Speaker: Gunlög Fur (Linnaeus University)

Abstract: In the mid-eighteenth century Delaware, or Lenape, Indian people were sometimes referred to in diplomatic negotiations between English colonists and Indian peoples as "a nation of women." This presentation looks at changing ideas of gender and identity among the Delawares from the mid-seventeenth through the eighteenth century as they encountered waves of migrating peoples and colonists into their territory along the eastern coast of North America. I discuss the process of writing a gender history by focusing on the possibilities and limits of colonial archives, the need to apply a gender perspective on historiography, and end with suggesting how Delaware experiences and thinking on gender contributes to the development of theory in history.

Discussants:

Meleisa Ono-George (Modern Records Centre)

David Lambert (History)

Chair: Laura Schwartz (History)

Co-sponsored by IAS, the Social Theory Centre, the Feminist Theory Reading Group (History) and the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender