It is not a myth, however much the fact may have been mythologized in fiction and movies" (Worster 1987,150). As environmental historian Donald Worster has remarked, "All the world knows that the American West is fundamentally a land of cowboys. Western historical geography is rich with ranches and cowboys, who are intimately bound up with the settlement of the continent's arid regions. Livestock work-and especially the migratory cowboy life-has accumulated tradition and romance in the American West. Precise figures have long been difficult to exhume, given a predilection of norteamericanos for adopting the ranchette and other uneconomical, if nostalgic, exurban versions of the "ranch, " which mask already error-prone Census of Agriculture figures. No more than a few thousand active and large cattle ranches with more than 400 head and a cadre of working full-time cowhands persist in North America certainly no more than 10,000. California and Sonora remain strongholds of vaquero work (Crosby 1981). In the public domain reprinted by permission. 1890, Library of Congress, Print and Photographs Division. W Ingersoll, "A Real Live Cowboy," approx. " The 1890s look was authentic enough-the long rope (before the introduction of nylon), the full-double rigged roping saddle, the simple curb bit, each announce the presence of the Texas-derived cowhand. The cowboy was a subject of considerable national adulation in the late nineteenth centuiy, and photographic stereo pairs were given to commemorating figures like this 'A Real Live Cowboy. To treat ranching as a monolithic, economics-Ĭattle-tending ranch workers in particular,Ĭarried a Spanish lilt, tenders of western That affects everything from the way they dress to Rangelands, ranchers enjoy a rich and diverse cultural heritage Most of us are well aware of the importance of understandingĬultural norms and values when working with pastoralistsĪbroad, but we neglect cultural nuances of ranching
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