Writings by Cabeza de Vaca

Paper Summary:

This paper focuses on how Ivar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca's "The Relation of Ivar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca" has historical significance by providing examples from the text and citing outside sources. This paper shows how important de Vaca's book is as he gives his account of the lives of the Indian tribes in the 1500s. Since these Indians had an oral tradition instead of a written one, information about these tribes, and especially the role of women within these tribes, would not exist today without de Vaca's book.

From the Paper:

"Unlike many other cultures in that time, women had a voice and held some power in their society, making them more equal in power with men than in other cultures. Many traders were women as "women of several native groups performed roles as traders, guides, and peacemakers" (Wade 339). Essentially, de Vaca was a man doing women's work, but it showed him moving from one role to another. This knowledge is important because it shows the roles that the women and men had in their culture and "the flexibility of the native social structure of groups classified as gathering and hunting societies" (Wade 339)."

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