Contrary to the trapper, who crosses the border between civilization and wilderness, the cowboy symbolizes the border itself.

How to make a cowboy:

1. Discover a continent with warm climate and lots of grass.

2. Set loose some small agile horses and long-legged sturdy cattle and let them multiply freely for about 300 years.

2. Invent a dependable hand-held firearm that can be easily used by riders.

3. Kill off all the natives by means of smallpox and several soldiers.

4. Build up a prospering beef-trade with the aid of a few rich men living far away in a civilized town, preferably on a completely different continent.

5. Pay some poor bastards very little money to ride in circles around the cattle and call them cow-boys....