“We are men”
“We are men”
Native American and Euroamerican Projections of Masculinity During the Seven Years’ War
This chapter examines how discourses of masculinity among British, Americans, and Native Americans during the Seven Years' War informed that conflict. It begins by describing the cultural background of warfare for Native Americans, before turning to their use of masculinity tropes in their dealings with the British during the Seven Years' War. Vast cultural differences divided Indians and Europeans, not only in their technologies, tactics, and motives in warfare, but also in a noticeably dissimilar gendered order of their respective societies. Despite these disparities, Native American expressions of masculinity were readily discernible to the British. Warfare was the near-exclusive domain of men for both peoples, which provided a common reference point for intercultural communication. Both Indian and British men used manly language to reinforce their own identity as warriors and to question the martial capabilities of each other. The British in particular used masculine discourse to project their power among a Native population far from convinced about English claims of conquest during and after the Seven Years' War.
Keywords: British, Americans, Native Americans, masculinity, masculine discourse, Seven Years' War, warfare, intercultural communication
NYU Press Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
