Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
of the Río de la Plata. The canoes of the Charrúa, according to an
early European mariner, measured “10 to 12 fathoms [approximately
69 feet] in length and half a fathom [a little more than 3 feet] in
width; the wood was cedar, very beautifully worked; they rowed them
with very long paddles decorated by crests and tassels of feathers
on the handles; and 40 standing men rowed each canoe” (Steward
1946, I:193). The men of the Charrúa hunted with bows and arrows,
spears, and bolas (described on page 17). They were also very skilled
at slinging jagged stones at game.
Political and social decentralization was the rule among the Charrúa
also. These hunting groups resided in small dispersed groups on the
ROLE OF WOMEN AMONG
THE PUELCHE, CA. 1760
The women, who have once accepted their husbands, are in gen-
eral very faithful and laborious; for, besides the nursing and bring-
ing up their children, they are obliged to submit to every species of
drudgery. In short they do every thing, except hunting and fighting; and
sometimes they even engage in the latter. The care of all household
affairs is left entirely to the women: they fetch wood and water, dress
victuals, make, mend, and clean the tents, dress and sew together the
hides, and also the lesser skins of which they make their mantles and
carapas, and spin and make ponchas or macuns [two types of cloaks].
When they travel, the women pack up every thing, even the tent-
poles; which they must erect and pull down themselves, as often as
occasion requires: they load, unload, and settle the baggage, straiten
the girths of the saddles, and carry the lance before their husbands.
No excuse of sickness, or being big with child, will relieve them from
the appointed labor: and so rigidly are they obliged to perform their
duty, that their husbands cannot help them on any occasion, or in the
greatest distress, without incurring the highest ignominy. The women
of quality, or those related to the Caciques, are permitted to have
slaves, who ease their mistresses of the most laborious part of their
work; but if they should not have any slaves, they must undergo the
same fatigue as the rest.
Source:
Falkner, Thomas.
A Description of Patagonia and the Adjoining Parts of
South America. 1774 (Reprint, Chicago: Armann & Armann, 1935).
