37. But this ambiguity had an even longer history; if, on the one hand, some sources had recognized that native women had more kindness, gentleness and love for their work than the gauchos, travellers who roamed the pampas between the 18th and the early 19th centuries, on the other hand, spread negative views about these native women. Felix de Azara disapproved of their uncleanliness and their lack of engagement in tasks like weaving or sewing, and Francis Bond Head criticized them for being indolent and inactive, suggesting that they did not abide by conventional family ties. [68] The truth is that it was the forced nomadism caused by rural labour which contributed to the instability of family formations in the pampas.
40. Pero esta ambigüedad tenía una historia aún más larga: así como algunas fuentes habían reconocido en las mujeres nativas mayor amabilidad, docilidad y amor por el trabajo que en los gauchos, otros viajeros que recorrieron la pampa entre el siglo XVIII y principios del XIX difundieron sobre ellas opiniones negativas. Félix de Azara reprobó su suciedad y que no ejercieran labores como el tejido o la costura, y Francis Bond Head las criticó por indolentes e inactivas, sugiriendo además que no se atenían a vínculos familiares convencionales.