Gender Roles In Native American Culture

I remember in my stereotype class that I took last summer, where we talked about gender roles and the equality of gender roles. Me, myself, coming from a Hmong cultural background, we had important culture about gender roles. The Hmong comes from parts of Laos and Thailand. The Hmong living in Laos and Thailand were really poor and uneducated. The Hmong lived as farmers had very important gender roles. For example, man had to work for money and hunt for food while woman stayed home to cook, babysit, and clean. Man were educated and women were housewives. When some of the Hmong immigrated to the United States, they continued the gender roles as Man able to work and be educated while women had to stay home to cook and babysit. The Hmong brought

Evans continues to trace the evolution of women’s roles in society, which increasingly diverged from men’s roles-- for indigenous women as male-dominated war metaphors became more culturally central, and for Europeans as men grew very economically successful compared to

Although this course is about global women’s movements, the overall argument in which I intend on taking for the purpose of this book review is that besides women, First Nations men are also victims of oppression. In addition to oppression, first nations are often stereotyped by society. Rice’s book does a good job on reflecting this idea once again, through the use of first person point of view stories. It allows the reader to really understand how these stereotypes affect the everyday lives of First Nations people. Before getting into how stereotyping affects the lives of these people, we will begin with looking into oppression and how it relates to the textbook.

In comparing Warfare, homosexuality, gender status among native American Indian men in the southwest by Gutierrez and I know what I am by Valentine one is struck by the apparent differences that both authors have on multiple levels despite their agreement on gender identity as a product of society and culture. Through discrepancies in tone and evidence selection light can be shed on these aforementioned points of contestation.

Historically Native American women are an honorable figure. They cook, clean, weaved and care for their families. Once they were settled in the land they would work together with their brothers and sisters under the leadership of their head mother. Although the male and female roles were different for each tribe, most societies were matrilineal, of or based on kinship with the mother or the female line. The women were responsible for all of the household duties: regardless of whether they were strenuous or not. The Native American’s lives began to shift with the arrival of the Europeans. In 1607 when the “White Man” stayed on the Natives

From Gunn Allen, we get a primary source because she talks about being an American Indian woman herself and we also get a secondary source because she talks about what she has heard and learned over the years of American Indian women. Gunn Allen also does not only have one view of American Indian women. She has a large variety of women that she has experienced. Gunn Allen has experienced “tired women, partying women, stubborn women, sullen women, amicable women, selfish women, shy women, and aggressive women,” throughout her life and talks about many different perspectives there are on American Indian women. Knowing that she had experiences with so many different women and also that she is not approaching from just one perspective will give her much more credibility because we know she is very

Cherokee Gender Roles and the Influence of Patriarchal Beliefs Tribes have been long known for their unique approach to gender roles in their communities. A tribe recognized for their in depth and layered society are the Cherokee. “The Cherokee, descendants of the Mississippian culture, were one of the East’s most powerful and largest indian nation.” (Nies, 187) “Their lands extended across South Carolina, northern Georgia, Alabama, western North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia.”

She also talks about the Native feminist ethics, which brings understanding of the cultural perspectives of leadership under the spotlight. In this respect, I think understanding of Native women’s traditional gender functions, roles and responsibilities is crucial in perceiving Indigenous feminism. This is because I think in many tribal societies such as the Pashtun tribal societies in the northwestern FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) perceive gender roles and responsibilities as complementary. The FATA areas and the colonial government system were creation of the British colonizers. This example is very much relevant to the case of Native societies that were/are colonized in North America because the British colonial rulers applied the similar methods to control and regulate Pashtun tribes in the FATA areas. In comparison to the CFR Courts to implement the Code of Indian Offences in Canada, the colonizers introduced and enforced the FCR (Frontier Crimes Regulations) in the FATA areas on the Pakistani side of the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. In this colonial structure, the Political Agent system implemented the FCR in which, for example, because of one tribal individual the entire tribe was punished. Unfortunately, the FCR is still very much alive and is being used the way many colonial laws are currently implemented in Canada and

When European settlers arrived, they had a pre-decided vision of what women ought to behave like based on the European women, which the indigenous women didn’t align with. Indigenous women were comprehended and characterized in ambiguous and conflicting terms. They could firstly be viewed as “noble savages” where they were seen as classic Indian Princesses, virginal, childlike, naturally pure, beautiful, helpful to European men, and open and willing to

Culture is intertwined throughout out everything that Native Americans are. Their religion, way of survival, justice system, holistic views, and so much more, comprise their culture. Over the past 200 plus years, Native Americans have been subjected and forced to conform to European derived ideology. This has impacted Native Americans culture from a past, present, and future perspective. These perspectives will be addressed as well as combined into one.

Even at the very beginning of America, Artists would paint the Native American’s women in such a way to attracted more people to come over and explore this new world, and maybe to find these exotic women in the forest. As more and more people came over, along with more success in starting colonies women were given more power in the new world then back at home. European women, in the beginning, were outnumbered by the males and this was the beginning of uprising of power for women. European women were not the first group of women to gain more power in society. Native American women already had more freedom than European women had originally.

Native women activists, except those who are “assimilated,” do not consider themselves feminists; feminism is an imperial project that assumes the given-ness of US colonial stranglehold on indigenous nations. However, one of the founders of Women of All Red Nations (WARN), Lorelei DeCora,

Culture plays a crucial role to Native Americans. It is who we are, what we stand for, what we are representing, and how we chose to represent our-self in a way that can’t really be understood by an outsider, or someone who does not know our traditions. All three of the major perspectives have a part in Culture and how they all intertwine within each other. The most associated perspective would be the Functionalist Perspective, “Culture is the “glue” that holds the society together” (Kendall, 2014, pg. 63).

Thank you for sharing your discussion amongst your fellow classmates. “One of the more common identifiers that were a big topic in the past is that women are inferior, and shouldn’t hold any political, social or economic power.” The Native Americans have a term “Two-Spirit” that is usually used for those who consider themselves as transgender or similar to it. Even a women who seems to be a lot more masculine, gets married with a feminine women to balance out the plant gatherer and the hunter. That also is included to feminine males, would marry a masculine male and dress up as a women. The reason why I mentioned this, is due to the way you used your words in your discussion, as if all cultures the women is inferior. Granted, yes for the most

Since the beginning of the colonial process, Indigenous bodies have been seen as disposable. The dehumanization of the Indigenous body and the creation of the other, has allowed for the destruction of Indigenous Femininity. A system rooted in epistemic violence created by the colonial era. Continues to affect how Indigenous women are treated in modern societies. The demotion from “Indian Queen”, an exotic and powerful presence in colonial societies, to the “Dirty Squaw”, a figure depicted as lazy, and troublesome. Indigenous women have struggled to be seen as human people, rather than sexual object in the minds of the white settlers. A systematic dehumanization though through the process of epistemic violence. Which continues to affect how Indigenous women are treated today.