By Tina Melendez Introduction To Cultural Anthropology
Instructor Donald Anderson
April 17, 2012 ,The Iroquois Indians,
The Iroquois Indians were located in upstate New York. The men of the tribe would burn the forest so that the women could plant seeds weed and harvest the crops. There were three sisters in the vegetable family that were used the most by the Iroquois Indians, these were corn, beans, and squash.
The Iroquois Indians lived in longhouses several families lived in one house. The women of the tribe were matrilineally related. They chose one older woman to organize the labor of all of the women to ensure that there was teamwork amongst them. This would make them successful as well as being fair. There was a time of European contact when 65% of the products were produced by the Iroquois women. (Johansen, 1999).
The women of the tribe were valued in the community because of the labor that was performed by them, also the contributions that were made to the villages. There were many extratribal conflicts that arose and this did involve the women of the tribe.
The Iroquois women were considered as cultivators, which in turn the maize was owned by them. The men were hunters, traders, and warriors, which with the contribution of the maize from the women to the warriors allowed the women to be involved in the trading war. The importance of the maize was that if the women did not like or were against a raiding activity, they were able to hold the maize from the warriors which would cause the warriors not to go.(Nowak,1979).

The children of the Iroquois Indians learned at a very young age what was expected of them, the five and six year olds would carry around the younger siblings on their hip this was a normal expectation of the Iroquois Indian parents. The children also learned very early in life how to weed and also steer away pests. The labor was easy for the children as well as the elderly as they were not allowed to do hard labor; the younger adults were the ones that did the hard labor. The women of the tribe were very busy and needed the help from the children, the children were also taught at a very young age to follow around their parents in order to learn the adult the ways of adult living.
The land rights of the horticulture people remain in the family as well as the kin group. The alnd is not owned by any particular person, but is owned by the entire family. The land is not enclosed in any way therefore the abundant means of the land can be shared by anyone. This is called a use right. As long as the family uses the land they are allowed to cultivate on the particular plot.
There are many similarities in kinship in my own life as I did teach my children how to be adults, as well as responsibility as this culture has. Our entire society is similar to these people as they do have gardens, as well as farmland where crops are grown in order to feed all of us. This all started many years ago by the first horticultural people that lived in the world. The differences of today are that we do not all live together as families in one house, and also each person owns their own land. In many ways the society of today is very similar to that of the Iroquois Indians as well as the horticultural people. We have kinship in our families as well.
Cultural Anthropology, chapter 4,2010,NowakB&Laird,PBridgepoint Education, Sandiego, CA.