Markers of Difference or Makers of Difference? Atypical Practices at Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Satellite Sites, ca. 1650–1700

Abstract

This article examines social pluralism within politically autonomous 17th-century Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) communities. Haudenosaunee groups are known to have incorporated significant numbers of outsiders by processes of individual and group adoption. This article assesses the dynamics of social difference by looking at atypical practices in satellite communities in Seneca, Cayuga, and Mohawk territories. While previous scholars equated such practices with the presence of outsiders, atypical practices and the identities and labor relations associated with them are worth considering in a more fluid sense. Who would have continued, discontinued, or adopted practices that stood out from those of the majority? What sort of social roles or inequities went along with these sorts of distinctions? Documentary and archaeological data from these satellite communities suggest that social difference was pronounced in mortuary ritual, but muted in domestic settings, and that these differences were unlikely to reflect substantial social inequality.