The Importance of Women in the Colonial World

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The Importance of Women in the Colonial World

Women's importance in the colonial world was an ever-changing process.

They were seen as

equals in early Native society but over the years women's roles have

changed drastically. The books one

has studied have great influence on how people view women in the past

but others have little. Women

have played a role from the earliest times even before written

language, among the Natives, in their

stories and legends of women beings. Women once had a role in every

aspect of human lives but as the

colonists and religious leaders from other countries started to

migrate there role was changed and never

reestablished. Women have important roles to play in their own

societies.

Eleanor Burke Leacock's, Myths of Male Dominance: Collective articles

on Women Cross-

Culturally (Monthly Review Press New York and London, 1981),

beautifully describes the importance

of native women and their roles. Leacock points out that "universal

male dominance is myth not fact"[1]

and because this book contains articles by different authors, one gets

a wide variety of works that each

encourage and represent women in different areas. The authors

illustrate native women before and

during colonial times by discussing gender roles, the evolution of

society, and male dominance

ideology. Leacock gathered articles that directly represent women's

roles in an economic position as in

horticulture and land ownership, and their high status in their own

tribe. She also goes through the

struggles and hardships some societies of native women had to go

through.

In the boo...

... middle of paper ...

...in, American Indian Mythology, Pages 78 - 89

[3] Marriott and Rachlin, American Indian Mythology, Pages 90 - 95

[4] Marriott and Rachlin, American Indian Mythology, Page 15,

Grandmother Spider is an old women who directs men's thoughts and

destinies with advise and wisdom. Often she allures them to the

underworld with cruel intentions.

[5] McNickle, American Indian Tribalism, Pages XIV - XV, Introduction

[6] Etienne and Leacock, Women and Colonization: Anthropological

Perspectives, Page 27, Chapter 1: Montagnais Women and the Jesuit

Program for Colonization.

[7] The Sacred Hoop, by Paula Gunn Allen, Page 3 of Introduction.

[8] The Sacred Hoop, by Paula Gunn Allen , Page 33, Chapter "When

Women Throw Down Bundles."

[9] Literature of the American Indian, Sanders and Peek, Short story,

Pages 41 - 43.

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