Study Guide: Readings on Native American Religion and Gender Roles

(Handout; if you don't have the handout, use the website links)

from Native American Religion in Early America <http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us/tserve/eighteen/ekeyinfo/natrel.htm>

by Christine Leigh Heyrman

1. What is a cosmology?

2. What are some of the similarities between the religion of early modern Europeans and Native Americans?

3. What are some of the differences between the religion of early modern Europeans and Native Americans?

from Native American Religion

Note: the complete URL for this site is: http://www.stormwind.com/common/nareligion.html

1. Why is it difficult to answer the question "What do we mean when we speak of Native American religion?"

2. What are the seven groups into which anthropologists divide the Native American cultures of North America? Are there further divisions within each group? Explain.

From Native American Voices

Note: the updated URL for this site is http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/native_voices/native_voices.cfm

1. Writing in 1761, Pierre de Charlevoix observed the Hurons. What observations did he make about the roles of females in their civilization? What power did they have?

2. How did the men seek to undermine this power?

from Pre-Columbian Native American Women: Power and Equality

by Herman Vandersijs < http://info-center.ccit.arizona.edu/~ws/ws200/fall97/grp8/hermanpaper.html>

Note: The Iroquois Nations comprised the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and the Tuscarora.

1. Why did Native Americans generally see women as powerful?

2. What does Vandersijs tell us about labor division?

3. What powers did women have in the Iroquois culture?

4. What did Native American women NOT believe about their children, that differs drastically from European-American beliefs?

5. What other habits did Native Americans have that that differ drastically from those of European-Americans?

Read all three articles below before answering the remaining questions.

From A Native American Perspective on the Theory of Gender Continuum

Full URL = http://hermaphrodite.arriba.net/twospirit.htm

From Redefinition Of Gender and Sexuality in Pre-Columbian Times

<http://info-center.ccit.arizona.edu/~ws/ws200/fall97/grp8/kimberlypaper.html>

'Two Spirits' Respected in Indian Tradition

< http://www.ntac.org/news/01/01/02twospirit.html>

1. What is a "two-spirit" or berdache?

2. What characterized two-sprits or berdaches?

3. How were two-sprits or berdaches seen by their societies?

4. How was it decided who was to live as a two-sprit or berdache?

5. What has been the influence of European culture on the role or concept of the two-sprit or berdache?