In The Form Of A Wom Indians And Spaniards In Texas Borderlands By Julianna Barr

1218 Words5 Pages

In Peace Came in the Form of a Woman: Indians and Spaniards in Texas Borderlands, the author Julianna Barr concentrates on the Texas borderlands, where the Spanish and the French settlers came across many indigenous Indian groups. Although she describes the influence of Native American power towards the Europeans, her primary focus is on gender, specifically women and their impact on social and cultural patterns within these tribes. Throughout this academic book, she illustrates the importance of the role of women during the eighteenth century to help achieve some of the intentions that both the Native Americans and Europeans had. Barr introduces the importance of women with a story consisting of the Indian tribe Comanches and the Spaniards. …show more content…

“Because that kinship system was matrilineal, except at the highest levels of leadership, relations grew beyond those of only the elite men who made up leadership ranks and began to involve Caddo women (Barr, 69). “Matrilineal kinship,” was the starting point of producing crops, trading, and creating diplomatic alliances. Women in kinship were the “heads of clans” and “held primary authority in Caddo cultivation,” by controlling the production of agriculture and farming work (Barr, 29). Women contributed mostly to families and the community by hosting “public rituals reinforcing the social basis of kindship” (Barr, 30). They were the glue that held together the relationship between the Caddo communities and the Spanish people. With these rituals, it provided refinement and exchange for people who wanted to trade within the Caddo …show more content…

This was only accomplished because of the importance of the women in the communities. Women became the ideal item to be exchanged between the Indians and the Europeans. As the Spaniards began to realize the importance of the women, women became the symbols for alliance and peace. “Women’s more active participation in intermarriage and hospitality rituals later reemerged in critical ways in different native groups’ “practices of peace”” (Barr, 247). Because the Spanish and the Apache politically used captives for a while, it shaped the way the peace treaties were initiated. Although the Spanish captivity involvement did not go so well with one Indian group, they still were able to agree on some economic exchanges, which led to

Open Document