The arrival of English settlers in the American Southeast in
1670 brought the British and the Native Americans into contact both
with foreign peoples and with unfamiliar gender systems. In a
region in which the balance of power between multiple players
remained uncertain for many decades, British and Native leaders
turned to concepts of gender and family to create new diplomatic
norms to govern interactions as they sought to construct and
maintain working relationships. In "Brothers Born of One Mother,
"Michelle LeMaster addresses the question of how differing cultural
attitudes toward gender influenced Anglo-Indian relations in the
colonial Southeast.
As one of the most fundamental aspects of culture, gender had
significant implications for military and diplomatic relations.
Understood differently by each side, notions of kinship and proper
masculine and feminine behavior wielded during negotiations had the
power to either strengthen or disrupt alliances. The collision of
different cultural expectations of masculine behavior and men's
relationships to and responsibilities for women and children became
significant areas of discussion and contention. Native American and
British leaders frequently discussed issues of manhood (especially
in the context of warfare), the treatment of women and children,
and intermarriage. Women themselves could either enhance or upset
relations through their active participation in diplomacy, war, and
trade.
Leaders invoked gendered metaphors and fictive kinship relations
in their discussions, and by evaluating their rhetoric, " Brothers
Born of One Mother "investigates the intercultural conversations
about gender that shaped Anglo-Indian diplomacy. LeMaster's study
contributes importantly to historians' understanding of the role of
cultural differences in intergroup contact and investigates how
gender became part of the ideology of European conquest in North
America, providing a unique window into the process of colonization
in America.
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