Revised Course Schedule
Here is the updated course schedule for the rest of the semester. Please note that we will be reading Kemble Knight, Byrd, and Edwards for the Monday after spring break.
Here is the updated course schedule for the rest of the semester. Please note that we will be reading Kemble Knight, Byrd, and Edwards for the Monday after spring break.
Cabeza de Vaca’s accounts of living with the Native Americans for nine years gives a positive spin on Native Americans which is surprising to see in early exploration literature. Through all the killing and gore that he included I could easily see he did really think of Native Americans as more humanistic epically being put side by side with Columbus’s early writing on Native Americans, where he considered them much more like barbaric savages. One can easily understand Cabeza de Vaca’s thoughts on the Native Americans, considering he spent nine years with them and had no contact with his European culture. He really had no other choice in being so excepting because he was dependent on them for such a long period of time. He even shows in his writing that he takes on traits of their culture, like when he was running around naked in the wilderness. Although this account is not completely tolerant of the Native American culture I do respect Cabeza de Vaca for attempting to show the Europeans that they are much like themselves.