in northeastern Oklahoma. She had admired the Cherokee society construction of gender which she used as the subject of this book. Though the title Cherokee Women infers that the book focuses on the lives of only Cherokee women, Perdue actually shines light upon the way women 's roles affected the Native cultures and Cherokee-American relations. In the book, there is a focus on the way that gender roles affected the way different tribes were run in the 1700 and 1800`s. Native

Although Native Americans are characterized as both civilized and uncivilized in module one readings, their lifestyles and culture are observed to be civilized more often than not. The separate and distinct duties of men and women (Sigard, 1632) reveal a society that has defined roles and expectations based on gender. There are customs related to courtship (Le Clercq, 1691) that are similar to European cultures. Marriage was a recognized union amongst Native Americans, although not necessarily viewed as a serious, lifelong commitment like the Europeans (Heckewelder, 1819). Related to gender roles in Native American culture, Sigard writes of the Huron people that “Just as the men have their special occupation and understand wherein a man’s duty consists, so also the women and girls keep their place and perform quietly their little tasks and functions of service”.

The skywalkers are Iroquois iron workers who literally live on the edge, doing high steel construction work and the Iroquois are historically known for being powerful and an important northeast Native American union.

In the Cherokee culture women and men are considered equal. The role of the Cherokee woman in the past is very different than the role of an American woman today. Men would cut down the trees and clear land so they could plant, they would use the wood to build news homes in fences around the villages, they may traps nets and other tools they hunted and fished and fix stuff when needed. Sometimes men move in with her wife 's family and sometimes he might build a home for his wife and family. In the Cherokee nation women where badass. Women ruled the home, although the men built the homes the woman owns them. Women had power over their families they fought as warriors and I participated in the government. Women were farmers, they planted seeds

The Pawnee native americans have different roles or jobs in their tribe for men and women. The women are more fieldworkers and men do the more dangerous stuff. They both have stuff they do together too.

Surprisingly, Native American women had more freedom than the white women in the Chesapeake, Middle Colonies, or New England region. Some Native American women were given rights such as controlling land, political power, marriage and divorce in choice. There were matrilineal kinship system, in fact, marriage was not the most top rite of passage for them. The author covers around the 1600s- 1800s century time period while focusing on mainly white women but also women of color.

Native American women in the southern colonies not only worked the fields but also attended to the house and the children. They often did all of this while being

One of the earliest attempts to change the Natives’ gender roles was Thomas Jefferson’s Civilization Program during the late 18th century and early 19th century. In addition to changing the roles of

Typical Native American and African society was often matrilineal. This meant that familial relationships were divided through the maternal line, rather than the paternal one like in Europe. This provided women in these societies a great more power and authority than it did in Europe. Women often were involved in making and influencing decision making in the tribe or group. To Europeans, this type of gender egalitarianism was not just foreign but also considered savage.

Most women that were captured by the Natives prized their new lifestyle and the way they were treated. The Natives’ lifestyle was different from the Chesapeakes’ and the Puritans’ lifestyle. Essentially, females spent most of their time with other females and their children in

Duties of both genders were unique to the success of their community. Without the touch of European hands Natives were living life as they’ve been since their unknown arrival in the Americas. ”(Encyclopedia of the Great Plains) Upon the news of Columbus’s voyage to the West Indies, Europeans saw the chance to claim the land or resources

They are often labeled as uncivilized barbarians, which is a solely false accusation against them. This paper aims to address the similarities between Native American beliefs and the beliefs of other cultures based on The Iroquois Creation Story in order to defeat the stereotype that Natives are regularly defined by. Native Americans are commonly considered uncivilized, savage, and barbarian. Nevertheless, in reality the Natives are not characterized by any of those negative traits, but rather they inhabit positive characteristics such as being wise, polite, tolerant, civilized, harmonious with nature, etc. They have had a prodigious impact on the Puritans

Throughout history, there have been many literary studies that focused on the culture and traditions of Native Americans. Native writers have worked painstakingly on tribal histories, and their works have made us realize that we have not learned the full story of the Native American tribes. Deborah Miranda has written a collective tribal memoir, “Bad Indians”, drawing on ancestral memory that revealed aspects of an indigenous worldview and contributed to update our understanding of the mission system, settler colonialism and histories of American Indians about how they underwent cruel violence and exploitation. Her memoir successfully addressed past grievances of colonialism and also recognized and honored indigenous knowledge and identity.

While reading about American history the thing that I found most appealing was the limited rights that women had during this era. Although women gave the early settlers longer life expectancy and brought hope to their future, women still were not considered equal to a man. Women were discriminated against and didn’t play an important role in early American history. Generally, women had fewer legal rights and career opportunity than men because they were considered weak and not able to perform certain tasks. Different women came from different ethnic backgrounds and were all created equal in the eyes of men.

The nuclear family consisted of a woman, her husband, and their children. Many tribes practiced polygamy, in which a man had two or more wives, while other tribes were monogamous. Jonathan’s tribe practiced monogamy. Native Americans developed societies with well-defined roles, responsibilities, religious rites, ceremonies, social behavior in which group involvement, support and consensus plays a major role. Traditions reflect a strong emphasis on group involvement and decision-making (Edwards & Edwards, 1980).