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						The Cowboy Myth The cowboy affected American culture in a way the vaquero never did Mexican or Spanish culture. In the cowboy, wrote Joe A. Stout, "Americans perceived their self-image: a man with a hard-won knowledge of the world who had remained untainted by the world. But the cowboy myth, like any myth, survives because it embodies 'rites of passage': the cowboy, who was often literally a boy (the average cowboy was only in his early twenties), wins his manhood by passing through trials of his strength and endurance." The cowboy entered popular mythology through Wild West shows, books, movies, and television, becoming one of the more resonant symbols of America and Americans. The Big Land (1957). The Center of American History, The University of Texas at Austin.
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