Wappo Linda Heidenreich Analysis

One of Linda Heidenreich’s main points of analyzing the religious practices of the Wappo is to demonstrate how problematic it is to examine the traditions of a society as an outsider. At the beginning of her analysis Heidenreich prefaces this portion of the chapter with a narrative of a religious ceremony that the reader assumes is some sort of aboriginal ritual. Following this description Heidenreich reveals that the ceremony is actually a Protestant service she witnessed as a child, a service considered “traditional” in Western society. Throughout the rest of the chapter Heidenreich goes on to describe the actual Kuksu religious practices of the Wappo, drawing parallels between the Protestant service she witnessed as a child and the traditions of the Wappo. By doing so Heidenreich argues that the most effective anthropological method …show more content…
Many historians have argued that the traditions of the Protestant church greatly contributed to the male dominated gender relations of the West. Heidenreich emphasizes this with the description of the service that she witnessed as child, “only men could serve as head religious leaders” (Heidenreich 26). Later on Heidenreich parallels this sexism in her description of the practices found in Kusku rituals, “The community had to have a male secret society where there were specific rites that only members could participate in” (Heidenreich 26). Framing the patriarchal practices of the Wappo in the context of the Sexist traditions of Protestant traditions allows for a better understanding of how gender relations functioned in Native Californian society. Considering this enables the reader to understand how males played a more prominent role than females in Native Californian society, similar to the