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Gunlög Fur, Gender and Sexuality in Indigenous North America, 1400–1850, Journal of American History, Volume 99, Issue 1, June 2012, Pages 288–289, https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jas038
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This is a slim volume on an important topic. Two aspects make the book a useful contribution. First, it does not stop at present-day international borders; secondly, it not only focuses on gender and sexuality but also pays attention to class and race in different contexts. Eight chronologically organized essays take readers from Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca through European and Native American masculinities and discussions of women’s authority in matrilineal societies to debates about sexualities and gender roles. The focus shifts from wide-ranging surveys to deep contextualization. The time frame is wider than suggested in the title, since the final essay incorporates contemporary two-spirit experiences and politics. The authors represent scholarship from Mexico, the United States, and Canada.
This breadth is intriguing but is also the collection’s weakness. The choice to present the contributions chronologically means that the authors simply list the essays without engaging the debates that separate chapters touch on. It would have been interesting if the essays had spoken to one another. The matrilineal influence noted in several of the contributions could have been fruitfully contrasted with the violent masculinities of other essays. Sandra Slater argues forcefully for the impact of patriarchal structures in both European and Native American societies, while Jan V. Noel’s and Dawn G. Marsh’s essays on matrilineal authority qualify such generalizations. Several of the essays focus specifically on women’s influence and agency, both as individuals and as collectives. Noel demonstrates convincingly that reopening the debate on Iroquois women’s authority promises exciting possibilities, while Marsh’s study of the Lenape Hannah Freeman in Pennsylvania, and Dorothy Tanck de Estrada’s on the Otomi Indian Salvadora in the city of Querétaro focus on individual women to discuss agency. In contrast, Fay A. Yarbrough’s essay on law making in Choctaw country demonstrates that matrilineality does not necessarily empower women. Such seeming contradictions open room for valuable discussion.
