Wine, Women, and Salt

            In both the wine ritual and the salt pilgrimage, I was most drawn to the role that women play. In the Griffin-Pierce reading, women were described as historically important to economic production, because they were responsible for creating baskets, pottery, and other trade items as men focused more on agriculture. While this is an isolated example of the gender dynamics of the Tohono O’Odham, it gave me the impression that women played important roles in their society. It may indeed be true that women are important and respected, especially in regards to their ability to contribute to production, but these readings show that women were treated as inferior in ritual life.

            Women are certainly involved in the wine ritual, but the significant roles are all reserved for men. This distinction bothered me. Waddell and Nabhan both describe women (and children) harvesting the saguaro fruit and turning it into the syrup that eventually becomes wine. From my perspective, this would be considered one of the most important parts of the ritual. If there is no one to actually get the saguaro fruit, the wine cannot be made, and the ceremony cannot take place. There is no evidence in the ritual itself that the hard work women put into making the wine is acknowledged. During the ritual, women dancers must dance behind their male counterparts, and women in the circle must sit behind men. The people leading the ceremony are all men. Women are still allowed to participate by dancing and drinking, but the symbolism of them always remaining behind the men sends a strong message. Waddell additionally notes that if the ritual fails, it could be because a woman contaminated the wine. Blaming them for a failed ritual, on top of not acknowledging the work they put into it, is wrong. This suggests a larger climate of sexism.

            Women are at least allowed to participate in the wine ritual; the salt pilgrimage is exclusive to men, and warns of women as a threat to its success. Men make all new supplies before going on the pilgrimage, to avoid the risk of using anything that encountered a pregnant or menstruating woman. If a man on the pilgrimage even thought of a woman, it was said to delay their journey. This belief that women posed a risk to bringing the rains back, simply by touching a shoe or being thought of, is concerning. Exclusion of women from certain activities is not nearly as extreme as blaming a lack of rain on them. These beliefs paint women as a dangerous group, and reserve all the glory for men.

            All of this is not to discredit or insult the Tohono O’odham rituals, it is simply to acknowledge something that stood out to me. The rituals have been around for much longer than modern concepts of gender equality and feminism, and they were a product of their times and culture. However, my observations brought a very important question to mind. Are Tohono O’odham women systematically oppressed in day to day life to the extent that they are in rituals? Or, are the traditional gender roles amplified in rituals? I am interested to see in our further studies the roles that women play in non-ceremonial aspects of Tohono O’odham life. I wonder if now, in the twenty first century, gender roles could change even in regards to rituals. I do not have strong faith in this, especially since rituals occur less frequently as it is harder and harder to preserve the practices of their ancestors. If women are never allowed to participate in ritual life, because of their historical exclusion and the continued decline of practicing rituals, how can the Tohono O’odham show future generations that women are just as valuable as men?