Handsome Lake's teachings: The shift from female to male agriculture in Iroquois culture. An essay in ethnophilosophy

Marilyn Holly

Agriculture and Human Values, 1990, vol. 7, issue 3, 80-94

Abstract: The shift from a traditional indigenous female agriculture to a new male agriculture in Iroquois culture was facilitated by the teachings of the early 19th century Seneca prophet and chief, Handsome Lake. This shift resulted in the disempowerment of women and occurred during a period of crises for the Iroquois; it was heavily influenced by exogenous pressures that, mediated by Handsome Lake's Code, led not only to a change of sex roles in agriculture but also to a shift in family structure toward the patriarchal family and to a change of ideology toward a patriarchal monotheism. Previously, Iroquois life and ideology had stressed a complementarity or balance of powers between the sexes. Handsome Lake's Code also retained certain aspects of the older Iroquois lifestyle and ideology. The crises undergone by the Iroquois might have been met differently, without the disempowerment of women, had it not been for exogenous influences. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 1990

Date: 1990
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DOI: 10.1007/BF01557313

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