The Iroquois Confederacy and the Possibility of Heteronomous Democracy

Abstract Cornelius Castoriadis (1922–1997) argues that the project of autonomy appears in only two societies throughout human history: ancient Greece and Western Europe. Is this true? The present study examines the case of the Iroquois Confederacy with the intention of testing Castoriadis’s argument. Using the debate between Castoriadis and the members of mauss as its starting point, it interprets historic Iroquois institutions with reference to what Castoriadis presents as the two inextricably linked conditions of an autonomous society: democracy and philosophy. Ultimately, the essay contends that while Castoriadis justifiably interprets the Iroquois Confederacy as heteronomous, the confederacy’s democratic institutions compel us to doubt the necessary connection he posits between democracy and philosophy. Iroquois society created a heteronomous democracy, a type of polity that Castoriadis’s theory of autonomy occludes.