Population numbers increased fairly quickly for two or three centuries after the widespread adoption of maize, squash and beans, but by the fifteenth century they had levelled off. The Jesuits later reported how Iroquoian women were careful to space their births, setting optimal population to the fish and game capacities of the region, not its potential agricultural productivity. In this way the cultural emphasis on male hunting actually reinforced the power and autonomy of Iroquoian women, who maintained their own councils and officials and whose power in local affairs at least was clearly
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