ANTH 1150 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Handsome Lake, Kinship Terminology, Matriarchy
Document Summary
The wendat and haudenosaunee of the eastern woodlands. In other words, there was a cyclical process set in motion where population increases necessitated greater degrees of cultivation, which in turn provided the food for an ever growing population. Internal changes in social organization also developed, with emergent new concepts such as the idea of a mother earth that provided food for her children. People began to reckon their kinship relationships through their mother"s side of the family, resulting in matrilineal descent systems, as opposed to prior systems relating relatives bilaterally or through the father"s line of descent. Marriage patterns would change as well, with men now moving to their wives" villages (ie, matrilocal residence), in recognition of women"s prominent role in food production. The creation of the earth for haudenosaunee people begins with a woman who falls from the sky-world.
