From: The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples/Aboriginals: Iroquoians/Alexander Von Gernet
The traditional Iroquoian kinship system was complex and has sometimes confused anthropologists and even Iroquoians. In this system, the names for parallel relatives were different from those for cross relatives. For example, the Huron term for mother was also applied to mother’s sister and the term for father to father’s brother; a different pair of terms was used to designate a mother’s brother and father’s sister. Similarly, mother’s sisters’ and father’s brothers’ children (parallel-cousins) were called sisters and brothers, while only mother’s brothers’ and father’s sisters’ children (cross-cousins) were called cousins. A man’s sisters’ children were nieces and nephews, while his brothers’ children were sons and daughters. Conversely, a woman’s sisters’ children were called sons and daughters, while her brothers’ children were nieces and nephews. Obviously, the increasing use of English or French has masked many of these original nuances.
Although the kinship terminology reflected a bilateral system, descent, inheritance, and succession passed in the female line and the matrilineal extended family was the basic unit of Iroquoian social organization. Each Iroquoian longhouse contained a matrilineal group composed of mothers, sisters, and daughters as well as male spouses from other lineages. As the families grew, the longhouses were literally extended. The average Huron longhouse was 6.5 metres wide and 18 metres long, although some were close to 50 metres in length and a few prehistoric Iroquois longhouses were twice that.
By the nineteenth century the longhouses had been replaced by European-style dwellings. In 1847, when the Six Nations territory officially became a “reserve,” the crown allotted forty-hectare tracts of land to each male head of a nuclear family. Today, most families reside in individual housing reflecting differences in income and social mobility, and visitors encounter a range of structures from modest bungalows to large middle-class homes. In 1995 there were 2,275 separate households in the community, the majority of which contained single nuclear families.
Traditionally, each individual belonged not only to a matrilineage but also to one of the many clans named after various animals. Clans were, for ritual purposes, also grouped into various combinations of phratries and moieties. An individual was a member of his or her mother’s clan and personal names were “owned” by clans. The clans were exogamous – that is, marriage could not occur with someone belonging to the same clan, even if the individual was from a different nation. When a man married, he usually moved to the longhouse of his wife’s family, a practice known as matrilocality. This, of course, meant that the men living in the matrilineal longhouses were often considered outsiders. In modern times there has been a tendency for married couples to establish their own households. At the same time, a recent penchant for “authentic” clan-specific names has prompted a flurry of research and discussion about the appropriateness of certain marriage arrangements.
The traditional system made sense in light of the gender-based division of labour. At the time of European contact, the forests were the domain of men, while the villages and their surrounding fields of corn, beans, and squash (the “three sisters”) were the domain of women. The men hunted and engaged in warfare, foreign travel, trade missions, and diplomacy. The women planted and harvested the crops, gathered firewood, and prepared meals. These tasks required considerable cooperation among the women who remained at or near the villages for most of the year. Female hegemony over village matters gave the ranking matrons or clan mothers control over the selection and removal (“dehorning”) of chiefs, although they themselves did not hold public office. They also were free to express their opinions and defend their collective rights.
When swidden horticulture was replaced with intensive agriculture, men began working the fields. This, together with a participation in the cash-based economy, changed the division of labour between men and women and brought more flexibility into the composition of kin groups. Nevertheless, there has been some retention of the clan system and Iroquois traditionalists continue to have great respect for clan mothers.
Intermarriage between Iroquoians and non-aboriginal people began in the seventeenth century and has become increasingly common since. By the 1970s such unions constituted nearly half the annual marriages at the Six Nations territory. The Indian Act created a number of peculiar legal categories which affected the rights of Iroquois women and introduced a paternal bias not found in traditional Iroquoian society. For example, while Iroquois women who married non-aboriginal men lost their status as “Indians” within the meaning of the act, non-aboriginal women, regardless of their racial or national origin, gained Indian status once they married Iroquois men. It was only after these discriminatory provisions were repealed with the passing of Bill C-31 in 1985 that many Iroquois women became eligible to apply for status. The official rolls of Iroquoian communities have been substantially augmented as women return with their children, although long-time residents have not always responded with enthusiasm to this readmittance.
Traditional Iroquoian societies were theoretically egalitarian, with no individual possessing more wealth than another. The accumulation of goods was usually for the purpose of giving them away. Chiefs did, however, enjoy certain privileges not shared by others. Today, class distinctions are more apparent and, to a large extent, mirror non-aboriginal society.
