Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change, 1700-1835 (Indians of the Southeast) [Paperback]

Theda Perdue (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0803287607 | ISBN-13: 978-0803287600 | Publication Date: August 1, 1999 | Edition: Paper edition

Theda Perdue examines the roles and responsibilities of Cherokee women during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a time of intense cultural change. While building on the research of earlier historians, she develops a uniquely complex view of the effects of contact on Native gender relations, arguing that Cherokee conceptions of gender persisted long after contact. Maintaining traditional gender roles actually allowed Cherokee women and men to adapt to new circumstances and adopt new industries and practices.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A fascinating book that truly breaks new ground in the study of Cherokee history, women''s history, and American history in general. Exemplifies women''s history at its best. She neither concentrates only on so-called notable women—those Cherokee women who are supposedly worthy of historical study because they acted like white men—or on inserting Cherokee women into an already existing narrative of Cherokee and American history. Instead her work challenges the existing narratives and suggests an alternative reading of history. By characterizing women as agents of cultural persistence, Perdue makes a case that we should not see American Indian women as bit players but as ‘major players in the great historical drama that is the American past.’”—Margaret Jacobs, Journal of Southern History

(Margaret Jacobs Journal of Southern History )

“An interesting and effective overview. . . . It is to the author’s considerable credit that she is able to re-create the values and behavior of Cherokee women through court records, myths, and observers’ accounts. By examining women’s roles in farming and community life, Perdue argues that women were coequal contributors to Cherokee culture.”—Choice

(Choice )

“A well-documented, carefully argued book written in lively and engaging prose. It deserves a wide audience. . . . An exceptional piece of scholarship.”—William and Mary Quarterly

(William and Mary Quarterly )

“Gracefully written and convincing.”—H-Net Reviews

(H-Net Reviews )

About the Author

Theda Perdue is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her works include Slavery and the Evolution of Cherokee Society, 1540–1866 and Native Carolinians: The Indians of North Carolina.

Product Details

• Paperback: 254 pages
• Publisher: Bison Books; Paper edition edition (August 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803287607
• ISBN-13: 978-0803287600
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #110,557 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating study of women's role in Cherokee history, January 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change, 1700-1835 (Indians of the Southeast) (Hardcover)

Perdue's work looks at gender roles in Cherokee society during the dramatic cultural upheaval of the 18th Century. It is a fascinating work which adds flesh to the historical skeletons that have centered on the Cherokee and European men's actions. One cannot truly understand the history and culture of a matrilineal people without a work of this type. This book is required reading for all scholars oof the Cherokee.

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Well-written; some interpretation problems, April 23, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change, 1700-1835 (Indians of the Southeast) (Paperback)

In her well-written Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change, 1700-1835, historian Theda Perdue argues that "the story of most Cherokee women is not cultural transformation...but remarkable cultural persistence." This is not to say, she argues, that these women did not experience significant changes in their status and condition, especially if one looks at the "decline" of Native Americans only in terms of land losses and military defeats. If, however, historians looks at "other indices of cultural change, including production, reproduction, religion, and perceptions of self, as well as political and economic institutions," then a different image emerges of Cherokee women over time: one of cultural persistence. Perdue does not deny that contact with Europeans had a profound, and ultimately negative, impact on the lives and well being of native peoples, including women of the seven Cherokee clans. She is particularly lucid in describing how the deer skin trade, military alliances and the insistence by whites of negotiating only with males in treaty making and land deals diminished much of the influence women had in terms of trade, material possessions and political status.
Perdue interprets the changes in Cherokee life for men and women, beginning in the 18th century, as a cultural retooling, in which men became predominantly involved in external affairs of the tribe (war, military alliances, commercial enterprises, treaties) and women maintained internal power and status within the tribe. "While women became dependent on men in some respects," she notes, "men also relied increasingly on women to plant corn, perpetuate lineages, and maintain village life." She goes on to state that the deerskin trade may actually have enhanced the power of women within their Cherokee communities "by removing men for much of the year." Additionally, for most of their yearly sustenance, male hunters still relied on the bounty of agricultural production, which remained almost exclusively the domain of females. Finally, Perdue argues that despite the encroachment of whites, the male takeover of tribal political leadership and institutions by the late 18th century, and relocation to the west by 1839, "a distinct culture survived removal, rebuilding, civil war, reconstruction, allotment and Oklahoma statehood." As proof of the survival and persistence of this culture, Perdue briefly points to the continuing significant role of women at the end of the 20th century. Thus, she concludes that the fate of Cherokee women has not been one of cultural declension, but one of "persistence and change, conservatism and adaptation, tragedy and survival."
Much of Perdue's interpretation of persistence and survival of women's culture within the Cherokee clans is quite persuasive. However, her treatment of the growing external role of men with regard to leadership and war and the corresponding decline in female power and influence on tribal matters of extreme (and ultimately devastating) importance to the Cherokees is problematic. By arguing that the male takeover of political power and control of land allowed women to consolidate internal, domestic power within the tribes seems to make a virtue out of an inescapable necessity. This is not to refute Perdue's recognition of the important spheres women continued to control; nevertheless, her contention that the external pressures of the U.S. government's "civilization program," land sessions, wars and eventual removal did not result in "declining status and lost culture" may be significantly overstated. For example, she asserts that although men dominated most aspects of commercial relations with whites, "women did occupy one position that had long-term implications for the Cherokees-they became wives of traders." While marriage to whites may in fact have been an effective method of survival and adaptation for Cherokee women, Perdue's use of this trend as evidence of cultural persistence is questionable. Similarly, Perdue argues that when Cherokee wives of British soldiers at the besieged Ft. Loudoun in 1760 provided supplies and intelligence to their husbands, they "acted according to long-established standards of behavior for married women." These women saw themselves not as part of "an abstract Cherokee nation," but as "members of clans and lineages," of whom their red-coated husbands were part. This assertion refutes her earlier statement that husbands were not kinsmen of their wives, they were outsiders to her clan. Furthermore, the fact that these native women were willing to defy their own people in a time of war in order to help the enemies of the tribe may also be seen as evidence of waning tribal cohesion.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cherokee Women, March 5, 2006

By 

Ray Evans Harrell (New York City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change, 1700-1835 (Indians of the Southeast) (Paperback)

CHEROKEE WOMEN, Gender and Culture Change 1700 to 1835. Theda Perdue
University of Nebraska Press 1998




Although this book is eight years old it is a good one and deserves a new review. We used this book in teaching the workshop to the Chiefs in July of this year.

The book is constructed of three major sections. The first is called a Woman's World and has two sub-sections on Constructing Gender and Defining Community.

These are exceptionally well done and show how Cherokee women were equal in the world to men as they were of the Earth medicine while the men were of the Sun. It shows how this balance, much as in the story at the beginning of the Newsletter, was achieved and maintained.

This was not a shallow equality under the law but a deep spiritual one with each group having their own power that made the other powerless without it.

It no more represented slavery to stereotype than being a Soprano or a Bass does to the opposite gender. The Creator gave the place and so their job was, again like the singer, to fulfill it completely.

The community and the ceremonials in the community all pointed the way to the achievement of the goals of significance by each Kituwah person. For they were all followers of the Kituwah faith at that time.

In the second section she traces the beginnings of the breakdown of Cherokee equality as the Men, through hunting and trade start to assume political power.

This is like the Sun coming too close to the earth and killing the plants and that is what happened. Agricultural technology withered as the women lost power and they became enslaved to the exotic trade goods that were largely inferior to their hand made original articles. To counter the men, the women married traders and even soldiers to gain back the lost power.

This led to the section on War. It is a well trod trail and yet Perdue still has some insights to offer.

In this second section however, I believe she falls to the aggravating factor that makes so many of these stories predictable and lacking in insight. At the root is an inability to assign quality without romance to Native forms. Did Indians have science, technology, law, and the arts? How about economics? Well yes. If that is so then how were they different earlier and how did they change later? Were they as successful?

In the third section on Civilization she tries to deal with this but again doesn't succeed in really drawing out the full adult lives of the individuals involved. It is a depressing often told story.

I have been surprised in my own research to find such full rich lives in our ancestors when they are so often depicted as being without a deep psychological and spiritual life. Although this is now being explored it will take many more books before we can explore the egg tempera of Cherokee artists working with bird yokes and berry dyes on woodplanks. The few extant are exquisite.

How about the Agricultural technology? And where is the music? The rhythmic complexity of real Southern drumming is both powerful dance and powerful art. Where are the scholars to study, preserve and develop that?

In Selu meets Eve, Perdue almost brings this to life but the "gift" is missing. An energy exchange (economics) exists in all cultures and is one of the crucial elements of human communication. It need not be money but an exchange does happen. It can be a payment or it can be a gift. Either way it has rules.

I would and have encouraged Dr. Perdue to look into this in another book. I hope she will for she writes wonderfully and is a first rate scholar.


Ray Evans Harrell (written for the nuyagi keetoowah newsletter sept 2005)