The thing I found most interesting in this chapter is how big the difference between the Spanish and the Pueblos’ meaning of gift giving and sexuality was. When Onate and his men arrived, the Pueblos gave gifts such as water and maize to them as a tribute and traditional sacrifice. However, the Franciscans took it as a sign of surrendering their riches to them as gifts and started to take advantage of it eventually. Hernan Gallegos said that “the inhabitants gave us much corn . . . We took a little, so that they should not think we were greedy nor yet receive the impression that we did not want it; among themselves they consider it disparaging if one does not accept what it offered . . . since we understood their custom, we took something of what they gave us. Moreover, we did this to get them into the habit of giving freely without being asked. Accordingly, they brought all they could.” (Gutierrez 52). This misunderstanding of the Pueblos’ traditions of gift-giving led to the loss of many lives when Captain Don Juan de Zaldivar stopped in Acoma on his way to Zuni and expected the villagers to give him everything he wanted. His men then stole a turkey, which is sacred to the Indians, leading to the Indians attacking and killing Zaldivar and his men. Another misunderstood tradition of the Pueblos was the importance of sex in their culture. As the Spanish soldiers stayed in the villages, the Pueblo women “cooled the passion of the fierce fire-brandishing Spanish katsina through intercourse, and so by doing, tried to transform and domesticate the malevolence of these foreign gods.” The Spaniards, however, “would interpret their subjugation of the Pueblos as a supreme assertion of masculine virility, and as such, would see 1598 as a sexual conquest of women.” (Gutierrez 51). The Pueblo women thought that they were welcoming the Spaniards into their village, but the Spaniards believed that they were simply ‘conquering’ women. Reading about this made me realize how important it is for us to understand the customs and traditions of places we go, especially if it’s a completely different culture altogether. If we don’t, it could lead to huge misunderstandings just like it did for the Spaniards.
Kayla Sampson
Kayla Sampson