ABSTRACT
The cultural uniqueness of the Iroquoian-speaking peoples of northeastern North America was obvious at contact, and its explanation has remained a focus of Iroquoianist research through the current century, with many different hypotheses proffered. We present here a preliminary version of an historicalcontextual explanation of that uniqueness, which posits the Iroquois as part of a socio-economic system larger than has been considered previously by Iroquoianist scholars.
