8/11/2019 Jones, Kristine
1/18
The merican Society for Ethnohistory
Nineteenth Century British Travel Accounts of ArgentinaAuthor(s): Kristine L. JonesSource: Ethnohistory, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Spring, 1986), pp. 195-211Published by: Duke University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/481774.
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2/18
ETHNOHISTORY
3(2):195-211
NINETEENTH
CENTURY
BRITISH TRAVEL ACCOUNTS
OF ARGENTINA
Kristine
L.
Jones
Bowdoin
College
Abstract
Standardized
epictions
of an ahistorical"Indian"
n
nineteenth
entury
ravelac-
countsof
Argentina
re
mportant
thnohistoricalourcesnot because
he
accounts
describe
theoretically ristine
tateof
politically
utonomous
ndigenous
ocieties,
but because
hey
describe he
points
of articulation
with
expanding
Western
ociety.
In
the
nearly
one
hundred
ifty years
between
nitialJesuit
missionizing ttempts
n
the
Argentinepampas
n the 1740sand the final
"Conquest
of the Desert" n the
1880s,
a
majorreorganization
f Indiansocietiescoincided
with the
expansion
of
European
ociety
nto the
grasslands.
hese
narratives ocument he
changing
modes
of
interaction etween"Indian"and "Western"
ocieties,
record he
development
of a
complex
nterculturalrontier
ociety,
andreveal he
emerging
onquest deology
justifying
he
politics
of
expansion.
The value of travel
accounts as ethnohistorical
sources lies
not
so
much
in
ethnographic
verities as
in
the
documentation
of
developing
frontier
society
in
articulation
with
expanding
western
capitalism.'
In
Argentina
the
expansion
of
European
society
into the
pampas
and
Patagonia
between
initial
missionizing
at-
tempts
in
the 1740s and
the
ultimate
"Conquest
of
the Desert"
of the 1880s
coin-
cided
with
a
major reorganization
of social and
political
life
among
autonomous
indigenous
societies. Nineteenth
century
British travel accounts of
Argentina,
while
attempting
in
form to
objectively
describe Indian
society, categorized,
objectified,
commoditized
and thus
delegitimized
the role of
native
people
in
frontier
expan-
sion. Historians
must
recognize
that
ahistorical
details of social
life
in
travel ac-
counts do not
document a
sphere uniquely
"Indian,"
but rather describe
an
emergent
ntercultural
rontier
society
as well as
reflect
shifts
in
expansionist deology.
This
paper
will
analyze
the
development
of
nineteenth
century
travel accounts
of Argentina in an attempt to delineate explicitly the categories and objectives
in
them. The
commoditization of travel accounts themselves
stands out as one
striking
characteristic
of this
literature,
as described
n
the first section of the
paper.
Discussion of the use of travel
accounts
as ethnohistorical
sources,
the sec-
ond
section
of
this
paper,
reveals the
interpretive
transformations
in
the travel
accounts that
ultimately legitimized
the
concept
of "the Indians"
as
plundering
obstacles
to
progress.
While
implicit
western
ideological perspectives
denied
legitimacy
to the activities
of
sovereign
native
societies,
and therefore failed to record them
in
more formal
documents,
informal
descriptions by
British
travelers
indicate the
very important
role of the Indians in the history of Argentina. However, because of the fixed,
ahistorical
categories
n travel accounts that described
Indians,
historians
consistently
have
ignored
the
dynamics
and
importance
of this
interaction.
Travelers'
accounts
documented
society
peripheral,
but
nonetheless
directly
tied to the
expanding
ex-
port economy
of the British
empire.
British
travelers
and
speculators
not
only
reported
on this
"marginal"
society,
but
comprised
an
integral
part
of it. To be
used as
ethnography,
travel
accounts must be
interpreted
in this
light.
JONES
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3/18
KRISTINE
L. JONES
Background
The
development
of the travel account as
a
commodity
in
the nineteenth
century
was
not
limited
solely
to narratives about
Argentina,
nor
to accounts
exclusively
British.
Nor
did
the commoditization
of the
genre
trivialize
its
importance
in in-
forming
and
interpreting
the world
for
individuals interested in economic
exploita-
tion
of
that
world. Much recent
scholarship
analyzes
the western
development
of
an
ideology
about the "non-western" world.
Recently,
Edward Said's Orientalism
(1979) provoked
serious
reappraisal
of a
major
intellectual
tradition.
In
recent
studies
of the
New
World,
anthropologists
and
geographers
point
to
the
impor-
tance of
reconsidering
raditional
representations
of that
region
belonging
to neither
the "East" nor "West." The new look at old images has stimulated revisionist
trends
in
some
fields of Latin American and North American
history.2
The issues of
myth
and
image
in
western
concepts
about
the
thousands
of distinct
native societies
in the
Americas
have
been
approached
by
scholars
focusing primarily
on
discovery
and
early
contact. That
European concepts predetermined
much of
Spanish
colonial
policy
has
long
been
acknowledged,
and Lewis Hanke's Aristotle
and
the American
Indians:
A
Study
in
Race
Prejudice
in
the
Modern World
(1959)
stands as the
classic
analysis
of
the
origins
of western
ideological
justifications
for
(mis)treatment
of Native Americans
in
Spanish
America. Robert Berkhofer's
White Man's
Indian
(1979)
documents for
North
America
the
invention of the
idea of "The Indian" that has obvious parallelsto the South Americancase. Olive
Dickason's
Myth
of
the
Savage
and the
Beginnings of
French
Colonialism in the
Americas
(1984)
discusses
French reactions
and
interpretations
of
disparate
societies
in
Brazil,
Florida,
and the St. Lawrence. As these and
many
other studies
point
out,
perceptions
and
misconceptions
about
the
Americas
purveyed
in
early
ex-
ploration
accounts colored
interpretations
in
subsequent
centuries.
Publication of travel
accounts of the New World
began
almost
as soon as
the
first
European explorers
returned home.
By
the
sixteenth
century,
the
accounts
of
Bernal
Diaz
del
Castillo,
Bartolom6
de Las
Casas,
and the
Spanish-educated
Inca,
Garcilaso de la
Vega,
created
great interest,
and
by
the seventeenth
century
published
travel
accounts
enjoyed
more
popularity
than
standard
romances,
ac-
cording
to
one
contemporary
observer
in
France
(Dickason
1984:
6).
Part of
this
popularity
may
perhaps
be ascribed to
the fact
that
Spain
firmly
established con-
trol
over most
of
South
Americasoon after
conquest,
and maintained a stern watch
over
possible
interlopers.
The
jealous protectiveness
of
Spain
about its American
colonies led
to
suppression
of information
that
might
prove
advantageous
to
its
European
rivals.
In
the three centuries
following
the
Spanish conquest
of New
Spain
and
Peru,
royal
dictates militated
against
foreign
access to information about
the fabled
riches
of
the Americas.
Even
so,
this
blackout
could
not stem
interest
in the commercial potentials of the restricted colonies, and the very occasional
travel
accounts
met a
curiosity
for information about the Americas with a com-
bination of
hearsay, myth,
and
some
truths.
By
the
early
nineteenth
century,
travel accounts of
Spanish
America fell
within
a
firmly
established
tradition
that
perpetuated
earlier
images,
while
adding
new
variations
and embellishments.
However,
while
in
the
previous
centuries
only
a
handful of
such
accounts were
published,
in the
early
1800s scores
of
travel
ac-
counts
about South
America
appeared. Analysis
and
collation of the
upsurge
of
196
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BritishTravelAccounts
nineteenth
century
travel accounts
of Latin America awaits
full
investigation,
but
there is little doubt
that such literature elaborated on
the
traditions
and
images
of
the
discovery
chronicles.
By
this
time,
British
travel accounts
were also colored
by
the
"Black
Legend"
propaganda,
originating
from seventeenth and
eighteenth
century
enmities,
which ascribed all evils of the colonial order to an idea of a
per-
nicious
Spanish
national
character.3
The
positivist
perspective
so
rigorously attempted
in
nineteenth
century
narra-
tions often
purchased
earlier
images
and
myths
wholesale,
and then
redistributed
them
in
new
packaging
to
meet
the demands of the industrial
age.
Nevertheless,
careful attention to the
intent of these
interpretations
leads to
further understand-
ing
of historical
change
and the nature
of
European
economic
expansion
as well
as the formation of American societies as they were affected by this expansion.
Discussion
of British travel accounts of
Argentina
documents one such case.
British
Travel
Accounts and
the
Argentine
Economy
One of the
first
publications
of an
Englishman
in
Argentina
appeared
more than
a
century
and
a
half
after Pedro
de Mendoza's
mooring
in the
Parana
river
delta,
and
it
provided
the
English
for the first time the kind of detail
Spain
so
carefully
guarded.
Thomas
Falkner,
a
Jesuit
priest
who had worked
among
Indians
in
the
pampas
and
Patagonia
in an ill-fated
missionizing
attempt
in the 1740s,left a record
of
his
experience,
first
published
in
London
in 1774
as a
political pamphlet.
Falkner's
Description of Patagonia
and
the
Adjoining
Parts
of
South America:
Containing
an Account
of
the
Soil, Produce,
Animals,
Vales,
Mountains, Rivers,
Lakes,
etc.
of
those
Countries;
The
Religion,
Government,
Policy,
Customs, Dress,
Arms and
Language
of
the
Indian
Inhabitants;
and some
Particulars
relating
to
Falkland's Islands
provided
one of the
very
first
published surveys
of
the
unex-
plored
territories south of
the
city
of
Buenos
Aires,
as
well
as the
first
systematic
description
of the inhabitants of those
regions.
Publication
in
London of Falkner's
description worried the Spaniards, already concerned about foreign pretensions
against
their American
possessions.
Administrative
and
political
reforms
initiated
by
the Bourbon
monarchy
in
the late
eighteenth century
tightened
the net of
secrecy
over the
colonies,
and the
mystery
of the fabled
riches of the Americas remained
locked
to
the rest of the world for
several more decades.
Publications such as
Falkner's narrative assumed
significance
simply
because such accounts so
rarely
appeared;
so
rarely,
in
fact,
that the
more fantastical
aspects
of Falkner's version
reappeared
in
1788
in
a derivative relation under
the
pen
of Thomas
Pennant,
entitled
Of
the
Patagonians.
Formedfrom
the Relation
of
Father
Falkner
A
Jesuit
who had Resided
Among
them
Thirty
Eight
Years.
Andfrom
the
Different Voyages
who had met this Tall Race.
It
was not
until Alexander von Humboldt was allowed to tour and
report fully
on
the state
of
the
Spanish possessions
in
1799-1804,
and
his
account was
published
and
translated,
that reliable information
reached a wider
European
community.
The
significance
of Humboldt's
tour,
the
first
such
fact-finding
visit
by
a
foreigner
authorized
by
the
Spanish government,
is well known
by
generations
of students.
The
narratives,
published
and translated
from French into
English,
created a sen-
sation
in
Europe
by replacing hearsay
with a
more accurate
description
of the
197
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5/18
KRISTINE
L. JONES
Spanish possessions.
By
virtue
of
precedent,
Humboldt's
narrative set the
stand-
ard
for the
proliferation
of
European
travel accounts
that
followed,
especially
when access to trade followed the
independence
of most of
Spanish
America
in
1810.
The
subsequent
dismantling
and demise of the
colonial
order
in
the
Americas,
as
in
other
parts
of the
world,
opened
new vistas for free trade and
investment,
and a
scramble
for
capitalist advantage
ensued.
When
the
Spanish
monopoly
over
trade
in
their American colonies
ended,
and all trade restrictions were lifted
by
1810,
a
speculative
mania
in
England
resulted.
Foreign
commercial
expansion
into
Argentina
stimulated
increased
production
of
hides, tallow,
and salted
meat,
and
the volume of
production
of
Buenos Aires Province
more than
tripled
in
the first
two decades of the nineteenthcentury (Scobie 1971:97). Britishmerchantsquickly
assumed
precedence
in
this
trade,
and
in
little over ten
years
following
the demise
of
the
Spanish
trade
monopoly English
capital
dominated the
Argentine economy
(Reber
1979).
In
1824 the
English government
authorized a
study
of the
commercial situation
in
Colombia,
Mexico,
and
the Rio
de
la Plata. Woodbine Parish's
popular
travel
account of
the
period
disseminated the
results
of this
study
to a broader audience
in
a treatise entitled Buenos
Ayres,
and
the Provinces
of
the Rio
de
la
Plata:
from
their
Discovery
and
Conquest
by
the
Spaniards
to the Establishment
of
their
Pres-
ent
State, Trade, Debt,
etc.;
An
Appendix
of
Historical
and
Statistical
Documents;
and a descriptionof the Geology and Fossil Monsters of thePampas (1852). Parish
reported
that over half of
the
public
debt and most of
the valuable
property
in
Argentina
was
in
English
hands. Vera Reber's
recent
study
of
the
origins
of
the
British
mercantile
system
in
Argentina
corroborates his
assertions,
documenting
that
thirty-nine
commercial houses
operated
by
British
capitalists
controlled
almost
all
import
and
export
trade,
which
consisted
mostly
of
cured
hides, furs,
and
salted
meat
(Reber
1979).
The fervor of
English speculation
reached
heights comparable
to
any gold
rush.
Contributing
to the fever was the
spate
of travelers' accounts
published by
Lon-
don houses responsive to this interest in Argentina. As one historian wrote:
Good,bad,
or
indifferent,
hese bookswere devoured
by
a
public
anxious o
find
out
all
they
could
about
the
people,
the
policies,
the
possibilities
f commerce
nd
investment,
nd
opportunities
or
emigration.
omeof
these,
for
example,
he
famous
relationof
CaptainHead,
wereso well
written hat
they
became
bestsellers.
Trifilo
1959,
author's
ranslation)
Britishtravel
accounts
of
Argentina
proliferated
as
rapidly
as
capitalist
invest-
ment. Interest n
investmentstimulated
greater
demand for
information,
and
scores
of travel accounts
appeared
in
response
to this
demand.
Between 1805
and
1835,
British
publishing
houses had
published
over a
dozen
travelaccounts
about
Argen-
tina.4 Publication reached a peak in the 1820s with the appearance of the works
of
Head
(1826),
Beaumont
(1828), Caldcleugh
(1825),
Miers
(1826),
Vidal
(1820),
Brackenridge
(1820a;
1820b),
Miller
(1828),
and others.
It
bears
mentioning
that
these
accounts
of
Argentina predominated
in the
scores of travel
accounts
about
South
America,
including Peru, Brazil,
and
Mexico,
in
which
England
had
an
interest. The
intent
of these
travelogues
seldom
was
hidden,
as is
demonstrated
in
such titles
as: Travels
in
Buenos
Ayres,
and
the
Adjacent
Provinces
of
the
Rio
de
la
Plata.
WithObservations
Intended
for
the Use
of
Persons
Who
Contemplate
198
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6/18
British
TravelAccounts
Emigrating
to that
Country;
or
Embarking
Capital
in
its
Affairs (Beaumont 1828).
Inevitably,
the
speculative
boom was followed
by
bust
in
1826,
but
public
in-
terest
in
things Argentine
continued for several
years. By
1830
speculative
interest
in
Argentina
dropped
off as the British
began
to look elsewhere for
investments,
and
publication
of travelers' accounts
dwindled.
New
Argentine
policies
under the Rosas administration
in
the 1830s
restricting
British investment
seemed to
dampen
the
enthusiasm for
publication
of travel
ac-
counts
of
Argentina.
Manuel de Rosas's
twenty-three year
administration
actively
opposed foreign
investment,
which so thwarted
British
and French interests that
between
1845 and 1849
they imposed
a
blockade
against Argentina.
Because
this
political
development precluded
investment
possibilities,
the
British
public
lost in-
terest in popularized travel accounts of Argentina.
Even
so,
British interests
in
the
potentials
for its
shipping
industry
continued,
and the British
Navy
endeavored to
complete mapping
and
surveying
tours
of the
relatively
unknown coastline.
The
voyages
of HMS
Beagle comprised
two of three
such
expeditions.
The few
published
narratives about
Argentina
in
the 1840s
originated
from
such official
expeditions,
usually
the edited
journals
of British
diplomats
or naval officers.
John MacDouall
prefaced
Narrative
of
a
Voyage
to
Patagonia
and
Terra
[sic]
del
Fuego Through
the
Straits
of
Magellan
in H.M.S. Adventure and
Beagle
in
1826
and
1827
by writing,
"I have written it not
only
with
the view
of
gain
.
.
.
but also . .. with that. .. of ridding myself of the remarksof certainkind-hearted
people
. .
.
toujours
pret
at
pointing
out what
ought
to
be
done on
all
possible
occasions
(1833: v)."
This account can
be
viewed
as
another
example
of the
popularized
travel accounts
churned out in the late
1820s,
but Charles
Darwin's
Diary of
the H.M.S.
Beagle (1839)
falls more
clearly
into
the
new scientific
model
of
the
positivist
age.
Following
the demise of
Rosas in
1852,
renewed trade
with
England
once
again
stimulated
public
interest
in
Argentina.
By
this time industrial
growth
in
England
directed
demand
for
new
sources
of raw
materials,
and investors looked to
Argen-
tina
for possible commercial advantage.
The need in
England
for raw wool for
the textile
industries,
combined
with
possibilities
for wool
production
in
Argen-
tina,
attracted
direct British investment
in
Argentine
latifundia,
the land itself.
This shift from trade
in
cured hides
and furs to direct
investment in land owner-
ship
hastened a
transformation from
the more traditional cattle
raising
estancias
to more
competitive
capital
and labor intensive
sheep raising enterprises (Sabato
1980).
Renewed
public
interest in commercial
activities,
as
might
be
expected,
resulted
in
a new
wave
of British travelers'
journals, published
even more
cheaply
and aimed at a wider
public.
In the
1850s
and
1860s once
again,
nearly
a
dozen
travel accounts about
Argentina
reached
the
public
(Bourne
1853;
MacCann
1853;
Hinchcliff 1863; Hutchinson 1868; Latham 1866; Seymour 1869; Catlin 1868),
compared
to those few
published
between 1839
and 1850
(King
1846;
Parish
1839;
Robertson &
Robertson
1843;
Darwin
1839).
Increased
investment
possibilities
created increased demand
for
information,
and
travel accounts met
this demand.
The full commoditization
of
the
travel account
now was
complete.
This commoditization
of the
published
travel account meant that it
began
to
lose
its
utility
as
capitalist
propaganda,
a means to an
end.
Publication
of travel
accounts
first met a demand
for
information,
but the
popularity
of the
accounts
199
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7/18
KRISTINEL. JONES
for their own sake
transformed
the works into
independent
commodities.
By
the
1860s,
access
to new
specialized
business
almanacs,
reports,
and statistics
such
as those
provided
in The
Brazil
and River Plate Mail
(1863-1878)
fulfilled the
need
for
detailed
investment data. Published travel
accounts,
on the other
hand,
although
first written to remove
the
shroud
of
secrecy
and
mystery surrounding
he
Americas,
moved back
to
the
realm of the exotic
and
mysterious.
Travel accounts
now
filled
in
a
picture,
rather than
providing
the
only
window.
By
the late nineteenth
century,
this
genre
in
some cases
had
degenerated
to
pulp
status,
pandering
to
public
demand for
the
sensational.
As a
commodity,
a
ten-
sion between information
and
sensation
in
these accounts
yielded
to the sure
thing,
the
sensational. Old
legends
and
myths
were resurrected
and
brought
back
into service.
For
instance,
the 1835
publication
in
Argentina
of a collection
of
Spanish
works
and
documents edited
by
Pedro de
Angelis (1969)
provided
not
only
useful
geographic
and
topographic
information
to the
British,
but also
renewed interest
in
the
half-forgotten legend
of the Ciudad
Encantada de los
Cesares,
the
mythical
city
sought by Spaniards
throughout
the seventeenth and
eighteenth
centuries.
Published
in the
Angelis
collection was
a
1707
captivity
account of
a
Spanish
sailor,
Silvestre Antonio de
Rojas
(Angelis
1969:
537-47),
who testified
he had seen the
enchanted
city
of
the Cesares
n his
captivity.
This
eighteenth century
account
served
as
the
prototype
for a nineteenth
century
succession of
popular captivity
narratives.
An Americanversion, TheCaptivein Patagonia, orLife Among the Giants(Bourne
1853),
was
followed
in
England
with
the
translation from the French
in
1871 of
Auguste
Guinnard's
Three Years'
Slavery
Among
the
Patagonians
and Musters's
1873 At Home
With the
Patagonians (1871).
In
1879,
a
much
degenerated
ver-
sion,
entitled
Wanderings
in
Patagonia
or
Life Among
the Ostrich
Hunters,
ap-
peared
in Boston
(Beerbohm).
While
the 1707 de
Rojas
account is a
strictly
testimonial
legal
document,
later
captivity
narratives
emphasized
the
"unknown,"
"remote,"
"undiscovered"
aspects
of the
region.
Guinnard,
for
instance,
went
so far as to
claim "to
be
the
only
European
who has
yet
penetrated
so
far
into
the
interior
of
Patagonia."
These
kinds of
embellishments contributed to
the
transformation of the travel account into a
stylized,
sensationalistic,
literary
form.
Economic
exploitation
and the
development
of
foreign
trade
had
directly
con-
tributed to the
development
and standardization of a
stylized
form of travel ac-
counts. As
interest and demand
for
information
about
Argentina
increased,
the
published
travel
narrative became a
commodity
in its own
right.
The
objectifica-
tion of the
form itself then
colored the
"objectivity"
of the
observations. This
commoditization tended
to
encourage
sensationalistic and derivative
narratives,
which
manipulated
content
but
nevertheless maintained
legitimacy by
adherence
to
standardized
form.
Once the form was commoditized, anything could happen with content. This
led
to
adventure stories of
the "wild west"
variety
discussed
above
or, later,
the
more
personal
autobiographies
that
began
to
appear
in
the twentieth
century.
For
instance,
Hudson's
early
1900s
Long Ago
and
Far
Away
(1918)
can
be
fitted
into
the travel
literature
genre
but
clearly
does
not
speak
to
any
perceived
need for
information,
as with
travel
accounts a
century
earlier.
Attempts
at
"objectivity"
have
entirelyyielded
in
the
twentieth
century
to the
self-consciously
self-reflective
versions of travel accounts
exemplifiedby
Gerald
Durrell's
Whispering
Land
(1961),
200
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8/18
British Travel
Accounts
or Paul Theroux's Old
Patagonian
Express (1979).
Perhaps
most indicative of
this
shift is
Bruce
Chatwin's
popular
1977 travel
account,
In
Patagonia.
Chatwin
con-
structs
a
personal
image
of the "uttermost
part
of the earth"
by manipulating
disparate
curiosities and
anecdotes
to
describe
Patagonia.
His
approach
self-
consciously
builds on
the foundation laid
by
the nineteenth
century
travel
account
in
which the same
approach
aimed toward
entirely
different commercial
ends.
While few
scholars
would
accept
at
face
value the comments
and
ethnographic
observations
in these twentieth
century
travel
accounts,
this academic discretion
is sometimes lost
in
the use of nineteenth
century
travel accounts
as
ethnography.
The
early
accounts
reported
on the Indians as distinct
objects,
independent
of other
social or
political
phenomena
("Sheep Farming,"
"The
Economy,"
"Sale and
Rent of Lands," "The Constitution," "The Indians," [from table of contents
of
Hutchinson
1865])
and so the reader tends to
accept
the
category
at face
value,
while
perhaps
questioning
possible
biases
within
the
category. Underlying assump-
tions about
the
categories
themselves often remain
unexamined,
and so
any possible
relations between "Sale
and Rent of Lands" or
"Sheep Farming"
and "The
In-
dians"
are lost.
British Travel Accounts as Ethnohistoric Sources
Much as travel literature tself became
categorized, objectified,
and commoditized
in the
nineteenth
century,
descriptions
in
those accounts also
categorized, objec-
tified,
and commoditized the
observed.
An overview and
analysis
of the treat-
ment of "the Indian" in
British travel accounts of
Argentina
illustrates
the
more
pernicious
results of this
tendency.
The 1744
Falkner
account,
with
prefatory
comments
exhorting
the
benefits
of
trade and
"the common interests of Great Britain
and
Spain,"
devoted
nearly
half
of
Description of Patagonia
to
description
of "The
Inhabitants
. . .
The
Religion,
Government,
Policy,
and Customs . .
." and "An
Account of the
Language of the Inhabitants of These Countries" (Falkner 1935, table of con-
tents).
Preceding subsequent
ethnographic descriptions by
nearly
a
century,
Falkner's
narrative
provides
one of the earliest
direct accounts of native
societies
in
the
pampas.
Note, however,
that even
this
description
is
presented
in
the
con-
text
of
an editorial
argument
for
"extending
the
commerce
and
marine
empire
of
Great
Britain,"
and "that
any
information
concerning
the
geography,
in-
habitants,
and
other
particulars,
of the most southern
part
of
the American
con-
tinent,
might
be
of some
public utility,
and
might
also afford some
amusement
to
the curious"
(ibid. i).
Even this
early
interest
in
expanding
commercial
possibilities
motivated
publication
of
Falkner's
account,
and the
trend
was to
con-
tinue in the nineteenth century publications of travel narratives.
The
prefatory
remarks
to Falkner's
description
clearly
indicate a British view of
aboriginal
peoples
as
potential trading
partners.
The
political autonomy implicitly
granted
"the inhabitants
of
these
countries" in
Falkner's account
legitimized
for
the
British their freedom
to
trade
and
commerce
in
those
regions.
Not
surprisingly,
Spain
interpreted
these
pretensions
to
rights
of
trade as
outright piracy
according
to
international law and
intimations such as these moved the
Spaniards
to
better
protect
their
colonies.
One aim of the Bourbon
reforms
sought
to better
201
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9/18
KRISTINEL. JONES
protect
the American
possessions
from
foreign
intrusion with increased
military
fortifications
along
the
coasts.
The use of the Falkner account
for
ethnographic
detail,
then,
must account
not
only
for
Falkner's
goals
as a
missionary
in
writing
the narrative but
also for
the
political
uses for which the account was
published-and
for
which it was
edited
and
prefaced by
a
twenty-two
page political
treatise. The
question
is not whether
the Falkner account is
biased,
but how. Nor can the answer be found
in the
"ac-
curacy"
of the
ethnographic
observations,
but rather
it
lies
in
the
interpretive
ends
of
those observations. The careful
and detailed
description
of
political organiza-
tion and various enmities with
Spanish
settlers indicate
a
great
deal
about
British
views
of tactical
intelligence
but not much about
indigenous concepts
of their social
world. In fact, the account speaks more about England's expanding definition
of "nations" as
trading partners
than about a
theoretically pristine
Indian
society.
Once the
Spanish trading monopoly
ended,
the investment
potentials
in
Argen-
tina excited
a
demand for
information
in
England,
and the travel account
quickly
assumed a
standard
form.
This
form,
of
course,
was not limited
only
to accounts
of
Argentina;
rather,
accounts
of
Argentina
followed the standards set
by
literature
describing
all
parts
of the world in
which British
capitalism
was
expanding.
Nine-
teenth
century
British travel
accounts
of
many
developing regions
in
the
world
contributed
in
a demonstrable
way
to
emerging concepts
about a "third
world,"
as a
quick perusal
in
any major library catalogue
under "travel and
description"
for many countries indicates.
Following
the
standards
of the
genre, specific
observations of Indian
societies
in
Argentina
gradually
tended to
place
them
in
more
generalcategories ("natives"),
distinct and
separate
from the
specific sphere
of
social
and
economic
relations
being
described.
Descriptions
of
the
"natives" sounded
very
much like
descrip-
tions of "natives" in
other
parts
of
the world. In
this
way,
"Indians" became
ahistorical
categories,
commodities to be
described
in
narrative
descriptions
of
travel
accounts.
Hence,
the
descriptions
sound more
like accounts
of
other
parts
of the
world and less
specific
to
the actual
situation
in
Argentina.
While the Falkneredition had presentedthe autonomous Patagonian "nations"
as
potential
allies
in
trade
and commerce
in
the
South
Seas,
a
lapse
of little
over
a
quarter
of a
century
reversed
this
view
in
the
political
arena
and in
travel ac-
counts. The
inhabitants of
the
pampas signified
little other
than
marginalized
pro-
ducers,
political
enemies
manipulated by
local
caudillos,
or
allies used
by
the forces
of
good, usually
involving
the
British.
In his
memoirs,
the British
general
John Miller described
how,
in
the in-
dependence
movements,
Pampas
Indians
enlisted
against
the Buenoes
Aires
in-
surgents.
Note
how the
concept
of the
Indians as
free nations has shifted
to one
of
political
ally/enemy.
TheIndianswhowere
nvited
by Rodriguez
o
join
in
the war
against
us
had
an un-
conquerable
atredof
the
Portefios;
and at the
period
n
which we
expected
hem
everyday
to fall
upon
us,
a
deputation
f
fourteen
aptains
arrived n
Rosario,
sent
by
the
principal
acique
o treat with
Carrera.
They
told
him,
in the
names
of their
respective
hiefs,
of the
very
great
rewardswhich
Rodriguez
had offered
them for
their
services;
but
declared
hey
could
never ake
part
withtheir
nsidious
enemies
the
Portefios;
and
as to
the rewards
offered
them,
that
they
would
sooner
fight
in
the
company
with
brave
men,
independent
of
emolument,
than
they
would
in
favor
of such
cowards
as
they
knew
the
Portenios o
be,
notwithstandingany gifts they
might
offer.
(Miller
1828:
153)
202
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10/18
British Travel
Accounts
In this
version,
the
Indians are
coming
to
be seen as little
more than
political
pawns,
with no
apparant
tactical
motivation
for their
choice.
Although
this
passage
does
give
some idea
of
indigenous political
and
military organization,
it tells
us
nothing
about
native
perceptions
of
events.
Besides the
notion of Indians as
political
pawns,
another
theme,
of Indians
as
specialized
producers,
appeared
in
the
upsurge
of
travel accounts
published
after
1800.
When the
major
seaports
of South America
opened
to trade with
the
British,
and trade
developed
in these
ports,
travelers'
accounts
began
to comment in
detail
on
native
manufactures of
possible
interest
to
investors.
Particular interest
in
the
possibilities
of
developing
trade in
furs and hides
may
even
have stemmed
from
British successes in
the
thriving
and
profitable
fur trade with
Indian
tribes
in
North
America. For instance, Samuel Hull Wilcocke's 1807 description of native dress
lingers
in
detail on
the
advantages
and
disadvantages
of
different hides
used.
They
wearmantles
f
skins
ewed
ogether,
ometimeshe skins
of
young
colts,
which
are least
esteemed;
ometimes f otter or
other
skins;
mostly,
however,
of
guanaco-
skins,
which
are
in
great
estimationon
accountof the warmthand
finenessof the
wool,
and their
ong
duration;
but those
which
are in
the
highest
esteem
are
made
with
the skins
of small
foxes,
which
are
exceedingly
oft
and
beautiful;
he area of
a
mottled
greycolour,
but are
not
so
durableas
those of the
guanaco.
(Wilcocke
1807:
449)
Not
more than ten
years
after
Argentine
independence
in
1810,
export
produc-
tion of hides, furs, and cattle by-products in Argentina depended entirely on the
market
created and
commanded
by
the British.
By
the
1820s,
the
peak
of the
first
wave of
travel accounts
and a time when
British
merchants had firm
control
over
the
export economy,
travel
accounts
commonly
included
descriptions
of Indians
in
Argentine
markets not
only
for
color but
also to indicate
the
dynamism
of
the
market itself.
Emeric Vidal
in
1820 illustrated
Pampas
Indians
who travelled
directly
to
Buenos
Aires
markets to
sell leather
goods
and
ostrich
feathers. In
their Let-
ters
on
South
America:
Comprising
Travels on
the Banks
of
the
Parana and Rio
de la
Plata,
the
Robertsons focused on
the trade in
hides
when
they
mentioned
the
Indians.
The
Pampas
Indians
received
n
return
rom
their
agent
or
patron,
as
they
called
him,
their
ponchos,knives,
obacco,
a
little
white
cloth,
and a
supply
of
spirits;
hen
off
they
marched n
battle
array
o
their avoritehaunts.
Robertson
nd
Robertson
1843:
271)
A
sharp eye
for
commercial
advantage
prompted
General
Miller
to
note in
his
memoirs,
"[F]or
the
eight
of a
dollar's worth
of
Paraguay
tea,
six
vizcacha
skins
were
bought:
At Buenos
Ayres
the same
articles
would
sell for
three
quarters
of
a dollar"
(Miller
1828:
153).
Again,
although
these
excerpts
suggest dynamic
in-
tercultural
exchange,
placing description
of
"the Indian"
into fixed
categories
obscures the importance or significance of these interactions. To read such ac-
counts,
we
must
remember that
they
inform us not
about
Indian
society,
but about
the
social and
economic
life of
a
complex
intercultural
frontier.
Even
though political
and
economic conditons in
Indian societies
were to
change
rapidly
in
the next
two
decades,
travel
accounts
continued to
portray
Indians ac-
cording
to these
fixed
categories.
These
categories
allowed
elaboration
of motifs
convenient to
a
conquest ideology.
For
instance,
Captain Fitzroy
of
HMS
Beagle
railed
about
inconvenient
manipulations
of
the
pawns.
203
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11/18
KRISTINEL. JONES
At this moment he
army
of the United
Province
of
the Rio de
la
Plata
occupies
he
northernbank
(of
the Rio
Negro),
whiletheunfortunate nd now harassed
ndians
areendeavoringo keeppossessionof the southern ide.A warof exterminationp-
pears
o
be the
object
of
the
liberal
and
independent
Creoles.
..
It
is a
curious
act
that
while
Spanish
eld he
country,
hese outhern
ndianswere
xtremely
ell
disposed
towards he white
intruders,
and received hem with the
utmost
hospitality.
Since
the Revolution
what
a
glorioussound)
the most determined
ostility
has been
in-
creasing.
in
Stanbury,
d.,
1977:
165)
In
this
case,
sympathy
lies
with
the non-allied Indians because
of the
enmity
ex-
isting
between
the
British and the United Provinces at that time.
Darwin also adhered to the
"political pawn"
theme,
but cloaked
it in the
guise
of
scientific
observation of a
natural
phenomenon.
It
was
supposed
hat GeneralRosas had about six hundred ndianallies.
The men
werea
full,
fine
race,
yet
it
was afterwards
asy
to
see
in
the
Fuegian
avage
he same
countenance
endered
ideous
by
cold,
wantof
food,
and ess
civilization.
1930:
67)
In
other
words,
those Indians not
available
for
political
or
military
advantage,
nor
producing objects
of commercial
interest,
remained
in
that
classic
category
of
the
other,
the
savage.5
Even
though
direct
contact and interaction with Indian societies south of Buenos
Aires
in the
pampas
and
Patagonia
increased
throughout
the
1840s
and
1850s,
the
intractable
indigenous
societies resisted
coercive
integration
into
expanding
western economic and political spheres, and hence the idea of the "uncivilized"
Indian
grew
more
prominent
in
travel accounts.
As a
part
of
the same
process,
as more and more accounts
of
Patagonia ap-
peared,
the
notion
of an "unknown" and
"unexplored" region grew
stronger.
The
following
excerpt
from
MacDouall's
1833 narrative illustrates
a
tone
that col-
ored
most
later
accounts of
the
Patagonians.
Since
hese
people
have been
known,
they
do not
seem
to
have
altered;
wrapped
n
the
guanacoe
kin,
and inured
rom
infancy
o
privation, hey
range
he desertun-
controlled;
ubserviento no law
or
will
but their
own,
they undoubtedly
ossess
a
contentment nd a
delight
n
their nativewilds
inconceivableo the
inhabitants
f
the civilizedworld.(p. 160-61)
Evidence to
support
the notion of
the uncivilized nature of
the
Indians focused
on
"savage" aspects
of
their
actions.
When
stopping along
the
southern
coast
north of the Rio
Negro
outlet
passengers
of HMS
Beagle
had occasion to
remark
on the
countenance of Indian
prisoners
(probably
Tehuelche)
held
by
Buenos
Aires
soldiers.
Captain
Fitzroy
noted
[O]n
he other
side,
a
group
of almostnaked
Indian
prisoners
at
devouring
he re-
mains
of a
half-roasted
orse;
and as
they
scowledat
us
savagely,
still
holding
he
large
bones
they
had
been
gnawing,
with
their
rough
hairand
scanty
substitutes or
clothingblownaboutbythewind,Ithought hadneverbeheldamore ingular roup.
(in
Stanbury,
d.,
1977:
83)
Darwin
commented
similarly
on the same
incident.
The
Indians,
whilst
gnawing
bonesof
beef, looked,
as
they
are,
half
re-called easts.
No
painter
ever
imagined
o
wild a set
of
expressions.
Ibid.)
The
apparent
equation
of
savagery
with lack
of
proper
British
table
manners is
also
evident
in
MacDouall's
description
of
a
Patagonian
(also
probably
Tehuelche)
feast.
204
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12/18
British Travel
Accounts
They
were
all,
and at
the same
time,
equallybusy
about the
fire,
each
turning
and
roasting
his individual
portion.
The
greaterpart,
when the flesh was
sufficiently
blackened, ithdrewt from he fireandsank heirwell-arrangedeethnto t,gnawing,
or
rather
tearing
off,
some
good
mouthfuls.
.
. .
(1833:
163)
Following
the
two decade
hiatus
in British trade
with
Argentina,
these
same
categories (political
pawn,
market
specialist,
uncivilized
savage)
appeared
in
the
revived
production
of travel accounts.
When
the
renewed
trading
relations be-
tween
Argentina
and
England
(following
Rosa's
demise)
stimulated
publication
of
travel accounts
about that
country
once
again,
the
new
wave
of
narratives
perpetuated
and elaborated
the
notion of the
(uncivilized)
Indian as ahistorical
object.
Even
though
intensified British
presence
in
Argentina
allowed
travelers
greater access to interaction and familiarity with Indian society, rote categorical
descriptions
in
these
later accounts show
little attention to
contemporary
relations
between
"the Indian"
and
the rest
of
the
intercultural
ociety
of
the southern
Argen-
tine frontier. Standard
"Indian Life"
passages
can be
found
in
most
travel ac-
counts
published
in
the 1850s
and 1860s.
While the
category
of Indian as
political
pawn
continued,
the
image
was
changing
from the
relativelystraightforward
descriptions
of
military
ncidents
such
as
General
Miller described to a
more ominous
image
in
the
last
part
of
the
century.
For
in-
stance,
Colonel
J.
Anthony King's
account
of
his
personal
adventures
in
Twenty-
four
Years
in the
Argentine
Republic, published
in
1846,
described "The
Depreda-
tions of the Pampas" carried out in 1829.
The
Indians,
nownas
Pampas,
had
entered
many
of the
(Cordoban)
illages
n
hordes,
committing
murders,
driving
he
people
from
their
homes,
destroying
heir
prop-
erty,
and,
in
numerous
nstances,burning
heir
houses. From
he
systematic
manner
andthe
impunity
with which
hey
performed
heir
work,
taking
prisoners
nd
carry-
ing
them
through
he
very
ownswhichhad
proclaimed
or
Rosas
(who
had
recently
become
conspicuous),
t seemedmore
than
possible
hat theseterrible
ceneswere
enacted
by
his
connivance,
or even
by
his direction.
1846:224)
While
travel accounts
of Indians
published
in
the
first
two decades of the
nine-
teenth
century
painted
a much
more
benign picture
of Indians as
political
pawns,
little more
than dumb
accomplices
in the notorious
inter-provincial struggles,
the
accounts
published
in the
latter half of
that
century
drew
much more
threatening
conclusions.
William MacCann's account
of
his Two Thousand
Miles' Ride
Through
the
Argentine
Provinces
(1853)
detailed
frontier life
as it was
more
than
two decades
after
the
incident
described
by King,
yet
his
portrayal
shows none
of the
insight
into
political
motivations
of
Indian
actions hinted at
by King.
Instead,
a
stark,
menacing image
transforms
the
category
of
the
Indian as
political
pawn
into a
new and ominous
image.
ThefrontierSanNicolas)s atnogreater istancehanabout wentyeagues;beyond
which
here s a vast
and
unexplored
erritorypossessedby
Indians,
whose
villages,
however,
are so remoteas
to be little
known o
Spaniards....
Abouttwo
yearsago
a
large
body
of
Indiansmadean
assault
upon
he
pasture
andsof these
parts,
weeping
away
a
greatquantity
of cattleand
horses.
(p.
18)
MacCann's
description
of these
"remote,"
"little
known"
Indians,
written
nearly
a
century
after Falkner's
account,
and several
decades
after
important
commer-
cial
relations
with the Indians
had been established
and
broken,
indicates
not so
205
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13/18
KRISTINEL.
JONES
much an
ethnographic
void
as
an
emerging interpretation
that
posited
the
Indian
as menace and obstacle to commerce.
About
two
months
previously,
a
party
of
retreating
ndians
ell in with a
caravan
of
merchandize
oming
rom
Mendoza,
when
hey
drove
off 290
bullocks,
48
mules,
70
horses,
and
robbed
two merchantsof 800 doubloons
(2,500). (Ibid. 21)
While
earlier
"depredations"
had been
interpreted
as
political
maneuverings,
the
concept
of Indian as obstacle now was
firmly
established
in
a
stark
conquest ideology.
This
is not
to
suggest
that
the
images
of the Indian
were not
manipulated
without
reference to
reality.
Indeed,
the intercultural
dynamics
in
this frontier
region
by
the
mid-1850s had
degenerated
into
outright
warfare-and warfare
in which the
majority
of the
pampean
and
patagonian
societies
were
pitted
in
direct
conflict
with
expanding
western
society.
Travel
accounts, however,
by
adhering
to form
in
descriptions
of
a
stylized,
ahistorical,
objectified
"Indian,"
did
not record
chang-
ing
social
dynamics,
but rather reflected these
changes
in
increasingly
harsh
images.
Sensationalistic
pulp
novels
played
with
this
new
category
of
"Indian
menace,"
reinforcing
racist ideas
and
concepts
about
the
"Patagonian
Savages."
Examples
of
particularly
bloody
indigenous
ceremonies,
extracted
from
any
social
context,
illustrated
the theme. The
equation
of
"savagery"
with
horse flesh still
persisted,
with
some
range
in
exploiting
the theme.
George
Musters's
sympathetic feelings
for the Indians with whom he traveled caused him to rationalize his participation
in
such aberrant
behavior.
Previous
o this
I
had felt a sort of
repugnance
o
eating
horse,
as
perhaps
most
Englishmen
..
have;
but
hunger
overcame
ll
scruples,
and
I
soon
acquired
taste
for this
meat.
(1873: 80)
Bourne's
popularized
American
adventure,
published
in
Boston,
most
clearly
demonstrates the
manipulation
of
images
to conform to
the
idea
of
savagery.
I
learned,
on
inquiry,
hat a horse
was to be
killed;
a matter
which,
t
appeared,
was
always
he occasionof a
solemn
powwow.
On
reaching
he
spot,
the
poor
old
beast,
leanandlank,witha lariatabouthisneck,stood surroundedy somefiftyIndians.
The
squaws
were
inging,
n
stentorian
ones,
"Ye Ye
Yup Yup
Lar,
apuly,
apuly "
with
a
repetition
hat
became
unendurable,
nd droveme
to
a
respectful
distance.
The
horse's
fore-legs
were fast bound
together,
a violent
push
forward hrewhim
heavily
o the
ground,
and
he was
speedilydespatched
with a knife ....
Soon after
my
return
o
the
wigwam,
a
huge portion
of the
carcasswas sent to
our
quarters
and
hung
up,
to furnish
our meals After
being
duly
dressed
by
the women
...
it
was
served
up-my only
alternative
o starvation.Faminehas no
scruples
f
delicacy;
if
the reader s
disgusted,
he
is
in
a state of
sympathy
with
the
writer.
1853: 102)
Even
Guinnard's
narrative of his
Three Years'
Slavery
Among
the
Patagonians,
a
classic
ethnographic source,
portrays
the
traditional
ceremony
as
revolting.
These
savages
slaughter
nd
cut
up
a horse. ... In
less than
ten minutesall this is
done,
and
numerous
pectators,
eated
on
the
very
spot,
are
devouring
with
ferocious
avidity
hot
livers,hearts,
ungs,
and
raw
kidneys,
dipped
n
blood,
which
hey
after-
wards
drink.
(1871: 184)
Of
these
accounts of the infamous blood
drinkers
of
Patagonia,
Musters's is
the
only
one
to
suggest
"this
saving
the
blood
(which
was
secured
n
pots)
to be
cooked,
(was)
considered a
great
delicacy"
(1873: 81).
206
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14/18
British
Travel
Accounts
However much
that
delicacy
may
have resembled
English
blood
pudding,
the
only
available
interpretation
in the context of
capitalist expansion
was one of
con-
quest
over
savagery.
When
the
Argentine
nation
celebrated a
military victory
over
the indios
salvajes
in
1880,
British
capital
investment
immediately expanded
into
the
"conquered
desert."
Concluding
Remarks
The travel
account,
by stylistic
convention,
placed description
of
Indians
into
categories independent
of
any
historical context.
This
objectification
of
Indians
as a category then permitted interpretation of the category according to conven-
ient
ideology,
be it
"sovereign
nations" suitable
for
trade,
"market
specialists"
providing
access to
raw materials
for
trade,
"political pawns"
in
the
struggle
over
control
of
that
trade,
or "uncivilized obstacles to
progress"
in
the modernization
of
production
for trade. The
categories
evident
in
nineteenth
century
British
travel
accounts reflect
evolving political
attitudes
about Indians much
more than
they
document social
life as
actually
lived
by indigenous people.
Because the
categories
of "Indianness"
in the travel literature
deny any
legitimacy
to actions
taken
by
the individuals
described,
interpretation
of these works as
historical sources must
first
interpret
the
categories.
The
descriptions
in
travel accounts document not
only specific ethnographic
details at
specific
dates, but also reflect a
developing
western
conquest ideology
for
Argentina.
Acknowledgments
I
am
grateful
o
Hector
Lindo
Fuentes
and
Enrique
Mayer
or
useful criticism
nd
discus-
sion.
I
also thank
MeganMcLaughlin,
who offered
careful,critical,
and
time-consuming
editorialassistance.
Notes
1.
See "Conflictand
Adaptation
n
the
ArgentinePampas
1750-1880"
Jones 1984)
for
historical
analysis
rom this
perspective.
2. Sucha broad
statement
nvitessome discussion.
Ethnohistory
as
published
much
of the work that
represents
hese new
directions,
particularly
or North
American
history.
Historians
f Colonial
America
avebeen orced o
reappraise
arly
American
history
n
light
of carefulethnohistorical
esearch,
which,
moving
beyond
he
old
images,
showsthe
very
mportant
ole of
Native
Americansn the
development
f
the American olonies.
Although
he
historiography
f the National
period
of United
Stateshistoryhas been less influencedby thistrend,studiesof nineteenth entury
western
xpansion
are
beginning
o
recognize
he
importance
f NativeAmericans
in
the
dynamism
f that
process,
which
conquest deologies
uccessfully
bscured.
In
the
historiography
f
Latin
America,
tudy
of "the
Indians,"
especially
hose
of
the Andeanand
Mesoamerican
egions,
has
long
been standard.
Only recently,
however,
havehistorians
ooked more
closely
at
the distinctionbetween
a
standard
image
of
"the Indian"
n
Latin
Americaand an actual ntercultural
ocio-political
arenawhich
contributed
o the
unique
historical
evelopments
f
particular
egions.
207
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15/18
KRISTINE L. JONES
A
review of
comparable
theoretical and
methodological approaches
for
North
and
South American
ethnohistory might
begin
with the
bibliographic
essays
of
Axtell
(1978) and Salomon (1982).
3.
See Keen
(1969: 703-21)
and Hanke
(1971:
112-27)
for
scholarly
discussion
of
the
Black
Legend.
4. An
exhaustive
bibliographic
review of all
British
travel accounts of
Argentina
is
not
the intent of this
paper;
however,
the
following
bibliographic
"cross-tab" does
ac-
count for the
majority
of
published
travel accounts of
Argentina.
Published Between Number
1800 and 1820
2
1821 and 1835
12
1836 and 1850
6
1851 and 1880 14
5. The
classical idea
of
the
"savage" literally
derives
from
classical
philosophy.
Dickason's discussion of "L'Homme
Sauvage"
reviews recent studies of the "Noble
Savage."
Her
introductory
comments indicate the
complexity
of the issue.
Suchachievements s the
city
statesof
Mexico,
Central
America,
or Peruwere
either
overlooked r else weredismissed s
being,
at
best,
barbarous.
An
examination f
the
concept
f
savagery
eveals hat ts
origin
s bothmore
complex
and far older hansuch
a
viewwould ndicate.
n
fact,
it
involved he well-knownRenaissanceolkloric
igure
of the Wild
Man;
early
Christian
erceptions
f
monkeys,
apes,
and
baboons;
and
the
classical
Greekand Roman radition
of the noble
savage.
(1984:
63)
References
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Pedro
de
1969
Colecci6n de Obras
y
Documentos,
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1984 The
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