Amerindian war and religion in the Eastern Woodlands of North America, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

ABSTRACT This article focuses on violent conflict among indigenous groups in the Eastern Woodlands of North America from the seventeenth to the late eighteenth century. Amerindian groups struggled here against European domination and among themselves for various reasons. However, warfare was conceived in spiritual and religious terms and remained a highly ritualized affair. With their long and intense history of martial interaction and the prominent role of women in the war complex, the Iroquoian Amerindians of the Eastern Woodlands are an interesting case of collective violence in non-state societies. In contrast to many stratified pre-industrial societies, neither war nor religion had to legitimize domination by an elite class. Both spheres were individual, kinship, or communal affairs. But religious beliefs played a role in motivating and justifying raids and warfare, which were sanctified by the need to satisfy the souls of dead kinsmen. Failure to avenge a relative’s death meant provoking the wrath of the deceased’s soul. The torture and killing of captives was often a sacrifice to deities and a means to renew the spiritual strength of lineages, clans and villages. While Iroquois women did not go on the war path themselves, the female elders of the clans had, in contrast to most other societies, a say on issues of war and peace and female relatives played a crucial role in instigating raids in revenge for killed relatives. Beyond this, they actively participated in the ritual torture of captives.