Close Encounters of a Colonial Kind:
|
David
Sowell
202
IHB
641-3534
|
TTH
9:00 – 10:20
Oller
Center Seminar Room
Sowell@juniata.edu
|
This course
focuses upon the cultures of the Nahua, Inca, Maya, and Spanish peoples
during the contact and conquest periods (1400s-1600s). We will examine
the different cultural, economic, social, philosophical, and political
systems of these peoples, both before and after conquest. The course explores
how and why these cultures, though conquered, shape the Spanish-American
colonial system as it developed in these regions.
Cultural
contact presents the historian with distinct challenges. The researcher
is forced to examine distinct and often conflicting sources of evidence,
to determine the biases of secondary sources, and to make balanced assessment
of one of a perplexing historical process. It challenges us to interpret
documents produced by cultures that have long since been changed by the
passage of time. In our readings we will join scholars that have attempted
to interpret this period using different sources and methodologies. As
we read the product of their labors, we must be cognizant of the biases
that their own methods have given to their publications. Students will
have the opportunity to develop valuable skills within this context. You
will practice and enhance you ability to read, write, analyze, and think
critically.
My
office hours are MWF, 10:00 – 10:45, and TTH, 10:45 – 12:00. Other meeting
times may be arranged. Please take advantage of these opportunities to
discuss items of concern to this course.
Students
will complete three short writing assignments and a paper to earn most
of their class grade. Each of the smaller writing assignments are worth
up to 15 per cent of the course grade and the longer paper can earn thirty
per cent. The final fifteen per cent of your grade will be based upon participation.
Participation includes attendance, attentive listening, impromptu writing
assignments, a strong grasp of the assigned readings, contributions to
class discussion, and a willingness to ask questions if materials are poorly
understood.
The longer
paper should be considered to be a small research paper. It will offer
you the opportunity of practicing the different skills used in the course.
It should be between seven and ten in length, not including endnotes and
bibliography. In order to assist you in planning and developing the paper,
I have attached several deadlines to the project. Meeting the deadlines
earns you no points, but missing any deadline automatically deducts five
points from your final paper grade.
October
18 Topic selection. Please
submit a one-paragraph statement of your paper topic. I urge that you meet
with me before hand to discuss the project, in terms of its feasibility,
the availability of sources, and its relevance to the course.
October
23 Initial bibliography
due. Our library has many sources that can be helpful to your project.
So too do several regional libraries, especially at Penn State (http://www.lias.psu.edu/).
The LANIC system at the University of Texas is an outstanding reference
collection. (http://www.lanic.utexas.edu/)
The single best source for Latin American History is the Handbook of
Latin American Studies, prepared by the Library of Congress (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/hlas/).
Many sources needed for your research will have to be ordered through Interlibrary
Loan. Please place these orders as quickly as possible.
November 13 Written progress report
November
30
First draft of paper due. This is optional, but my experience is that students
who do not turn in a draft average at least one letter grade lower in their
paper evaluation.
Final
Exam Day
Final draft of paper due. No late papers will be accepted.
Except
where explicitly stated, it is expected that all work prepared for this
course be done individually. Joint study sessions are not only permitted,
but are encouraged. Joint preparations of written assignments will not
be allowed. ANY violation of these rules will result in at least a zero
grade for the assignment and possibly a failing grade in the class. Students
who observe a violation of these rules are encouraged to inform the instructor.
Please purchase and read the following books.
Miguel León-Portilla, Aztec Thought and CultureRoss Hassig, Mexico and the Spanish ConquestInga Clendinnen, Ambivalent ConquestsKaren Spalding, Huarochirí: An Andean Society Under Inca and Spanish Rule
SCHEDULE:
We will keep to this timetable. It is your responsibility to have read
the assigned material before you come to class and to be prepared to discuss
the readings.
August
28 Introduction
Hispania – The Indies
September
25 Mexico and the Spanish
Conquest
The Reconquista Society, 5-14
Lyle N. McAlister, Spain and Portugal in the New World, 1492-1700 (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1984), pp. 63-65, 77-82
October
9 Mexico
and the Spanish Conquest
The Conquest of Mexico, 121 to end
Second writing assignment due
October
11 The
Nahua under Spanish Rule
James
Lockhart, “Conclusion,” The Nahuas After the Conquest: A Social and
Cultural History of the Indians of Central Mexico, Sixteenth through Eighteenth
Centuries (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992), 427-50.
November
13 Ecology, Regions, and States
Progress report on paper due
November
15 Huarochirí,
1-71
November
20 NO CLASS. WORK ON PAPER
November
27 Huarochirí,
72-135
November
29 Huarochirí,
136-208
First Draft of Paper Due
December
4 Huarochirí,
209-269
December
6 Huarochirí,
270 to end
December
11 Colonial Traditions
Draft returned
Final
Draft of Paper due at the end of the scheduled exam period.
Writing assignments
First
The “Aztec Stone Calendar” is one of the most important artifacts of the
Nahua culture. We can see as a simple calendar, a complex cosmology, or
an official history of the world according to the Tenocha-Mexica. Please
prepare a three-page essay (maximum) that analyzes the stone calendar as
a historical document. What does it say? What are the different ways that
it can be interpreted? Do you think that one can legitimately refer to
it as a “text?” (Due September 20)
Second
The encounter between the “twelve” and the Lords and Holy Men of Tenochtitlan
offers extraordinary insight into the nature of cultural contact.
Using the two documents you have been given, and your classroom readings,
please write a short (max three pages) that answers the following questions.
What took place in the meetings between the twelve and the Lords?
What do you know about each group’s cultural perspectives that affected their dialogue?
Could the twelve achieve their mission?
Could the Lords maintain
their culture after the encounter? (Due October 9)
Third Clendinnen’s “hall of mirrors” metaphor aptly captures many aspects of colonization. Seldom is it more appropriate in trying to understand the different readings of the events of 1562 in Yucatan. Fray Diego de Landa’s “discovery” of idolatry led to a massive investigation, the use of the inquisition, and the next stage of conquest.
What happened in 1562?
Obviously the answers depend upon which mirror one
sees, which is itself dependent upon a myriad of possible variables.
Please read the set of documents in the Appendix of Ambivalent Conquests and Chapter 9 of Maya Conquistador (attached). In consultation with other sources, analyze what happened in 1562 from at least three different perspectives. These must include at least one Spanish and one Maya perspective. In your analysis, demonstrate that the documents can sustain this interpretation. Be sure to tell the reader all that he needs to know in terms of definitions, background, and context. (Due November 8)
Aztec
Stone Calendar
Stone
Calendar (color)
Detailed
Information on Stone Calendar
Teotihuacan
Tenochtitlan,
map
Guaman
Poma
Codex
Mendoza
conquest
and tribute
Tribute
Women
Weaver
Mayan
Glyphs
quipu
Conquest
of South America
Tihuantinsuyu
Mesoamerica
cultural map
