Essay On The Iroquois Horticultural Society

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The horticultural society that I will be writing about is the Iroquois society. I will be identifying and describing the kinship system and how that system impacts the way their culture behaves. I will also compare the Iroquois society to my own. The Iroquois people are a horticultural society; they are a food-producing society. (Nowak and Laird, 2010, Sections 4.2) They prepare their land and grow the food for their people, what is known as their kinship. The Iroquois society’s kinship consists of parents and siblings that are too closely related to marry, in-laws and potential spouses. They marry their cross cousins to keep the wealth and also to ensure the alliances that are built are kept. The kinship would live in what was called a “longhouse”. (Nowak and Laird, 2010, Sections 4.5) What I thought to be interesting is that the Iroquois society is able to easily end a marriage. The husband came to the marriage as an outsider, he moved into the wife’s village. If the wife decided she no longer wanted to be married all she had…show more content…
If they give a member of their kinship a good, they do not expect to receive something in its place right away. They do not keep tabs on what the values are. It eventually evens out. If the favor or good is not made even, then they might be hesitant to share in the future. (Nowak and Laird, 2010, Sections 3.3) This type of sharing is generous in that it will maintain relationships. If someone is hurt and cannot hunt for his family someone will step in to help and the favor would be returned if that is to happen to that family. Our textbook provides great examples to compare this behavior to my society. They give an example of a brother who is able to grow vegetables but his sister is unable to do so. The brother brings his sister fresh produce. The brother knows that his sister will repay him some other way eventually. (Nowak and Laird, 2010, Sections
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