Discussion Questions for Northern Iroquoian Culture Patterns
Page 296: What is a longhouse? What is the Longhouse of the Five Nations?
Page 297: Why it is elm bark so important?
Page 297: When is fishing most important?
p. 297: What are some of the floral and faunal resources which the Northern Iroquois used, and how did they use them?
Page 297: What is slash and burn agriculture/horticulture?
Page 297-8: What were a man's jobs? A woman's?
Page 298: When did the people go hunting? Why?
Page 298: Why did hunting enjoy so much prestige?
Page 298: Why does the author say "The Iroquois diet included all parts of nearly everything that walked, crawled, swam, or flew" ?
P. 298: DISCUSS "After the harvest (of maize), hunting parties of men and a few women abandoned the villages, leaving the old people, some pregnant women, and children, and walked several days into the forest where they set up camp to hunt deer and bear, dry the meat, and pack it home at midwinter. Next to warfare and attending council, hunting enjoyed great prestige. Going into the forest meant risking one's life and perhaps having a supernatural encounter."
Page 298: What does the author mean when he says: "Food taboos are conspicuously absent, even in the eponymous clan animals and birds, such as the snapping turtle"?
Page 298: Comment on the following sentence: "While in theory the Iroquois were conservationists,... in practice they often contributed to the decline of species"
Page 299-300: Who are the three sisters? Why are they so important?
Page 299: Comment on the sentence "these crops provided the foundation of subsistence and afforded the leisure to develop institutions of sedentary life."
Page 299: How big could an Iroquois settlement be?
Page 300: Comment on the importance of women in Iroquois society. How do the Iroquois conceive of this?
Page 300-1: Why did they return to their villages at the winter solstice?
Page 301: Why it is it the women's work to plant?
Page 302: What are the false faces?
Page 302: When and why did the Iroquois move their villages? How did this occur?
Page 303: What are the characteristics of the Longhouse?
Page 303: Who lived in a Longhouse? How were they related?
Page 303: Were the Iroquois known for their ability with boats and water travel?
P. 303: Snow snakes.
Page 306: Why did village size range from 50 people to 1000 or a bit more?
Page 306: What is a Longhouse family?
Page 306: What did it mean if two people had the same crest?
Page 307: What significance is one's clan when traveling?
Page 307: What is a snow snake?
Page 309: Why does Fenton say "although Iroquois towns were built and governed by men, and to all appearances the women were drudges, men owed their offices to female succession, and the village and its environs of cleared fields up to the woods edge were the domain of women."?
Page 309: What is the composition of the fireside family?
Page 309-310: What is the composition of an Iroquois clan?
Page 310: What is an Iroquois moiety? What are the moiety's functions? Do moieties regulate marriage?
Page 310 to 311: What kind of names are given to the two moieties? What is the significance of these names?
Page 311: What was the significance of the mother's brother?
Page 311: What special rights does a man's father's sister have?
Page 311: Comment on the following sentence: "A joking relationship still obtains between men and women whose fathers are siblings, real or classificatory, or members of the same clan."
Page 312: What is the significance of the female line of descent? What are the descent group's functions? Why?
Page 312: What is the "perpetual disinheritance of the son?"
Page 312: What distinctions does the Iroquois kinship system make? What can we tell from this?
Page 312 to 313: "It would seem that in the northeastern woodlands the wide extension of a comprehensive network of kinship terms was not sufficient." What do you make of this statement?
Page 314: Why did children's moccasin have holes in them?
Page 314: Were the Iroquois a state society? Implications? DISCUSS: "The League 'contained the germ of the state' but it was not a true state based on territorial arrangements."
Page 314: Explain the following sentence: "Officers were known by the name of the office, and each clan had its own names and titles that descended matrilineally."
Page 314: What was the protocol for adopting new ideas in government? What was the effect of this procedure? DISCUSS: "Hence, the (political) discussions were... continued till all opposition was reasoned down, or the proposed measure abandoned."
Page 314: Who are the Pine tree chiefs?
Page 315: Why were the chiefs the entrepreneurs? And what does it mean to say "Trade and peace we take to be one thing?"
Page 315: How do the Iroquois people conceive of their society?
Page 315: Why must strangers be adopted?
Page 315: Why did Iroquois men revere war above all else?
P. 315: How did warfare after contact differ from warfare before contact? How did warfare after contact change Iroquois society? DISCUSS: " Even the old sages, having adopted a policy of peace or neutrality, could only persuade but not enforce the young men to keep the peace. This conflict between old men and the young only worsened during the contact period, until the power of the hereditary chiefs waned and the war chiefs took over at the American Revolution."
Page 315: How did the position of women change as a result of prolonged warfare following contact? What was meant by the phrase "to raise up the tree"?
Page 315: What is a little war or a private war? How did it differ from general war?
Page 315: What was Deganawida's message? What was the condolence ritual?
P. 315: What are the differing reasons for suicide among men, women and children?
Page 316: Did the Iroquois have genuine hatred of their enemies in warfare?
Page 316: What are "the Great White Roots of Peace?"
Page 316: What does Fenton mean when he says "Clearings and native lands contrast with wilderness?"
Page 317: What is the significance of the deer as a symbol in politics?
Page 317: What is the requickening ritual? Who performs it?
Page 317: Comment on the following: "Neither child birth in viewing posture nor puberty fast or seclusion at first menses distinguishes the northern Iroquoians from their neighbors."
Page 317: Comment on the following: "Arrangement of marriages by the Old Ladies... No rites marked passage to adulthood..."
Page 319: What direction does a soul take after death?
P. 319: Handsome Lake's code. The Longhouse religion.
P. 319: The creation story.
P. 319: "Thus the rationale for the False Face society is provided in an encounter between the culture hero and the mask spirit who is more or less patron of winds and diseases besides being the gamekeeper and protector of mankind, who remember to honor him with tobacco and mush"