Chapter 12

       In Chapter 12, The Worlds of the Fifteenth Century, the most interesting part, in my opinion, was the section on the Iroquois people. Like the Mongols, the Iroquois people were a more progressive people that aren't given the credit that they deserve. "The Iroquois League gave expression to values of limited government, social equality, and personal freedom, concepts that some European colonists found highly attractive" (565). The Iroquois people were an extremely interesting group of people because the equality and respect that they believed in extended to their women, unlike many societies both then and today. The book says, "Such equality extended to gender relationships, for among the Iroquois, descent was matrilineal (reckoned through the woman's line), married couples lived with the wife's family, and women controlled agriculture and property. While men were hunters, warriors, and the primary political officeholders, women selected and could dispose the leaders" (565). It is interesting to see how much this society differs so largely from our own just because instead of marginalizing and oppressing women, they chose to value them and integrate them as important members of society.