La Vere Columbian Exchange Analysis

In 1492 Christopher Columbus set sail across the Atlantic from Spain with the intention of getting to India in search of spice. However, he landed in the Americas under the impression that he was in India, and so, he called the inhabitants Indians when in truth and fact they weren’t. It is believed by most experts that the Indians originated from Northeast Asia and others believe that they came from different parts of Asia.
The topic of this passage, in a nutshell, is the way of life of the Native Americans of Texas. La Vere seeks to explore the various cultures of the Natives and to expound on the account given by the Europeans in order to paint a full picture of how everyday life was in the communities. What was told by the Europeans
was not enough to fully describe of the vast cultures they that developed and was continuously changing.
La Vere’s main idea is to show how distinctive family structures, kinship networks and gender roles were developed by the various tribes. He also aims to show the unity of their private and public lives in contrast with that of the Europeans of that time.
Indian societies were mainly divided into hunting and farming societies with the exception of fishing.
“Whether one was a hunter or gatherer shaped how one acted in society and even whom one considered as relatives.” The family structural patterns were determined by geographical and tribal circumstances and these systems consisted of both nuclear and extended family members. Many hunting societies were patrilocal meaning that a man took his bride from outside his society and brought her into his family. As a result, new blood was able to come into the family. In this society, men, including fathers, sons and brothers, did majority of the hunting. In agricultural societies, most of the farming were done by women including mothers, daughters and sisters. Therefore, farming societies were matrilocal meaning that a woman took her groom from outside and brought him into her family. This happened because it would be unwisely to break up the farming teams formed by the women since they provided majority of the sustenance and the farms were very productive. Patrilineal families had close relations with the fathers’ family while matrilineal families had close relations with the mothers’ family and because male hunters were very important most families were
patrilineal.
“All Indians were surrounded by a host of kin.
How they interacted with their kin was determined by many things, including the person’s gender, age, whether they lived in a patrilineal or matrilineal society, clan membership, family connections, and certain well-known demands and taboos.” Many of the Texan Indian societies operated on kinship principle. One was forbidden to marry in their clan since everyone within that clan was kin. This included cousins, uncles, aunts, grandparents, etc. It was expected of every kin to take care of kin. By this kinship, they could depend on others during time of need. The obligations within this system were very important because to the Indians it meant a difference between “life and death”. A kinsperson duty might be to provide food, shelter and protection, while in some cases, a man might even have to share his wife with his brother and a woman, her husband with her sister. All these obligations had to be done willingly and this system stressed on sharing, family and
community.
“All Indian peoples of Texas, whether farmers or hunter-gatherers, divided labor in various ways. At the most basic, a division existed between women and men.” Both men and women roles shared equal importance within the societies. Majority of the household chores were done by the women regardless of which society they were a part of. In the hunting societies, while the men were hunting, the women were doing sustenance farming. They provided a large amount of the food. Women were responsible for gathering food, cooking, collecting firewood, weaving baskets and mats, making household items and clothing, tilling the fields, planting, harvesting and, of course, child rearing. All of the men were hunters. They fought in wars, discussed community issues. The men were very competitive and so they took part in a lot of games in order to attract women. Additionally, they were involved in religion and diplomacy.
The Native Americans developed a wide amount of cultures but underneath they shared the same values. Regardless of their different cultures, unlike the Europeans, they believed that private and public lives were an entity. For instance, they didn’t believe in private ownership of land. The land of one was the land of all. Additionally, in the European culture, women didn’t do as much manual labor as the Indian women and so, to them, it seemed that the Indian men had all the power while the women did all the work. A lot was misinterpreted or simply overlooked because the European culture allowed them to see the Texas Indian culture “through the lenses of their own culture” when in truth, it wasn’t entirely so.

References
Vere, D. L. (2010). Before 1492 Native Americans of the Southwest. In D. Cavallo, Private Lives/Public Moments (pp. 1 - 12). New Jersey: Pearson Education,Inc.