Wampanoag Family and Marriage

     Family was most important to the Wampanoag people. Clans were made up of the relatives of each family. All members of the family taught the children the skills needed to live. Land was passed down through the family by the mother and was always given to her daughter. The girls were taught how to make clothes, work the fields and how to work around the family wetu which is their oval hut. They would gather fruit, vegetables and nuts for the family. The boys would learn how to be hunters and how to survive in the wilderness to support the family. Children were the center of the clans. Even though boys and girls learned different tasks, these tasks were only split as such for the summer. In the spring and winter time, as a family, the Wampanoags would hunt and fish together.
     Marriage was taken very seriously by the Wampanoags and once you are married, infidelity was not allowed. However, sex was allowed before marriage. Divorce was very common because family ties and clans were more important to the Wampanoag people than martial ties.


Personal Reflection

     Personally after researching about the Wampanoag people I was very surprised about how family roles were assigned. It seems like women have a lot of power in the tribe by basically owning the land. This is interesting to me because many tribes depict the men as superior to women. I also found it absolutely amazing that the women were taught how to hunt and fish and could use those skills with the men during the spring, fall and winter months. I loved how even though there were gender roles, it seemed like anyone in those months could help do all of the chores. On every group of people there is always "known" facts, but this was new and interesting to me because it has always been taught that Native American tribes only had the men hunt and the women gather. These labels are clearly not demonstrated in the Wampanoag tribe and it should not be taught that ALL tribes interact through life the same way as the other groups.
     After reading about the marriages of the Wampanoag, I was surprised that divorces happened. I really did not know anything about marriages in their tribes, but did not think that divorces would have taken place. I thought it was interesting because I had seen clans as close knit and never really separating. I found their beliefs of marriage and sex to be similar to that of Americans because it is very common to have sex before marriage nowadays and to get divorces. I have a lot of respect for the fact that family was more important than relationships. It shows that the Wampanoag put their children first before personal wants or needs.

Resource

Hicks , Jeanne. "Wampanoag Tribes." Last modified 2010. Accessed November 4, 2013. http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jmh4/nativeamerican/wampanoag