Blog # 2

Q 1: There is an “estimated two hundred language groups existing in North America” with whom we can generalize in different ways (page 3).Every group of people have a different task and role that they do. These generalizations can be based upon their money-making activities. Each group plays a different role in the economy, for example the Southwest were the agricultural people and in California were the hunger-gatherers (page 3). The roles that people were assigned were mainly based on their gender, which would differ from each group. The generalization can also be based upon the changes that they over went. “Once the process of European conquest and colonization began, native women’s lives were powerfully shaped by the impact of the invaders on their traditional societies (page 3). These women’s lives were all different based upon the place that they live in. Most people know Native Americans as hunger-gathers or farmers. This does hold true however, it is not all that they do. These women did everything on their own single handedly, from making their own furs, agricultural products to pottery. There the lives of the Native Americans women changed drastically after the European conquest with Christopher Columbus. There was a lot that the Europeans did not know about the Native women. In fact Native women were very open minded about sexuality, which was shocking to the Europeans. Their generalizations about women were definitely changed when they saw the hard work that these women go through everyday, and they realized that the lives of these women were “more complex than comprehended” (page 6). In fact many of the native American women had much more power over their own lives than European women did.
Q 2: "Whether they were slave-owners or not, white women's lives were inextricably tied up with slavery" (page 22). This phrase is actually very ironic because even though they were not labeled as “slaves” in reality they were. The white women were just as much “property” as the African Americans. Their lives were completely control by the men, and they weren’t even allowed to have a job. White women were exempt from a law that placed a tax on the labor of African women, so they worked in the homes and not in the fields. Despite the fact that these white women were still living lives similar to a slave, they can’t be compared to the lives that the African women had, working alongside men in labor gangs.
Q 3: The European women all differed according to where they lived, and what background they came from. Social class played a big role and this was a significant difference among European women colonists. In Charleston, South Carolina wealthy women and their daughters would have more leisurely time, therefore they would have more time for activities such as fancy needlework. Also they bought what they needed, instead of making it themselves. The difference of classes was much more noticeable during the mid-eighteenth century, and women began to change drastically. Their wealth and class gave them more power to be differed from the rest and even own property.