Women’s Authority and the Anomalies of Vision in Delaware Experiences of Colonial Encounters

Gunlög Fur

Among the Delaware Indians a complementary relationship between genders allowed women political authority as a consequence of their role as providers and distributors of food and through their link to the maintenance of peace. This relatively autonomous position of women was viewed by European colonists in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as an indication of a disorderly society, and this becomes particularly apparent in ideas and practices concerning marriages and sexuality. Contact with and dependence upon Europeans influenced Delawares to alter perceptions concerning proper roles of men and women in their society while maintaining a cultural identity in which male and female gender stood in a reciprocal relationship to one another. [WP# 98008]