Matriarchal Cultures: the Native American Essay

There has long been debate among anthropologists about matriarchal societies. barely that is a historical result of last 500 years of European military expansion and elimination of indigen cultures. There are a few societies whose situation as matriarchies is disputed among anthropologists and this is as untold a debate about terminology as it is about interpreting how an other(a) society defines status and such, their self-understanding as opposed to our im ready of categories on them. Among anthropologists, thither are theories that support the plausibility of having prehistoric matriarchies.And if we account more(prenominal) at the complexity of societies, were liable to find that the answer to why a scourt arrange workforcet developed in particular cases and may vary from case to case. Conversely enough there are many more matrilineal and matrilocal societies. A lot of people tend to interchange the description of matrilocal and matrilineal with matriarchal. Matrilocal is when a husband who marries a woman must move to her community/village. Matrilineal is a descent arranging based on unilineal descent that gives the buzz offs family certain terms of relationship than the fathers family. Matriarchal is when wo custody have control of a community.Matrilocal and matrilineal societies do not compressed that the women hold more power than the men. Inheritance and lineage does not equal power. Whereas, matrifocal is the gravitating toward or centering on the mother. indispensable Americans were healthy known to have a matriarchal system. Most proto(prenominal) societies were organized around matrilineal lines. Women were the center of society, before agriculture, women gener whollyy raised children, cooked, gathered fruits, vegetables, etc. custody hunted. In this situation, women were the first scientists. They learned how to cultivate plants, and domesticate animals. They learned methods of fare preservation.They learned how to build offe nd houses. Women were the ones responsible for the development of civilization. There were a lot of societies that were two matriarchal and patriarchal before Christianity took over. well-nigh indigenous tribes were accepting of androgyny and women taking on mens roles before Christianity came into play. Most inbred American tribes had traditional gender roles. In slightly tribes, such as the Iroquois nation, social and clan relationships were matrilineal and or matriarchal, although several incompatible systems were in use. One example is the Cherokee custom of wives owning the family property.Men hunted, traded and do war, dapple women cared for the young and the elderly, fashioned garment and instruments and cured meat. The cradle board was used by mothers to carry their baby while working or traveling. However, in some, but not all tribes a kind of transgender was permitted. unconnected from making home, women had many tasks that were essential for the survival of the t ribes. 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 alike encouraged to learn to ride and fight. Though fighting was mostly left to the boys and men, there had been cases of women fighting on board them, especially when the existence of the tribe was threatened. There has been such a continual 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 prepared the family food, the woman has been depicted as the slave of her husband, a patient beast of encumbrance whose labours 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 lodge and smoked his pipe, while his over worked wives attended to his comfort. In actuality, the woman was the mans partner, who preformed her appoint of the obligations of life and who employed an influence quite as important as his, and often more powerful. Native Americans established principal relationships either finished a clan system, descent from a common ancestor, or through a friendship system, much like tribal societies in other parts of the world.In the Choctaw nation, Moieties were subdivided into several nontotemic, exogamous, matrilineal kindred clans, called iksa (Faiman-Silva, 1997, p. 8). The Cheyenne 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 prevailing opinion is that hunt societies would be patrilocal. Matrilineality, it is assumed, followed the emergence of agriculture. Leacock (p.21) then stated that she had f ound the Montagnais-Naskapi, a hunting society, had been matrilocal until Europeans stepped in.The Tanoan Pueblos kinship system is bilateral. The household either 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 normally 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 become an authoritative, domineering figure. According to Dozier (1971) Additionally, among such peoples as the Cherokee, Iroquois, and Pueblo, a disg overflowtled wife, safe in her possessions, 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 economic 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 influential in matrilineal societies, as among the Iroquois, in which the principal civil and religious offices were kept within maternal lineages.The tribal matriarch or a group of tribal matrons nominated each delegate, briefed him before each session, monitored his legislative record, and removed him from office if his channel 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 authentic the anthropoid leadership fulfilled their responsibilities. Iroquois women enjoyed social equality and respect. The Seneca Native Americans were a matriarchal egalitarian culture in that the shape of sur-naming as identifying to the individual was reversed.Women were considered the heads of households in which men married into and changed their last label 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 behind the male spokesperson and advised each of them on manners concerning the tribe. In the Northeastern Woodlands and on the Plains, where hunting and war demanded strenuous activity away from home, the men often returned exhausted and required a few days to recover.Wearied by both these arduous actions and the religious fasting that usually accompanied them, the men relaxed in the village while the women went about their many tasks. Seeing only female busyness in these native encampments, White observers misinterpreted what they saw and wrote inaccurate stereotypical portrayals of lazy braves and industrious squaws. Such was not the case. In the south-east and Southwest, men and women performed their daily labors with observable equality because the men did not go out on intemperate expeditions as did the men in the Northeast and Plains.In California, the Great Basin, and Northwest Coast, the sexual division of labor fell somewhere between these two variations. Women had certain common tasks in each of the U. S. culture areas clean and maintaining the living quarters, tending to children, gathering edible plants, pounding corn into meal, extracting oil from acorns and nuts, cooking, sewing, packing, and unpacking. Certain crafts were also usually their responsibility brewing dyes, making pottery, and weaving such it ems 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 whatever 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 fishing 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 passably evenly. In the Southwest, the men did most of the field work, house building, weaving, cloth manufacturing, and animal skin processing. Female prestigiousness among the I roquois grew greater after the Revolutionary War, and male prestige ebbed due to continual 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 perplexity of custody in earlier times. Among many Southeast tribes the women were influential in tribal councils and in some places they cast the deciding vote for war or peace. The Cherokee designated a female as Beloved cleaning woman, through whom they believed the Great Spirit spoke. Consequently, her words were always heard but 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 authoritative authority over 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 symbolise the diversity that existed among Native Americans. Summing it all up, a Matriarchy is a type of society, which is distinguished from all other types of societies by the absence of power structures an d institutionalized hierarchies. The means of production are commonly owned and circuit of rules prevent the accumulation of possessions or power. Compared to socialist or communist systems they are characterized by the absence of a centralized 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 Western culture today. A much greater emphasis is placed on common participation than that of societies run by men, which tend to be more hegemonic. Children, case in point, belong to the all 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 but it is well known in African-American culture.Also, for example land is shared instead of parti tioned 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 forwards in Western culture today the idea of a matriarchate 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 appear that were on a sure path to becoming a matriarchal or egalitarian society, it seems if that word makes more people light 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 sweet 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. New York Oxford University Press. Moore, J. H. (1996). The cheyenne. Massachusetts Blackwell Publishers Inc. Reiter, Rayna R. , editor. 1975. Toward an anthropology of women. 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