Ant 101

Kinship systems in Foraging and Horticultural based societies provide support for people in all stages of their life. Address the following in a two- to three-page paper: a. Identify and describe the kinship system of one of the cultures listed below. These cultures are found in Chapters 3 and 4 of Cultural Anthropology. o Australian Aborigines o Btsisi o Inuit of the Artic o Iroquois o San o Yanomamo b. Briefly describe the culture and identify three specific examples of how the kinship system of the chosen culture impacts the way this culture behaves (i.e. thinks, acts, lives). (The way they marry. The way they divide labor. Where they live.) c. Compare this to your own society. Does kinship impact these same behaviors in your own life? Why or why not?

Among the Iroquois (Ho–De–No–Sau–Nee) of upstate New York, men cleared and burned the forest while women planted, weeded, and harvested the crops, primarily "The Three Sisters"—corn, beans, and squash. Cultivation was done cooperatively among the matrilineally related women of the longhouse (see the section titled "Kinship and Marriage"). An older woman would act as labor organizer, ensuring that everyone worked together for success. At the time of European contact, Iroquois women produced about 65 percent of all products (Johansen, 1999).

Iroquois women were valued by the community for their labor and for their contribution to village subsistence. As cultivators, women owned the maize; this gave them power within Iroquoian society. The Iroquois were involved in many extratribal conflicts. Although men were the hunters, traders, and warriors, women's contribution of maize to the warriors and traders was more important because it allowed them to go to war or on trading expeditions. If women were against a particular raiding activity, they withheld maize from the warriors, which meant the men could not go (Nowak, 1979).

The Iroquois