A few other problem areas occur when one uses particular concepts to address a culture, such as "development" and "advanced culture." In the case of Iroquois culture, U.S. citizens may be inclined to judge the Iroquois as an advanced culture, since they could farm the land and had a form of government structure between the cultures (keep in mind that the term Iroquois describes a group of tribes, not any particular one). But one can see that the term "advanced culture" comes from an ethnocentric standpoint. One might also

"label" as society as "developing," but development can be defined as progress toward a goal, a higher society. This is also a pitfall in anthropology, provided that one does not understand ethnocentrism. What must be realized is that the study of ancient cultures would be more objective if ethnocentrism did not exist. However, it would also be much harder to study and understand a culture if it could not be compared in some way to one's own.

The Iroquois culture and the corresponding timeline can be crudely divided into two periods: life before contact with European settlers, and life after contact. The term "crudely" is used because blame for events that occur is not to be placed on the settlers. This division is also made because life for the Iroquois changed drastically after European contact. Iroquois nations found themselves competing for the goods the settlers offered. The settlers also brought with them diseases that the Iroquois had never been exposed to. Consequently, many nations suffered enormous losses simply because their bodies did not have immunity to these new diseases. One could say the Iroquois were enlightened by this new interaction with the settlers, but at what cost? In some Iroquois villages, nearly half the population was lost to disease. Much of what the settlers had to offer the Iroquo

Some common words found in the essay are:
Iroquois Culture, Tradition Iroquois, Iroquois Diseases, iroquois culture, advanced culture, one's own, society rituals traditions, society rituals, rituals traditions, european settlers, life contact, government structure, diseases iroquois,
Approximate Word count = 899
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)