Institute Syllabus (Draft)
Please note: reading assignments may be tweaked between now and one month prior to the start of the institute, we will be preparing PDFs of readings to attach to this syllabus, and we will provide at least one printout of the readings that participants may borrow to photocopy at their own expense in Oaxaca. A word to the wise: the printed reading packet is quite “weighty” so you may wish to print it out in Oaxaca rather than adding it to your luggage.
Core Faculty: (from the University of Oregon): Dr. Stephanie Wood (Co-Director) and Dr. Judith Musick (Co-Director); Master Teacher Ron Lancaster; Dr. Gabriela Martínez; Dr. Ronald Spores; and Dr. Lynn Stephen. Local Faculty: Dr. Michael Swanton; Dr. María de los Angeles Romero Frizzi; Dr. Sebastián van Doesburg; Maestra María del Refugio Gutiérrez Rodríguez; Maestro Alejandro de Avila; don Paco González; Maestra Marietta Bernstorff; Lic. Luna MarAn; Dr. Concepción Núñez Miranda; Maestra Julia Barco; Dr. Margarita Dalton; and Patricia Díaz Romo.
Introduction
This is a four-week summer institute for K-12 schoolteachers of history, art, languages and literatures to be selected from applicants around the United States and those teaching at American schools abroad. The institute, which will be held in Oaxaca, Mexico, is designed to facilitate the expanded integration of Mesoamerican cultural heritage materials – new discoveries and the latest research interpreting the same — into curricular units or lesson plans that will appeal to a variety of learners and bring greater multicultural depth and understanding into U.S. classrooms. The aim is to explore how the histories of Mesoamerican peoples might provide useful comparisons for exploring humanities questions in the broader American and global context – such as how peoples move from non-sedentary to more settled societies, what leads to city formation, the emergence of writing and literacy, the development of complex societies, cultural florescence (and decline), how empires are built and what the human consequences are, and what are the nature and outcomes of cultural encounters and exchange. It is also our aim to explore our methods and sources, considering perspective and voice and how we can interpret cultural heritage materials such as museum objects, architectural remains, pictorial and textual archival manuscripts, folk art, and motion pictures. In the process of exploring this content, we will consider how technology can aid our humanities research and teaching, with new applications that help us tease out the meanings from heritage materials.
Expectations of Participants
All participants will have as their goal a deepening of their knowledge of Mesoamerican indigenous cultures and their histories over a broad sweep of time, from the Formative period to the present, as a means to achieving a greater understanding of both a shared humanity and the variety of human experience. They will embrace our thematic approach and our humanities inquiries to recent research findings and archaeological discoveries. They will take advantage of having access to experts in the field of Mesoamerica to stimulate their own intellectual vitality and move forward their own professional development. They will tap into the expertise and models provided by the broader community of inquiry and the scholarship presented by the institute, working to build new or improved curricular materials.
All participants will be expected to enhance one or more lessons in their courses by incorporating Mesoamerican content and infusing the classroom experience with more of a multicultural approach, showing a curiosity about and an appreciation for the indigenous peoples and cultures inhabiting Mexico and parts of Central America for millenia. In order to maximize the potential for these curricular revisions, participants will be expected to attend all presentations and workshops, do the reading assignments (preparing some of them prior to arrival in Mexico), participate in discussions, complete the projects outlined below, contribute to the final evaluation of the institute, and respond to later communications as projects are made available for sharing within the larger group of participants.
One of the principal institute requirements will involve participants working individually or in teams to revise or create a new lesson for use in the classroom. Informal gatherings in the mornings at coffee hour, over lunch, or during bus trips will be times when participants will be encouraged to discuss ideas for integrating Mesoamerican cultural heritage materials into their courses with the core faculty, guest speakers, and directors. Participants may also take advantage of the optional digital humanities component of the institute.
Required Projects
Proposal (2 pages): Individuals or teams of two to three people each will prepare a 2-page proposal for a new or revised lesson plan, curricular resource, or research project that incorporates Mesoamerican content learned during the institute, due at the start of the second week of the institute. This proposal will include a topic statement, explore pedagogical concerns and learning objectives they hope to address, and tell how the material will be used in the classroom (or, alternatively, for an assignment students will prepare outside of class). Included in the proposal will be a list of sample images and readings of the kind the team hopes to incorporate.
New or Revised Lesson Plan (2-4 pages): All individuals or teams will prepare a new or revised, 2 to 4-page lesson plan for use in their classrooms, some other curricular resource, or a research project. The presentation (or a glimpse of it) will be required during the fourth week of the institute. It may involve something entirely new or a revision of an existing lesson or unit that one of the participants has taught previously. It will involve the incorporation of materials made accessible through the institute, knowledge gained, and skills learned in the workshops. It will take advantage of the assistance in the interpretation of materials that core faculty and guest speakers will provide.
Participants will have access to digital humanities guidance in case they wish to develop digital teaching materials. Digital workshops will include image manipulation (rotating, cropping, color changes, resizing, etc.) and electronic slide presentation development. One week we will have special help in the creation and editing of digital video footage. Assistance will also be provided for those wishing to utilize WHP databases with stored resources, including images, sound files, and video clips.
It is our hope that all participants will bring their own laptops and digital cameras (still and/or video). Those wishing to use software with which they are already familiar will be encouraged to do so; others will have access to software loaned by the institute (with legal license) and instructions about how to use it. Faculty and staff of the institute will assist with any software questions as well as the interpretation of the content and pedagogical questions.
Participants will be asked to share any multimedia curricular materials they develop during the institute with other members, placing a copy on the Wired Humanities Project server, if they are willing. Slide presentations will be available on CD and/or could also be put on line for distant access, much like a website, but with less interactivity (beyond advancing and reversing the slides). All participants contributing curricular units to a shared resource base will have access to the materials of the other contributors. These will be password protected or not, as the participants so specify, meaning that they will be accessible only to the institute participants or available for sharing more widely with the general public. Selected units may be made available nationally through Edsitement.
Topic Suggestions: Additional topics will surely occur to the participants over the course of the institute, but to start people thinking about some of the many possibilities, here are some suggestions. Most of these topics can be examined for change over time, including the changes that came with Spanish colonization. Our time frame is 1800 B.C.E. to the present.
- Agriculture (i.e., the Domestication of Maize, Chocolate as Food and Medium of Exchange, Chinampa Farming, Subsistence vs. Market Production, the Columbian Exchange, etc.)
- Art & Architecture (i.e., domestic vs. monumental, Sculpture, Pottery, Murals, etc.)
- Creation, Origins, and Migration Narratives (sculptural, pictorial, written) and their role in the formation of local and state identity
- Dance (often associated with Religion)
- Domestic Life (i.e., the Family, Gender Roles & Status, Sexuality, Food, etc.)
- Economy (i.e., local and long-distance Trade, Taxation, Currencies, etc.)
- Environmental Issues (i.e., Land Use, Resource Depletion, Waste Management, etc.)
- Migration and Contact (i.e., Rethinking the Bering Straight Theory, Cross-Cultural Contact, Aztlan, Diffusion, etc.)
- Labor (i.e., Agriculture, Construction, Slavery, etc.)
- Land Tenure (i.e., Individual vs. Group, Inheritance, Religious Purpose)
- Languages (i.e., Nahuatl, Maya dialects, Zapotec, Mixtec, Otomí, etc.)
- Literature & Lore (Histories, Origin & Migration Stories, Wisdom of the Ancients, Oral Tradition, etc.)
- Medicine and Healing (i.e., Herbal Remedies, Midwifery, etc.)
- Music (i.e., Wind Instruments, Percussion, Song, etc.)
- Philosophy (i.e., Civilization & Barbarism, Community & Individual)
- Politics (i.e., Monarchies, Dynasties, States, Imperialism, Militarism, Internationalism, etc.)
- Religion (i.e., the Cosmos, Deities, Rituals, Temples, Priesthood, Sacred Landscape, Ancestor Worship, etc.)
- Society (i.e., Class Structure, Kinship, Marriage, Inheritance)
- Science (i.e., Astronomy, Mathematics, Calendars, etc.)
- Technology (i.e., Textiles, Pottery, Lithic Crafts, Metallurgy, Transportation, the Wheel)
- Urbanism (Settlement Patterns, Ethnic Neighborhoods, Land Use, Ceremonial Centers, Emblem Glyphs, etc.)
- Writing and Literacy (i.e., Pictographic, Glyphic, Alphabetic, etc.)
We will provide recommended resources for all of the above topics prior to the start of the institute, building on this syllabus in its electronic format. We will also link timelines and maps for easy reference and contextualization.
CALENDAR
Lecture/Discussions and Required Readings
The institute may provide participants with a packet that includes some of the required readings, but most readings will be available on line. Please note that most days we will have more than one lecture, each with associated readings, so it will be advisable to read in advance before arriving in Oaxaca for the institute. Readings given below are tentative examples of the kinds of readings we will assign (to be decided more definitively by the time we initiate the institute). Fridays will see optional workshops that offer technological expertise for those wishing to create electronic slide shows as they develop new or revise their own current teaching materials.
Week 1. Archaeology: “Art and Architecture as Windows onto Cultural Realities in Prehistory”
Humanities Questions: After an introduction to the institute, to Mesoamerica, and to the cultural diversity that Oaxaca state encompasses, as well as a linguistic lesson, we will turn to archaeology as a way to approach the ancient past. We will explore such questions as what is the meaning of “civilization”? How did civilizations arise in Mesoamerica and what shapes did they take? Why does the Valley of Oaxaca have such diverse cultures and so many different languages spoken still today? How do art and architectural remains clue us in to the organization of these various societies, domestic and public organization, the functioning of economies, and the nature of political structures? What inferences are we gathering from physical remains to speculate about religious beliefs and practices? How reliable are our methods? What lessons can we learn about ancient Mesoamerican peoples’ relationships with the natural environment (and still be careful not to see them as “noble savages”)? We will also consider recent discussions about the first appearance of writing systems; the nature of the public historical record; the possibility of ceremonial centers versus urban centers; the meaning of the “ball game” (and its variations across Mesoamerica); the significance of burying the dead in tombs under household floors; and the commemoration of the activities of male rulers and their “wives” versus the possibility of co-rulers. Our core-faculty faculty member for the week is currently working at excavations and a laboratory in a town in the state of Oaxaca that captures precisely the period of European and Amerindian contact.
Technological Goals and Pedagogy: Participants will be encouraged to bring digital still and/or video cameras and laptops for creating and manipulating their own digital images of art and architecture with our guidance. We will also introduce and demonstrate our Virtual Mesoamerican Archive and other online finding aids and tools for developing digital curricular units that incorporate images of archaeological sites and artifacts and guide students to explore the stories such images might convey.
Required Readings: Excerpts from textbook surveys of Mesoamerican cultures and their histories; Marcus Winter, Oaxaca: The Archaeological Record (1992); “Archaeology and Indigenous Peoples: Attitudes toward Power in Ancient Oaxaca,” Maarten Jansen, in A Companion for Archaeology, ed. John Bintliff (2004); and, excerpts from Alicia Barabas, Configuraciones étnicas de Oaxaca, Vol. I, (2000) and Ma. Angeles Romero Frizzi, El sol y la cruz, Historia de los pueblos indios de México (1996).
Recommended Readings: “Recorridos por Oaxaca, Valles Centrales: Guía Visual,” Edición Especial, Arqueología Mexicana 24 (2007); “Oaxaca Archaeology” (lesson plan suggestions; Ronald Spores, The Mixtecs in Ancient and Colonial Times (1985); Arthur Miller, Painted Tombs of Oaxaca (1995).
Schedule for Week 1:
Sunday
19:00-21:00 Welcome Reception, La Casa de la Ciudad de Oaxaca. Refreshments and brief statements of welcome from the participating institutional sponsors, the Fundación Alfredo Harp Helú de Oaxaca, the Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca, and the Wired Humanities Project at the University of Oregon.
Monday, July 12
10:00-11:00 Home Room, Ex-Convento de San Pablo. Socialize with all participants and meet the faculty.
11:00-13:00 Introduction to the Institute, Ex-Convento de San Pablo. Stephanie Wood and Judith Musick, University of Oregon. “Rationale and Organization of this National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute on Mesoamerica” (including explanation of requirements for participants and an introduction to the Virtual Mesoamerican Archive finding aid)
13:00-14:00 Angeles Romero Frizzi, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia , “Oaxaca in the Context of Mesoamerica: Past and Present”
14:00-17:00 Comida and Siesta Break
17:00-18:30 Evening Talk (Introduction, continued), Casa de la Ciudad de Oaxaca. Michael Swanton, Coordinator of Linguistic Projects, Biblioteca Francisco Burgoa, “Languages and Cultures in Mesoamerica: Spotlight on Oaxaca”
Tuesday, July 13
9:00-9:30 Home Room, Ex-Convento de San Pablo. Socialize with other participants and faculty, and discuss pedagogical applications of the prior day’s content.
9:30-12:00 Guided excursions of the archaeological sites of Monte Albán and Mitla with Professor Spores. We will go first to Monte Albán and listen to introduction to the site en route. At approximately 12:00, we will drive to the town of Mitla; hear an introduction to the site en route from Professor Spores and have lunch. At approximately 15:00, we will begin our tour of Mitla. And begin our return to Oaxaca at about 16:30.
Wednesday, July 14
10:00-11:00 Home Room, Ex-Convento de San Pablo. Socialize with other participants and faculty, and discuss pedagogical applications of the prior day’s content.
11:00-13:30 Santo Domingo Cultural Center: Guided visit to three parts of the archaeological collection at the museum — Pre-Classic, Classic, and Tomb 7 — with Professor Spores.
13:30-16:00 Comida and Siesta Break
16:00-18:00 Rufino Tamayo Museum of Prehispanic Art: Guided visit to view the collection of pre-Columbian cultural heritage materials from the Rufino Tamayo collection, with Professor Spores.
Thursday, July 15
9:00-9:30 Home Room, Ex-Convento de San Pablo. Socialize with other participants and faculty, and discuss pedagogical applications of the prior day’s content.
9:30-19:30 Full-day guided excursion to the town of Teposcolula-Yucundaa in the Mixteca Alta, with Professor Spores, who directs the excavations there. Professor Spores will introduce Teposcolula-Yucundaa to us on the bus journey. When we arrive, we will visit archaeological sites, the active laboratory, and the new museum, plus the Casa de la Cacica (16th-c.), the Hospital de la Santa Vera Cruz of 1570, and possibly one or more church-monastery restoration projects. We will have lunch in Teposcolula.
Friday, July 16 (Optional)
10:00-11:00 Home Room, Ex-Convento de San Pablo. Socialize with other participants and faculty, and discuss pedagogical applications of the prior day’s content.
11:00-14:00 Digital Humanities Track, Ex-Convento de San Pablo. Meet with Drs. Musick and Wood to work on technological applications for assembling curricular units incorporating the week’s content and exploring the humanities questions raised.
Week 2. Ethnohistory: “Seeking Indigenous Perspectives and Cultural Memory through Manuscript Studies”
Humanities questions: Why do we often assume (incorrectly) that the Spanish invasion and colonization of Mesoamerica brought total destruction of the ancient civilizations? Despite drastic demographic decline, major dislocations, and a loss of power, how did a critical mass of indigenous people survive and retain certain features of their cultures under colonization? How did they carve out some degree of autonomy and self-determination within the colonial context? Here we will bring to light indigenous perspectives on the era prior to the invasion and on the transformations that took place after European “conquest” and explore how to read manuscripts from the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries that contain paintings and texts written in indigenous languages. How much of a role did historiography play in the cultural survival of indigenous communities? What are the genres of native and Indo-Hispanic manuscripts? What methodologies are involved in “paleography,” “iconography,” and other types of interpretation? How are image and text related? What are the manuscripts’ recurring themes, and what kinds of memory processes and views of history do they suggest?
Technological Goals and Pedagogy: We will begin by examining prehispanic and early colonial indigenous manuscripts (often called codices) as sources of information about the nature of cultures both prior to and after contact with Europeans. We will trace the evolution of indigenous community record-keeping in native languages, and the kinds of histories they illuminate. We will also introduce our Mapas Project with its searchable online database of texts and images extracted through the atomization of pictorial manuscripts from colonial Mesoamerican communities. We will show how scholars collaborate in the analysis of the content of these manuscripts. We will also demonstrate the use of our online, searchable Nahuatl Vocabulary, an aid for translating manuscripts but also just for researching indigenous terminology still in use today. And, we will demonstrate how teachers can transform these primary source materials into digital resources useful in the classroom.
Required Readings: Kevin Terraciano, “The Colonial Mixtec Community,” Hispanic American Historical Review 80:1 (2000), 1-42; “Excerpt from the Mixtec Codex Sierra or the Community Accounts of Santa Catalina Texupa, 1550-1564, and Reproductions of Two Pages from the Codex,” from Mesoamerican Voices: Native Language Writings from Colonial Mexico, Oaxaca, Yucatan, and Guatemala, eds. Matthew Restall, Lisa Sousa and Kevin Terraciano (2005); images from the Yanhuitlan Codex and, the Mapas Project.
Recommended Readings: Joseph W. Whitecotton, Zapotec Elite Ethnohistory: Pictorial Genealogies from Eastern Oaxaca (1990); John Chance, “Colonial Ethnohistory of Oaxaca” in Supplement to the Handbook of Middle American Indians, Vol. 4, Ronald Spores, ed. (1986), 165–89; Mesoamerican Voices: Native-Language Writings from Colonial Mexico, Oaxaca, Yucatan, and Guatemala; “Lenguas y Escrituras de Mesoamérica,” Edición Especial, Arqueología Mexicana, 12:70 (2004); Sources and Methods for the Study of Postcontact Mesoamerican Ethnohistory (2007) ; Kevin Terraciano, The Mixtecs of Colonial Oaxaca (2001); María Teresa Sepúlveda y Herrera, Códice de Yanhuitlán (1994); Códice de Yanhuitlán, Introducción de Wigberto Jiménez Moreno y Salvador Mateos Higuera (1940); “El arte de conservar la historia: La Biblioteca Francisco de Burgoa….” ; Edgar Anderson and John Jay Finan, “Maize in the Yanhuitlan Codex,” Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 32:3 (1945), 361–368.
Schedule for Week 2:
Sunday, July 18
18:00-19:30 “An Introduction to Mesoamerican Ethnohistory and the Mapas Project,” Evening Introductory Lecture, Casa de la Ciudad de Oaxaca, Dr. Stephanie Wood and Dr. Judith Musick
Monday, July 19
10:00-11:00 Home Room, Ex-Convento de San Pablo. Socialize with other participants and meet any new faculty for the week.
11:00-11:30 “An Introduction to Prehispanic Codices,” Ex-Convento de San Pablo, Dr. Sebastián van Doesburg, Director, Casa de la Ciudad de Oaxaca, and Academic Coordinator, Francisco Burgoa Library
12:00-18:00 Guided Excursion to San Miguel Tequistepec. Excursion will include an introductory lecture by Dr. van Doesburg and a stop at Coixtlahuaca. We will have lunch in Tequistepec or Coixtlahuaca.
Tuesday, July 20
9:00-10:00 Home Room, Ex-Convento de San Pablo. Socialize with other participants and faculty, and discuss pedagogical applications of the prior day’s content.
10:00-11:30 “Two Colonial Codices: The Codex of Santo Domingo Yanhuitlan and the Codex Sierra,” Ex-Convento de San Pablo. Dr. Angeles Romero Frizzi, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. This lecture will have as its focus two manuscripts from what is now the modern state of Oaxaca, both dating from the mid-sixteenth century and providing windows onto the changes that came with Spanish colonization as well as cultural survivals.
12:00-18:00 Guided Excursion to San Juan Teiticpac. This excursion, with Dr. van Doesburg, will have a focus on some outstanding frescoes that tie-in with the Codex Sierra and allow for a study of religious iconography that enables comparisons with Teposcolula (from last week). We will have lunch in Teiticpac.
Wednesday, July 21
10:00-11:00 Home Room, Ex-Convento de San Pablo. Socialize with other participants and faculty, and discuss pedagogical applications of the prior day’s content.
11:00-13:00 Guided walking tour to the Juridical Archive with Dr. van Doesburg. Emphasis will be on indigenous-language documents from the Spanish colonial period, and ways indigenous communities struggled to defend their lands and their “usos y costumbres” in the face of colonial impositions.
13:00-16:00 Comida and Siesta Break
16:00-17:00 Guided walking tour of the Burgoa Library MS Restoration Workshop with Dr. van Doesburg and María del Refugio Gutiérrez Rodríguez, manuscript restoration technician.
Thursday, July 22
10:00-11:00 Home Room, Ex-Convento de San Pablo. Socialize with other participants and faculty, and discuss pedagogical applications of the prior day’s content.
11:00-13:00 Introduction to a Manuscript-Based Ethnobotany of Oaxaca. Illustrated lecture by Drs. Judith Musick and Stephanie Wood
13:00-17:00 Comida and Extended Photo-Shoot Break (Recommended: Have your lunch in the area of the Zocalo and take a walk to Mina Street to view the making of chocolate and sample how it tastes. Take photos of architecture, or market crafts, or museum pieces, etc.)
17:00 Guided walking tour of the Ethnobotanical Garden (in English) with Maestro Alejandro de Ávila.
Friday, July 23 (Optional)
10:00-11:00 Home Room, Ex-Convento de San Pablo. Socialize with other participants and faculty, and discuss pedagogical applications of the prior day’s content.
11:00-14:00 Digital Humanities Track, Ex-Convento de San Pablo. Meet with Drs. Musick and Wood to work on technological applications for assembling curricular units incorporating the week’s content and exploring the humanities questions raised.
Week 3. The Arts: “Cultural Continuity and Innovation in Music, Textiles, Pottery, Woodworking, and Photography”
Humanities Questions: Historically, literacy has been restricted to a small elite in indigenous communities, and even today, with federal support for education through the sixth grade, indigenous boys rarely attend school for more than a few years and girls are even less likely to attend. Given that, how have Mesoamericans preserved and disseminated cultural knowledge through other means, such as the arts? What are the “folk arts” and how are they distinguished from the “fine arts”? Is there an iconography for “reading” these forms (something akin to the iconography of reading manuscripts)? How have women and men embedded or encoded meaning in the textiles they weave? How do the natural environment, religious beliefs, or ways of thinking about gender find representation in the arts of indigenous cultures? How has pottery become a hallmark of culture in certain communities? On the other hand, how are potters (or weavers, etc.) responding to tourism and market influences, innovating on ancient traditions while also retaining a unique identity? How has photography played a role in recording culture, whether to preserve its history or to cast it through a frame that “others” the people on the opposite side of the lens? (This latter question runs over into the fourth week, as well.)
Technological Goals and Pedagogy: We will again encourage participants to shoot photographs and create and process their own digital resources, but we will also be discussing the issues that arise when using human subjects, obtaining permissions, and how to avoid copyright infringements. We will raise the issue of photographic etiquette, and make recommendations with regard to the photographer’s “eye” for detail and cultural meaning. The goal will be to create a respectful and legal image pool for use by participating teachers and beyond.
Required Readings: Lynn Stephen, Chapters 1, 2, 6, 7, from Zapotec Women: Gender, Class, and Ethnicity in Globalized Oaxaca (2005); Eli Barta, Introduction and “Engendering Clay: Ceramistas of Mata Ortía. In Introduction, Crafting Gender: Women and Folk Art in Latin America and the Caribbean (2003); Anibal Quijano, “Coloniality and Modernity/Rationality.” Cultural Studies 21:2/3 (2007): 168-178; Michael Chibnik, Chapter 1, Introduction, Chapter 2, History of Oaxacan Wood Carving (1940-1985), Chapter 3, Contemporary Wood Carving, Chapter 4, Wood-Carving Communities, Chapter 6, Making Wood Carvings, and Chapter 8, Specializations in Crafting Tradition: The Making and Marketing of Oaxacan Wood Carvings (2003); Roberto J. González. “The Conceptual Bases of Zapotec Farming and Foodways,” and “’Maize has a Soul’: Rincón Zapotec Notions of Living Matter,” in Zapotec Science: Farming and Food in the Northern Sierra of Oaxaca (University of Texas Press, 2001); Betty Fussell, “Translating Maize into Corn: The Transformation of America’s Native Grain,” Social Research, Spring 1999 ; “The Movement to Defend Traditional Corn,” Americas This Week 6/24/2004; and, Oaxacan Ceramics: Traditional Folk Art by Oaxacan Women (2000).
Recommended Readings: “Textiles del México de Ayer y Hoy,” Edición Especial, Arqueología Mexicana 19 (2005); Sergio Navarrete Pellicer, excerpt from his book on ethnomusicology in Guatemala, Maya Achi Marimba Music in Guatemala (2005) ; “Entrevista: Pasatono, raíz musical para el mundo,” featuring Rubén Luengas Pérez, about the ethnomusicology of Oaxaca and the group Pasatona; “Alebrije” Wikipedia entry ; “Alebrijes, una tradición amenazada,” Terra Magazine, ; we will add the book about the women artists’ cooperative “Corn is Life” once it is published.
Schedule for Week 3:
Sunday, July 25
19:00-21:00 Illustrated Evening Lecture with Musical Demonstrations, La Casa de la Ciudad de Oaxaca. We are working to arrange a presentation from Sergio Navarrete Pellicer, Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, and Rubén Luengas Pérez, a contemporary Mixtec music specialist, that would include a slide presentation of colonial books of Gregorian chants, old instruments, and glimpses of the way European Baroque musical traditions penetrated village band music.
Monday, July 26
10:00-11:00 Home Room, Ex-Convento de San Pablo. Socialize with other participants and meet any new faculty for the week.
11:00-12:00 Weaving and Culture in Oaxaca. Introductory lecture by Professor Lynn Stephen, to include some attention to Teotitlán del Valle, survivals of ancient methods, the impact of commercialization, and the issue of intellectual property rights.
12:00-19:00 Guided Excursion to Teotitlan del Valle with Professor Stephen. Visit will include demonstrations of natural dye production, including cultivation, grinding, dying, spinning, etc., by Francisco (”Paco”) González Vicente and Petra Vicente, and will examine questions of cultural continuity and change over time. Excursion will also include a meal.
Tuesday, July 27
10:00-11:00 Home Room, Ex-Convento de San Pablo. Socialize with other participants and faculty, and discuss pedagogical applications of the prior day’s content.
11:00-13:00 Lecture: Ex-Convento de San Pablo, Maize in Mesoamerican Arts and Cultures. Marietta Bernstorff, Special Projects Curator, and meet with representatives from a large collective of international and local, mestiza and indigenous women have created art around the theme of corn. Ms. Bernstorff will give us a short lecture explaining the idea behind the traveling exhibit, the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement and Monsanto’s genetically modified corn products, and give us a tour that will take in at least one studio.
13:30-15:00 Lunch at Itanoni in the Colonia Reforma (Maize Theme). All foods at this restaurant are prepared from organically, grown, small-crop “criollo” corn. Professor Stephen will speak to us about the first domestication of maize in Mesoamerican (which took place in what is now the state of Oaxaca), and the implications of this agriculture on the rise of civilizations.
15:00-17:00 Break / Photo-Shoot
17:00 Visit to the new Textile Museum. Mtro. Alejandro de Ávila will be our guide.
Wednesday, July 28
10:00-11:00 Home Room, Ex-Convento de San Pablo. Socialize with other participants and faculty, and discuss pedagogical applications of the prior day’s content.
11:00-12:00 Clay Production and its Cultural Implications. Introductory lecture by Professor Stephen, in preparation for a visit to San Bartolo Coyotepec.
12:00-18:00 Guided Excursion to San Bartolo Coyotepec. Professor Stephen will take us on a guided tour of Dona Rosa’s family’s pottery operation and then a visit to the Folk Arts Museum. Two themes will guide our inquiry — what elements in clay production represent cultural continuities and what represent change, and, what is the nature of women’s role in cultural production of this type. We will have a meal in or near Coyotepec.
Thursday, July 29
9:00-10:00 Home Room, Ex-Convento de San Pablo. Socialize with other participants and faculty, and discuss pedagogical applications of the prior day’s content.
10:00-15:00 Woodworking and Community Identity: Guided Excursion to Arrazola. Introductory lecture en route by Professor Stephen about the production and cultural significance of carved wooden figures painted in bright colors — known as alebrijes — followed by visits to families that make these figures. Attention will be given to artistic innovation designed to appeal to the tourist market, and how a community (or communities) can take on new cultural identities associated with such products.
15:00-18:00 Comida and Siesta Break
18:00-19:30 Evening Event: Guided Visit to the Casa de la Mujer, meeting with Luna MarAn, photographer and tutor for indigenous girls, who teaches them how to make their own cameras, document their own realities, print, and form a book of their photographs.
Friday, July 30 (Optional)
10:00-11:00 Home Room, Ex-Convento de San Pablo. Socialize with other participants and faculty, and discuss pedagogical applications of the prior day’s content.
11:00-14:00 Digital Humanities Track, Ex-Convento de San Pablo. Meet with Drs. Musick and Wood and work on technological applications for assembling curricular units incorporating the week’s content and exploring the humanities questions raised.
Week 4. Film: “Mesoamerican Histories through Film: Representations of Cultures and Societies”
Humanities Questions: We have often relied upon film to re-create history and make it come alive for us. But how reliable are such representations of people, places, and periods from long ago? How reliable are representations of cultures different from the filmmaker’s own? What filters and lenses can we identify? Upon what resources does the filmmaker depend? How are they employed? How can we teach our students to be better filmmakers as well as critical thinkers while viewing films? What happens when indigenous people film their own realities? Can film be a tool for cultural renewal and decolonization?
Technological Goals: This week we will have presentations by participants of their various projects, individually and in teams. They will receive suggestions for technological improvements and content adjustments by core faculty and the master teacher.
Required Readings: Faye Ginsburg, “Screen Memories and Entangled Technologies: Resignifying Indigenous Lives,” in Multiculturalism, Postcoloniality, and Transnational Media, ed. Ella Shohat and Robert Stam; Terence Turner, “The Kayapo Appropriation of Video“; Gabriela Martínez, “Cinema Law in Latin America: Brazil, Peru, and Colombia,” Jump Cut; “An Old, Unpublished Review of Apocalypto,” by David Stuart and 11/18/2007 ; La Otra Conquista,” a review by Luis Urrieta, Jr., and Oliva Martínez, Journal of Latinos and Education 1:1 (2002), 69–72
Recommended Readings: Pat Aufderheide, “Making Video with Brazilian Indians,” The Media Channel, March 8, 2000, Córdova, Amalia and Melanie Schnell. Resources for Indigenous Film and Video Makers. Cultural Survival Quarterly. June 15, 2005. Issue 29 (2).
Schedule for Week 4:
Sunday, August 1
18:30-22:30 Launch of Film Series at the Casa de la Ciudad de Oaxaca: Double bill with La Otra Conquista and Apocalypto, and discussion led Dr. Stephanie Wood about conquest and colonization themes as treated in feature films. Professor Martínez will help lead all film discussions, along with Professor Wood.
Monday, August 2
10:00-11:00 Home Room, Ex-Convento de San Pablo. Socialize with other participants and meet new faculty for the week, including the Master Teacher, Ron Lancaster, who will join us for this final week to give us guidance and feedback on curricular projects under way.
11:00-14:00 Participants Share Projects, Ex-Convento de San Pablo
14:00-19:30 Comida and Siesta Break
19:30-22:00 Film Series at the Casa de la Ciudad de Oaxaca: Deshilando Condenas, Bordando Libertades (2005) with filmmaker Dr. Concepción Nuñez (about indigenous women in prison in Oaxaca); and Women, Media and Rebellion in Oaxaca (2008) with filmmaker Gabriela Martínez (about the takeover of the Oaxacan television and radio stations during the teachers’ strike and subsequent conflict in 2006, which has a significant role for mestiza and indigenous women). Professor Martínez will help lead all film discussions, along with Professor Wood.
Tuesday, August 3
10:00-11:00 Home Room, Ex-Convento de San Pablo. Socialize with other participants and faculty, and discuss progress being made on curricular materials with master teacher Ron Lancaster.
11:00-14:00 Participants Share Projects, Ex-Convento de San Pablo
14:00-19:30 Comida and Siesta Break
19:30-22:00 Film Series at the Casa de la Ciudad de Oaxaca: Presidentas municipales de la comunalidad (2005) with filmmakers Dr. Margarita Dalton and Maestra Julia Barco; and Paso a paso: Hacia una maternidad sin riesgos, another film by Julia Barco that is shown in indigenous communities with the help of indigenous teens who have scholarships at the Casa de la Mujer. Professor Martínez will help lead all film discussions, along with Professor Wood.
Wednesday, August 4
10:00-11:00 Home Room, Ex-Convento de San Pablo. Socialize with other participants and faculty, and discuss progress being made on curricular materials with master teacher Ron Lancaster.
11:00-14:00 Participants Share Projects, Ex-Convento de San Pablo
19:30-22:00 Film Series at the Casa de la Ciudad de Oaxaca: Huicholes y plaguicidas / Huichols & Pesticides (1994, 1995) with filmmaker Patricia Díaz Romo. A film made with indigenous community input about the dangers of working in tobacco fields in the stay of Nayarit. This film collective was one of the first to put cameras in the hands of indigenous people and work with them to film their own lives and issues they found relevant. Professor Martínez will help lead all film discussions, along with Professor Wood.
Thursday, August 5
10:00-11:00 Home Room, Ex-Convento de San Pablo. Socialize with other participants and faculty, and discuss progress being made on curricular materials with master teacher Ron Lancaster.
11:00-14:00 Participants Share Projects, Ex-Convento de San Pablo
14:00-19:30 Comida and Siesta Break
19:30-22:00 Film Series at the Casa de la Ciudad de Oaxaca: An Inconvenient Truth (in Triqui translation) with Dr. Michael Swanton of the Francisco Burgoa Library. Dr. Swanton and his guests will show us parts of films that are being translated into local indigenous languages and discuss the challenges of translating new concepts such as “global warming” linguistically and culturally and what the impact has been so far on local indigenous communities. Professor Martínez will help lead all film discussions, along with Professor Wood.
Friday, August 6
10:00-11:00 Home Room, Ex-Convento de San Pablo. Socialize with other participants and faculty, and discuss progress being made on curricular materials with master teacher Ron Lancaster.
11:00-14:00 Participants Share Projects, Ex-Convento de San Pablo
14:00-19:30 Comida and Siesta Break
19:30-21:30 Evening Farewell Reception, Casa de la Ciudad de Oaxaca
