Post by clw on Jun 27, 2008 9:15:05 GMT -5
From a paper by Bruce E. Johansen in Akwesasne Notes New Series,
Fall -- October/November/December -- 1995, Volume 1 #3 & 4, pp. 62-63.
www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/DatingIC.html
[Barbara Mann of Toledo University, Ohio] offers another example of what she believes to be the European-centered and male-centered nature of existing history. Most accounts of the Iroquois League's origins stress the roles played by Deganawidah, who is called "The Peacemaker" in oral discourse among traditional Iroquois, and Aionwantha (or Hiawatha), who joined him in a quest to quell the blood feud and establish peace. Mann believes that documentary history largely ignores the role of a third person, a woman, Jingosaseh, who insisted on gender balance in the Iroquois constitution. Mann's argument is outlined in another paper, "The Beloved Daughters of Jingosaseh."
Under Haudenosaunee law, clan mothers choose candidates (who are male) as chiefs. The women also maintain ownership of the land and homes, and exercise a veto power over any council action that may result in war. The influence of Iroquois women surprised and inspired nineteenth-century feminists such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Matilda Joslyn Gage, according to research by modern feminist Sally Roesch Wagner.
While a high degree of gender equity existed in Iroquois law, sex roles often were (and remain) very carefully defined, right down to the version of history passed down by people of either sex. Men, the vast majority of anthropological informants, tended to play up the role of Deganawidah and Aionwantha, which was written into history. Women who would have described the role of Jingosaseh were usually not consulted. Mann points out that Jingosaseh, originally the name of an historical individual, subsequently a title, as a leader of clan mothers. The historic figure Tadadaho, originally Deganawidah's and Aionwantha's main antagonist, became the title of the League's speaker. Occasionally in Iroquois history, a title also may become a personal name -- Handsome Lake (a reference to Lake Ontario) was the title to one of the 50 seats on the Iroquois Grand Council before it was the name of the nineteenth-century Iroquois prophet. According to Mann, "it is only after the Peacemaker agrees to her terms that she throws her considerable political weight behind him . . . She was, in short, invaluable as an ally, invincible as a foe. To succeed, the Peacemaker needed her."
"Jingosaseh is recalled by the Keepers as a co-founder of the League, alongside of Deganawidah and Hiawatha," writes Mann. "Her name has been obliterated from the white record because her story was a woman's story and nineteenth-century male ethnographers simply failed to ask women, whose story hers was, about the history of the League."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
from one version of the story of the Peacemaker, Deganawidah...
"Because you are the first to accept the Great Law," he said, "you shall be called, 'Jikohnsaseh, Peace Queen, Mother of Nations.' When the peace comes, you - the women of the tribes - will choose and remove the chiefs. Their titles will be both political and spiritual and will always belong to the women, called 'Clan Mothers.' Women know the hearts of men better than men. Women are the connection to the Earth. They create and have the responsibility for the future of the nation. Men will want to fight. Women will now say 'yes' or 'no' to war. Men, whose nature it is to be warriors, may not always see clearly the path of Peace; but a woman who knows that she must bury her loved ones, the children she has suckled, she would see and know if the fight would be worth its cost in life and death. Women know the true price of war and must encourage the chiefs to seek a peaceful resolution."
He told her the tribes were to be matri-lineal, with children belonging to the mother's clan. When a man married, he moved into his wife's longhouse with her family. If they separated, the children, home, tools and fields stayed with the mother. There is great wisdom in this. The woman raised the children. A need for a home and means to provide for the children was of utmost importance. Men could always fend for themselves but for a woman with little ones to tend for, time would be limited for replacing much-needed items. Also, the children would belong to the lineage of the woman so that every child would have a family to nurture them even if the father left or died in battle. All of these customs insured that the women of the tribes would always be treated with respect. As recent Iroquois leader Leon Shenandoah writes, "The Instructions say that men and women are equal, too. They've got to learn that one is not above the other. It takes both to create the children who are coming behind us."
www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/tools/view_newsletter.php?newsletter_id=1409565088
Fall -- October/November/December -- 1995, Volume 1 #3 & 4, pp. 62-63.
www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/DatingIC.html
[Barbara Mann of Toledo University, Ohio] offers another example of what she believes to be the European-centered and male-centered nature of existing history. Most accounts of the Iroquois League's origins stress the roles played by Deganawidah, who is called "The Peacemaker" in oral discourse among traditional Iroquois, and Aionwantha (or Hiawatha), who joined him in a quest to quell the blood feud and establish peace. Mann believes that documentary history largely ignores the role of a third person, a woman, Jingosaseh, who insisted on gender balance in the Iroquois constitution. Mann's argument is outlined in another paper, "The Beloved Daughters of Jingosaseh."
Under Haudenosaunee law, clan mothers choose candidates (who are male) as chiefs. The women also maintain ownership of the land and homes, and exercise a veto power over any council action that may result in war. The influence of Iroquois women surprised and inspired nineteenth-century feminists such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Matilda Joslyn Gage, according to research by modern feminist Sally Roesch Wagner.
While a high degree of gender equity existed in Iroquois law, sex roles often were (and remain) very carefully defined, right down to the version of history passed down by people of either sex. Men, the vast majority of anthropological informants, tended to play up the role of Deganawidah and Aionwantha, which was written into history. Women who would have described the role of Jingosaseh were usually not consulted. Mann points out that Jingosaseh, originally the name of an historical individual, subsequently a title, as a leader of clan mothers. The historic figure Tadadaho, originally Deganawidah's and Aionwantha's main antagonist, became the title of the League's speaker. Occasionally in Iroquois history, a title also may become a personal name -- Handsome Lake (a reference to Lake Ontario) was the title to one of the 50 seats on the Iroquois Grand Council before it was the name of the nineteenth-century Iroquois prophet. According to Mann, "it is only after the Peacemaker agrees to her terms that she throws her considerable political weight behind him . . . She was, in short, invaluable as an ally, invincible as a foe. To succeed, the Peacemaker needed her."
"Jingosaseh is recalled by the Keepers as a co-founder of the League, alongside of Deganawidah and Hiawatha," writes Mann. "Her name has been obliterated from the white record because her story was a woman's story and nineteenth-century male ethnographers simply failed to ask women, whose story hers was, about the history of the League."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
from one version of the story of the Peacemaker, Deganawidah...
"Because you are the first to accept the Great Law," he said, "you shall be called, 'Jikohnsaseh, Peace Queen, Mother of Nations.' When the peace comes, you - the women of the tribes - will choose and remove the chiefs. Their titles will be both political and spiritual and will always belong to the women, called 'Clan Mothers.' Women know the hearts of men better than men. Women are the connection to the Earth. They create and have the responsibility for the future of the nation. Men will want to fight. Women will now say 'yes' or 'no' to war. Men, whose nature it is to be warriors, may not always see clearly the path of Peace; but a woman who knows that she must bury her loved ones, the children she has suckled, she would see and know if the fight would be worth its cost in life and death. Women know the true price of war and must encourage the chiefs to seek a peaceful resolution."
He told her the tribes were to be matri-lineal, with children belonging to the mother's clan. When a man married, he moved into his wife's longhouse with her family. If they separated, the children, home, tools and fields stayed with the mother. There is great wisdom in this. The woman raised the children. A need for a home and means to provide for the children was of utmost importance. Men could always fend for themselves but for a woman with little ones to tend for, time would be limited for replacing much-needed items. Also, the children would belong to the lineage of the woman so that every child would have a family to nurture them even if the father left or died in battle. All of these customs insured that the women of the tribes would always be treated with respect. As recent Iroquois leader Leon Shenandoah writes, "The Instructions say that men and women are equal, too. They've got to learn that one is not above the other. It takes both to create the children who are coming behind us."
www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/tools/view_newsletter.php?newsletter_id=1409565088
