Okay, just to be clear, I'm totally fine with changing history due to new discoveries. That's fine. But when I think of Cowboys in the 'John Wayne (was a Nazi)' or John Marston style, I think of...
Okay, just to be clear, I'm totally fine with changing history due to new discoveries. That's fine.
But when I think of Cowboys in the 'John Wayne (was a Nazi)' or John Marston style, I think of the 19th century. Were there cattle hands before then? Undoubtedly but the iconic Cowboys we think of when we say Cowboy certainly weren't in the early 1600s on a Caribbean island as the article notes.
Not to just dig on the article, I obviously just learned that the cattle were imported along with enslaved people - I'm trying not to use positive words like 'neat' in this context because of the slavery thing - and I realize that I've never really thought of where 'American cattle' came from so I enjoy that educational expansion.
But were there iconic cowboys in the 19th century? I am not an American and perhaps I am terribly wrong in this, but I don't think there was such perception in 19th century American culture, or...
But when I think of Cowboys in the 'John Wayne (was a Nazi)' or John Marston style, I think of the 19th century.
But were there iconic cowboys in the 19th century? I am not an American and perhaps I am terribly wrong in this, but I don't think there was such perception in 19th century American culture, or any perception at all for that matter. The only thing I can think of is O. Henry's The Hiding Of Black Bill, which doesn't put cowboys in any sort of romantic light.
In fact the oldest such imagery I can think of is from Karl May's works (Winnetou etc.), starting in late 19th century. For me, these always seemed like a late addition to an old tradition of "riders", Bellerophon, Knights of the Round Table, Three Musketeers - and after cowboys, bikers, romantic heroes on horse (be it mechanical).
"Iconic cowboys" and the Wild West are almost entirely a fabrication of Hollywood, as they reimagined Kurosawa films in an American setting. Even the quick draw duel is just a way of adapting the...
"Iconic cowboys" and the Wild West are almost entirely a fabrication of Hollywood, as they reimagined Kurosawa films in an American setting. Even the quick draw duel is just a way of adapting the samurai "draw cut" to use a revolver.
The "wild" west also wasn't. There are very few documented gunfights, and perhaps the most famous of them (the OK Corral incident) was a matter, settled in seconds, of lawmen enforcing the strict gun laws that were typical. It was fairly standard to surrender weapons upon entering a town; some known criminals refused to, and they were quickly killed.
My understanding is "cowboy" was historically a pejorative for criminals, who often were cattle thieves. Otherwise they'd just be called ranchers or farmhands...and given the history of the Caribbean and the American South, the use of slavery in those positions really isn't surprising.
"Cowboys" were literally the young men who tended to and drove cattle to scrape by. It would be like having an entertainment center built around delivery drivers a century from now.
"Cowboys" were literally the young men who tended to and drove cattle to scrape by.
It would be like having an entertainment center built around delivery drivers a century from now.
Andrew Curry (tap/click to know more...) Cattle may have been imported from Africa centuries earlier than historians thought “In the first wave, the cattle were Iberian or European,” says Corona...
Andrew Curry
Think “cowboy,” and you might picture John Wayne riding herd across the U.S. West. But the first cowboys lived in Mexico and the Caribbean, and most of them were Black.
That’s the conclusion of a recent analysis of DNA from 400-year-old cow bones excavated on the island of Hispaniola and at sites in Mexico. The work, published in Scientific Reports, also provides evidence that African cattle made it to the Americas at least a century earlier than historians realized.
The timing of these African imports—to the early 1600s—suggests the growth of cattle herds may have been connected to the slave trade, says study author Nicolas Delsol, an archaeozoologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History. “It changes the whole perspective on the mythical figure of the cowboy, which has been whitewashed over the 20th century.”
(tap/click to know more...)
Cattle may have been imported from Africa centuries earlier than historians thought
The first cattle in the Americas came from Spain, brought by Christopher Columbus to the island of Hispaniola on his second voyage in 1493. More came in subsequent voyages in the early 1500s. The vast herds that later spread across the Americas, historians have assumed, descended from this small founding population of about 500 cows.
To understand the spread of cattle, Delsol scoured museum collections for cattle bones from postcontact Hispaniola and Mexico. The authors compared genetic signatures in the DNA from 21 cows found at early Spanish sites in Mexico and Haiti to known European and African breeds.
During the first century of European colonization, most cow bones correspond with varieties known from Spain. But one bone, from the grounds of an early Franciscan convent in the heart of modern-day Mexico City called Bellas Artes, yielded DNA matching a breed of cattle found only in Africa.
“In the first wave, the cattle were Iberian or European,” says Corona Martinez, “Later they introduced cattle from Africa.”
The sample dates to the early 1600s, more than 100 years before the first historical records of imported African cattle. “They can show this complex history from evidence we didn’t have before,” says Eduardo Corona Martinez, an archaeozoologist at the National Institute of Anthropology and History in Mexico City. “In the first wave, the cattle were Iberian or European,” says Corona Martinez, who helped excavate the Bellas Artes site but was not involved with the new analysis. “Later they introduced cattle from Africa.”
Colonizers may have been trying to adapt herds to tropical conditions in the Caribbean and Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, Delsol says. “Bringing cattle that were more adapted to hot, wet environments could have been a deciding factor.”
Ranchers “needed trained, skilled workers, and African ranchers were more knowledgeable about raising cattle in tropical environments,”
The arrival of African cattle, meanwhile, coincides with a darker development. Until Europeans arrived, the region’s Indigenous population had no experience with large, domesticated animals such as cows, pigs, or sheep, mainstays of the colonial-era diet. As Spanish and Portuguese cattle herds in the New World grew, ranchers “needed trained, skilled workers, and African ranchers were more knowledgeable about raising cattle in tropical environments,” Delsol says. “Now, we have different lines of evidence that connect African ranchers and Spanish colonies.”
In the early 1600s, historical records show slave traders targeted African groups familiar with cattle herding, like the Fulani of modern-day Cameroon. The new study shows at least one cow was brought directly from the region at the same time, suggesting herders and their cattle might have come as a sort of package.
“It’s globalization.”
Modern American cattle are a mix of European and African breeds, researchers thought the African contribution came via Spain, or from cattle imported in the 19th century. “Here’s good evidence that a strongly African genetic marker shows up really early,” says Louisiana State University geographer Andrew Sluyter, who was not involved in the research. “It’s exciting confirmation of what the archival records were telling us.”
Corona Martinez says the study begins to fill a gap in knowledge about how European animals and crops changed ecosystems in the New World. “Not only do we see animals come from European sites but also from Africa,” he says. “It’s globalization.”
Sluyter says the find should help shift a fundamental misconception around the origins of an iconic American figure—the cowboy
Innovations like herding cattle from horseback and the lasso appeared first in the Americas at a time when most cowboys were enslaved Africans, spreading to Europe only later. “It’s debunking the idea enslaved Africans were simply the workers—the brawn, not the brains,” Sluyter says. “They created a lot of novel techniques.”
So the very confusing headline is due to indirect evidence that the first cattle hands were African because the Europeans needed African ranch hands to work with the African cattle, and they...
So the very confusing headline is due to indirect evidence that the first cattle hands were African because the Europeans needed African ranch hands to work with the African cattle, and they likely chose African cattle because it is hot as fuck in Mexico so, "Colonizers may have been trying to adapt herds to tropical conditions in the Caribbean and Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, Delsol says. 'Bringing cattle that were more adapted to hot, wet environments could have been a deciding factor.'"
I think the point they're trying to make is that it was a profession held by black folk before the white folk made it their image. It's just something that might have not been thought about...
I think the point they're trying to make is that it was a profession held by black folk before the white folk made it their image. It's just something that might have not been thought about before, at least for me that's the case.
I'm not sure exactly what time you're referring to, if it's the1940-50s when the cowboy movies were the rage, or the late 19th century that they portray. But in addition to that, even at the end...
I'm not sure exactly what time you're referring to, if it's the1940-50s when the cowboy movies were the rage, or the late 19th century that they portray. But in addition to that, even at the end of the 19th century, a significant portion of them were still black. 25% according to this article and that doesn't even include the hispanic or native american ones.
Okay, just to be clear, I'm totally fine with changing history due to new discoveries. That's fine.
But when I think of Cowboys in the 'John Wayne (was a Nazi)' or John Marston style, I think of the 19th century. Were there cattle hands before then? Undoubtedly but the iconic Cowboys we think of when we say Cowboy certainly weren't in the early 1600s on a Caribbean island as the article notes.
Not to just dig on the article, I obviously just learned that the cattle were imported along with enslaved people - I'm trying not to use positive words like 'neat' in this context because of the slavery thing - and I realize that I've never really thought of where 'American cattle' came from so I enjoy that educational expansion.
But were there iconic cowboys in the 19th century? I am not an American and perhaps I am terribly wrong in this, but I don't think there was such perception in 19th century American culture, or any perception at all for that matter. The only thing I can think of is O. Henry's The Hiding Of Black Bill, which doesn't put cowboys in any sort of romantic light.
In fact the oldest such imagery I can think of is from Karl May's works (Winnetou etc.), starting in late 19th century. For me, these always seemed like a late addition to an old tradition of "riders", Bellerophon, Knights of the Round Table, Three Musketeers - and after cowboys, bikers, romantic heroes on horse (be it mechanical).
"Iconic cowboys" and the Wild West are almost entirely a fabrication of Hollywood, as they reimagined Kurosawa films in an American setting. Even the quick draw duel is just a way of adapting the samurai "draw cut" to use a revolver.
The "wild" west also wasn't. There are very few documented gunfights, and perhaps the most famous of them (the OK Corral incident) was a matter, settled in seconds, of lawmen enforcing the strict gun laws that were typical. It was fairly standard to surrender weapons upon entering a town; some known criminals refused to, and they were quickly killed.
My understanding is "cowboy" was historically a pejorative for criminals, who often were cattle thieves. Otherwise they'd just be called ranchers or farmhands...and given the history of the Caribbean and the American South, the use of slavery in those positions really isn't surprising.
"Cowboys" were literally the young men who tended to and drove cattle to scrape by.
It would be like having an entertainment center built around delivery drivers a century from now.
Looking at some cyberpunk tropes, yeah I can see that being a thing!
Hello, this Fry from Planet Express, how may I help you?
Ever heard of Snow Crash by Niel Stephenson?
Andrew Curry
(tap/click to know more...)
Ref. Delsol, N., Stucky, B.J., Oswald, J.A. et al. Ancient DNA confirms diverse origins of early post-Columbian cattle in the Americas Sci Rep 13, 12444 (2023).
So the very confusing headline is due to indirect evidence that the first cattle hands were African because the Europeans needed African ranch hands to work with the African cattle, and they likely chose African cattle because it is hot as fuck in Mexico so, "Colonizers may have been trying to adapt herds to tropical conditions in the Caribbean and Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, Delsol says. 'Bringing cattle that were more adapted to hot, wet environments could have been a deciding factor.'"
I think the point they're trying to make is that it was a profession held by black folk before the white folk made it their image. It's just something that might have not been thought about before, at least for me that's the case.
I'm not sure exactly what time you're referring to, if it's the1940-50s when the cowboy movies were the rage, or the late 19th century that they portray. But in addition to that, even at the end of the 19th century, a significant portion of them were still black. 25% according to this article and that doesn't even include the hispanic or native american ones.
We're in agreement no?
Yes, just adding some more details. Hope it didn't come off as patronizing or anything negative, it's one of my favorite facts about the era :)
Ah thanks!