The Status Of Women In Algonquian Society

Before the Europeans came to Canada, Natives had their own culture, traditions and norms. These differences were obvious to the Europeans who sailed to Canada, their interactions with the Native peoples proved these vast differences. One major difference noted was that the Iroquois organized their societies on different lines than did the patrilineal western Europeans. Iroquois women “by virtue of her functions as wife and mother, exercised an influence but little short of despotic, not only in the wigwam but also around the council fire.” “She indeed possessed and exercised all civil and political power and authority. The country, the land, the fields with their harvests and fruits belonged to her … her plans and wishes modeled the policy and inspired the decisions of council.” The Europeans were astounded by this way of life.

They took care of the children, made weapons, and up kept their homes and farms. These jobs were basic every day jobs but were important as these small jobs provided food and weapons for each tribe. The Native women were extremely well respected and their opinions were highly esteemed. For example, the Iroquois people were neither patriarchal nor matriarchal and women carried the weights of the domestic economy. The descent went through the female and only women could give names to the men when they were promoted to chief. Women had all the say in who was selected for chief and made the call to go to war. It is incredible that for the centuries that Western men did not respect the opinions of women, yet Aboriginal men of the New World were able to respect their women so much that they called most of the shots of how their tribes should be run.

     With Native Americans being the first inhabitants of North America, many people often question what traditions they have created on their own, before the ideas of the pale settlers. When taking a look into their interesting beliefs, it is obvious to see an intricate basis or animals and spirits that guide the lifestyles of Indians all over the country. Even their society had a special way of doing things, including gender roles of both men and women. There are many customs that have seemed odd to the average American throughout the centuries, but Indians found these a normal way of life. Even the lifestyles of Native Americans were unique, from hunting animals to tanning buffalo hides. Gender was a major

As different as the ladies who possessed North America from 1600 to 1750 were, their lives shared a few shared characteristics. All ladies worked inside a genuinely inflexible sexual division of work, in spite of the fact that the real errands doled out to them shifted from culture to culture. Most ladies' parts included childbearing, childrearing, and nourishment get ready. Inside their conditions, ladies tended to frame solid securities with other ladies in comparative conditions the corn processors of the Pueblos, the grower of the Iroquois, the female dealing systems of New Englanders, and the strong groups of slave ladies are among the most evident cases. With a few exemptions, ladies shared a prohibition from direct political cooperation.

Prior to Western colonization, American Indian women played an important role in their communities. Many women were valued for their contributions socially, politically, spiritually, and economically and were viewed as leaders (Poupart p.171). Men and women each held different duties in their communities; women had important tasks to fulfill such as the taking ownership of land, crops, and decision-making. Viewing genders as equals was important in the Native communities because their differences were seen as complementary and balanced when used together. In some communities, women were seen as slightly inferior to men because they contributed offspring in the sacred creation of life. Oral history stories say that women were seen as the wisest of the group. Women were viewed as the “Light of Knowledge” and were said to “come first and light the way for males…because they are not created with an automatic connection to the Atisokanak World” and need to be guided (Boatman p.61). The roles of American Indian women were respected and honored in communities, unlike in Western culture.

The most valuable assets of our world are our mothers. The mother means soil. Mothers carry us in their womb for nine months and give their life. Mother, who carries the child in her belly, gives birth like soil, and raises the child in her breast.  Thanks to her, our roots go deep, and our branches go the top. In Native Americans, the tribes are separated from the Northeast, Southeast, and Southwest.  In some tribes, married couples lived near the wife's family and the mother was considered the head of the family. Linage was passed down through the women, and women were seen as equal partners to the men (Native American cultures: Family life, kinship, and gender, 1996b, para. 4). An example of the mother being a strong figure is in the story of the Corn Mother. There was a family that did not have food to eat. The mother decided to sacrifice herself by dragging her body over the fields and burying her bones there. Every year after that, corn and tobacco grew due to her sacrifice and love (The sun and the Moon: Myths from around the world, 2017). In any case, it is still far less demanding for American-Indian women to discover a role to accommodate their families and set up a profession stepping stool than it is for American-Indian

They had a great understanding and equal roles. The men were the chiefs, they made all the political decisions for the tribe, and they were in charge of hunting, war and peacekeeping. The women made social decisions for the clans, they were the landowners and they were in charge of farming, property, and family. Both genders took part in storytelling, artwork , music, and traditional medicine. In their villages, they lived in houses made of rivercane and plaster, with thatched roofs , located near the river. The men wore breechcloths and leggings and the women wore wraparound skirts and poncho-style blouses made out of woven fiber or deerskin. They were moccasin on their feet. There were always polite, and they listen to one another speak. It has been said that “they never bow to any other creature”. Unlike the European settlers, Cherokee women had just as much say in their culture than the European women’s.

Despite all this, the growth of industry caused increased dependence on women, eventually leading to the creation of feminism. By following women’s role in society from the creation of the colonies, Zinn analyzes patterns of continuity and change over time in the development of feminism. The first women came to colonial America as a shipment of female servants: meant to bear children and act as domestic slaves. As servants, women faced abuse including whipping and molestation, their low position preventing them from protesting against their masters. Female slaves faced even harsher treatment due to their double oppression of slave and gender, often giving “birth to children in the scalding perspiration from the human cargo,” and even while “chained to corpses” (Zinn 96). Even freed women suffered from the English prejudices regarding women. According to English laws at the time, wedlock made a women’s “new self [her husband]… her superior; her companion, her master” (Zinn 97). Society assumed women “wanteth [sic] our [male] Reason for your Conduct, and our Strength for your Protection,” implying the inferiority and ineptitude of the female sex (Zinn 98). The role of women as servants in colonial America supported the general prejudices of the time and made it easier to disregard the female sex entirely. The arrival of the Revolutionary War helped some women defy gender roles by actively participating in the war efforts. The contributions that many women made remain ignored due to the inconsistency with the stereotypical qualities exemplified by the refined wives of Revolutionary leaders. Jefferson’s view that women ought not “to wrinkle their foreheads with politics” reflects the sexist ideas carried throughout the Revolution (Zinn 100). Industrialization between the

There were many notiable differnce between the the cultures of native american tiabes and their Europian counterparters. One particularly exceptional differnce is that Native American women seemed to enjoy a bit more respect, freedom, and even a little power. The politice of many native american tibes in a way centerned on women, although femail elders were not the leaders themsevels they frequently particpated in the politics of the tribe to some degree and even helped choose tribal leader.. Also spitituality and religious practices were a very important part of the native americans way of life and the women played a crucal role in number religous events. Furthermore A majorty of Native American societies would even have the childern

Men were placed higher than women and most families only had relationships with their father’s side of the family. According to the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation tribal council “in the event of a marriage the women would leave her family and go live with her new husband’s family.” Staff Writer 1. The chief of Algonquin tribes was from father to son heretically passed down from father to son and was not elected by the people of the tribe. Although the chief was respected and revered as the leader he was only a “chief” in name.

Beyond the Indian Act, colonization had negative implications on gender relations within Indigenous societies. According to Weaver (2009), prior to colonization Indigenous societies were egalitarian and matrilineal. Women had leadership roles in the community and owned land, animals and property (Weaver, 2009). The colonization process disrupted traditional Indigenous gender roles in favour of a European patriarchal system (Weaver,

The responsibility that women were given contrasted those beliefs of the predominantly Christian Europeans. In European culture, the power dynamics between women and men were very different, with women being regarded as lesser than the men. While the men held jobs as farmers and positions of power, women were relegated to domestic activities, such as cooking and cleaning. Considering how much higher women in Native American societies were regarded, they were entrusted with more duties. Whereas in European culture, women were considered significantly weaker than men, and in the eyes of the European men, the activities that the native women underwent were barbaric. Both the matriarchal Cherokee and evangelical Puritans can be considered as deviations from the dominant societal norms of the Native American and European cultures. However, they each exemplify the extremes of the beliefs held by their societies. What is interesting is the utilization of female farmhands that the cultures share. The Native American women were in control of agriculture because the land was believed to be an entity that only females could cultivate, whereas in Puritan culture, a woman working on family farms was considered a necessary duty to contribute so that the community as a collective could prosper. The designation of the women’s societal duties in Cherokee and Puritan communities can be ascribed to the ideology of the cultures, like the perceived inherent strength of Cherokee women as child bears, or the perceived weakness of Puritan women due to Eve’s folly. If I had to choose a culture to live in, I would prefer to be a Cherokee woman because unlike the Puritans, they could be leaders in their society. The Cherokee tradition allows women to hold a level of autonomy that Puritan women could never have, despite the

The structure of Colonial America was a fearful system of judgmental men and women who had to label an individual before they acknowledged their rights or lack thereof. A man is based on physical aspects and were dominant in colonial times, while women were meant to be submissive with no rights along with the slaves and Native Americans. Colonial males controlled the household and could not be questioned whereas married colonial females’ held no rights or words as her husband now spoke for her. This was one of the many sole ideals of the European countries that crossed the waters with the initial pioneers. The labor system were also based on gender as women were seen to remain indoors and adhere to the needs of her husband and family while the fields and physical labor were meant for the men.

Zinn explains different forms of equality towards men, women, and children in Native American tribes and compares them to the equality in Europe and the colonies. When Columbus and his successors were not coming into an empty new world, but into a world which places was as populated as Europe itself, where culture was complex, where human relations were more egalitarian than in Europe, and where the relations among men, women, children, and nature were more worked out than perhaps any place in the world. Zinn said “the status of women in Indian tribes are equal, it was better than the status of women in Europe” (5). Women were important and respected in Iroquois society, the senior women in the village named the men who represented the

Women played a crucial role in the life of the Native American. They were more than just caring mothers of their children. They were builders, warriors, farmers, and craftswomen.