In class today we chose the question for the test. It’s the first of the two listed below. The PowerPoint from today on Brazilian slavery and the cities of Minas Gerais [could be useful for the test!] is available on the PowerPoints page of our WebCT site.
Test questions for Furtado, Chica da Silva: A Brazilian Slave in the Eighteenth Century
Due 11-16-09 via WebCT
Question 1
OR
Question 2
The test question [due Monday Oct. 12 by 5pm] is the one from our sheet that begins … “why are some myths so sticky”. Don’t forget to paste in the grading grid from last time and pay special attention to the areas that needed work. For this question [like all of them] you need to combine specific historical details [on the myths] with an overarching thesis. Be sure the thesis is in the first paragraph or page! Good luck!
In a world where papers are submitted electronically (even under your own log-in) it’s always a good idea to put your last name in the name of your file. After doing this for 10 years it still seems weird to me to name a file on MY computer “Garrigus_Mann.doc” But when I send it to someone else, it makes a lot of sense on his or her computer.
It’s also a good idea to get out of the habit of putting blanks in a file name. On the web those blanks turn into “%20″ as in “Garrigus%20Mann”. Confusing!
So let’s use this easy file-naming protocol for papers from here on out: “YourLastName_LastNameOfAuthor”. Example: “Brown_Mann.doc” That’ll help me keep track of your work. WebCT puts each of your papers in a separate directory named with your initials, and then zips the whole thing for me to download. You’ll save me a few minutes if you can name your files this way!
Your paper on Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a Basque Tranvestite in the New World is due on Monday March 5. If you are not going to do the paper, please drop me a line. If you are going to the paper but you need another day, again, please send me an email asking for the extension, so I know that your paper is on its way. The question is “What does this primary source tell us about colonial Latin America?” As with all our papers, it should be submitted via Mavspace, with the grading grid from your last assignment copied and pasted into the top of the new essay.
The essay should be about 5pages [1,500 words] long, though if you have more to say, take more space! It should have all the elements I’ve been stressing throughout the semester — thesis in the first paragraph, good title that reflects the thesis, evidence that supports the thesis, etc. It should also answer the question “how does this change our conception of colonial Latin America.”
The main assigned question, however, is the same one we have been asking ourselves about primary documents all semester long: “What does this tell us about colonial Latin America?” You may want to write about “patriarchy,” hegemony and the role of women (see the Chasteen book if you’re not sure what I mean here) , you may want to write about violence, about the Church, about honor, or about the role of indigenous people in the story.
I know that some of you would like to know if you should take advantage of my offer to skip the final test/paper! Here’s how to figure it out:
Get out the syllabus and look at the grid marked “major assignments” The final paper on Erauso is worth 13% of the total semester grade. So to calculate what you would have if you removed that from your grade, figure that all your grades will add up to 87% instead of 100%.
Put the grades you received in each of the boxes next to the percentage weight for that assignment. You should have numbers for everything but the Erauso and presentation projects. For class participation, average the two numbers that I’ve already reported (I will assign one more CP grade but it will average in with the other two). Read the rest of this entry »
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!
I’ll see you on Monday in class. Don’t forget that we have new book — Greenfield’s Perfect Red. And now (on Wednesday) we’ll be moving ahead with the Boyer and Sperling Colonial Lives book. Bring them both to class!
Sorry your tests are taking so long. I just have two more to do, and I’ll have them back to you about lunch time on Monday.
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!
If you missed class tonight, we talked about Restall, Chap. 5 — the “myth of miscommunication.” Speaking of miscommunication, technical problems kept us (again!) from recording the lecture but you can get the PowerPoint files on WebCT as usual.
Announcements:
1. Our next class (Wed. 3/5) will be all on WebCT. i’ll post a couple of webcasts instead of having class. We’ll continue with our regular schedule next Monday.
2. Speaking of Monday, that’s when we’ll pick which of the four test questions you need to write about. The test is due on the following Wednesday! You should be reviewing your class notes and thinking about all four questions.
3. We had our first discussion of the Boyer and Spurling book, Colonial Lives. Be sure to bring it to class with you from now on! We’re working on interpreting these primary sources for your paper on this book.
4. The Boyer and Spurling paper is due on Wed. March 30. It’s a five page paper in which you analyze one of the documents in the collection and explain what it tells us about colonial Latin America. This is why we’re discussing the book in class — so you can get better and better at interpreting these documents.
