History of Colonial Latin America

Directions:  As you consider these potential test questions, remember that in answering all of them you should also be answering the question, “How does Restall’s book change the way we think about Latin American history?”

 1.      In his discussion of myths, Restall often ends up writing not about what happened but about the texts [letters, reports, books] that were written about these events. Why and how were these so important in establishing myths? Give specifics.

2.      Why did certain myths stick? Consider the Round Earth, Myth of the White Conquistadors, Myth of the Kings Soldiers, and the Myth of Completion and give specifics.

3.      According to Restall, what were the real reasons the Spanish conquered Latin America? Why were these ‘real reasons’ not enough to eclipse the stories he describes as myths?

4.      How does Restall’s myth busting fit with Mann’s myth-busting? Do the two books contradict each other? Do they reinforce each other? Give specifics.

If you missed class tonight, you’re probably curious about the test questions. We discarded question 6 and I decided to give everyone a choice of 2 questions. You only need to write on one. The options are:

Question 3, which begins “According to Mann, what is the idea of the Noble Savage? When and why …..”

Question 5, which begins “Compare and contrast the old (1940s) and new (1990s) theories of Native …”

The test is due to me via a Mavspace link emailed to garrigus@uta.edu by 5pm Wednesday Feb. 13. Do not plagiarize! In fact don’t even  go to the Internet until you’re done. Give me the page numbers from Mann (and tell me somewhere if you have the hardback or paperback edition). Good luck!

I thought you might be! So I went to our WebCT site and uploaded two papers on Mann, 1491, from a class i taught at another school in 2006. The assignment was different than yours, but the book was the same — and so was the grader (me). You can see my “grading grid” [different from ours, but the concept is the same], the comments I made, etc. Let me know if you have any problems getting the files or reading them. I hope this helps!

Thanks for your help on Monday brainstorming about what should be on the grading grid!

Here’s the final version I came up with. Notice the importance I attach to having specific evidence! Rather than stress originality, I thought a more specific (and useful) criterion would  be whether you explain in the paper why these ideas are important in our class!

Use this grid to think about your paper — this is what I’m looking for! [No mysteries ....] Email me if you have questions!

You don’t know which ones, but I’ll pick one or more of these and ask you to turn in a test essay with your open-book response. What I suggest is that you look for answers to all these questions as you do the reading. We’ll look at these and discuss them in class over the next several weeks, so bring your thoughts and notes with you! A good answer for most of these will not be found only in a single place in the book.

1. Mann coins the phrase “Holmburg’s Mistake” to describe the conclusions of a US researcher in the Beni province of Bolivia in the 1940s. Describe the “mistake” and give 2 other examples [not from Bolivia] of this “mistake” in the history of research on pre-Columbian people.
2. What does Mann cite as evidence of Indian “technology”? According to him, how did it differ from the technology of the Europeans?
3. According to Mann, what is the idea of the “Noble Savage”? When and why did it develop? How has it been maintained to the present day? How does the idea of Indian “technology” challenge this idea?
4. How would Mann compare and contrast the pre-Columbian populations of what we consider today to be “Latin America” and the pre-Columbian populations of what is today the United States? What similarities and differences does he expose?
5. Compare and contrast the old (1940s) and new (1990s) theories of Native American origins, as Mann explains them.
6. Most people in the Americas today have heard of the Aztec empire in modern day Mexico and the Inca Empire in modern day Peru. Given Mann’s view of when Native American civilization began, how would he describe these empires of the 1400s?
7. According to Mann, what were the common characteristics of all the agricultural systems of pre-Columbian peoples in the Americas?
8. According to the traditional view, how was pre-Columbian Brazil different from pre-Columbian Mexico? Mann presents the ideas of researchers that challenge this view. According to the new research, in what ways was Brazil similar to Mexico?