ABSTRACT
The relationship between Indigenous peoples and European and Euro-American feminists—and later feminist and gender archaeological research—has a history of its own during the colonial era and the period of postcolonial critique and reconsideration. This chapter elicits how Indigenous gender systems have been used to expand and elaborate feminist theory since the mid-19th century. Indigenous cultures and their social organizations were adopted as models by advocates of the early and the modern movements for women’s rights, and in research throughout feminist and gender archaeological scholarship. These initiatives shed light on various specific aspects of gender and sexuality in Indigenous societies, in order to generate knowledge about alternatives to Western patriarchy and the male/female dichotomy therein.
