Re: The Iroquois and the Early Radical Feminists

Ruby Rohrlich (rohrlich@GWIS2.CIRC.GWU.EDU)
Wed, 31 Jan 1996 19:11:18 -0500

Didn't you read my long quotation from the article. The feminists were
not influenced by their vision of the Iroquois; they had a good deal of
contact with the Iroquois women and witnessed their way of life. Ruby

On Wed, 31 Jan 1996 Kagillogly@aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 96-01-31 01:06:18 EST, Rohrlich writes:
>
> > I'M doing this because
> >it's extremely hard for me to understand how the main point was missed,
> >i.e., the Iroquois
> >the Iroquos influence on early radical feminists. The main point was missed
> >because
>
> I think that this has already been adequately addressed by a previous
> post-er. The point is that the early radical feminists were influenced by
> their *vision* of Iroquois society. That does not mean that the Iroquois
> were truly what the early radical feminists imagined them to be. Looking at
> Iroquois from their own experience of patriarchal oppression, feminists
> thought this looked like egalitarianism. Does that mean the Iroquois are
> truly egalitarian? I think we've had plenty of discussion on that point and
> the evidence is pretty good that they're not.
>
> This discussion shows the problems that arise when we are imprecise in our
> use of terms. Although this isn't a panel at the AAAs, I would like to
> suggest that we all be careful in what we write and how we write it. This
> isn't a "beer" seminar among friends at the local pub, either. Flip,
> off-the-cuff, and emotional comments and responses don't contribute to our
> understanding. If anyone needs an example of how detrimental this is to
> fruitful, satisfying discussion, take a look at soc.culture.thai. The
> flaming on that newsgroup is so pervasive that most serious contributors have
> left. Let's not follow their example, please!
>
> Kate Gillogly
> Dept. of Anthropology
> Univ. of Michigan
>