Talks about longhouses – uses: religious as well as living space.

Handsome Lake religion – who he was and how…

How gaiwiio spreads the “good word” – conduct code, gospel.

Code is recited one time every other year in most groups. One does it every year. One is the Headquarters house, the others are secondary.

For notes on Iroquois sacred texts, see Internet Sacred Text Archive, Iroquois Religion

How ceremony is organized: People who put it together

• Headman/woman
• Faithkeepers
• Others who do the work
  

Code is story that is told through generations. Each Teller’s is different depending on who told them the story and their memory of it. The code has been translated and written down, but this version not used. Each teller has a slightly different version, different spin.

The longhouse now is more of an assembly hall with stove, priest, with bleachers on either side. Traditional domestic longhouse had domestic stalls in it.

Some Iroquois have converted to other religions, and now seek to be brought back into the fold. Described instance of a woman who had converted to Catholicism, begged forgiveness. Some believe that one of the angels that brought the good news to Handsome Lake is Jesus, others disagree.

4-day ritual. Each day preach the gawiio each morning, social dance in the evening. Drink strawberry juice. (Chap. 2 – significance of strawberry juice). Corn soup cooked during ceremonies.

Social division into clans. Members of each clan are thought to be descendants of common totemic animal ancestor. Belong to mother’s clan unless “borrowed” or “adopted.” Cannot marry within the clan. Each clan has the name of an animal. 8 clans divided into two groups – moieties. Two divisions act within the ceremonies in defined, reciprocal roles. Among the Seneca only.

Oldest woman represents the clan at councils.

“Sachems” – Chiefs, appointed by matriarchs, could also depose them. Prescribed roles both within the nation and in international relations

See these sites for more information

Haudenosaunee Home Page, the official source of news and information from the Haudenosaunee, comprised of the traditional leadership of the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk and Tuscarora Nations. Sub-page: What are the values, beliefs and traditions that the Haudenosaunee seek to maintain? http://sixnations.buffnet.net/Culture/?article=clans

"The Wampum Chronicles" Washington State Univ. Outline of course on the Iroquois
http://p216.ezboard.com/fwampumchronicleshistory.showMessage?topicID=321.topic

Chapter 2

Matrilineal system – women in charge of agriculture, equal role in politics of village.

Seneca men hunted and traveled, so women were around village a lot, men weren’t.

Views on marriage – weak – each can have other partners. If a woman took up a new husband while her husband was gone, he choice about whether or not to take him back.

Seneca most feared and respected among the Iroquois. See map:

5 nations of the Iroquois

Click here for map of New York Iroquois

1. Seneca – westernmost of the 5 – Keepers of the Western Gate

2. Onandaga – Take care of the central ritual fire. In the middle

3. Mohawk – easternmost, along Hudson River

4. Oneida

5. Cauyuga

(6) Tuscarora – from south, came north, added on. In 1722

49 chiefs in Great Council.

League of the Iroquois formed around 1450 (p. 41).

Wampum – belts made of beads. Some are still maintained by the tribes.

Down through mid-Atlantic states.

Matrilocal, matrilineal

Children allowed to be little children.

Basic psychology – in Freudian sense, repression bad. Corresponds with raising of children. Autonomy, independence.

Several behaviors seem to have persisted – tolerance of divorce, weak marriage ties.

Warfare:

Warfare – Rationalized as going out to avenge the dead.

Women could have a very active voice in declaring war

Bases of war and conflict: Within Iroquois (Seneca) no sense of private property. Theft, etc. weren’t basis of internal conflicts. Sexual jealousies, insult, alcohol generated most internal conflicts.

Other motivations for international warfare:

Control over trade – constant warring with neighboring tribes between c. 16xx – mid-1700s.

Control over territory.

Competition between French and British –

Iroquois could be vicious in warfare. Torture was an important element -- both the ability to subject others to it, and to withstand it oneself.

p. 24 gives an inventory of goods acquired in trade for pelts. They were both utilitarian items like tools and guns, and decorative items like jewelry, as well as rum. – Men would come back from hunts, sometimes spend on the money on themselves. Rather than bringing back to family.

? – Did they have a choice re. killing off the beaver?

Adams noted that Iroquois held a strategic position between French and British, who were involved in the fur trade, as well as controlling access to pelts from other tribes.

British and French treated the Iroquois -- and other Indian nations or tribes -- as sovereign nations, comparable to European nations. Note that at this time (18th century), the idea of a "nation" was very different from the idea of a "nation state" that developed through the 19th century. Models were far more those based on the Roman Empire, with its relations with the various tribes on its borders -- the Germanic, Frankish, etc. tribes with whom they traded and created various kinds of political and economic relationships.
Chapter 3

About rituals and customs of the Iroquois.

Rituals corresponded with harvest for that particular season. “Prevented mental illness and social disorder.” P. 49

Basic ritual sequence – thankfulness for spirits’ bounty, hope for good weather.

Are rituals and festivals the same?

Close to the same.

Thanksgiving, strawberry festival. 6-8 day mid-winter festival. Describes ritual process.

Boiling of the babies ceremony – when babies given their public names. Boiling is corn – drink made of it.

Importance placed on dreams – had to manifest them so that the person could be free of them. If not manifested, would cause sickness, even death. Some could affect whole village. Some might relate to marriage – might involve a married person. Village would do whatever necessary to allow the person’s dream to be manifested. Council, with general decision. Dream of killing a person – role playing the event.

“They look at dreams as guidance in all important affairs of life.” P. 59

p. 74 – “The frustration of desire is the root of all evil.” – goes back to self-determination as foundation.

Seneca were the most “superstitious” of all the 5 tribes. Others often observed in the breach.

Adams: Wallace was part of the “Culture and personality school” – that incorporated Freudian psychonalysis into the interpretation of cultures. According to this perspective, "society" functions to take care of individual psychological and material needs (note that this type of functionalist theory is different from one that sees various aspects of society functioning to maintain the society). Wallace, therefore, views rituals as rooted in individual psychodynamics.

As Wallace interpreted these rituals, people had to have very strong control over impulses, show mastery, dominance. Therefore rituals displayed the opposite – begging, dependency, etc. These figures and ritual practices that acted out dependency came from what Freudian psychology understood as the repressed unconscious in Freudian psychology, or what Jungian psychology understood as the "shadow".

In this theory, childrearing creates the basic personality structure. Therefore his fairly detailed description of the treatment of infants and children, including swaddling on the cradleboard and toilet training.

Wouldn’t rituals bring all the clans together? Defining unity among the clans – dependency on one another. Tie the people together. BUT - as noted above, Wallace's psychological functionalism did not argue this.

He also interpreted some rituals as attempts to deal with loss.

Chapter 4
Rituals - of Fear and Mourning

1. Love & Friendship – dream would see someone who was a powerful friend – would make this happen in daily life. Both sexual and otherwise. Someone who was particularly close, confident, war partner.

2. The Faces of the Gods – If they dreamed of a false face they would have to carve it, care for it, treated almost as people. Had names and personalities, used in ceremonies. Main ceremony “Company of the Faces” to rid people of disease, witchcraft, natural disaster. Also private ceremonies if individual was sick. (For some non-blessed carvings of False Face masks, see this gallery. They also have a page that deals with the controversy over whether or not these masks should be sold.

3. The cult of death – When a chief died, grief was so strong it would have almost clinical symptoms. Clear-minded people would come in – people who didn’t have as close a relationship. After people were cleansed they would have a singing, new chief would be acknowledged, followed by feast. Ordinary people buried near village, led by women, women wept fiercely, rolled on the ground. Dead feared because they could come back to avenge themselves. War parties would go out to avenge the dead. Could bring back captives to replace the dead by adoption, or torture.