Cherokee Woman

INTRODUCTION

When examining the history of a particular culture, understanding the perspective of the historian is imperative to the interpretation. The history of Native American cultures in particular has been largely a collection of observations by white European men. Europeans used their own culture as reference by which to evaluate another. The historical sources that we find today are thus created by non-natives about natives. This historical bias has lead to male dominated archives with little or no attention paid to women (Perdue (1), 5). The matriarchal structure of many native cultures has been repeatedly challenged by Ð''contact' and assimilation. Despite European intervention, Cherokee women have persisted and maintained their fundamental roles in society.

GENDER BACKGROUND

In the early eighteenth century prior to any significant European contact, the Cherokee existence was one of marked by balance guided by oral tradition. Their belief in balance in all aspects of life did not leave room for a system of hierarchy that often oppresses women (Perdue (1), 18). Men and women lead very separate lives. Activities and jobs were very gender specific. Men primarily assumed the roles of hunters, while women occupied the categories of agriculture and gathering. Relative to other cultures such a division was not the best utilization of a labour force. However, for the Cherokees maintaining natural order was of greater concern (Ehle, 3).

The burden of a successful harvest, the very life sustaining task, rested on women. They were both responsible for protecting the crops and summoning help in a drought situation from a priest. Coinciding with agricultural responsibilities was cooking, also preformed by women. Being as corn was the principle staple that Cherokee life depended on, it gave to women considerable economic power and status (Bender, 596). The importance of corn was expressed in the most important community ritual, the Green Corn Ceremony. This practice demonstrated how women were at the center of Cherokee religion. They would not eat the harvest until the proper rituals had been preformed. The ceremony also became an avenue for forgiveness. Disputes that could not be performed by the parties involved, wrongs were forgiven and redistribution settled. Women were essential to the ceremony and by ritualizing the corn they were honouring the women (Perude (1), 27).

Men were also excluded from women's conversation and female events such as menstruation and childbirth. Cherokee's viewed menstruation as polluting because it involved blood flowing from outside a Ð''proper' area. Women who were menstruating would go to a specifically constructed house. They were also not to participate in daily activities and ceremonies such as the Green Corn Ceremony. It was most important that they stayed away from the ill. A women menstruating was thought to neutralize the effects of the medicine being given to the individual who was unwell (Perdue (1), 30). This severance from daily life effected men as well, as those with women who were menstruating took a position behind the others during ceremonies. It was not that the Cherokee's believed that a woman was unclean during this time of the month as many European's believed, rather that this natural process possessed great power which made women very dangerous. Pregnancy did not bring with it the isolation of menstruation, but many usual activities were avoided. There were also some actions of avoidance such as not eating food prepared by a pregnant woman or walking on the path that she had journeyed. All these actions were merely precautions taken to maintain the natural order of the cosmos and to reinforce the role of gender (Perdue (1), 34). It was during these times that women were most female.

Men and women were also separated by living space. Cherokees were a matrilineal and matrilocal society and in the early eighteenth century kinship appears to be the only bonding agent. Kinship was traced only through women and its responsibilities included women as well as men. Kinship affected all areas of Cherokee life and the status of women was due largely to their role in the system. The basic unit of the kinship system was the clan. In the historic era there were seven clans and following matrilineal descent, individuals belonged to the clan of their mother. An individuals only relatives would be those that could be traced by blood. Households themselves were quite large and men and women often even occupied different domestic space. Excavations have revealed women's and men's tools in different areas within a household, suggesting were certain space was separated according gender (Perdue (1), 4). When a couple married, the man left the house of his kin and moved to the household of his wife. The only permanent members of a household were women; husbands were not necessarily permanent members. This is demonstrated by the action of divorce. A man had very little control if his wife wanted him to go. The most significant role that the matrilineal divided clan played in Cherokee life was as the Perdue of justice. An anonymous individual observed that "When an individual is killed, a relative of the deceased kills the murderer" (Perdue (1), 49). The notion of an Ð''eye for and eye' was very literal in Cherokee society. Death was thought to upset the cosmic balance and therefore needed to be restored. The system of the clan and furthermore tracing lineage through the female resulted in women having a great deal of power and control over the domestic domain (Perdue (1), 51).

CONTACT

With the coming of Europeans gender roles encountered external forces that were very foreign. The roles did not change within Cherokee society but the tasks preformed by men were those that were of benefit to European traders. Contact thus reshaped gender roles when interacting with other worlds; men became most significant to the new comers. For the first half of the eighteenth century Aboriginals either exchanged with traders at factories within Cherokee towns or the Cherokee took their articles for trade to Savannah Town (Goodwin, 39). Women and men both became dependent on European good, especially with the introduction of metal. Men would acquire guns and ammunition while women would replace their tools with metal hoes and knives. Although members of both genders desired goods produced through European trade, men became more directly linked to the Europeans (Bender, 598).

Men who were Cherokee warriors begun selling slaves in the early eighteenth century, slavery proved to become a vital part of trade between the two parties. While men were the sellers of slaves,