Matriarchal Cultures the Native American Essay example

Matriarchal Cultures: The Native American There has long been debate among anthropologists about matriarchal societies. But that is a historical result of last 500 years of European military expansion and extermination of native cultures. There are a few societies whose status as matriarchies is disputed among anthropologists and this is as much a debate about terminology as it is about interpreting how another society defines status and such, their self-understanding as opposed to our imposition of categories on them. Among anthropologists, there are theories that support the plausibility of having prehistoric matriarchies. And if we look more at the complexity of societies, were liable to find that the answer to why a†¦show more content†¦Native Americans established principal relationships either through 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, â€Å"Moieties were subdivided into several nontote mic, 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 hunting societies would be patrilocal.... Matrilineality, it is assumed, followed the emergence of agriculture.... Leacock (p. 21) then stated 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 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 becaus e property, housing, land, and tools, belonged to them. Because property usually passed from mother to daughter, and the husband joined his wifes family, heShow MoreRelatedThe Struggle to Gain Equality: A Study of Native American Woman in Literature1678 Words   |  7 Pagesprove that communism is beneficial. In Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko narrates through Tayo, a young Native American, who suffers posttraumatic stress disorder from World War II, enters a journey of self-healing with Indian rituals. In Patriarchal Colonialism and Indigenism: Implications for Native Feminist Spirituality and Native Womanism, M.A. Jaimes Guerrero compares and contrast Native American womens roles being influenced in the pre-patriarchal and pre-colonialist times. 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