Each entry follows the following format:
[1542] Relación (The Relation) (book)
Author: Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca – Each entry will link to a Handbook of Texas page on the author. If there exists no TSHA page on the author, I will write one and submit it to the TSHA.
Description: In this section, I will give a description of the document itself and the author’s overall intention. Furthermore, I will explain significant events that occurred when the document was produced. For the description, I will pinpoint how the document relates to the Karankawas. It will describe the document’s significance and it will also give exact page numbers of where to find this information. Regarding this document, for instance, I’d say something along the lines of, “Cabeza de Vaca describes a form of cannibalism in which the ashes of a deceased spiritual leader are consumed by their family members. Page 38.” And so on. Significance needs to go here.
Access: Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Chronicle of the Narváez Expedition, trans. Fanny Bandelier (New York: Penguin Books, 2002). I can acquire free PDF versions of most entries because nearly all are produced prior to 1924. Of course, there are exceptions. For the sources in which I cannot provide a full-length PDF, I will only reproduce the pages in which Karankawas are mentioned. Under fair-use, this should not be an issue. I think reproducing more than 15 percent of the book is where you can get into trouble.
Further Reading: I will treat this section as a mini-Biblio to cite my sources and to give folks who are really interested in secondary-sources material. I originally thought about linking these sources to Amazon because I will not be able to acquire their full PDFs, but I want to divorce this archive from money-making, so instead I will link to the WorldCat page.
Andrés Reséndez, A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca (New York: Basic Books, 2007);
Brief Description. (2 sentences max)
Brief description. (2 sentences max)
Tags: Cannibalism, Family Structures, Hunting, etc. Each tag will correspond to a category. Click on the tag and you’ll be taken to a page with all the sources related to that category.
If you have a suggestion to improve the accessibility or readability of the entry format, let me know.
Karankawas 