Revising the standard narrative of European-Indian relations in America; Juliana Barr reconstructs a world in which Indians were the dominant power and Europeans were the ones forced to accommodate; resist; and persevere. She demonstrates that between the 1690s and 1780s; Indian peoples including Caddos; Apaches; Payayas; Karankawas; Wichitas; and Comanches formed relationships with Spaniards in Texas that refuted European claims of imperial control.Barr argues that Indians not only retained control over their territories but also imposed control over Spaniards. Instead of being defined in racial terms; as was often the case with European constructions of power; diplomatic relations between the Indians and Spaniards in the region were dictated by Indian expressions of power; grounded in gendered terms of kinship. By examining six realms of encounter--first contact; settlement and intermarriage; mission life; warfare; diplomacy; and captivity--Barr shows that native categories of gender provided the political structure of Indian-Spanish relations by defining people's identity; status; and obligations vis-a-vis others. Because native systems of kin-based social and political order predominated; argues Barr; Indian concepts of gender cut across European perceptions of racial difference.
#1645174 in Books The University of North Carolina Press 2003-09-29Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.21 x .64 x 6.14l; .98 #File Name: 0807854794304 pages
Review
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. Review and additional dataBy Laurence DaleyLa Rosa Corzo; Gabino (translated by Mary Todd) [1988] 2003 Runaway Slave Settlements in Cuba: Resistance and Repression University of North Carolina Press; Chapel HillThis is an excellent book; but not unflawed. One can be a little put off by the author's acerbic criticism of previous authors' use of oral histories especially since he uses such in his own book. However one must also recognize the need of the author given his location and circumstance to occasionally mouth the official Castro "socialist" line; and take the approved side in the African-Indigenous Cuban Siboney conflict. Such a stance is necessary to allow him access to Cuban government archives; and keep his job. Below I discuss some other minor quibbles of mine.Mary Todd's translations are at times a little in accurate; e.g. apparently translating "guano" frond palm roofing as fan-palm thatch. However; as in the case of the author Dr. Todd has done an excellent job and as such should be congratulated.Overall this is a very valuable book; and it has taught me much. I did not know about Cuban history.All this asideFigure 15; pp. 94-95 in paper back edition; show a detailed map of Don Benjamin's holdings between the Bayamo and the Guisa Rivers. This figure illustrates the 1848 "escaped slave hunting" raids of Eduardo Busquet and Antonio Lora.One can note; all though I did not see it in this book; that in the Cuban güajiro vernacular palenque can also be the enclosure; the arena or cockpit; inside the valla the cockfighting hut; where the gamecocks fight (Lionel Daley; personal communication 2005). This of course relates to the karst rock "cockpit" country in Jamaica where the Maroons; or groups of escaped slaves of Jamaica held corresponding sway. Maroon of course is derived from the Spanish Cimarrón.I can interpret this map to show a "palenque'' (escaped slave settlements that were to fortified variable extent and are considered African in Origin) indicated as open square on the map and placed in a postion corresponding to the height of a cliff of the west side of the Guamá River (the one that flows south the join the Bayamo River) perhaps a few hundred yards from Paso Caimanes; another coming up what is now El Banqueo del Oro as closed triangle supposedly at the height of the Bayamesa. However; since this first site is too close to the house of Don Benjamin; it is very possible that the site of the first camp was a few miles further south; up the Arroyón Valley which has a hidden stream (TÃo Mingo Stream). Even so the relatively close location of either of these sites implies a relationship between these Cimarrón and Don BenjamÃn RamÃrez.The third camp (closed triangle) is at the origins of the Guamá del Sur Torrent; however this map does not show that the Guamá River also rises further south than the Guamá del Sur Torrent. This location is approximately the place where Great grandfather Mambà Colonel Don BenjamÃn RamÃrez (Rondón) prefect of the zone in the Ten Year War held camp. And if this is so this is place where Great Grandmother Leonela Enamorado Cabrera met about 1873 Mayor General Calixto Ramón GarcÃa-Iñiguez and conceived grandfather Mambà (War of 1895) Brigadier General to be Calixto (GarcÃa-Iñiguez) Enamorado [...]. It may also; with less certainty; be the place where Carlos Manuel de Cespedés was deposed as President of the Cuban Independence Movement.Notice with great care the rivers at the head of the Bayamo; El Oro; La Plata y los Diablos. The Bayamito and Guamá Torrents to the South; once marked the south western and so eastern boundaries of Don BenjamÃn's land. Notice this map also shows Arroyón; the largest tributary of the lower Guamá; not the Tio Mingo Stream) and the Chorrerón or Salto de Guamá (unlabelled) and the Los Horneros (also unlabeled) where Francisco Maceo Osorio died of fever soon after the Céspedes trial.This could be taken to indicate that the Cimarróns or escaped slaves had strong connections to the Siboney of the area; and fits the known fact that many members of both ethnicities participated in the Wars of Independence against Spain. The author on the other hand while he does mention some links and allows inference of other; perhaps because of ideological reasons does not tie the Cimarrón as close to the Siboney (TaÃno; Island Arawak) as is indicated by Jose Barreiro's photographs of modern TaÃno might justify.;The book also mentions the tradition of dispersion of rural housing in the area; some tactics and the use of what are now known as "punji": sticks in guerrilla defense.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Well doneBy Ken McCarthyIf you're interested in this subject this is an extremely well done scholarly treatment of it. Thorough analysis of the available historical records. Sheds like on the truth about slavery in Cuba and elsewhere. There was resistance and in some cases; it was successful as escapees created - and protected - their own free communities beyond the reach of the slavery industry.
