This is a brief screencast video I put together for my world history class to illustrate some of the very basic PowerPoint techniques that give some people trouble. Please tell me if anything is unclear or if you have additional questions! Remember, if other students are trying to view the screen cast, you might have to try again later.
I know you are probably wondering when we’re going to do the presentations on Colonial Lives, that are scheduled to start tonight. Don’t worry — when I wrote the syllabus I had to plan for the possibility that we would have 30 students.
Since there are only about 12 of us, we’re going to have regular lecture/discussion class this week [4/14 and 4/16]. Then next week we’ll have the presentations [4/21 and 4/23] and then we’ll have some wrap-up lecture/discussions during the last week 4/28 and 4/30.] The final paper [on Lieutenant Nun] is due on May 5, when we would normally be having an exam.
So, what is the project presentation supposed to be? You can do one of two things
Do you HAVE to pick a new Colonial Lives document? Not necessarily — read the previous post for more information.
In their anthology Colonial Lives, Richard Boyer and Geoffrey Spurling offer a collection of primary source documents illustrating aspects of everyday colonial Latin America life that are often hidden. These documents give us insights into colonial life that earlier historians did not examine, either because these records tell us about with people who were not powerful [women, people of color, working people] or because they deal with topics that were considered taboo or uninteresting [sex, witchcraft, the environment]. (You can find a list of these topics and themes, from “African/Afro-Latin American Peoples” to “Witchcraft” and “Women” on pages xi-xiii of Colonial Lives.)
I would like you to write about one document of your choosing from the collection and turn your paper in to me by April 7. Read it [and re-read it] carefully, and write a paper [1,200 words; roughly 4 double-spaced pages] describing what that document tells us about colonial Latin America: how does it illuminate the lives of the people who lived there, their culture(s) and their relationships? Your analysis should consider who made the document and why. Is it a court case, a popular song, a government report? What kinds of information are likely to be suppressed or exaggerated due to the nature of this source? Obviously you will analyze what the document tells us but you should also consider the silences in the document. What can we learn from these silences?
As with all writing in this class, you will submit a computer file to me and I will use a grading grid to evaluate your work. The “communication” column will be identical to the one I use on our tests. In oither words, you need a thesis in the first paragraph, a title that suggests your thesis, good organization, etc.
If you wish you may do outside background reading [each document has a list of recommended titles; the full information on these books is located in the bibliography at the end of the volume] but this is not required. I think you may also find Chasteen’s Born in Blood and Fire book helpful for background.
In A Perfect Red Amy Butler Greenfield tells the story of the trade in cochineal, which she describes as one of “Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire.” One way of thinking about this book is that Greenfield has written a global history around this product of Latin American biology and culture.
For our third take home exam, I’d like you to answer the question “What role did colonial Latin America play in world history” using A Perfect Red and class lectures as your sources. Your essay should be about 1,500 words long, and it should address the following issues: How did Latin America affect the global economy? How did Latin America affect European science? How did Latin America affect world cultures? How did Spain shape Latin America’s impact on the rest of the world? What aspects of Latin America (its indigenous culture, natural resources, imperial domination, location) affected the outside world?
Don’t forget to put in the grading grid from exam 2 so I can see your amazing improvements!
Is there a pattern of masculine and feminine stereotypes in these documents? If so, describe it. Do these documents express ethnic/racial stereotypes? If so, describe them.
Do these ethnic and gender stereotypes overlap or reinforce each other? How?
Do all the different people appearing in the documents share these different associations? Explain.
Summary of the above: In what ways can you detect that ideas about gender were connected to ideas about race in colonial Latin American society? Be prepared to discuss specific examples.
What types of power and what types of restrictions do men, women, demonstrate in these documents? How does their individual status as members of the lower classes and/or indigenous, African, or mixed-race people affect this power or these restrictions?
In these documents, do people in the lower social classes in colonial Latin America accept or fight the ideologies of race and gender that elite groups advanced?
The Mission: Named “Best Film” at Cannes Film Festival; nominated for an Academy Award for “Best Picture”; won an Academy Award for best cinematographyDirected by Roland Joffe [English], previously directed The Killing Fields
Screenplay by Robert Bolt [English], previously wrote screen play for Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago; Starring Jeremy Irons, Robert Deniro; music by Enrico Morricone
Actor and technical advisor: Jesuit Father Daniel Berrigan [USA]; anti- war [Vietnam] activist
Setting: Jesuit missions in the Rio de la Plata region [Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay] in the 1760s
32 missions by 1750; each with between 1,800 and 6,900 residents. These settlements were part of gradual Spanish expansion from mining areas. The Indian tribes in question were the Guaraní.
Questions: How do the director and screenwriter depict the Indians and Spaniards in this film? Why?
Influences to consider:
I. The “Black Legend” of the “evil Spaniards”
A. Anti-Spanish attitudes were an important negative influence on national identities in England, France, Netherlands, and the USA
1. Spanish Catholic Inquisition versus and religious freedom [Protestant countries]
2. Spanish “tyranny” versus Liberal-democratic political traditions [Zorro]
3. Industrial progress versus economic stagnation
B. Example of Black Legend’s influence: Christopher Columbus & Washington Irving
1. Irving was a novelist and served as US ambassador to Spain in early 1800s
2. Created the “Flat-world” myth; “Columbus was a ‘good’ Catholic.”
C. Example of “Black Legend’s influence Herbert Bolton and “Borderlands” history
1. In the early 1900s Bolton tried to show another side of “American” history — the missions in northern New Spain – California, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona
2. Famous 1917 article, “The Mission as a Frontier Institution in the Spanish-American Colonies,” challenged Black Legend stereotypes
3. Focused attention on Spanish missions and towns and on priests as settlers, civilizers
4. A new kind of Pilgrim story for US history
II. Liberation Theology – a Catholic social and political movement in the years 1975-1990s
A. A critique of traditional Catholicism as too allied with the status quo and elites
B. Liberation Theology took an activist stance on social issues, including poverty;
C. Criticized traditional emphasis on heaven;
D. Instead — the poor are Christ, Christian communities here on earth can solve social problems
Did you miss class on Monday, March 10? We had a long discussion of the test questions and picked one of the three at random [we threw out question #4]. The “winner” was question #2 that names 4 specific myths and asks you to describe why they “stuck”. See the question post from a few weeks back [below] for the specific wording!
Three other reminders:
1. Cut and past the ‘grading grid” from your first test into this one, please. While you’re doing that, review my comments and think about how you can address them on this test. I’m grading you on improvement!
2. Don’t forget that in your test essay on question #2 you also need to address the question “How does Restall’s ‘myth-busting’ ideas reshape our vision of the history of colonial Latin America?”
3. The test is due by 5pm Wednesday May 12. Upload your file to your mavspace account and send me the link. Then, be sure to come to class on Wednesday!
