What Was The Use Of Matriarchies In Native American Culture

The two short stories that I will use for this essay are “Three Generations of Native American’s Birth Experience” by Joy Harjo and “Black Mountatin, 1977” by Donald Antrim. In “Black Mountain, 1977”, the story is about a grandson and grandfather that try to keep a relationship even when the grandfather’s daughter doesn’t want them to have a relationship. The grandson would stay with his grandparents and found a way to keep their relationship strong even with some of the problems that happened along the way. In “Three Generations of Native American Women’s Birth Experience”, the story starts out with a girl as a pregnant teenager about to give birth on a reservation in a hospital that gave her free care but was not a pleasant place. Then goes on to tell about her next child’s birth and other women in her family about how different their birthing experiences were. Despite “Black Mountain, 1977” telling a story about a dysfunctional family, “Three Generations of Native American Women’s Birth Experience”, tells the growth of a family through hardships.

Have you ever wonder how the world was created from another culture’s perspective? Native Americans used creation myths to explained to their people how the world was developed overtime. Creation myths are a big part of the Native American culture. they have been passed down from generation to generation. In the creation myths, harmony with nature, rituals, and strong social values are shown in each myths. The purpose of having strong social value in these myths is to teach younger Native Americans valuable lesson if they ever do something bad. These myths reveals how the rituals were created and their intentions for doing it. Creation myths has harmony with nature in it to show a very close kinship between them

Primogeniture was the practice of a man bestowing all of his owned land to his eldest son. Since many families had more than one child, this most likely forced several of the younger siblings to serve as peasants with little wealth at all. This practice continually expanded the peasant class, and kept the noble class smaller. Especially since the land was bestowed to the son, this meant that only a mere fraction of land in Europe would belong to

rewarded with goods from new conquests. In return, the Incas demanded loyalty and tribute. The

In Eastern Algonquian religion they believed that there was a spiritual world that interacted constantly with the physical world.

     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

Historically, men have held every position of power and status in known societies, civilized or otherwise. Men have been the fore-runners, the providers and the respected warriors of every age since the dawn of recorded time. These cultures did not confuse their identities or cultural roles in regards to gender; men were expected to win fame and fortune for themselves and their families, tribes or clans while women were expected to support their men in domesticity and child-rearing. Men knew what was expected of them since birth as they were often surrounded by masculine role-models in their own societies. However, modern masculinity has become something else entirely. Too much has been written about these time periods to rehash any of the

This leads to the subject of how men have been viewed throughout the course of history. In the past, men have been seen as the protectors and providers of the household, just as women have been most popularly viewed as

Sacred power (pg 16): Native Americans believed in spiritual powers and the natural world. Spiritual power for men were hunting and war.

1. What is a patriarchal society? In what ways do the different civilizations we have studied exhibit patriarchy and how did they reinforce it (hint: Hammurabi’s code, Chinese philosophy, Ancient

Then in society, men were portrayed as “dominant figures” and women were the “nurturers”. Men not only filled the fatherly role but they also usually earned the “breadwinning”, went to work all day, and financially provided for the wives and

Masculinity is described as possession of attributes considered typical of a man. Hegemonic masculinity is a form of masculine character with cultural idealism and emphasis that connects masculinity to competitiveness, toughness, and women subordination. Masculinity hegemonic is the enforcement of male dominion over a society. Masculine ideology dates back to the time of agrarian and the industrial revolution in Europe when survival compelled men to leave their homesteads to work in industries to earn a living for their families while women remained at home to take care of family affairs (Good and Sherrod 210). Women did not work in industries then because industrial labor was considered too physical beyond their capacity. This led to

Patriarchy in simple terms can be defined as a system or government in which men hold the power and status, in comparison to women who are largely excluded. Throughout this assignment, particular attention will be placed upon issues surrounding patriarchal culture and the effects of the British colonial rule. Furthermore, the manners in which patriarchy manifests itself in regards to human relationships and behaviour will also be discussed, as well as the effect of power relations on the ability of people to self-actualise. Examples of two of the characters from within the book ‘Palace Walk’ will be used, in order to assist our understanding further on situations which relate to patriarchy. Other points which will be taken into

Animism derives from the Latin word anima which means soul, spirit, life or breath (Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF) International, n.d.). Animism is the belief that non-living objects have souls (life) and those natural phenomena possess supernatural or magical power. Animism encompasses the beliefs that there is no separation between the spiritual and physical or material world. Animism believes that natural physical entities which include animals, plants, and even inanimate objects such as forest, mountains, rivers or village and phenomena possess a spiritual essence. Most Animists even be certain that human beings are spiritual at their core and they will become spirits too in the spirit world upon their physical death (Davis, 2011). The power of the spirits infuses everything. Therefore, the term “animism” can be summed up by “belief in spiritual beings”. It can also be summarized as “all that exists lives” and, sometimes, “all that lives is holy” (Taylor, 2005).

Patriarchy usually means a family that is male-dominated and headed by the father. It is a social construct in which men and masculine roles are considered to be absolutely superior to women and feminine roles. A society is considered patriarchal when it is male-dominated, male-centered, and male-identified. Being a male-dominated culture means that positions of power and authority in the political, economic, legal, religious, domestic, educational, and military spheres are usually reserved only for men. Male-identification means that a culture’s ‘normal’ way of living is based on men and their lives. Male-dominance means that the culture has been shaped by men in a way that mostly serves male interests. Patriarchal societies are male-identified because their core ideals concerning what is morally right, desirable or normal are connected with how they think about masculinity or men in general. They are always male-centered, with the culture’s focus is