“Gender and the Rituals of First Contact: Indian-Euroamerican Communication in the Colonial Spanish Borderlands”

Juliana Barr

This paper focuses on the intercultural borderlands of colonial North America and the dynamics of first contact between the Caddo Indians of the Hasinai Confederacy and the Spanish and French who entered their lands at the end of the seventeenth century. Facing differences of language, custom, and worldview that defied translation, the Euroamericans and Hasinais relied upon display and gesture to communicate intent, respect, honor, and power. Left with no other points of departure to bridge the gaps separating their two cultures, they appealed to basic social building blocks of gender to structure and interpret meaning. The ability to recognize as familiar certain representations of masculinity allowed them to successfully read and exchange ceremonial displays of male prowess and prestige meant to establish mutual respect and standing. Yet the Spanish and French found themselves in unfamiliar political territory when faced with Hasinai women’s participation in diplomatic ritual. Euroamericans failed to recognize the different standards of female status and honor presented to them by the Hasinais, which led them to grave errors of presumption and judgment. These misinterpretations excused for European men what amounted to rape and abuse for Hasinai women. The seeming familiarity of markers of masculinity disguised critical differences of femininity that muddied and ultimately undermined cross-cultural friendship and alliance.

[WP # 98005]