In North America there are numerous examples of women belonging to men’s societies. A cursory examination will bring out what were the possible factors at work there. In the Objibwa-Menominee Midewiwin, women are admitted. Now, in the Ojibwa-Menominee culture, women may become shamans as well as men, and the society based on shamans will naturally include both sexes. If there are fewer women than men, this is because fewer women become shamans. In the Winnebago Medicine Dance, wealth and certain requirements possessed by both men and women are the only essentials for admission; and both sexes can accordingly become members. In the present Sore-Eye Dance, women are admitted. Formerly the same society, known as the Night Dance, excluded women. The reason is very simple. Formerly, supernatural communication with the night spirits was essential for membership, and owing to the specific associations attached to these night spirits, women never obtained visions from them. When subsequently it was no more essential to have had a vision, and membership could be purchased by any one, women were admitted. Among the Blackfoot, women are part members of the religious society, because, according to Blackfoot ideas of property, the former have a part in the medicine-bundle of the man. The possession of the medicine-bundle is necessary for admission into the society.[47] It is thus apparent that the explanation for the exclusion of women from a society must lie in a large number of factors, not the least important of which is the nature of the specific ideas of property and the respective spheres of activity of men and women. 4. _Functions of the Society._—Our analysis of the five ceremonies has clearly established the differences in the functions of the societies. To Schurtz these differences were due to developments from one historically primary function. His line of argument is a direct consequence of his assumption that secret societies have developed from the men’s associations.