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following information was taken
directly from the following source:
Center
for the Study of the Southwest
at Southwest Texas University
Windows to the Unknown:
Cabeza de Vaca's Journey
to the Southwest
I.
Introduction
The
Center for the Study of the Southwest
at Southwest Texas State University
and The Witte Museum in San Antonio
are currently engaged in a joint
project funded by a planning grant
from the National Endowment for
the Humanities that draws from
the resources of the two institutions:
1. SWT's rare 1555 edition
of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca's
La Relación and 2. the Witte's
numerous artifacts from European
and native cultures with whom
Cabeza de Vaca was associated;
to present an integrated public
program at both sites. The purpose
of this planning grant is to design
a joint program that will piece
together the still tantalizing
and often puzzling parts of the
story of Cabeza de Vaca (1490?-1557?),
the first account of a European
in the "new world" before
it was irrevocably altered by
more Europeans, by horses, and
by introduced diseases. This program
exemplifies the truly interdisciplinary
nature of studying the past; bringing
anthropology, history, and literature
together by focusing on one of
the most compelling stories of
survival and intercultural accommodation
in North America, a story still
fresh after almost 500 years.
The
text of the Relación of Alvar
Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca is his narrative
of the ill-fated 1527 Narváez
expedition. He describes the shipwreck
of the expedition on the coast
of Florida and his landing on
an island near what is now the
Texas coast. To supplement and,
perhaps, at times to challenge
this narrative, The Witte will
present artifacts of the Indian
population living during this
time, small family bands of hunter-gatherers
scattered throughout Southwest
that have now disappeared. Combining
remnants of this culture with
the Cabeza de Vaca narrative will
allow the University and the Museum
to present an intriguing account
of what it may have been like
in the Southwest at the time of
this extraordinary encounter.
Archeologists, ethnographers,
ethno botanists, and environmental
historians offer their sometimes-divergent
versions of the Southwest 500
years ago and Cabeza de Vaca¹s
literary account offers magnificent
detail and his own interpretation
of Indian culture and flora and
fauna of this area. The process
of how we interpret what life
could have been like, using all
the interpretive tools possible;
texts, artifacts, and archeological
analysis will be the original
and provocative nature of this
project.
A
rare complete copy of the 1555
Relación is a central text in
the Southwest Writers Collection
of the SWT library. Probably the
earliest text about exploration
of the Americas, the Relación
introduces themes to which later
American history and texts return
again and again: the meeting and,
often, clashing of cultures; slavery;
captivity; wonder and fear at
the vastness of the American landscape.
The narrative provides an opportunity
to examine the assumptions and
responses of an early European
among native peoples of the Southwest,
struggling (he claims) to be a
good Spanish subject, to be a
Christian, and simply to survive.
Cabeza de Vaca's observations
on native bands' cultural practices,
child-rearing, eating, religious
beliefs, and interactions with
the landscape provide anthropologists,
biologists, historians, political
scientists, geologists, and literary
scholars with a wealth of information
and suggest his story¹s historical,
anthropological, and literary
significance.
However,
different disciplines' analyses
of the story's importance vary
from one other; each finds value
in different parts of the text,
and different disciplines reach
dissimilar, sometimes contradictory
conclusions. When placed beside
the numerous artifacts of European
and native peoples at The Witte
Museum, the narrative will help
us look in a comprehensive way
at the continuing puzzle of Cabeza
de Vaca; the first example of
distinct people learning to live
together in the Southwest. A unified
program about Cabeza de Vaca¹s
encounter with native peoples
will allow the public to step
through windows into the past
and help clarify as much as possible;
not only the details about an
important historical figure¹s
life and the time in which he
lived but will also help us understand
some of the basic aspects of the
human condition; adapting to the
unknown to survive and responding
to another, radically different
culture. In essence, Cabeza de
Vaca's story of intercultural
accommodation is the foundation
of the Southwest, which has a
continuing history even today
based on clash and cooperation
of different cultures.
By
combining the expertise of Southwest
Texas State University and The
Witte Museum, we are planning
a provocative project that will
bring artifacts from two important
institutions less than an hour¹s
drive from one another before
the public. By focusing on a major
historical figure and by using
objects and texts left us by the
cultures involved, we will cross-disciplinary
boundaries to extend understanding
of Southwestern history, particularly
the cultural accommodations that
have defined and challenged the
Southwest for over 500 years.
Table
of Contents
By
Dan Flores
Position
Paper on Cabeza de Vaca Project
By
William H. Goetzmann
Artifacts,
Archaeology and Cabeza de Vaca
in Southern Texas and Northeastern
Mexico
By
Thomas R. Hester, The University
of Texas at Austin
The
Problem of Conquest: Revisited
A
Revised Discussion by Charles
W.Polzer, S.J.
Questions
About Cabeza de Vaca for Comment
Cabeza
de Vaca's Observations of Native
American Lifeways:
Correspondences
in the Archaeological Record of
the Texas Coast
By
Robert A. Ricklis
The
Mitchell Ridge Site, Galveston
Island
Points
of Agreement Between Cabeza de
Vaca's Narrative and the Mitchell
Ridge Data
Archaeological
Correlates of Cabeza de Vaca's
Assessment of Inter-Group Relations
along the Central Coastal Prairies
of Texas
Response
to Cabeza de Vaca's Narratives
in Regard to Healing Methods and
His Role as a Folk Healer as Compared
with Three Curanderos (A Position
Paper)
By
Eliseo Torres, The University
of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New
Mexico
Alvar
Nunez Cabeza de Vaca: Pioneer
historian, Ethnologist, Physican
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