Once called the Lords of the Plains, the Comanches were long portrayed
as marauding raiders who capitalized on the Spanish introduction of
horses to raise their people out of primitive poverty through bison hunting
and fierce warfare. More recent studies of the Comanches have focused
on adaptation and persistence in Comanche lifestyles and on their
political organization and language-based alliances. 

    In Comanche Society, Gerald Betty develops an exciting perspective
on the driving force of Comanche life: kinship. He details the kinship
patterns that underlay all social organization and behavior among the
Comanches and uses these insights to explain the way Comanches
lived and interacted with Europeans.

    This account analyzes the formation of clans, the hierarchy in family
and generational relationships, and ancestor worship and related religious
ceremonies. In clear language and detail, Betty considers a number of
aspects of Comanche life—pastoralism, migration and nomadism,
economics and trade, and warfare—and how these developed along
kinship lines.

    This is cutting-edge history, drawing not only on original research in
extensive primary documents but also on theoretical perspectives from
other disciplines.

_________________________________________________________

GERALD BETTY lives in San Angelo, Texas. He holds a Ph.D. from 
Arizona State University


Number Twenty-three: Elma Dill Russell Spencer Series in the West and
Southwest


What people are saying about this book

". . . provides a much-needed reappraisal of Plains Indian studies."—True 
West

"Combining fine prose and first-class scholarship, Betty points to a new
direction in Plains Indian studies."—David La Vere, University of North
Carolina at Wilmington