Final answer:
Gender in the indigenous context before European contact was fluid and less rigid than European patriarchal societies. Women often had significant roles in farming, leadership, and decision-making. Variant gender practices were more accepted, but these traditions were suppressed by European colonization.
Step-by-step explanation:
Prior to contact, gender in the indigenous context was seen as a more fluid and communal aspect of life where roles were not as fixed as in the patriarchal European societies. Indigenous American gender roles often allowed for women to engage in farming, political leadership, and in some cases, perform roles that were traditionally masculine in European cultures. Similarly, variant gender individuals had more freedom to live according to their self-identified gender without facing punishment. Post-contact, European colonization introduced a rigid two-gender system and assimilationist policies that suppressed these traditional gender roles and systems. However, modern movements for LGBTQ rights have helped some rediscover and reclaim these pre-contact gender systems.