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Southern Methodist University
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Culture and Gender
The Caddo Native Americans contained a culture that consisted of the hunting and gathering dynamic. The males took over the duties of hunting year round, while the young and healthy females were in charge of the gathering of the tribe. Elderly females planted the seeds for the seasons' crop. Gathered materials included corn, sunflowers, beans, melons, tobacco, and squash during the warm seasons and acorns and roots to provide food other than meat in the cold seasons when crops wouldn't grow. While hunting, the men used handcrafted bows and arrows to hunt animals such as wild turkey, quail, wild hogs, rabbits, bears, and buffalo during winter months. Besides the tools for searching for animals, most tools and items were made by females. Females would make wooden mortars, as well as, pots and other utensils out of clay. These wood and clay tools were carved and molded to help with daily jobs like cooking the meals for the tribe. These tools were seen with such importance that men and women were buried with the items that they had made.

The Caddo also had a focus on the decorating of the body. Males favored temporary body modifications such as the painting of skin, jewelry, ear piercing, or hair decorations, like braids, mixed in with bird feathers or animal fur. While the females of the tribe still wore jewelry and styled their hair similarly to males, most females were interested in the art of tattooing the body. Such tattoos covered most of the body, including the face.