War and Culture

From gender roles to military alliances, there were many topics in class this week that I had no idea about. First off it was exciting to learn that Native women had a substantial amount of power within their communities. I didn't know much about Native women's lifestyle even less that they were the center for their families by controlling agriculture, building shelters, and taking care of kids. I think that this really shows how advanced and complex Native culture was because of the fact that most other cultures of the time showed less respect and gave less responsibilities to women which really hurt their image among these western cultures. Learning about the different aspects of that went into the lives of men and women was also another interesting note. Both genders had different roles to fill but when completed worked out to benefit the whole which was quite fascinating.
The relations that came about during times of war between Natives and Europeans was almost new information. I had my ideas and a little knowledge about the Seven Years War, but nothing more than who was involved and where it happened. I found it really interesting that alliances switched often between the British and the French and that the only real important thing for the ideals was to isolate themselves in the middle ground. I was surprised by the amount of wars that took place mostly because its the kind of information that seems to be left out of most accounts of early American history.