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Native American Moral System?



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Wed Dec 23, 2015 7:42 pm
EverStorm says...



I am writing a story about a tribe similar to Native Americans. I need to know what they would do if a woman was immoral (slutty in a sort?) or gave herself to a man that wasn't her husband. Also, what are names besides slut and whore for those girls? I don't really want to Google that because I don't want to know what will show up :P

Any help would be appreciated!

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Wed Dec 23, 2015 8:15 pm
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Rosendorn says...



You have one major problem with this question: you haven't given us a tribe.

"Native American" is an umbrella term. It covers literally a continent of wildly different nations, all of whom have drastically different morality systems. You would not ask for a "European morality system" because you'd recognize Europe is made up of countries that all had slightly different ideas of what was moral and not. The same applies for Native Americans.

The Cree would handle this differently than the Navajo, who would handle it differently from the Omaha and all of those reactions would be different than the Wyandot.

You would also likely find that the whole idea of what's "immoral" and not could change, depending on how family and bloodlines are tracked. Do keep in mind many Native tribes are actually maternal, meaning the women hold more socioeconomic power than the men. They rather literally ran the tribes and, as a result, the social morals are very much not what we'd expect (the Western world is a patriarchal society).

If you want more information on how to write a specific Native tribe, check out Writing With Colour's Native American tag. It has a ton of resources and misconceptions clearing. It might sting a little to read, but it is very important reading if you're representing a marginalized group.

The bottom line is: your question is currently absolutely 100% impossible to answer. Until you pick a very specific tribe, you won't be able to research any of this and you won't have a starting place. This specific post talks about why.

You'll need to do more research before writing this story, as right now you're on track to grossly misrepresent Native cultures by not having a tribe.
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Wed Dec 23, 2015 8:56 pm
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Holysocks says...



As a side note...

You said:

I am writing a story about a tribe similar to Native Americans.


If you're loosely basing a culture on a Native American culture, yes you're going to need to do some research, but you also have a lot more rope to play with because you're making a lot of it up. From what I understand. So theoretically you can decide what morals you want your tribe to have.

My advice: do your research, and then use that foundation to support your own creation.
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Wed Dec 23, 2015 10:05 pm
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Rosendorn says...



Despite what Holysocks said, you still have to pick a tribe. At the very least, you have to pick a geographic area. A pretty specific one, at that.

Cultures in general come from their environment, which means everything you could pull from is something that came about because of the environment. And it's more specific than picking "a forest"— do you mean rain forests? Conifer forests? Disingenuous forests? Are they Northern or Southern? What type of animals do they have? What techniques are needed to survive?

All of those are things that are built into culture. There is absolutely nothing that is "frivolous" in culture— all of it exists for a reason. That reason can be lost to time, but if you dig enough, then it does indeed exists.

There is no such thing as Native American Tribal Culture, just individual tribes' cultures. You absolutely have to keep this in mind when writing Native American peoples, because people saying "close enough" without doing their research into specifics is what has created dozens of really problematic and hurtful stereotypes that simply feed into discriminating against Natives.

So, yes, you can write a group similar to, but there should be as few modifications as possible. It is gross misrepresentation to not be specific and to not be accurate in what you are showing. Natives are already misconstrued because people use their cultures as "inspiration" without knowing anything about it, leading to works that appropriate instead of appreciate culture.

If you start using "your own creation" to flat out contradict the basic principles of the tribe you're pulling from, you're appropriating the cool parts of the tribal culture and not actually representing Native Americans well at all. You absolutely have to keep the core foundation of the tribe, of Native culture, to do representation justice.

This might mean your plot changes. But it is better to have your plot change and be respectful than hurt very real people with appropriation and stereotypes, simply because you value your own ideas over a living, breathing culture.
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Sun Jan 10, 2016 9:00 pm
Zolen says...



I feel a bit offended by this but given how few tribes/clans/groups/nations actually exist anymore, I guess it's not to surprising someone would assume the term native american means just one culture.

I can't really offer much beyond what everyone else said. Just want to point out many tribes/clans/groups/nations (the actual term hardly matters), still exist on some level, despite the best efforts of the 13 colonies. So please study a bit before you generalize the heck out of a long list of cultures older then Europe.

If you want to know anything about Cherokee culture, of the long hair tribe/clan (I am Cherokee, born from the long hair clan), I am willing to share.
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Mon Jan 11, 2016 12:01 am
EverStorm says...



Thanks! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend anyone. I just wanted to know how any one tribe would respond. I didn't have a specific tribe picked out, just because it wasn't terribly relevant to the story I was writing. I studied a lot of different Native American tribes in my history class, but it never talked about any of their moral systems.

I promise I'm not ignorant. I do understand that there are more than one tribes of Native Americans. I'll phrase my question differently next time.
  





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Mon Jan 11, 2016 1:09 am
Zolen says...



Hm, just so you know, many tribes don't even have a concept of marriage, or at least not a official one. As far as sexual relations go, many tribes were quite sexually free compared to the western worlds modern concepts on the matter, pretty sure there are quite a few tribes out there that don't even have a word for adultery or nymphomania. As for any specifics you would have to find a specific tribe/clan/nation.
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Mon Jan 11, 2016 6:11 am
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Rosendorn says...



I'm just going to add something, here:

The tribe is relevant to your story because it deeply informs the character.

A person's ethnic background is a giant portion of their backstory and personality. Each tribe is unique, therefore each tribe will view the world in a different way.

You absolutely positively cannot under any circumstances say that ethnicity isn't important or plot relevant. It is a crucial part of building your character. As evident by your initial question, not picking a tribe leaves large swaths of the character's personality and values unanswerable, because you haven't given them any culture to pull from.

Ask yourself:

- Where does the story take place?
- What tribes are native to the area (if they still live there)?
- Were any tribes relocated to that area?
- Have Natives moved there on their own free will (for better job opportunities, for example)?

Once you answer those questions, pick the tribe that is most plausible to appear in the area your story takes place. Then you can answer the questions yourself, because you will have a starting place to research a tribe. Writing With Color has a guide on that very topic to get you started.

Also, just a note to show the diversity within Native American peoples: I do believe the Omaha had a concept of marriage and "purity" of women (they had a system that allowed women to choose their own husbands even despite arranged marriages+ a certain tattoo could only be given to pure women, and if they cried out they were impure— at least according to The Omaha Tribe by Alice Fletcher), just to show that morals really do depend on what group you're talking about.
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Tue Feb 02, 2016 12:54 am
Tecumseh says...



Don't get too bogged down in research before you write out your story structure. I understand that @Rosendorn is adamant that you to do your research this instant, and sure, you should, but for one thing, you ought to just write the story arc without researching so that you can identify the structure, the themes and drama that inspire you. You can't find out what inspires you by treating this like a homework assignment and checking if everything is OK before you do it. Write a rough draft the way you enjoy doing, and don't worry if you come off as ignorant or make mistakes. That's what editing is for.

Once you've figured out what you're excited to write about and you have a path, THEN do research. That way, you will have a better idea of what SPECIFIC topics to research, since you may have scenes or whatever ideas in your head and After all, since there are so many different cultures to pull from, chances are you'll find a culture that matches what you want to write about. Like @Holysocks said, you also have a lot more rope to play with because you're making a lot of it up.

As for answering your question directly:

Rosendorn mentioned that one would not merely generalize the European morality system due to being a number of different cultures. Ironically, it's useful to generalize and compare and contrast the European with the Native American morality system since much of the writing you will find in your research will be written by a European mindset.

Let's get started with our Glittering Generalities so you know what sort of attitudes to usually expect, and keepin mind I'm pretending this is the 1700s - 1800s:

General European View On Sex: Sex should be between two married people for procreation. Sex before marriage is wrong!
General Native American View On Sex: Sex is a natural urge and a thing you do to have kids or have fun. Sex before marriage is sex.

General European View On Sexuality: You are morally obligated to be heterosexual.
General Native American View on Sexuality: You have a sexuality? That's cool, whatever.

General European View On Marriage: Marriage is a religious union and sometimes a political tool. It always has sanctity, so divorce is taboo.
General Native American View On Marriage: Marriage is a socio-political tool which benefits the community. It doesn't have sanctity, so if it doesn't work out, then marry someone else.

General European View On Who You Can Marry/Be With: You should be monogamous, to do otherwise is taboo.
General Native American View On Who You Can Be With: Polygamy is no big deal, in fact, it can be a crucial part of social structure.

General European View On Why You Marry: Love, politics, to have sex.
General Native American View On Why You Marry: Politics and/or community benefit.

General European Treatment Of Adulteresses: Culturally-sanctioned punishments do not include death.
General Native American Treatment Of Adulteresses: Culturally-sanctioned punishments can include death.

Now let's get into picking a tribe so we can dive into specifics and exceptions.

How sexually expressive do you want your character to be? The Cherokee is an example of a culture in which women could be promiscuous without consequence (besides social stigma), whereas the Blackfoot were incredibly strict about the place of men and women in society and female purity.

How punishing do you want your character's society to be? Again, the Cherokee had no official consequences for adultery, and the Blackfoot were on the opposite end of the scale with laws such as the right to kill your wife if she was unfaithful. A very commonly documented practice among Plains cultures is physical mutilation of adulteresses: The Comanche would burn or slash your nose, the Creek would cut the nose and/or ears off, and the Apache were also known to do both.

Give me some ideas and I will point you in a direction that will give you the cultures you're looking for.

And remember, please, please remember: you didn't come here to "represent Native Americans." You came here to write a story, and you are in no way shape or form obligated to "represent Native Americans." You aren't their representative. Nobody is. The very notion that someone thinks you need to be prompted to "'represent Native Americans" for simply asking questions and not wanting to staple yourself to a tribe is ridiculous.

Imagine if I said, "I'm thinking about writing a culture that is inspired off of Jewish culture, what are Jewish beliefs on fidelity and promiscuity?" and then someone said, "Well, there are Ashkenazim, Shepardim, and Mountain Jews, to name a few, you absolutely have to pick before I can answer." So I said, "Oh, well, I was just going for Jewish in general," and somehow, somehow that merits the response of, "No! You're wrong! You have to pick! If you don't, you're doomed portray them as greedy hook-nosed blood magicians! Do your research!"

Prompting you to make sure not to "hurt" Native Americans with stereotypes before even remotely knowing what your story is about is an insulting, insulting move that underestimates you and condescends to you as a writer, and offensively suggests that Native Americans as a whole are so fragile that they require somebody to protect them from you writing about them.

Yes, genocide was committed, yes, entire cultures and languages have died or only survive off of the scraps of oral tradition or in some cases just a few paintings by George Catlin. Yes, there are mountains of stereotypes against Native Americans in the media in all languages. We have even had Native American women sterilized without their consent even in the past few years. And yet, it does not magically pre-determine the content of your story! It is not your duty or obligation to write anything for or about Native Americans, and The survivors have their own voices, their own agency, and they certainly don't need an ideologue to protect them from creativity.

Do not let some goon BULLY you into thinking you're not "worthy" of writing this unless you do it the way they sanctioned. You came here to write a story, so by all means, do it, and appropriate the cool parts. As Hitchcock said, "drama is life with the dull bits cut out." Why in blazes would you appropriate the un-cool parts?
  





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Fri Feb 05, 2016 12:15 am
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Snoink says...



Hi EverWinter!

One thing that I always found handy when I was researching different cultures was just looking at their stories (such as creation stories and various folk tales and what have you) to see what kind of culture they were. There are tons of good books out there that have collections of Native American folk tales and stories out there that can give you a neat insight as to the culture. After all, humanity connects with each other through the stories that it tells, and various cultures show off what is important through what they choose to tell the details about!

Here's a website with a whole bunch of stories, just in case you don't want to go to the library! http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legen ... ds-AB.html

Look carefully at their descriptions regarding heroines and what sort of conflicts and struggles they have to endure. So, I've read stories of women going to the other tribe to a new husband, having various suitors that they get to pick, and whatnot. It's interesting! Also, look carefully at the descriptions regarding "evil" women... there are some really interesting ones like that! And then just read the various stories to see how women who aren't really central to the story are portrayed. It'll give a good idea to see how the women are treated and whatnot!

So, just keep your eyes open and, most of all, have fun reading the stories! The stories that have endured have endured for a reason -- they are rather entertaining. :)

Good luck with your writing! :D
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