American Western cowboys have always been regarded as synonymous with debauchery and self-willedness, and many Western movies have expressed praise for cowboys in the course of the American westward movement. In contrast, few people discuss the shepherds of the United States, let alone the status of the shepherds in the development of American society.
In the history of the United States, the status of western cowboys and shepherds is mainly the former high, and the latter is low, western cowboys have received more praise, under the American love for western cowboys, a western cowboy with a leather hat, holding a gun, smoking a cigarette, riding a horse has spread throughout the world, and the western cowboy has become one of the tools for the spread of American culture in the world.
In the United States, the western cowboy seems to have become a symbolic figure, and many unruly American teenagers hope to become western cowboys, which shows that the western cowboy has become a "folk hero" and a "symbol of the American nation" in the hearts of the American people.
Western cowboys and shepherds are both sheep herders and herders, but their status is very different. Western cowboys have become the common American symbols all over the world, but the shepherd is still the shepherd, struggling to survive at the bottom of life, and there are many reasons for such differences in birth, such as the different values of cows and sheep, the different dresses of western cowboys and shepherds, public opinion propaganda and other factors.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="5" >, the pluralistic image of cowboys in the American West</h1>
1. The shape of the cowboy in the Western United States
People's cognition of the American Western cowboy is basically derived from the Western related movies about cowboys, the most classic image of the Western cowboy is Ma Tingting's description in the article "Analysis of the Spiritual Culture of the American Western People from the American Cowboy": "Wearing a wide-brimmed hat on the head, wearing a messy shirt and tight leather pants, and pedaling boots on the feet." ”
The image of the western cowboy created in the aesthetics of the film is always so capable of capturing people's hearts, but unfortunately the western cowboy in reality is not such a generous and handsome image.
Due to the professional habits of western cowboys, many cowboys are actually gray-headed and dirty,full of dirty bodies, and even have the smell of cows, and what's more, some cowboys' clothes are not only unclean, but also have blood stains. As for the skinny leather jackets of the cowboys in the movie, it is even more difficult to see.
Because in the harsh grazing environment, cowboys are usually very tired, clothes are loose, and hunched shirts and loose pants are the norm. Even so, after the public opinion of the American media, the image of the Western cowboy is still deeply popular.
Wearing a wide-brimmed hat of "Stetson", a printed square scarf, and boots with hidden instruments, the Western cowboy attracted the world with its clean and neat image and became the object of worship of a generation of Americans.
The diverse image of the Western cowboy comes not only from his unique styling, but also from the unique exotic style of the American West.
After the Westward Expansion Movement, the American West gained great development, and more and more cattle and sheep entered the Westworld, and these people adhered to a fast-paced life, which was completely different from the East Coast of the United States and was regarded as an exotic way of life by the Easterners.
The combination of the Lifestyle of Westerners and the image of Western cowboys creates a common impression that in turn affects the American people's perception of Western cowboys and Western society.
Coupled with the exaggeration of media opinion, the freedom of western cowboys was infinitely magnified, and eventually evolved into an enviable way of life, especially in a country that advocates freedom in the United States.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="16" > second, the comparison between cowboys and shepherds in the western United States</h1>
Shepherds in the United States are a grazing group with similar functions to Western cowboys, but shepherds are not favored and valued by Americans in the United States, that is, shepherds have not become the image that ordinary people in the United States yearn for like Western cowboys. Thus, comparing western cowboys and shepherds helps us understand the differences between the two.
First of all, western cowboys and shepherds have different positions in the hearts of the American people, and ordinary Americans worship cowboys and disdain to become shepherds, because shepherds not only live hard, but also have no freedom at all, and need to follow the sheep into the mountainside, even on the cliffs.
Secondly, the western cowboys and shepherds have different grazing methods, cowboys graze in groups, often with tools such as horses, while shepherds mainly rely on their feet to chase the sheep, and there are fewer shepherds with horses. Then, the different habits of sheep and cattle also gave rise to different perceptions of western cowboys and shepherds.
Sheep are understood to be weak and docile, and basically do not pose much of a threat to people; cattle are strong and brave in people's minds, and require a lot of courage and wisdom to tame them. Therefore, shepherds and western cowboys have different degrees of occupational danger, and people will naturally be more inclined to brave and wise western cowboys.
Finally, western cowboys give the impression of being free-spirited and freewheeling, while shepherds give the impression of being mildly depressed and weathered.
In the American society at that time, the image of the western cowboy was more attractive, and in the 19th century, when the Americans carried out the westward expansion movement, the government encouraged people to dare to open up to the west and be active; coupled with the old eastern society full of depression and heavy life, the American people more and more yearned for the free and unrestrained life of the western cowboy.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="23" > third, the reason for the disparity in the status of cowboys and shepherds in the western United States</h1>
1. The result of the difference in the needs of the times
The United States in the 19th century was the stage of the great development of liberal capitalism, and liberal capitalism began to transition to the stage of state monopoly capitalism. The capitalist community exerts collective pressure on the working group by extending the working hours of the workers, reducing the wages of the workers, or by extending the working hours of the workers, keeping the wages of the workers unchanged, but by the joint trade unions raising prices.
As a result, the pressure on the working class became greater and greater, the dissatisfaction with reality became more and more, and the desire for the ideal free life was more and more desired, and the emergence of the western cowboy coincided with this demand.
It can be said that the western cowboy is an ideal image created by the Americans, just like the chivalry in the European Middle Ages, the martial arts spirit in China, and the bushido spirit in Japan, all of which are to meet people's spiritual needs and provide a medium of comfort for those who are dissatisfied with the social status quo.
American Western cowboys are the spokesmen of freedom in the hearts of the American people, they can ride freely on horses on the prairie, unfettered, and can also be with nature and cattle all day long, without experiencing the pressures and deceit of eastern society. Under the rendering of these ideas, Western cowboys are increasingly popular with ordinary people.
2. The results of media public opinion propaganda
Media campaigns played an important role in the rise of the Cowboys in the West. In the era when the news media was underdeveloped, the main reason why western cowboys were more popular was that cowboys were paid more than shepherds and had a slightly better working environment than shepherds.
In the era of the news media, the news media began to wantonly render the life of the western cowboy, the United States has a number of media specifically reported on the life and grazing forms of the western cowboy, but rarely mentioned the same function of the shepherd group, the media's attention tendency will naturally make the public more familiar with the western cowboy.
In addition to the propaganda of the news media, many American films have also focused on the body of the western cowboy, through the unique film technique, the western cowboy is portrayed as a group of anti-violence and good, these cowboys are not afraid of authority, helpfulness, wisdom and bravery and so on.
They have all the good qualities, and the long-term propaganda is that Americans and even the rest of the world have a stereotype of western cowboys, that is, western cowboys are a group of free-spirited, brave and wise people.
Ma Tingting's "Analysis of the Spiritual Culture of the American People in the Western Region from the American Cowboy" pointed out: "There are many Western film themes in the United States... This allows people to directly feel the classic cowboy character image that is full of wild beauty, brave beauty, free beauty and many other charm factors mixed in. ”
Her narrative directly reveals the image of the cowboy in the American West by the film art, and the spirit of progress, charity and fearlessness contained in the western cowboy is conveyed to the ordinary American public through the film.
However, it should be pointed out that shepherds are also hard-working, weathered and brave and wise people, and their hardships and strong and wise spirit in coping with suffering are by no means inferior to the Western Cowboys, which is a group that has gradually been forgotten in the dust of history, and the American people need to pay attention to this group, after all, they have created the Cattle Herding Empire in the Western Cowboys at the same time, but also created the Shepherd Empire.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="37" >4</h1>
In the nineteenth century, different cattle and sheep kingdoms appeared on the territory of the United States, and the two major groups were in conflict over the territory of the sheep herding, so the western cowboys and shepherds were also in a state of hostility.
Western cowboys and shepherds belong to different grazing groups, which are mainly determined by the different foraging behaviors of cattle and sheep, cattle mainly forage for grass in plains and low slopes, while Young can climb up the mountainside and even on the edge of the cliff to forage for grazing, so the shepherd's work is very hard, and he must follow the foraging footsteps of the sheep.
Western cowboys chase cattle mainly in the plains, and farmers in good condition will provide horses for these cowboys.
Cowboys and shepherds belong to groups that are not optimistic about each other, and they are also herding groups, and cowboys also despise the work of shepherds, which is also an important reason for the low status of shepherds.
In the dispute between shepherds and cowboys, almost no one is willing to defend the shepherds, but always willing to praise the freedom of the cowboys in the West, even public opinion will be biased towards the cowboy side, and some presidents in the history of the United States are also born of cowboys, which directly deepens people's impression of cowboys.
There is no doubt that the difference between the Cowboys and shepherds in the West is the result of a long-standing prejudice of consciousness that has not been changed to this day.
bibliography
"Analysis of the Spiritual Culture of the American West from the American Cowboy"
"Interpreting the Image of Western Cowboys by the Mainstream American Cultural Model"
The Rise of the Shepherd Empire of the American West
Narrative Studies in Hollywood Westerns
American Cultural Icons: Western Cowboy Heroes and Pastoral Pastoral in Collective Memory