Analysis Of The Women's Lodge

The scholarly article The Women’s Lodge: Constructing Gender on the Nineteenth- Century Pacific Northwest Plateau written by Mary C. Wright describes the cultural significance behind the existence of women’s lodges in the nineteenth century Plateau region of North America. Wright begins her essay by providing background information on the lodges. As described in the article, women’s lodges were shelters built by indigenous women in the outskirts of their communities and served as a setting where women would give birth and spend time in during their menstrual period. Wright has composed her essay with references to several sources, particularly from testimonies from the 1970s provided by First Nations women. Essentially, the central theme of Wright’s article is gender construction which is portrayed through the activities carried out by the indigenous people. Wright’s main thesis revolves around the argument that the secularization of the women’s lodge should not be seen as a method of oppression, but as a significant factor that helps shape the gender roles of Plateau women. To prove her proposition, Wright comments on three particular factors of

According to Wright, the indigenous people regarded blood as a sacred fluid in which one’s life and spirit is present in. Therefore, for the First Nations, one way to respect the fluid was to take care of it in a formal way, which the women did during their times in the lodges. The menses would be carefully taken care of, usually kept inside the lodge and buried in a hole. Wright also mentions that blood was sacred to both genders as males also underwent specific blood rituals during their puberty training. Boys would make cuts on their legs to let blood flow out of their bodies. Since these rituals were performed by both men and women, Wright argued that gender was not the reason for seclusion, the sacredness of blood