Although some people may
think that there are major differences amongst male and female roles in the
Seminole Tribe, there aren’t. Both
females and males contribute greatly to the community as a whole. Either sex is able to practice things such as
arts and crafts, storytelling, art, music and medicinal arts. Formerly the chiefs
of the tribe were only men, now women are also permitted to lead the
government. Nevertheless there are things that were divided by gender such as,
the men being hunters and gathering food for the tribe as well as warriors to
defend both the tribe and their families. Women were accountable for things
like agriculture, weaving and maintaining the children and family. Games like
Stickball had slight restrictions depending on your gender, men were able to
use sticks while the women were allowed to play without the sticks using their
hands and feet. The women were not to be tackled; those who tackled women would
face severe penalties. There are also events such as spiritual dances and purification
ceremonies that involved both men and women becoming adults of the tribe,
however, men do have manhood rituals specified to them.
References
L.A. Cargill
N.d. "Native American Tribes - Seminole." Electronic Document. http://austinstar.hubpages.com/hub/Native-American-Tribes-Seminole, accessed July 22, 2014.
N.d. "Native American Tribes - Seminole." Electronic Document. http://austinstar.hubpages.com/hub/Native-American-Tribes-Seminole, accessed July 22, 2014.
Downs, Dorothy
N.d. "Florida Seminole and Miccosukee Indians: Trade, Change, Adaptation and Innovation." Electronic Document. http://www.kislakfoundation.org/millennium-exhibit/downs1.htm , accessed July 22, 2014.
N.d. "Florida Seminole and Miccosukee Indians: Trade, Change, Adaptation and Innovation." Electronic Document. http://www.kislakfoundation.org/millennium-exhibit/downs1.htm , accessed July 22, 2014.
Good post, very important to know some of the gender roles in Seminole society. Your reflection is also interesting, but it is mainly a summary of what you wrote above. Is there a way you can think of course content to add to your post and your reflection? I think you can do that. I talked about the Awajun in class, you have seen some videos about gender roles, and males being reluctant to take them, but because of need they did (Milking the Rhino). Hopefully, you also read some of the gender roles of American society described in the book. I mean, you do not need to make it a big deal, just include course content there instead of doing just the summary thing.
ReplyDeleteA note on references. You guys are somewhat consistent, but none of you have added dates. If you have dates for those online sites, add them, if you don't you need to write N.d. instead of the date. I told Matt about that, so please read the comments I made in all the posts. They will be helpful. By the same token, the part where you all write "accessed...." you were all writing it in parenthesis. Don't use parenthesis for that. Matt got that one right. Email me if you have questions, comments, or if you want me to go over your reflection again. The same goes for everyone, of course. Thanks. Keep up the good work.
Overall, the gender roles in the Seminole society are fascinating. What I found to be interesting was that they don’t really set boundaries because of gender, they like for the community to work together in most of their daily activities. Of course, things like hunting and defending are the duties that correspond to men and agriculture and maintaining the family correspond to women. Something that also caught my attention was how much respect they have for women and how they don’t exclude them. For example in the game that they play (Stickball) those who tackle women have to face a severe penalty. In the film we watched in class, Ongkas Big Moka, one of Ongkas wives was saying how tired she was but, would be considered a bad wife if she didn’t complete all the tasks she was given. The Seminole tribe does not believe in things like this they are very grateful and show much importance to the women in their tribe. They also let women be part of their government, not very common in other societies, which make the Seminole tribe very unique.
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