inkbluesky

rodeo cowboys

The Cultural Myth of the Cowboy, or, How the West Was Won

How was such a sharply divided country to construct such a heritage? And, how did an American nationalist movement rise out of an existing English archetype, coming to be seen as uniquely “American”? Into the West rode the American cowboy, whose mythic figure and setting were equally significant and carefully shaped by authors, artists, and political figures. Indeed, ironically enough, if we look closely at Lawrence’s identification of the cowboy as “the essential American soul,” we find that the qualities ascribed to the cowboy are identical to those of the English knight. Thus, the two are related; in fact, the cowboy can be seen as the American incarnation of the knight. Similarities between the knight and the cowboy are undeniable and trace back to medieval influences on early western authors. For example, authors such as Owen Wister, Zane Grey, and Walter Van Tilburg Clark – leaders of the genre – had close ties to medieval literature that addressed the knights, their escapades, and the chivalric code. According to Darwin Payne’s biography, Wister, an accomplished pianist and composer, wrote compositions titled “Merlin and Vivien” and “Ivanhoe” (35), as well as an opera called Lady of the Lake (41). Furthermore, one of his short stories, “The Dragon of Wantley,” was compared to Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by a reviewer from Literary World (Payne 131).

An interesting article in several ways. One is how knights who were not more or less hired warriors, employees hired to do whatever task assigned. Mostly to protect royal land owners from invasion, but also to exert authority over the population of their land holdings. Cowboys who contrary to the movies that are frequently shown on AMC were mostly Spainish, African-Americans and a few Chinese ( when is the last time you saw a Chinese cowboy in a movie) were like knights, employees hired mostly to tend to livestock, put up and mend fences. It was only through their portrayal in books and newspapers of the time that they became mythologized into being bigger then life. Like knights they became known not for their jobs as much as for “a man who sought ‘movement, isolation, change,…fresh beginnings,”. A symbol of a new post civil war America. Where the west and all the possibilities of this new open space could replace and refocus the nation’s attention from memories of the war and the bitterness that the south felt on losing. The myth of the cowboy may not seem pertinent to current history, but it does. Probably the two worse presidents of the last quarter century have been pretend cowboys with fake ranches. Like it or not, think it is silly or not. There ability to sell the public on the idea that they embodied the ideals of the mythical cowboy played a large role in how the public perceived them and contributed to their success in selling themselves to the public.

This isn’t a rant against cowboys past or present. I’ve know a few and been to a few rodeos. They’re like any group of people, some of them are great folks - good friends, while some not so much. What bothers me is the myths and that point when people start to believe them and lend them an importance they don’t deserve.

update: I found this story at Salon: From Norman Rockwell to Abu Ghraib 

The idea of Bush as a Christian cowboy, dashing upward and onward to fulfill the Lord’s commandments, inspired him to title his campaign autobiography (written by his then communications advisor, Karen Hughes) “A Charge to Keep: My Journey to the White House.” Sample: “I could not be governor if I did not believe in a divine plan that supersedes all human plans.” 

A notable contrast with the key architect of America’s Constitution Thomas Jefferson who said, “On the dogmas of religion, as distinguished from moral principles, all mankind, from the beginning of the world to this day, have been quarreling, fighting, burning and torturing one another, for abstractions unintelligible to themselves and to all others, and absolutely beyond the comprehension of the human mind.”

amber tamlyn’s faerie tattoo

amber

faerie myths at wikipedia

An extra link if you’re constitutionally inclined, The “Silent” Ninth Amendment Gives Americans Rights They Don’t Know They Have