Please get into pairs (and one group of three), and discuss these two questions:
How does Will Roscoe characterize the relationships between European/Anglo-American and Native American cultures in terms of sexuality/gender as they came into contact over the past 500 years?
Using Roscoe’s terms, which framework works best to describe the encounters between Tim Osborn and Native Americans during the Gold Rush that Susan Johnson describes?
Individually, write a few sentences that summarize your response to the second question.
Compare your response to your partner’s. What do you notice about each other’s response? Pick one that best captures your collective thinking on the issue. Revise it as needed. Post your final response to our blog.
What did you learn by completing this exercise?
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The symbiotic framework represents interactions of genders in the Gold Rush well. When people defined one another according to what were seen as gender differences, they were comparing each other to a standard or their cultural norm. Characteristics and interactions of gender are categorized and exist in relation to one another, whether it is seen as good vs. bad or normal vs. different, or both. Someone cannot be seen as different if a norm does not exist.
ReplyDeleteThe attraction framework also contributes to the summary of interactions in the West because most of the interactions between Osborn and Native Americans are sexual and his labels for them are too. Whether positive or negative, he took the time to interact and define them sexually. Osborn also justified behaviors of the Native Americans, and so the accommodation framework comes into play as well.
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ReplyDeleteTimothy Osborn was a man who wrote "a journal of my own private life" he often talks about the Native women as very beautiful. he loved their beauty but more or less loved their sexuality, it was pure attraction. The idea that women did not wear shirts seemed to be a draw from most men of this era, and because they were white gave them the right to these women. Most of the men who wanted women were attracted to the Native due to the lack of women. At one point only three percent of the population was women, and part of the populations resided in brothels. He was able to engage in these sexual act without consequence.
ReplyDeleteJohnson, while describing the life of Timothy in her piece, links to the Roscoe article quite nicely, Timothy mostly comments to the frame work of attraction on 330, johnson states "Timothy indulged in his erotic curiosity amount Natives without fear or qualms."
We would argue that Tim’s experiences would be described under Roscoe’s concept of attraction because Johnson talks about how Timothy starting to change his notions of propriety. For example, “What is clear, however, is that Timothy Osborn’s infatuation with this “senorita Chilena,” as well as his contact with other Spanish-speaking women in California, prompted him to question notions of propriety he might not have challenged back home.”(Johnson 328) Therefore, We would argue that his experience in the west was altered due to his attraction to these native women and the possibly sexual encounters that occurred. The West was a very new and untamed place. So although there was a sense of desire for the people of other cultures, there was always an amount of secrecy or discretion, and unwillingness to admit that attraction to those that are different, or from a different background other than white. The repression of that attraction is what makes this category stand out. Even though the attraction did take place the fact that not much is really known about it and gives even greater evidence to the category of Repression/Resistance.
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