The Iroqouis

2 Pages 605 Words

Iroquois

According to the New Webster’s Dictionary the definition of civilization is "a making or becoming civilized; the state of being civilized; the sum or qualities of a particular civilized society" and the definition of culture is "the social and religious structures and intellectual and artistic manifestations etc. that characterize a society." I find these definitions to be easily arguable. The only common word in those two definitions is society, but they are in no way related. I find the two words to be connected but not interchangeable. If I was to write the definitions, I would make the two words more closely related. My definition of civilization would be a community of people who settled in an area whom has also developed a common culture. My definition of culture would be the way a certain society acted and the rituals they performed (i.e. religion, holidays that are observed, language, literature, etc.). Therefore the two words are directly related but are not interchangeable.
The Iroquois Confederacy (or "League of the Iroquois" according to the whites) was thought to have been founded in the 1500’s by the great Mohawk chief, Hiawatha. The confederacy was first made up of five tribes, the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga and Seneca. This gave them the dubbed name of Five Nations. In 1722, the Tuscarora were added to the confederacy and they were then known and the Six Nations. The Five Nations occupied an area in the present day New York, just south of Lake Ontario. The Five Nations numbered about 5,500 native Americans in their confederacy.
In order to organize the affairs of the Nations the "Great Binding Law" was created. The "Great Binding Law" was the confederacy’s constitution. According to one website (http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/DatingIC.html) the confederacy is one of the oldest democracies in the world. The confederacy was thought to be a democracy because, although each tribe wa...