The Diverse Roles Of Cherokee Men And Women

The Cherokee a large Native American tribe that previously inhabited large areas of land in the southeast, specifically the lower Appalachian Mountains (Gilbert, 178). Currently, they reside in a reservation in western North Carolina, and two in Oklahoma, one of which is the largest reservation in the United States (Cherokee Ancestry). The Cherokee were a warrior society, often traveling as far north as Ohio, and as far west as the Mississippi river to wage war on other tribes (Gilbert, 187). The ancient Cherokee nation was broken into many scattered settlements along the southern Appalachian rivers, due the rugged nature of the land. The Cherokee dwellings were mostly one to two story square houses, made of logs with a plastered interior and
In the Cherokee culture, women and men were free to experience sexual freedoms. In some cases, Cherokee men and women had the choice to get married and have one sexual partner for their whole life. However, they also had the choice to have multiple partners throughout their lives (Fox, 360). Cherokee men expressed sexual interest in women though intricate signs and dances. Men would use sign language with their hands, and also would tickle and scratch the palms of women to establish familiarity. In the Bear Dance, men would act like bears, and scratch the women all over their bodies. During this dance, feinted blows with the hands, tickling, and poking were practiced too, but these were seen as more obscene gestures. Two other common dances preformed were the Raccoon Dance, where men pretended to rub raccoon grease all over the women of the tribe, and the Chicken Dance, in which the women would place her foot atop the mans foot, and hop with her other foot (Gilbert, 247). Dance was also used as a display of the relationship between two people. Monthly dances were held in time with the lunar cycle, at the time of the full moon. The husband and wife would dance together, symbolizing their solidarity, breaking the bonds with their previous families to form a new union. However, if the woman was on her menstrual cycle she was barred from participating in the dances, as the monthly menstrual cycle was seen as bad, due to it
As mentioned, the menstrual cycle of a woman was a restriction to the Cherokee. They believed contact with blood was dangerous, and that it neutralized the treatments of their medicine people. During the menstrual cycle, blood was out of its natural place inside the body, so women had to retire to separate huts, in order to avoid contact with others. During this, they could not participate in ceremonies, be close to the sick, or even preform their normal tasks (Fox, 359). Many ceremonies and events were also set as restrictions for sexual actions. One such event was the annual ball game, where each summer twenty men would train to play a game similar to lacrosse with a neighboring town. During training for the game, the men would remain abstinent from their wives. During war the men were not allowed to see or talk to their wives, so during this time they were also not allowed to engage them sexually. Even after the war was over, they would go through a purification period, the length of which depended on the bloodiness of the war. Those who were wounded had a longer purification period. This restriction lasted about four to twenty days, and the punishment for breaking it and having sexual intercourse was death (Gilbert, 355). There were sexual restrictions based around illness as well. If a man were treated with an illness, he was not allowed to touch his wife for four days, and he was made to sit alone