Lenape Women, Matriliny, and the Colonial Encounter-Resistance and Erosion of Power (c. 1600-1876)

Lenape gender relations are being analyzed during 300 years of colonization - a process of resistance as well as adaptation. The transformation of a matrilineal kinship organization and egalitarian gender relations into a male-dominated agricultural society is linked to the subjugation of the female gender. The erosion of female power is the result of colonial warfare, land loss, the attempts of traders, missionaries and government officials to create native male leaders and a male-centered society and ideology, and of changes in gender relations of production and reproduction.