According to the text, “Gender and Cultural Diversity in the Early Contact Period” gender in Indigenous cultures was very equal in comparison to the Western World. Men were usually in charge of hunting large game and warfare. On the other hand, women still played an important role by trapping animals and fishing. They prepared the food every night and made clothing for their family. They made sure their families had shelter and took care of the kids. The major leaders were usually men, however women’s opinions and perspectives were heard and respected on important decisions. In some cases, such as the clans along the Great Lakes, the husband lived with the wife’s family and contributed to it by giving them the meat that he would catch hunting during the day. Once the animals were caught; the women of the longhouses would decide how the meat would be split and prepared. In other clans, women were symbolic figures in religious ceremonies, and they would perform the Sun Dance. Another aspect that is brought to the table throughout the paper is gender relations. For example, gender relations were very important for the Innuits of northern Quebec. Bonds came together during winter and would intermarry to forge stronger partnerships which would lead to cooperation and mutual support. These bonds depended on gender relations and were only possible through those marriages. Gender relations were also important during New France. The French civil law was a powerful way of bearing o gender relations. They created les Filles du Roi which was a system that allowed unwanted women in France to move to New France and marry the men living in the New World.

There were similarities between the Indigenous people gender roles and the Western World gender roles. Just as the Natives, women in New France were not as important as men, however they did play important roles in society. For example, nuns were very important because of their major role in the development of education, social services, medicine and many more. I mentioned before how Indigenous men were masters, however the women’s opinions were heard. It was the same case in the Western World, however only for women of high rank. High class women had informal political power which meant they gave their advice on a situation to their husband who was the leader. Women had administrative and estate duties, however had no leader power. To continue, there were many differences between the Indigenous people and the Western people. Women in Aboriginal societies had more status and authority than most European counterparts. The Western World follows a patrilineal and patriarchal lifestyle which is very different from Indigenous beliefs. Also, it was okay for men to have more than one wife which was against religion for Europeans. Another aspect that shocked the Western people was the fact that sex before marriage was normal for the Natives and they could choose their own spouse.

Aspects that struck me the most were in the section of the Indigenous people who lived along the Great Lakes. They adopted political systems to their societies and had a confederacy council made up of only men. No female took part in this political system; however, the men were chosen by senior women. What impressed me was the fact that women were in charge of choosing who was worthy of those high positions. Females had a considerable status and authority with matrilineal societies which meant that the descent was traced by female line. Also, women had a high power in the longhouses because of their vital role in life which was the capability of reproducing. Another aspect that surprised me was how important buffalos were for the people living in the Interior Plains. Men oversaw hunting the large game and warfare. On the other hand, women oversaw buffalo economy and traditional healing.

Reading this article really reinforced my hope that one day the patriarchy will be dismantled and a more egalitarian and equal society will exist where women are just as important economically, socially, culturally and linguistically, as men. It has been done before – so why can’t it happen again?

There are some major differences to the more gender equal societies of past indigenous communities, to that of the patriarchal colonial system that we live within today.

Women of the Mi’kmaq people were incredible contributors to society, expected to fish and trap animals for food, set up and break their camp sites, prepared all the food and was responsible for feeding everyone as well as taking care of the children entirely.

Women today are beginning to champion their independence more and are taking on more societal responsibilities as feminism take effect. But these changes are recent and are still only in their infant stages. Typical family models are still based on patriarchal ideas and there is a definite difference of an individual mindset versus a community one. Society isn’t setup to support communities but rather the individual or pairs of individuals and makes it very hard for women to be able to support herself entirely where as the single man, or bachelor idea, is more popular and accepted as normal.

The Innu of Northern Quebec had societies that effectively balanced the gender relations and where “men’s and women’s roles were complementary and equally essential.” (Keough, Campbell 17) Western society enforces a standard that prevents something like this from happening. centuries of subordination and oppression makes it difficult for women to overcome the boundaries that enforce the binary divide.

The idea of Two Spirit really lifts my heart and makes me wish with all my might that it was a universal idea. Growing up as a Tomboy myself, I consistently felt pressured to adhere to certain ideas of what a girl was supposed to be. It is a pressure that has plagued me my entire life and I can’t help but wonder if the idea of “masculinity and femininity were accommodated in one body.” (Keough, Campbell 19) was a universal idea, then maybe I wouldn’t have had such a hard time and feel more comfortable with my gender expression and identity.

 

Campbell, Lara & Keough, Willeen G., “Gender and Cultural Diversity in the Early                Contact Period.”, Gender History: A Canadian Perspective, Oxford University Press. September 23rd, 2013.

As Quebec teenagers, we all have experienced the boredom of attending history classes. From the young age of seven years old, we were taught how Quebec’s first inhabitants were indigenous people, we have learned how they lived and how they met the Europeans. All that was not very exciting when we were kids, because it was taught to us in such a monotonous tone that we could not help zoning out or falling asleep. But what if I told you that First Nation’s history is all but boring!

After reading the study ‘’Gender and Cultural Diversity in the Early Contact Period’’, I was reminded of the greatness of the First Nations. Every single aspect of their society was carefully organized to assure the common good. Roles would be separated between men and women not based on gender, but on abilities. Men and women had different responsibilities to fulfill, and these tasks completed each other. There was a great number of different civilizations and all of them had different ways to hierarchize society, separate powers and roles, and of pass down heritage, yet, almost all of them gave a big place to the women in society. They were fair. For example, in the Iroquois civilization, the women decided how to distribute the meat that was hunted and brought to the matrilocal household by the men. Such content in one sentence! This is so different from what we know! In our society, men do not bring what they worked for to the families of their spouses and then, let their spouses decide on how to use it. Because in the indigenous civilizations women are treated with a great amount of respect and work in partnership with men, I had this illusion that women were praised and put on a pedestal and what not, because in my head such equity in a society is unimaginable. Let’s take our Canadian political system for instance. Yes, women have the right to participate in the political sphere of society, but we have been socialized to believe that the country should be led by men. BUT WHY? The Iroquois Clan chiefs were chosen by the elderly women, who were well respected, and their society worked very well might I say. Why, at a moment in history, did people start stripping women of their capabilities?

The European settlers had a very different view of gender than the aboriginal people. They had this very anchored idea that women were delicate beings unable to handle hard work, she was subordinate to the husband and had to obey him. All concepts of ‘partnership’ and ‘working together’ and ‘using each other’s different talents to complete each other’ are completely lost. Women in position of authority belonged to the church and were still under a male figure of authority superior to theirs. Public life, private life, all was ruled by men. Horrible. Stupid. Pointless. The worst part is that, marginalizing their own women was not enough! They had to come to the American continent and forcefully brainwash the aboriginal people into believing that all that nonsense was true! I am glad that, in the documentary we saw of the Wet’suwet’en, their spokesperson is a woman. To me, this means that colonialism was not strong enough to whipe out all ancestral beliefs and traditions and it gives me hope.

Unlike what I thought, gender equality existed since the beginning, since indigenous people. Back then, power was distributed equally between men and women, each of them had their own different responsibilities and work to do that completed one another in the end. They were both appreciated and known for what they do, if anything, women were a bit more appreciated in their work than men. While reading the “Gender and culture diversity in the early contact period”, it surprised me a little how we can tell that there was not a lot of problems in that time, everyone was satisfied with what they have and gender problem did not exist and men did not mind for women to be in charge.

With that being said, when the European came, everything has changed. They did not like how women and men were given equal rights and decided to change that. In their time, men and women did not share power but men had it all. Men were in charge of all the tasks and everything had to go the way they wanted it to. I have to say that, what struck me the most was when they said that marriage was not based on a personal choice but it was a social institution. How can anyone spend their life with someone they do not love nor have feelings for. It is really hard to think how that went and harder to think that it still goes in some countries.

After years, women decided to do something about this inequality and wanted to adjust it like how it was with indigenous people. After years of not being listened to and being ignored, they finally have what they wanted. We can not say it is everywhere around the world but a lot of countries started to give women their rights and equal power. So even after being under the control of men for too long, they are finally free now. And once again, in some parts in the world there is no gender problem.

Before the arrival of the Europeans, the Indigenous culture were mainly matriarchal societies. When their population continued to grow, they started to develop certain political systems and social hierarchies that were mainly consisted of men, however, those men were almost always chosen by the senior women depending on certain indigenous groups. Essentially, both men and women were seen as equivalent and were both respected for their physical and mental abilities. Nobody was discriminated based on their skills and everyone had their own responsibilities and roles in society. For instance, men were seen as the hunters, the protectors and the chiefs of the community, while women also had fairly high authority and status and were equally taking into consideration.

European and Indigenous cultures are quite different in many aspects including, politics, economics, gender roles, etc. Back in the days, when France and England colonized the indigenous lands they started to make changes in their world views and forced the indigenous community to adopt a new mindset politically, economically and gender role wise. In the western culture, masculinity is greatly admired while, femininity is portrayed as weak and naive. For the french European newcomers, implementing their own patriarchal Christian cultures were based on a mindset were women back in their countries would have no say in an important decision making situation and were expected to play their “women role” in society which was cooking, cleaning and taking care of the children. Fundamentally, both the french and the english colonized the aboriginals and enforced a new regime where women were treated as inferior.

Moreover, the westernized culture is still quite similar today, not as severe as before. However, their are definite injustices between men and women in society. For instance, many of the political leaders of the country are men and most of the people in leadership positions whether its economically or politically tends to usually be men. One aspect that struck me in the Indigenous community is that it was mainly matriarchal, it is something quite surprising and to some extent refreshing to hear since we are so caught up in a world run by men that we tend to easily disconnect from our feminine energies at times. In the indigenous community, they treasured both male and female and regarded them as equivalent to society.

 

By: Vanessa. K

  First of all, the cultures described in the text are very different from my culture. In French and English culture from that time, the woman was clearly a less important member of the society then the man. The women had very little freedom and had to listen to the husband that they can’t even chose. In French culture, women were oppressed and were considered less important then men, the only important women were the nuns, because the nuns were responsible for important institutions like the hospitals and the schools. Of course, in my culture, these things don’t really exist anymore. Women can choose who they want to marry and can decide pretty much everything concerning their life.

  What stuck me the most about Indigenous culture is the fact that women could actually be more important then men in the family, because at that time, a woman to be more important then a man in the family was something unimaginable in the European culture. Also, women were equal to males and were very respected by everybody in the society. It’s very surprising, because even in our modern society, we have problems with equality between genders, but the Indigenous society from that time was more advanced in this aspect then the present Western world. So, our society should really learn and understand that women are just as important as men in the family and in the society.

  Society should be a place where both men and women work together to make our world a better place. Women are just as important as men in a family and it’s something that everybody should understand. Through the years, the place of the women in the society changed a lot.

     After reading the article “Gender and Cultural Diversity in the Early Contact Period”, I have learnt not only more about the European laws at the time but also the structure of the Aboriginal’s society. For one, the main difference between the two societies (Aboriginal and European) is that the European society follows a patriarchal structure, whereas most of the Aboriginal societies follow a more egalitarian structure. Not only are women treated more equally within the Aboriginal societies, but they are also much more appreciated and respected than the women belonging to the European societies.

     For instance, within the Mi’kmaw and Iroquoian societies, the women were not viewed/treated the same as the women within the European societies. Both the Mi’kmaw and Iroquoian societies emphasize the importance of women and their role in the societies function. In the Mi’kmaw societies the women’s duties included taking care of the children, set up camp, fish, cooking and most importantly their opinions were much desired when it came to big decisions. Whereas, in the Iroquoian women were responsible for often times choosing the men who would become apart of the Council. Nonetheless, even in the Iroquoian societies did women both have a lot of authority. Although both of these societies are matrilocal, they do share aspects within the patrilocal Aboriginal societies. In the sense, where both societies do not favor one gender over the other (like in the patriarchal structure), rather they are seen as equally important within their society.

     One of the things that had surprised me about the Aboriginal societies is their belief of “two-spirits”. A concept by which can be explained as a person sharing both a feminine and masculine spirit in themselves. Not only did the fact that  these ideals existed so long ago surprise me, but also the fact that they were accepting of such an ahead of the times way of thinking. Not only were those who were “two-spirited” accepted in their communities, they were praised. Later on taking important roles in their society (depending on the group), from being healers, seers or those who would teach traditions to future generations orally. We can see the contrast between the societies way of thinking as the Aboriginal societies had a more openminded way of thinking whereas the European’s society was very conservative. For example, in Aboriginal societies, having sexual relations before marriage was not seen as doing any harm, whereas in the European mentality, having premarital relations decreases your worth. 

According to the text “Gender and Cultural diversity in the early contact period”, in Indigenous culture, gender wasn’t classified. In fact, both men and women were equal, no one was superior or inferior. Both men and women have their own roles in society. In indigenous culture, men hunt and gather, women take care of the children, prepare the meals and controlled the distribution of food in their communities. Both men and women could become shamans. Compared to Indigenous culture, European culture was different. Just like in Indigenous culture, men were also in charge of hunting and gathering and women of children, but the big difference is that women did not have power in society, they were not allowed to take any decision. A man was perceived as the ruler of the family.

Today, in Western Culture, the conception of gender changed. Now, Women are getting more right like example : the right to vote, to work, to divorce, etc. Although, there are still some inequalities between the two sexes like for example in some places, men are still getting paid more than women. Even though gender roles changed, people are still making stereotypes about men should be working and women staying at home. A lot of people think it is not “normal” to see a man cooking or taking care of the kids.

What struck me in the text is the part where the author said that in European cultures, the husband was considered as a firm and his wife had to obey him in all worldly matters. When I first read this part, I was shook and upset because back in the days, women were just seen as object, they did not have any authority and were not allowed to take any decisions. I was upset when I saw this part, because to me all of us are humans and we should all have the same rights. In some countries, men are still seeing superior to women and it is sad because in some places like in the Middle East or Asia, women do not have much freedom.

Early French colonizers had a vast masculine space. The only women know with power were nuns which were composed of women and played major roles in the development of the colony’s education, the medical department and social services. Marriage during those years was not a matter of personal choice based on romantic inclinations. The husband was the leader and the wife and children were to obey him. Even with the rule of the husband, he was unable to sell joint assets without consulting the wife.

Indigenous people were encountered during the early colonizer days by both the French and English colonies. Women in indigenous society had a lot of power over men, which the two colonies did not. Aboriginal women contributed to the labour and some even hunted small prey. Furthermore, they were given the right to decide for the entire community. Aboriginal people had the right to choose who they would marry based on their romantic relationships, they were also given the right to have sexual relationships before marriage.

Today, a lot has changed from the culture of indigenous people. Yet, some similarities have not vanished. Today, similar to the indigenous society, the woman has the right over the property she owns and can decide to share with her husband. Any financial decision made over it cannot be executed without the consent of the women. Personally, the fact that men were authorized to marry multiple women even when they possess such a strong role in that society struck me the most. I would think that women in such a society would keep a hold onto their husband, but on the contrary, they allowed them to have multiple relationships. Indigenous cultures show that women have always had an essential role in society and that the culture propagated by European countries which believes that women should not work and always be dominated by men is wrong.

According to the text “Gender and Cultural Diversity in the Early Contact Period”, it states that in numerous indigenous cultures, the male and female roles were both equally important to their social structure. It mentions how the male would catch the larger game for their tribe whereas the women would catch the fish and sort the berries for their tribe. The text clearly mentions how important both the male and female roles are to the tribe, since they both contribute greatly to how the tribe functions and nourishes themselves. The text also mentions how in the indigenous culture, the male could and would not make any decisions without consulting their wife. This shows how they value the opinion of the women in their society.

In contemporary western culture, the gender roles have greatly improved. Women now have more rights compared to a couple years ago. However, women still do not get paid the same amount that a man does, for the same job which is something that should be resolved soon. This is a difference between the the indigenous culture and the contemporary western culture, because the wage gap shows how women are not completely seen equal to men. Whereas in the indigenous culture, the women and men are seen as equally important to their tribe and contribute the same amount of work that helps sustain their people.

Something that shocked me about this text was that in the indigenous culture, there is a sex-gender system called the “two-spirit”, where native people assume a third gender. In this term, the native person would fulfill both the masculine and female gender roles.