Research Paper on:
A Review of Cherokee Women by Theda Perdue

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
male perspective, speaking of violence, hunting, and the general demise of the cultures that the Europeans encroached upon. Rarely do we hear more detailed and more insightful examinations which offer  us different perspectives. In Theda Perdues book "Cherokee Women" we are given a very enlightening look into the lives of Cherokee women in regards to their power and their position  throughout history. Cherokee Women As mentioned, the perspectives we gain from Native American history are derived predominantly from the work of men. As Perdue illustrates "Ethnohistorians... have their  work cut out for them when they... write about Native women, because most people who recorded the Native past were men, and men of European origin at that" (3). This  offers us a very powerful premise for Perdues study, for all previous material concerning Native Americans has primarily come through records kept by men, observances experienced by men, and information  offered by men. The culture which recorded information about the Native Americans was a patriarchal society and as such they dismissed the importance or position of all women. As we  can easily note, the Native American culture was, first and foremost, so alien to the Europeans that they could not possibly have delved further into some cultures and noted that  they were matriarchal. Perdue does this when presenting us with the history of the Cherokee women. Perdue informs us that the Cherokee women were considered to be descendants of Selu,  the Corn Mother, and this connection "between women and corn gave women considerable status and economic power because the Cherokees depended heavily on that crop" (25). These women were the  providers of the Cherokee nation. They owned their houses, and they controlled the political structure of the people. But, with the coming of the Europeans the men were easily persuaded