This paper attempts to explain the Cherokee kinship structure and how it relates to their courtship and marriage customs. I will define kinship systems and then relate a matrilineal system to the Cherokee people. Next, the connection between the kinship system and marriage, divorce, and inheritance will be shown. Finally, I will address courtship customs and marriage ceremonies with a real life example. A glossary of terms is provided in Appendix B.
There are two basic types of kinship systems seen when studying North American Indians. The first is a matrilineal or Crow type system and the second is a patrilineal or Omaha type system. Since the Southeastern Indians followed a form of the Crow type system, this is the one which shall be addressed.
The main characteristic of a Crow type system "is found in the descent pattern from the father's sister, whereby the father's sister's female descendants through females are classed with the father's sister, and her male descendants through females are classed with the father" (Spoehr 164). Most studies show a modified Crow type pattern of descent with the Southeastern Indians. From Gilbert's study of the Eastern Cherokee, it seems that originally they followed a straight Crow system. The Eastern Cherokee still show this pattern, which makes them the closest living example of aboriginal descent patterns left in the Southeast.
In a matrilineal system, relatives are only traced through the female side of the family. Kinship diagrams use the following symbols to make this relationship easier to follow: a triangle denotes a male; a circle denotes a female; a horizontal line shows brother sister relationships; a vertical line shows parent-child relationships; and an equal sign shows a marriage relationship. An individual, designated as Ego, is used as a starting point. Ego is usually male. Ego's matrilineal "blood" relatives are shown in Figure 1. Notice that Ego's male relatives are not considered "blood" relatives. This includes his own male children (Hudson 186).
The Cherokee kinship system is organized around the social unit of the clan. Gilbert presented the following explanation of Cherokee kinship terminology from the view point of a male Ego. The corresponding kinship diagram is presented in Figure 2 with an explanation presented in Table 1.
My father I call gidada. I also say gidada when speaking to my father's brothers, and to any member of my father's clan who is a male. When I speak to my father's sister, or to any female belonging to his clan, I say giloki. My father and his clan must be respected by me, and I can never joke with them or be on familiar terms with them. I must defend my father and his clan from all disparaging attacks from others. My mother I call gidzi. I also say gidzi when speaking to my mother's sisters or to any woman of my clan who marries someone of my father's clan. I and my mother have always the same clan since I inherit my clan from her. In fact, all of my brothers and sisters inherit the same clan as I do from my mother. I distinguish my mother's brother by the term gidudji. My sister I call ungida. She calls me ungida too. I call any woman of my own clan ungida, except those whom I call gidzi ("mother") and gilisi ("grandmother"). My older brother I call unkinili, and my younger brother I call unkinutsi. For protection, my sister looks to me, and I look to my older brother. My sister calls her sister ungilu'i and does not distinguish older from younger. All the male members of my clan who are older than I am, I call unkinili, except those whom I call gidudji, and those who are younger than myself I call unkinutsi. I am on terms of familiarity with all of them and can play all sorts of tricks on them. In speaking of ourselves my brothers, sisters, and myself call ourselves otsolinudji, "we brothers and sisters." My son or daughter I call agwetsi. I also call the son or daughter of any of my brothers agwetsi, but my sister's son and daughter I call ungiwina' and ungwatu ("nephew" and "niece"). My own children are of my wife's clan, and I have to respect them. I can joke with sister's children, however, since they are of my own clan. My son's son I call unginisi, but my son's daughter and my daughter's son and daughter I call ungilisi. I also call my sister's son's son unginisi, but her son's daughter and her daughter's son and daughter I call ungilisi. I always joke with and tease both my ungilisi and unginisi. My father's father I call ginisi, and although I ought to respect him I don't. I call my father's father's brothers ginisi also and always joke with and play with them. My father's mother and my mother's mother and their sisters I call gilisi, "grandmother," and I can joke and play with them. My mother's father and his brothers I call gidudu, and I am on terms of familiarity with them also. (289-91)
In the Cherokee kinship system there are four important lineages: the father's matrilineal, the mother's matrilineal, the mother's father's matrilineal, and the father's father's matrilineal. These four lineages parallel the four fundamental clans that make up an individual's most important relationships (Gilbert 295). These clan relationships control all social interaction including marriage, choice of teams in ball games, and inheritance of property.
The matrilineal structure was the basis for the social organization of the Cherokee. Gilbert observed the following effective social units in the Cherokee: the band, the clan, the town, and the household (Gilbert 286). We will look at the structure of the clan and its importance in controlling the social behavior of the tribe. Hudson gives us the following definition of a clan: "A clan was category of people who believed themselves to be blood relatives, but who could not actually trace their relationships to each other through known ancestral links" (191). The kinship terms discussed above apply to the entire clan. It is easy to see that you can refer to a great number of people with only a few terms.
The Cherokee are divided into seven clans. Sources differ slightly on the names of the clans but never on the number. The difference in the names appears to be in the translation and in the choice of phonetic spelling. Table 2 lists the English clan name, the names reported by Brown, the names reported by Gilbert, and the names used by the Eastern Cherokee today. Plate 1 is a graphic representation of these clans and includes the clan names in the Cherokee language. This illustration came from a post card printed in 1993 by Cherokee Publications in Cherokee North Carolina.
Cherokee clans are each related to a particular animal, plant, or object, making them totemic. For example, people of the Deer clan are descended from a spiritual deer ancestor and will exhibit characteristics of the deer. This was difficult for white men to comprehend. In an attempt to explain the Cherokee way of life, Elias Boudinot wrote the following article in The Cherokee Editor on February 18, 1829:
This simple division of the Cherokees formed the grand work by which marriages were regulated, and murder punished. A Cherokee could marry into any of the clans except two, that to which his father belongs, for all of that clan are his fathers and aunts and that to which his mother belongs, for all of that clan are his brothers and sisters, a child invariably inheriting the clan of his mother. (Perdue 107)
Gilbert lists the following relationships as the most important an individual maintains during their lifetime: "(1) child to parent, (2) brother to sister, (3) grandchild to grandparent, (4) husband to wife, (5) parent to child, and (6) grandparent to grandchild" (318). The matrilineage and the clan were the most important structures of the family. These structures truly defined the family unit.
When Strickland was assembling his social postulates of the Cherokee, the following showed the importance of the clan:
Cherokee clans and lineages were exogamous, meaning that you could not marry someone of your own lineage or clan (Hudson 193). Marriages were contracts between clans that ensured the continued success of the clans. Some of the Southeastern tribes practiced a custom of a widower marrying his dead wife's sister, the sororate, or a widow marrying her dead husband's brother, the levirate. The Cherokee did not enforce this type of social structure (Spoehr 207). Polygyny was also an accepted practice with the Cherokee. Men generally married sisters, however, in order to keep peace within the family and the clan (Hudson 109).
As we have already seen, marriage was not necessarily a permanent state. In fact, the "Cherokee word for husband meant literally, `the man I am living with'" (McLoughlin 13). Either party had the right to end a marriage at any time. Since the family lived in the wife's town, the man generally moved back to his own town. The matrilineal clan system guaranteed that a woman had family to help her raise her children. For a woman to divorce a man she simple put his things outside her house (McLoughlin 13).
Children belonged to the clan of the mother and as such inherited through the matrilineal line. A woman owned the property, the house, and the fields that she tended (Swanton 703). A man could not take these away from her.
Kinship dictated who an individual could and could not marry. Hudson points out that male Cherokee had rather free relationships with their "grandmothers" and often ended up marrying their "grandmother." This makes sense if you realize that all the females in the father's father's clan and the mother's father's clan are called "grandmother" (193).
When ego starts to look for a mate, a girl's clan affiliation is the major consideration. "Theoretically, in his own generation ego can marry either (1) the father's father's sister's daughter's daughter, (2) the mother's father's sister's daughter's daughter, or (3) the mother's mother's brother's children's daughters (Gilbert 321). Marriages were arranged by the female member of both clans, but the head men or chiefs were often consulted (Swanton 703).
When Gilbert studied the Eastern Cherokee he observed a pattern that he considered preferential mating. He defined preferential mating as "the prescription by law or custom of certain favorable types of marriage which become, by sanction of long social usage, unquestioned and unalterable" (Gilbert 310). The Cherokee kinship system seemed to insure marriage with one's "grand-parents" and restricted mating to "one's father's father's or mother's father's clans" (Gilbert 296).
According to Brown, when a young man had chosen a girl he wished to marry he killed a deer and brought a portion of it to her house. If she wanted to marry him, she cooked the deer and offered it to him. If she did not want to marry him, she simply let the deer lie untouched. The man would have to retrieve the deer and choose another mate (18). Gilbert relates the same sequence except that the young man left a sack of corn by her door that she would pound into flour and bake into bread if she wanted to marry him (302). This courtship took place after the women of both clans had agreed to the match. This ceremony allowed the girl the option of rejecting the chosen mate.
The marriage itself took place after the acceptance of the courtship ceremony. The age of consent was fifteen for girls and seventeen for boys, but was not strictly adhered to (Gilbert 302). The marriage ceremony itself was simple. Both families, the chief and the tribal council all gathered together. The girl brought an ear of corn, signifying her ability to provide bread, and the boy brought a piece of deer, signifying his ability to provide meat. A brief ceremony was followed with a feast and dancing. Both families generally gave gifts to the couple to start their new life (Cromer 139).
Major Ridge was one the principal chiefs when the Cherokee were removed to Oklahoma. The following is a recounting of his courtship and marriage (Ehle 51). It should be noted that the reference to "female `chastity' as the supreme virtue of womanhood was new to the Cherokees but fundamental for obtaining the respect of the white man, who both created the crime and set the standard" (McLoughlin 334).
Ridge went courting in the traditional way. First he had prepared himself for a hunt; he found a deer and silently asked it for permission to kill it, then he shot it with his rifle, which he had taken in a raid. He dressed the deer and selected the parts he wanted: two for his hungry brothers and sisters; one roast for the neighbors, who helped take care of the family while he was warring; and the saddle of the deer for her, Sehoya, also called Susanna Wickett. He left the remainder of the carcass for the wolves. He packed the meat in the deerhide and carried it to the village. At dusk he carried the saddle to Susanna's home, arriving unannounced, and offered his gift to her mother, who knew at once its significance. Susanna came from the darkness inside the house, moving shyly, without daring even to let him see her eyes, and invited him indoors, where she, as coaxed and coached by her proud mother, cooked a bit of the best part of the tenderloin for Ridge to eat, her brothers and sisters waiting, watching, whispering, giggling with delight and surprise. Never more than a glance at him would Susanna allow herself, and a nervous smile. Flushed, pleased, embarrassed by cooking meat for him, she accepted him as her suitor. One requirement for their courtship was to seek the opinion of a shaman. The oldest of the village shamans sat them down and performed a simple tobacco ceremony, making a test for witches and other afflictions, and after chants he pronounced them acceptable as partners. Ridge was feted by his male friends, a ceremonial meal in a house near the town's council house, featuring jokes and instruction and much hilarity, with hints and promises of the pleasures awaiting him and warning of his awkwardness. Susanna was a high-spirited young lady, and pretty, and had been properly chaperoned and protected, so there would be an immediate release at the moment of opening her body, which experienced men told him might be more joyous than he could cope with. Nearby in another house, Susanna was being prepared in less rowdy manner, she also feted with her favorite foods and waited on by other young ladies not yet married. After the feasts the male guests took places inside the council house; the women guests entered and stood across from them. Attendants led Ridge into the council house, where he stood with his attendants. Susanna entered and was escorted to the other side of the room. One of Ridge's aunts, taking the part his mother would have played, brought him a venison roast and a blanket, gifts for sustenance and comfort. Susanna's mother slowly approached the girl; she gave her an ear of corn and a blanket. The relatives returned to their places, and slowly, a step at a time, Ridge and Susanna approached each other, she daringly looking into his eyes now. She took the blanket from him and folded it with her own, then gave him the corn, and he handed to her the roast. The town's main chief came forward and joyously announced "the blankets joined."
Hudson felt that you could not understand the social life of the Southeastern Indians without understanding their kinship system (184). I have attempted to explain the Cherokee kinship structure and how it controlled their marriage customs. The kinship system was the basis for all social interaction and determined who a person could or could not marry. Marriage was more of a contract between clans than between people and was not necessarily permanent. Understanding their kinship system you can understand how they looked at the world.
Source: Haviland, William A. Anthropology. 7th ed. 1974. Fort Worth: Harcourt, 1994.
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| Last Updated: January 12, 1997 |
