Table Of ContentWOMEN AND COLONIZATION
Anthropological Perspectives
WOMEN AND
COLONIZATION
Anthropological Perspectives
MONA ETIENNE
ELEANOR LEACOCK
Editors
PRAEGER SPECIAL STUDIES • PRAEGER SCIENTIFIC
Ne w Y o r k • P h i l a d e l p h i a • E a s t b o u r n e , UK
T o r o n t o • H o n g K o n g • T o k y o • S y d n e y
BERGIN & GARVEY PUBLISHERS, INC.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Women and colonization.
A J.F. Bergin Publishers Book.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Women—History—Addresses, essays, lectures.
2. Colonies—Addresses, essays, lectures. 3. Sex
role—Addresses, essays, lectures. 4. Social change—
Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Etienne, Mona.
II. Leacock, Eleanor Burke, 1922-
GN479.7.W65 301.41'2 79-15318
ISBN 0-03-052586-1
ISBN 0-03-052581-0 pbk.
Published in 1980 by Praeger Publishers
CBS Educational and Professional Publishing
A Division of CBS, Inc.
521 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10017,USA
© 1980 by J. F. Bergin Publishers, Inc.
All rights reserved
J. F. Bergin Publishers, Inc.
670 Amherst Road, South Hadley, MA 01075
USA
0 056 98765
Printed in the United States of America
Preface
This book presents case studies of women's economic, social and political
roles in twelve societies, and the changes that followed European coloniza
tion. All the studies, with the exception of Chapter 9, were written for this
volume. All are by anthropologists who have delved into missionary reports,
explorers' and traders' accounts, and other historical records for information
about the peoples whom the Europeans encountered in the Americas, Africa,
and the Pacific to examine how they dealt with European behavior and in
tentions. The authors have studied the present day cultures of the peoples
about whom they are writing, and most have done fieldwork among them.
The book has been written in response to the growing interest in women
cross-culturally and reflects our conviction that the realities of colonization
have thus far received inadequate consideration by anthropologists. We focus
on colonization and the position of women for two related reasons. The first
concerns ideological arguments about the basis for women’s inequality. The
second concerns practical policies pertaining to women, especially in Third
World nations.
Today in the United States there is a resurgence of old arguments that
woman’s role as housewife follows from her role as mother and is both uni
versal and biologically based. At a time when over half of all women in the
United States are in the work force, such arguments may sound hollow;
nonetheless they undermine our efforts to combat discriminatory hiring
practices and wage levels as well as to achieve adequate child-care facilities
and the right to safe abortion when desired. It is important, therefore, to dis
tinguish between the position of women in various societies prior to the
emergence of the world capitalist system and their position in the twentieth
century as it has been studied by professional anthropologists. This work
is a contribution toward that end. We hope it will encourage further ethno-
historical research and make possible a full definition of women’s social
participation in all its forms.
Such a definition is most important at present when Third World nations
are making conscious choices about their futures and are examining their own
histories and their past and present values. At this time, when the word
“traditional” is being used either invidiously, to suggest “backward," in con
trast to “modern,” or proudly as an assertion of cultural autonomy, it is
necessary to differentiate between traditions that predated colonization and
those that took shape in a colonial context. The point is not to derogate the
latter; after all, the traditions born of the struggles for independence that
followed colonization are most valuable resources. However, it is critical to
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vi Preface
clarify the fact that egalitarian relations between women and men are not an
imported Western value and that, instead, the reverse is true. Egalitarian
relations or at least mutually respectful relations were a living reality in much
of the world in precolonial times, which was far from the case in Western
culture.
We wish to thank our contributors for graciously putting up with our
many demands. We especially thank Christine Gailey for her assistance in
editing some of the chapters, and Doug Jones for his able and informed copy-
editing. We are grateful to Elspeth Leacock for the index and to Robert
Steven Grumet for the map.
We dedicate this book to the efforts of women wherever they are strug
gling against colonialism in any of its forms.
Mona Etienne
Ecole des hautes Etudes
en sciences sociales
Eleanor Leacock
The City College
City University of New York
Contents
Preface v
Illustrations ix
Introduction 1
'N; Mona Etienne and Eleanor Leacock
1 Montagnais Women and the Jesuit Program for
Colonization 25
Eleanor Leacock
2 Sunksquaws, Shamans, and Tradeswomen: Middle
Atlantic Coastal Algonkian Women During the 17th
^ and 18th Centuries 43
Robert Steven Grumet
3 The Mothers of the Nation: Seneca Resistance to
Quaker Intervention 63
Diane Rothenberg
4 Contending with Colonization: Tlingit Men and
Women in Change 88
Laura F. Klein
5 Forced Transition from Egalitarianism to Male
Dominance: The Bari of Colombia 109
Elisa Buenaventura-Posso and Susan E. Brown
\6 Aztec Women: The Transition from Status to Class in
^ Empire and Colony 134
June Nash
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viii Contents
7 “The Universe has turned inside out... There is no
justice for us here:” Andean Women Under Spanish
Rule 149
Irene Silverblatt
8 Daughters of the Lakes and Rivers: Colonization and
the Land Rights of Luo Women 186
Achola Pala Okeyo
9 Women and Men, Cloth and Colonization: The
Transformation of Production-Distribution Relations
among the Baule (Ivory Coast) 214
Mona Etienne
10 Desert Politics: Choices in the “Marriage Market” 239
Diane Bell
11 Stability in Banana Leaves: Colonization and Women
in Kiriwina, Trobriand Islands 270
Annette B. Weiner
Putting Down Sisters and Wives: Tongan Women and
Colonization 294
Christine Ward Gailey
Index 323
About the Authors 337
References following each chapter
Illustrations
Lydia Tuspaquin, Eighth Descendant of Massasoit.
Courtesy of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye
Foundation, New York. Cover
Map by Robert Steven Grumet. xii
1 Marie and Michel Bastien, Northwest River, Labrador,
1951. Photo by Richard Leacock. 25
2 Same as Cover 43
3 Seneca women husking corn for braiding. The
Rochester Museum. 63
4 Mrs. Ginny-Jack and Mrs. Minnie Johnson. Photo by
Frederica de Laguna. 88
5 Bari woman playing a flute. Photo by Elisa
Buenaventura-Posso and Susan E. Brown. 109
6 The seller of maguey capes; the seller of fine
chocolate; the salt seller. The Florentine Codex. 134
7 “Priests. Who force indian women to weave clothing,
claiming that they are living in sin, they threaten them,
beat them, and do not pay them.” Guaman Poma. 149
8 Kenya woman weeding cassava. Photo by Esben H.
Thorning. Courtesy of UNICEF Regional Office of
Eastern Africa. 186
9 Baule women spinning and carding cotton (Kouassi
Kouassikro Village, Agba Katienou, 1978). Photo by
Susan M. Vogel. 214
10 A “mother-in-law” is painted with dreamings of the
initiate's patriline by women of his patriline. Photo by
Doug Jervis. Australian National University, Canberra. 239
11 Kiriwina women with their baskets of wealth during a
mortuary distribution. Photo by Annette B. Weiner. 270
12 Tongan woman painting bark cloth. Photo by Peter
Carmichael. Courtesy of William Collins Publishers,
London. 294
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