Re: WANTED: A good ethnography on culture in the U.S.

Ruby Rohrlich (rohrlich@GWIS2.CIRC.GWU.EDU)
Fri, 26 Jan 1996 20:20:04 -0500

You posed a question, to which I said I didn't know the answer, and asked
you to give the answer. How is that "turning it around"? Now, you have
veered to another sub ject, and want references. This is a far cry from
my original posting ab out Elaine Rapping's article in ON THE ISSUES
about the close relationships between the first feminists and the
Iroquois women. Ruby Rohrlich

On Fri, 26 Jan 1996, thomas w kavanagh wrote:

> Come on now, don't turn it around. All I asked was, since you cite
> yourself as having written on the subject, how you consider the
> Hodenausaunee "egalitarian." All I know on the subject is what I read
> [BTW, I am interested in reading you article, or Dr. Leacock on the
> subject, can you give me a reference?] and by applying Fried's definition,
> they didn't seem to qualify. If you--and Morgan?-- are using another,
> perhaps looser definition of the term, what is it? Has there been any more
> recent examination of the subject?
>
> tk
>
> On Thu, 25 Jan 1996, Ruby Rohrlich wrote:
>
> > My knowledge of the Hodenausaunee seems not to be as extensive as yours
> > seems to be, for I cannot answer your question, but I would be interested
> > in your answer. However, the
> > egalitarianism of the League of the Iroquois has been asserted by many
> > anthropologists, beginning with Lewis Henry Morgan. Ruby Rohrlich
> >
> > On Wed, 24 Jan 1996, thomas w kavanagh wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > On Wed, 24 Jan 1996, Ruby Rohrlich wrote:
> > > <snip>
> > >
> > > > Although some anthropologists - Judith Brown, Eleanor
> > > > Leacock and I -- have taught and written about the egalitarianism of
> > > > American Indians, particularly the Iroquois Confederacy
> > > <unsnip>
> > >
> > > I am interested in how you consider the Hodenausaunee "egalitarian." As
> > > defined by Fried, an egalitarian society is one which "there are as many
> > > positions of prestige in any given age-sex grade as there are persons
> > > capable of filling them" (1967:33). This would seem not to apply to the
> > > Hodenausaunee, or at least to the formal political aspects of the
> > > "League," in which only certain specific clans and lineages in those clans
> > > had/have control of the council chief positions. Moreover, the Tuscarora
> > > have no representation in the formal councils. In what ways does the Clan
> > > Mother of a non-represented clan have the kind of authority that a
> > > represented Clan Mother has?
> > > tk
> > >
> >
>