Matriarchal Cultures: the Native American Essay

There has long been debate among anthropologists about maternal societies. But that is a historic result of last 500 historic period of European military expansion and extermination of native subtletys. There ar a few societies whose status as matriarchies is disputed among anthropologists and this is as lots a debate about terminology as it is about translation how an other(a) society defines status and such, their self-understanding as opposed to our imposition of categories on them. Among anthropologists, there argon theories that support the plausibility of having prehistoric matriarchies.And if we look more(prenominal) than at the complexity of societies, were liable to find that the answer to why a particular arrange workforcet developed in particular cases and may vary from case to case. Conversely enough there argon more more direct and matrilocal societies. A lot of people tend to set up the definition of matrilocal and matrilineal with matricentric. Matrilocal is when a husband who marries a woman moldiness move to her community/village. Matrilineal is a descent system base on unilineal descent that gives the mothers family certain terms of human relationship than the fathers family. Matriarchal is when wo custody have control of a community.Matrilocal and matrilineal societies do not mean that the wo hands hold more index finger than the custody. heritage and lineage does not equal power. Whereas, matrifocal is the gravitating toward or centering on the mother. primeval Americans were soundly known to have a matriarchal system. Most early societies were organized around matrilineal lines. Women were the center of society, sooner agriculture, women gener all in ally raised children, cooked, pull together fruits, vegetables, etc. Men followed. In this role, women were the initiative scientists. They learned how to cultivate shows, and domesticate animals. They learned methods of food preservation.They learned how to instal bett er houses. Women were the ones responsible for the development of civilization. There were a lot of societies that were twain matriarchal and patriarchal before Christianity took over. Some indigenous tribes were accepting of hermaphrodism and women taking on mens roles before Christianity came into play. Most primeval American tribes had traditional gender roles. In some tribes, such as the Iroquois nation, social and clan relationships were matrilineal and or matriarchal, although several different systems were in use. One moral is the Cherokee custom of wives owning the family property.Men hunted, traded and do war, bandage women cared for the newborn and the elderly, fashioned clothing and instruments and cured meat. The cradle board was used by mothers to carry their baby while working or traveling. However, in some, solely not all tribes a kind of transgender was permitted. Apart from making home, women had some(prenominal) tasks that were essential for the survival of the tribes. They made weapons and tools, took care of the roofs of their homes and often helped their men hunt buffalos. In some of the Plains Indian tribes there reportedly were medicine women who gathered herbs and cured the ill.In some of these tribes girls were also encouraged to learn to put one across and fight. Though fighting was in general left to the boys and men, there had been cases of women fighting aboard them, especially when the existence of the tribe was threatened. There has been such a repetitive misconception as on the position of women among Native Americans. Because she was active, always busy in the camp, often carried heavy burdens, attended to the household duties, made the clothing and the home, and disposed(p) the family food, the woman has been depicted as the slave of her husband, a patient fauna of encumbrance whose labors were never done.The man, on the other hand, was said to be a loaf, whom all day long sat in the shade of the institutionalize and smoked his pipe, while his overworked wives attended to his comfort. In actuality, the woman was the mans partner, who preformed her share of the obligations of life and who employed an influence quite as weighty as his, and often more coercive. Native Americans established principal relationships every with a clan system, descent from a popular ancestor, or through a friendship system, much like tribal societies in other parts of the beingness.In the Choctaw nation, Moieties were subdivided into several nontotemic, exogamous, matrilineal kindred clans, called iksa (Faiman-Silva, 1997, p. 8). The capital of Wyoming tribe also traced their ancestry through the womans lineage, Moore (1996, p. 154). shows this when he says such marriages, where the groom comes to live in the brides band, are called matrilocal. Leacock (1971, p. 21) reveals that prevalent opinion is that hunting societies would be patrilocal. Matrilineality, it is assumed, followed the emergence of agricul ture. Leacock (p.21) then tell that she had found the Montagnais-Naskapi, a hunting society, had been matrilocal until Europeans stepped in.The Tanoan Pueblos kinship system is bilateral. The household every is of the nuclear type or is extended to include relatives of one or both parents. (Dozier, 1971, p. 237). The roles and statuses for men and women varied considerably among Native Americans, depending on each tribes cultural orientations. In matrilineal and matrilocal societies, women had considerable power because property, housing, land, and tools, belonged to them.Because property unremarkably passed from mother to daughter, and the husband joined his wifes family, he was more of a stranger and yielded authority to his wifes eldest brother. As a result, the husband was unlikely to operate an authoritative, unconditional figure. According to Dozier (1971) Additionally, among such peoples as the Cherokee, Iroquois, and Pueblo, a disgruntled wife, secure in her possession s, could simply divorce her husband by tossing his belongings out of their residence. The Iroquois, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Mohawk, Seneca are a matriarchal societies.In the Iroquois community, women were the keepers of culture. They were responsible for defining the political, social, spiritual and stinting norms of the tribe. Iroquois society was matrilineal, meaning descent was traced through the mother rather than through the father. Also, when a couple marries, the man traditionally went to live with the wifes family. Womens role in tribal governance was often prestigious in matrilineal societies, as among the Iroquois, in which the principal civil and spiritual offices were kept within maternal lineages.The tribal matriarch or a group of tribal matrons propose each delegate, briefed him before each session, monitored his legislative record, and removed him from office if his conduct displeased the women. Although the leaders were men, it was the Clan Mothers who nominated and elected them, and could remove them from their position. The women made sure the male leadership complete their responsibilities. Iroquois women enjoyed social equality and respect. The Seneca Native Americans were a matriarchal egalitarian culture in that the practice of sur-naming as identifying to the individual was reversed.Women were considered the heads of households in which men marry into and changed their last names from their mothers to their wives last names. And the children were given the names of the mothers family. Though men were considered the elders and chiefs of each household, during each conference of the families, the female heads of household sat undersurface the male spokesperson and advised each of them on manners concerning the tribe. In the spousal relationshipeastern Woodlands and on the Plains, where hunting and warfare demanded strenuous activity onward from home, the men often returned exhausted and required a few age to recover.Wearied by b oth these arduous actions and the religious fasting that commonly accompanied them, the men relaxed in the village while the women went about their many tasks. Seeing only female busyness in these native encampments, fair observers misinterpreted what they saw and wrote inaccurate stereotypical portrayals of lazy braves and industrious squaws. Such was not the case. In the southeast and Southwest, men and women performed their daily labors with observable equality because the men did not go out on grueling expeditions as did the men in the Northeast and Plains.In calcium, the Great Basin, and Northwest Coast, the sexual particle of labor fell somewhere between these two variations. Women had certain common tasks in each of the U. S. culture areas cleaning and chief(prenominal)taining the living quarters, tending to children, meeting place edible plants, pounding corn into meal, extracting oil from acorns and nuts, cooking, sewing, packing, and unpacking. Certain crafts were al so usually their responsibility brewing dyes, making pottery, and weave such items as cloth, baskets, and mats. In the Southwest, however, men sometimes made baskets and pottery, and even weaved cloth.In regions where hunting provided the main food supply, the women were also responsible for house building, processing carcasses of game, preparing hides or furs, and whatsoever food gathering or farming that could be done. In the mostly agricultural societies in the Eastern Woodlands, the women primarily worked in the fields and the men built the frame houses and both shared duties for preparing hides or furs. Similarly, in the seek communities of the Northwest, the men built the plank houses and helped with the processing of animal skins.In California and in the Great Basin, most aspects of labor, except the defined female tasks of weaving and basket and pottery making, were shared fairly evenly. In the Southwest, the men did most of the field work, house building, weaving, cloth m anufacturing, and animal skin processing. Female prestigiousness among the Iroquois grew greater after the Revolutionary War, and male prestige ebbed due to relentless losses and defeats and the inability to do much hunting due to scarcity of game.By the nineteenth century, mothers played a greater role in approving marriage partners for their children and more consistently got custody of their children in a divorce, unlike the uncertainty of custody in earlier times. Among many Southeast tribes the women were prestigious in tribal councils and in some places they cast the decision making vote for war or peace. The Cherokee designated a female as love life Woman, through whom they believed the Great Spirit spoke. Consequently, her words were always heard scarce not necessarily heeded.However, she headed the influential Womans Council, sat as a voting member of the Council of Chiefs, and exercised considerable influence. She also unhesitantly used her unassailable authority ov er prisoners. When she died, a successor would be chosen. Cherokee women were strong, hardworking, and very powerful within their community. The Cheyenne held women in particularly high regard. They played an influential role in determining warfare and sometimes even fought alongside the men.Upon a war partys successful return, the women danced about while waving the scalps, exhibited their mens shields and weapons, and derived honors from their husbands deeds. Property possession, inheritance, power, and influence rested on whether a tribes structure was in matrilineal or patrilineal. Although a few universal female-designated work tasks existed, like cleaning, nurturing, edible plant gathering, food preparation, cooking, packing, and unpacking, others varied by region, means of food production, and social organization.Such variances in gender roles further exemplify the diversity that existed among Native Americans. Summing it all up, a Matriarchy is a type of society, which is d istinguished from all other types of societies by the absence of power structures and institutionalized hierarchies. The means of production are commonly owned and set of rules prevent the accumulation of possessions or power. Compared to collectivistic or communist systems they are characterized by the absence of a concentrate administration and ruling authority. Decisions concerning every area of life are made by consensus including all genders and generations.During my research of women-run societies, some fundamental differences from predominantly male-run societies become pretty clear, and quite obviously a different view than that of occidental culture today. A much greater emphasis is placed on communal participation than that of societies run by men, which tend to be more hegemonic. Children, case in point, belong to the whole community rather than to a single family, I have always heard the saying it takes a village to raise a child I dont know the origins of that merel y it is well known in African-American culture.Also, for example land is shared instead of partitioned off. What I ascertain from this, is that societies run by women stand to be more egalitarian, more nurturing, and perhaps more just. So going forth in Western culture today the topic of a matriarchy has always fascinated people, men as well as women. In the midst of women starting to dominate the professional world more and men falling behind in education it would have the appearance _or_ semblance that were on a sure path to becoming a matriarchal or egalitarian society, it seems if that word makes more people easy in this day and age.In my opinion and looking at the data, Women are gaining power as a gender and men are losing it. That alone is doubtful to bring about a complete matriarchy but it certainly will have matriarchal elements. Works Cited Bruhns, Karen Olsen, and Karen E. Stothert. 1999. Women in ancient America. University of Oklahoma, Norman Dozier, E. P. , (1971). The american southwest. In Leacock, E. B. , & Lurie, N. O. (Eds. ), North american indians in historical perspective. Illinois Waveland Press, Inc. Faiman-Silva, S. (1997). Choctaws at the crossroads.Lincoln University of Nebraska Press. Gero, J. M. ja M. W. Conkey, editors. 1991. Engendering Archaeology Women and prehistory. Oxford Basil Blackwell. Leacock, E. B. (1971). Introduction. In Leacock, E. B. , & Lurie, N. O. (Eds. ), North american indians in historical perspective. Illinois Waveland Press, Inc. Lerner, Gerda. 1986. The creation of patriarchy. unsanded York Oxford University Press. Moore, J. H. (1996). The cheyenne. Massachusetts Blackwell Publishers Inc. Reiter, Rayna R. , editor. 1975. Toward an anthropology of women. New York Monthly Review press.