NEH Summer Institute Syllabus
University of Oregon, July 14 - August 8, 2008
From the Yucatan to the
"Halls of Montezuma" --
Mesoamerican Cultures and their Histories
Introduction
This is a four-week summer institute for
schoolteachers selected from applicants around the United States. It 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 the
classroom. The aim is to explore how the histories of Mesoamerican peoples
might provide useful comparisons for exploring humanities questions in the
broader American and the 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, or pictorial and
textual archival manuscripts. For those who are interested, 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 the latest research in
Mesoamerican history, art history, and anthropology as a means to achieving a
greater understanding of both a shared humanity and the variety of human experience.
They will embrace both our thematic approach and our historiographical
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 provided 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 in Social Studies 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 millennia. In order to maximize the potential for these curricular revisions, participants will be expected to
attend all presentations and workshops, complete the reading assignments
(preparing some of them prior to arrival in Oregon), participate in
discussions, and 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, preferably, in
teams to revise or create a new lesson for use in the classroom. Informal
gatherings in the mornings at "coffee hour" and optional gatherings
in the afternoons and evenings will be times when faculty will be encouraged to
discuss ideas for integrating Mesoamerican cultural heritage materials into
their courses. Participants may also take advantage of the optional digital
humanities component of the institute, attending workshops offered on Fridays.
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 July 21st. 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 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 (3-5
pages): All individuals or teams
will prepare a new or revised, 3 to 5-page lesson plan for use in their
classrooms, and/or a Powerpoint slide show, a website, or a database of digital
materials for use in the classroom, due August 7th. (Workshop meetings on August 7th and 8th will be devoted to participant presentations of their new or revised curricular materials.) If the participant chooses to do a
multimedia project, it should still be accompanied by at least a brief lesson
plan explaining its application.
The project 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 interpreting materials that core faculty and guest
speakers will provide.
Participants
will have access to digital humanities staff 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. Help
will also be provided for those wishing to utilize WHP databases with stored
resources, including images, sound files, and video clips.
Participants are encouraged to bring their
own laptops. They may use software with which they are already familiar or
acquire the programs featured in the institute (we can assist with the
obtaining of discounted versions). In such cases, the faculty and staff of the
institute will assist more with the interpretation of the content and with the
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. All
participants will have access to the materials of the other contributors,
creating a shared resource base. Slide presentations will be available on CD or
DVD 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). Some multimedia projects may be selected to be featured by Edsitement, a digital
collection maintained by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Edsitement
is providing a template for those wishing to gear their project for his
possible end (pending the review process at NEH).
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 1800 C.E. Participants are encouraged to choose a culture group, limit the time frame to something reasonable (given the sources available), and select a theme. Below are some suggested topics, but you are not limited to these:
·
Agriculture (i.e.,
the Domestication of Maize, Chinampas, 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.,
Spinning and Weaving, Lithic Crafts, Metallurgy, Transportation, the Wheel)
·
Urbanism (Settlement Patterns, Ethnic Neighborhoods,
Land Use, Ceremonial Centers, Emblem Glyphs, etc.)
·
Writing (i.e.,
Pictographic, Glyphic, Alphabetic, Text in Textiles, etc.)
We
will provide a starting list of recommended resources for all of the above
topics prior to the launch 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
We
are trying to put all the readings on line. Any that we cannot provide
electronically, we will put into a packet that we will make available upon your
arrival, or perhaps before, if possible. 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 Eugene for the institute. Readings given below are
tentative until the lecturers provide us with copies to share with you; when we
have the copies linked from this syllabus, you will know you may go ahead and
begin reading. Fridays will see optional workshops that offer technological
expertise for those wishing to create electronic slide shows as they develop
new projects or revise their own current teaching materials.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Presenters: Dr.
Musick and Professor Wood
Topical Focus: We will begin with the concept of Mesoamerica, a
term more rooted in culture than geography. We will trace how the term was
coined originally and how it is used in scholarship today, with some attention
to maps, culture groups, timelines and standard periodization (which may later
come into question in the institute). Mesoamerica is one of the world's most
fascinating cradle of civilizations, many of whose records have been burned,
lost, or deteriorated over the centuries. Yet it is a region still rich in
unique sources for our study, including settlement ruins, objects of art,
glyphic texts carved in stone and painted on ceramics, and manuscripts both
pictographic and alphabetic bringing to light ways of living and thinking, some
of which are still practiced by the descendents of the ancient peoples and some
of which have faded away. The forces of change and continuity, in themselves, are grist for our mills as we strive to
understand how these civilizations emerged and what became of them over time.
We will also
introduce the field of digital humanities and explain the optional use of
digital aids for developing curricular materials around Mesoamerican themes and
historiography. We will also introduce the educational resources we have
compiled in the Virtual Mesoamerican Archive and cover copyright
issues, including the guidelines for “fair use” of copyrighted materials. Over
the course of the institute our core faculty will use images from the Virtual
Mesoamerican Archive in their slide presentations and make these accessible to
all participants, so that they may use them in their entirety or even
individual slides in their own classroom presentations should they so desire.
Required Readings: Marilyn A. Masson and Michael E. Smith, “Introduction: Mesoamerican Civilizations,” The ancient civilizations of Mesoamerica: a reader, eds. Michael E. Smith and Marilyn A. Masson (Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2000), 1-14; and John M. D. Pohl, “Introduction: Mesoamerica?” http://www.famsi.org/research/pohl/pohl_meso.html and “Chronology,” http://www.famsi.org/research/pohl/chronology.html.
Recommended Readings: SlideShare PPT, "The Peoples and Civilizations of the Americas;" go to slideshare.net to get your own account for uploading or downloading slide shows (such as Powerpoints); (for those who read Spanish) Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, "Mesoamérica antigua"
Afternoon: An
Introduction to Material Culture -- Textiles
Presenters: Professor Wood and
Blanca Aranda, Graduate Student, Romance Languages
We will launch our
methodological introductions to cultural heritage materials with a brief
consideration of textiles and what they can convey about Mesoamerican societies
and cultures. This lecture will
include a visit to an art exhibit featuring Mesoamerican textiles from recent
times and an introduction to the “text” in “textiles” -- the intellectual
contribution of indigenous women in preserving and disseminating culture
through their weavings. We wish to
thank Aaron Seagraves, exhibit designer and assistant curator, Jinny Ralls,
volunteer, and our many friends who loaned us their exemplary pieces, such as
Nancy Hughes and Katarina Digman.
Morning: “Contextual Understandings of Mesoamerican Sculpture
– Olmec, Maya, and Aztec"
Presenter: Professor
Carolyn Tate, School of Art, Texas Tech University
Methodological Focus: With this guest, we begin our series of talks by off-campus
specialists who will guide participants in the selection and interpretation of
recent finds and specific bodies of cultural heritage materials for closer
study and for preparing their own new or revised teaching materials. Professor
Tate will give some attention to the displacement of artifacts and the need to
reconstruct context as part of the process of interpreting artifacts. Artifacts
can provide clues to production, circulation, and signification. They were
endowed with symbolic meanings that affected their use. How do we “read” these
materials today?
Required Readings: From
Evans, S. T and D. Webster, (eds.), Archaeology of Ancient
Mexico and Central America (Garland Pubs. 2001): "Art" by C.
Tate, pp. 41 - 51; "Ceramics," by L. Minc, pp. 108 - 110;
"Figurines, Terracotta" by S. Scott, pp. 266 - 270; and
"Pottery" by L. Minc, pp. 603 - 610. From Carrasco, D. (ed). The Oxford
Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures (Oxford University Press, 2002):
“Sculpture” by C. Tate, Vol. 3, pp. 125-130.
Afternoon:
"Introduction to the Olmec Civilization"
Presenter: Professor
Tate
Topical Focus: Beginning with this lecture, we will introduce the major
civilizations of Mesoamerica, starting with one of the earliest peoples who
achieved a notable sophistication in art, architecture, urbanization, and a
complex cosmology. This series of introductions will provide a general
framework and understanding into which participants will be able to
contextualize the more focused presentations later in the institute. Professor
Kennett will ask, What were the pathways by which
Formative period Mesoamericans transitioned from reaping seasonal bounties of
wild resources to sedentary life? What are the earliest examples of focused
ritual and civic activity in Mesoamerica? How did San Lorenzo attract
individuals to participate in urban construction? Was coercion a major force in
this transition, and to what extend did the narration of identity and culture
play an important part? What characterizes Formative Mesoamerican visual
culture in its earliest stages at the four principal locations in which it
developed—the Basin of Mexico, the Mazatan region, Oaxaca, and of course,
the Gulf Coast? In terms of urban centers and predominant symbols, what were
the major manifestations of “Olmec” culture in the Middle Formative?
Required Readings: map; F. Kent Reilly III, “Art, ritual, and rulership in the Olmec world,” The ancient civilizations of Mesoamerica: a reader, eds. Michael E. Smith and Marilyn A. Masson (Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2000), 369-399; Pamela A. Larson, “The Olmec Civilization: A Unit for Spanish I: Fulbright-Hays Summer Seminar Abroad, 1999 (Mexico).
Morning: “Reconstructing
La Venta at 400 BC.”
Presenter:
Professor Tate
Methodological and
Topical Focus: Professor
Tate will take us deeper into one example -- a group of sculptures from the Olmec
site of La Venta -- exploring what she sees as the signifiers of a story about
creation and human origins. This afternoon, she will show the importance of
determining the original locations of sculptures that have been removed from
sites and considering the patterns of distribution holistically. As a result of
tracking down, from numerous publications, both the locations of sculptures
when they were found in the twentieth century and the distant sources of stone
used to make these sculptures, Tate provides an informed view of how La Ventans
interacted with other Mesoamerican peoples in terms of both materials and
ideas. It is likely that La Venta was not built by its inhabitants, but by
visitors, perhaps pilgrims who brought stone as payment for the right to
participate in the codification of ideology. But what was that ideology?
Required Readings: map; Carolyn Tate, “La Venta and a Feminine Shamanic Tradition in Formative Mesoamerica;” Tate, "Patrons of Shamanic Power: La Venta's Supernatural Entities in Light of Mixe Beliefs," in Ancient Mesoamerica Vol. 10: 2, Fall 1999, pp. 169 - 188.
Recommended Readings: Familiarize yourself in advance with Olmec sculptures such as
you will find at these sites: “La
Venta: Stone Sculpture,” http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/vent3/hd_vent3.htm; “Olmec artifacts,” http://www.ddbstock.com/largeimage/olmecart.html.
Afternoon:
Creation Stories
Presenter: Professor Tate
Methodological and Topical Focus: A
lively debate in Mesoamerican studies concerns cultural continuity. Was there a
relatively consistent set of cultural traits that defined Mesoamerica
throughout its history? Or were cultures so isolated in space and time that
each should be considered independently? Authors such as George Kubler argue
that it is unwise to use the texts of a later, literate culture to help
interpret earlier preliterate ones because of disjunctions of meaning over time
and space. Other scholars, such as Alfredo López Austin contend that one can
identify core elements of culture that around which associated elements shift
over time. With scrupulous interrogation of the historical appearance and
disappearance of symbols, interpreters can allow for change while tracking the
core elements. Professor Tate performs this kind of operation with three of the
most complete cosmogonic and origins narratives of Mesoamerica.
Required Readings: map;
Carolyn Tate, "Landscapes of Creation and Origin at La Venta;"
Dennis Tedlock, ed., Popol Vuh,
Revised Edition, (NY: Simon and Schuster, 1996), especially 1 – 73 and 91
-150; Bierhorst, John (translator), “The Legend of the
Suns,” in History and Mythology of the
Aztecs, (Tucson, University of Arizona Press, 1998), 139 – 162.
Presenters: Dr. Musick and student
assistants
Workshop Goals:
Participants will become familiar with basic vocabulary and imaging standards
as well as be able to capture images from the web, download images from files
(and the server-based archive we create), scan images from secondary sources,
and prepare these images for use on the web and in-class presentation software.
Hands-on practice time, with help available, will follow the workshop.
Participants may use PCs or Macs, as they wish. For those with considerable
skill in this area, attendance may be optional.
Presenters: Dr. Musick and student
assistants
Workshop Goals:
Participants will be shown how to design, create, and run a PowerPoint or
Keynote presentation that utilizes early Mesoamerican cultural materials.
Copyright issues and metadata will be covered briefly as a part of best
practices for constructing slide presentations. In addition, participants will
evaluate existing presentations to assess teaching and learning effectiveness.
Hands-on practice time, with help available, will follow the workshop.
Participants may use PCs or Macs, as they wish. For those with considerable
skill in this area, attendance may be optional.
Submit
proposals during morning coffee hour.
Presenter: Dr. Sandra Noble, Director, Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc.
(FAMSI)
Methodological Focus: Sandra Noble continues our
special guest speaker series with a general introduction to the Foundation for
the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. (FAMSI) and its
impressive collection of primary and secondary source materials available on
line (and which we have inserted into the Virtual Mesoamerican Archive, to
facilitate searching and comparisons with other similar materials).
Required Readings: http://www.famsi.org/
and see especially, http://www.famsi.org/research/kerr/index.html
Presenter: Dr. Noble
Topical Focus: We continue with our
introductions to the major civilizations to help provide a general
understanding and a context for analyzing cultural heritage materials. Our
speaker will explore the sophistication of the art, writing, and architecture
of the Maya, tracing their rise and florescence, and highlighting some of the
key features of their culture, particularly religious beliefs and practices.
Required Readings: “Maya Hieroglyphic Writing,” http://www.famsi.org/mayawriting/;
Randa Marhenke, “The Ancient Maya Codices,” http://www.famsi.org/mayawriting/codices/;
Patricia A. McAnany, “Living with the ancestors: kinship and kingship in
ancient Maya society,” in The ancient
civilizations of Mesoamerica: A reader, eds. Michael E. Smith and Marilyn
A. Masson (Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2000), 483-487;
and, an excerpt from David Drew, "The Ancient Maya" The lost
chronicles of the Maya kings (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1999).
Tuesday,
July 22, 2008
Presenter: Dr. Noble
Presenter: Dr. Noble
Topical Focus: We will explore the
so-called “collapse” -- really, the Classic Period population decline and shift
away from numerous urban centers in the eighth and ninth centuries and the
latest thinking about possible causes and consequences. This may allow us to
reflect on our own socio-political destiny as we consider the growing gap
between the rich and the poor, as we relate to other nations, and as we
endanger the natural ecological balance around us -- reflections Jared Diamond
made in his book Collapse (2005) and
Mel Gibson took to extremes in his film Apocalypto
(2006). But we are moved to correct the misconception that the Maya
disappeared or that they self-destructed by choice. Dr. Noble will explore both
ecological (catastrophe, epidemic disease, overuse of resources, and climate
change) and non-ecological (foreign invasion, imperial warfare, peasant revolt,
trade crises, etc.) theories for the decline. She will also share research into
the complex socio-political entities that continued to exist in the highlands
and in northern Yucatan, and some of their impressive accomplishments
Required Readings: Excerpt from Pullitzer-prize-winning author Jared Diamond's, "The Maya Collapses," Collapse: How societies choose to fail or
succeed (New York: Viking, 2005) Chapter 5; Chapter 14 "Teotihuacan and the Maya" pg433-435 (if able read entire chapter)excerpt from Mesoamerica’s classic heritage: from Teotihuacan to the Aztecs, eds. Davíd Carrasco, Lindsay Jones, and Scott Sessions
(Boulder, Colo.: University Press of Colorado, 2000).
Recommended Readings: AnnCorinne Freter, “The Classic Maya Collapse at Copan,
Honduras: An Analysis of Maya
Rural Settlement Patterns,” Archaeological
Views from the Countryside: Village Communities in Early Complex Societies,
edited by Glenn M. Schwartz and Steven E. Falconer (Washington, D.C.:
Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994), 160-176; Richard R. Paine and
AnnCorinne Freter, “Environmental Degradation and the Classic Maya Collapse at
Copan, Honduras (A.S. 600-1250):
Evidence from Studies of Household Survival,” Ancient Mesoamerica, 7:1 (Spring 1996), 37-47.
Presenter: Professor Marc
Zender, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University
Historiographical Focus: We will explore the origins and development of writing systems
in Mesoamerica, with the goal of trying to understand the different forms writing
can take as well as the kinds of knowledge it can convey and the meanings it
can encompass. Mesoamericans created writing, the encoding of language with a
graphic system, where none had existed before, seemingly in isolation from the
rest of the world. Did codified symbols record sounds or were they emblematic?
To what extent was the meaning of coded symbols local, and to what extent
regional? What did this form of representation portend for historical
traditions? Who had the power to record and to choose what to record, and to
what extent did the majority of people understand and support the messages? How
do we know what they say today?
Required Readings:
Afternoon:
“Cracking the Code: Glyphic Texts of the Maya”
Presenter: Professor
Zender
Historiographical and Topical Focus: Of all the known
scripts from ancient Mesoamerica, the greatest advances have come in the
decipherment of Maya hieroglpyhs, which date from about 350-450 BC in the
European calendar and reach into the mid-sixteenth century AD. We will explore
how the code was cracked (i.e., the clues that were most important, the role of
various decipherers, and the institutional and social inertia which initially
prevented acceptance of the breakthrough). Also covered will be the content and significance of texts
carved into monuments and painted on murals, ceramics and books. To what extent
were the communications "statist" (administrative, competitive, or
propagandistic)? What are the
differences between Mayan and other Mesoamerican writing systems? Between Classic Period writing and
other periods? Did the development
of writing precede or follow the inception of complex society? And what changes, if any, did glyphic
writing undergo during the Late Classic fluorescence of Maya civilization?
Required Readings: Yuri Knorozov, "The Problem of the Study of the Maya
Hieroglyphic Writing," American
Antiquity 23(3):284-291; David Stuart, "Ten
Phonetic Syllables," Research
Reports on Ancient Maya Writing 14;
Michael Coe, "A New Wind from the East," in Breaking the Maya Code, Rev. ed., pp. 145-166 (London: Thames and
Hudson, 1999).
Recommended Readings: Check out this website on the recent PBS program, Cracking the Maya Code: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/mayacode/. The film will be on reserve in the library. Spanish-language readers might be interested in this short piece about Yuri Knorozov: http://swadesh.unam.mx/actualidades/actualidades/22/texto22/knorosov.html and an image of the Landa alphabet on a manuscript page.
Presenter: Professor
Zender
Topical and Methodological Focus: Although the observation has not received the attention it
should have, recent decipherments demonstrate that the nearly all Maya texts
are dedicatory in nature, highlighting the ritual "birth" and
incorporation of text-bearing objects (e.g., lintels, stelae, altars, pottery
vessels and even buildings) into the larger social community. The texts are repetitive and formulaic,
usually providing the written objects with personal names and describing their
owners. Historical, political and
religious information -- although fascinating to us -- was usually quite
secondary to the dedicatory act as reflected in script. The formulaic nature of these texts
makes them an ideal focus for an introductory session on reading glyphs. Participants will learn how to read
this most typical of Mayan literary genres, and will also be exposed to a new
way of thinking about the significance of Mayan monumental texts.
Required Readings: Excerpts from Michael D. Coe and Mark Van Stone, "The Nature of The Maya Script," Reading the Maya Glyphs, second edition (London:
Thames and Hudson, 2005) Chapter 2. Also, visit the following websites for background and
useful resources: Harri Kettunen and Christopher Helmke, "Introduction to
Maya Hieroglyphs;"
Inga Calvin, "Maya Hieroglyphic Writing;"
Rick Groleau, "Reading Maya Hieroglyphs."
Afternoon:
"The Mesoamerican Ballgame"
Presenter: Professsor
Zender
Topical Focus: At once among the
most visible and yet most mysterious features of Mesoamerican civilization,
ballcourts and the ballgame perennially fascinate the public and professionals
alike. Thankfully, this is also
one of the areas beginning to yield to improved understandings of Maya writing
and art. In this session, we use
recent decipherments to explain the ballgame as sport, spectacle, political
theater, and religious ritual, with particular attention to the game as it was
played in the Classic Maya lowlands.
Yet evidence for this ancient game is fragmentary and occasionally
contradictory, and so we will discuss the evidence for similar games across
Mesoamerica and into the Caribbean, and across time, highlighting recent
research. We will also examine Michael E. Whittington’s award-winning website
about the Mesoamerican ballgame.
Required Readings: Marc Zender, "Sport, Spectacle and Political Theater: New
Views of the Classic Maya Ballgame;" an excerpt from The sport of life and death: the
Mesoamerican ballgame, ed. E. Michael Whittington (London: Thames &
Hudson, 2001); also, read this definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_ballgame
and brief overview: http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/ballgame.htm.
Then, become very familiar with these websites: http://www.ballgame.org/ and http://www.ulama.freehomepage.com/index.html
Recommended
Readings in Spanish: An excerpt from María Teresa Uriarte, El juego de pelota en mesoamérica: raíces y supervivencia (Mexico
City: Siglo Veintiuno, 1992).
Presenters: Dr. Musick and student
assistants
Presenters: Dr. Musick and student
assistants
Workshop
Goals: Musick will demonstrate how to enliven a slide
presentation with advanced authoring tools. Specifically, participants will
learn how to:
· Animate
slides – laying and grouping elements, animation tools
· Use the
drawing tools – custom shapes, freeform lines, and more grouping
We will also address the basics of using PowerPoint in the
classroom (how to run a good show, using the pen pointer feature, navigating
between slides, etc.). Musick will also demonstrate how to publish a
presentation to the web and discuss how to effectively create and manage a
collection of presentations.
Presenter: Professor Lynn
Stephen, Department of Anthropology, University of
Oregon
Topical Focus: We continue with our
introductions to the major civilizations, to help provide a general
understanding and a context for analyzing cultural heritage materials, looking
at the major culture groups in what is largely the state of Oaxaca, Mexico,
today. The ancient peoples of this region, though less intensively studied than
the Aztecs and Maya, have been the subjects of increasing research in recent
decades. The remarkable art and writing style, especially the considerable
groups of codices of the Mixtecs, have captured scholars' fascination, and
Zapotec social structure, roles for women, mortuary practices, royal ancestor
worship, and complex calendars have also caught our attention.
Required Readings: John M. D. Pohl, “Ancient books: highland Mexico codices,”
(including the Mixtec and Borgia codices groups), also available in Spanish translation;
Joyce Marcus and Kent V. Flannery, “Ancient Zapotec ritual and religion: an
application of the direct historical approach,” The ancient civilizations of Mesoamerica: a reader, eds. Michael E.
Smith and Marilyn A. Masson (Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2000), 400-421.
Presenters: Professor Robert
Haskett, Department of History, University of Oregon
Topical Focus: We continue with our introductions to the major civilizations to
help provide a general understanding and a context for analyzing cultural
heritage materials. Among other things, we will clarify the nomenclature
“Aztec,” “Mexica,” and “Nahua,” used for this culture group, which can be
bewildering. This group of peoples had a turbulent history that spanned three
millennia. If the Maya had been incorrectly stereotyped as peace-lovers (prior
to Gibson's film), the "Aztecs" (really, Nahuas) were stereotyped as blood-thirsty warriors and empire builders who were
excessive in their human sacrifice and "pagan" religion. Their
conquest by the Spanish, led by Hernando Cortés, has also usually overshadowed
any of the other conquering expeditions across Mesoamerica. Professor Haskett
will try to bring balance to this overview, highlighting the impressive cities,
the nature of the empire, how wars could be "flowery"
(quasi-ritualistic), and outline the complex social structures that arose, all
the while taking advantage of the new discoveries that the Templo Mayor project
has advanced.
Required
Readings: Ida Altman, Sarah Cline, and Juan Javier
Pescador, The early history of greater
Mexico (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall,
2003), chap. 1, “Mexican peoples and cultures;” John M. D. Pohl, “The
Aztecs,” (this is the first of six pages that you should read).
Morning: “Teaching the Topic of Human Sacrifice”
Presenter: Professor
Haskett
Topical Focus: Human sacrifice is one of the first topics that come to mind for
the casual observer of pre-Columbian peoples of Mesoamerica, particularly when
the word “Aztecs” is heard, and it is typically treated in the popular media in
a way that makes it sensational or inflammatory. We will summarize here recent scholarly
efforts to stem that tide and help people understand the phenomenon in context
and with sensitivity to cultural difference (without imposing a cultural
relativism that would undermine human rights now held to be universal). Some
comparisons will be made to other cultures’ sacrificial activities to put
things in perspective. We will also explore region-wide expressions of
sacrifice, not just among the Aztecs, as well as the nature and interpreted
meaning of self-sacrifice.
Required Readings: An excerpt from Kay Read, Time and sacrifice in the Aztec cosmos (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, c1998);
Recommended Readings: an excerpt from Davíd Carrasco, Chapter 7 "The Sacrifice of Women" City of Sacrifice: The Aztec Empire and the Role of Violence in
Civilization (Boston: Beacon Press, 1999), it is also recommended to read the whole book if able.
Presenter: Professor
Haskett
Topical Focus: We will provide an overview of the Spanish invasion of
Mesoamerica in the early sixteenth century, examining its roots in the
re-conquest of Spain, the colonization of the Atlantic islands, and the
Caribbean, looking for motivations and methods. We will also consider the
concept of conquest in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and the ritual nature of
warfare prior to contact with Europeans. Then we will trace the major
developments and the nature of the European sources most often used for
reconstructing this story, including the creation of the Black Legend and the
evolution of our perceptions of the significance of conquest and colonization
over time.
Required Readings: Ross Hassig, “Aztec
and Spanish conquest in Mesoamerica,” in War in the tribal
zone: expanding states and indigenous warfare (Sante Fe, N.M.:
School of American Research Press; [Seattle, Wash. : Distributed by the
University of Washington Press, c1992]); Martha Few, “Invasion and Conquest of
Mexico.”
Recommended Readings: Stephanie Wood, “Rereading the Invasion,” chap. 1 in Transcending
conquest: Nahua views of Spanish colonial Mexico (Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press,
2003).
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Morning: "Indigenous
Views of Spaniards"
Presenter: Professor Wood
Topical
Focus: We
will explore pictorial representations of Spaniards in Mesoamerican manuscripts
and question the extent to which indigenous people saw Europeans as
"gods," invaders, hated overlords, and other presumed
interpretations, as a way of getting at the meaning of conquest and
colonization from a native perspective, taking examples from images and from
texts actually produced by indigenous authors and painters. We have heard much
about the indigenous person categorized as the "other" by Europeans,
but did this same process work the other way? Were Spaniards an "other" for native
Mesoamericans? Can we assume that all cultures integrate the foreigner in a
similar way, or if not, what historical factors might have come into play?
Required Readings: "Narratives of conquest,"
in The early history of greater Mexico,
edited by Ida Altman, Sarah Cline, and Juan Javier Pescador (Upper Saddle
River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2003); Stephanie Wood, "Pictorial
Images of Spaniards: The Other
Other?," chap. 2 in Transcending
conquest: Nahua views of Spanish colonial Mexico (Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, 1997).
Recommended Readings (for those who can read Spanish):
the Spanish version of "Pictorial Images of Spaniards: The Other Other?"
Afternoon:
"Primordial Titles: Nahuas Look Back on Conquest"
Presenter: Professor Haskett
Historiographical
and Topical Focus: We will explore the unparalleled indigenous views of human
origins, ethnicity, and community history that can be found in primordial
titles or títulos primordiales,
taking examples from different parts of the central Mexican highlands.
Professor Haskett will explore why indigenous views might differ from one
another and from Spanish views and accounts. He will also consider, were these
views that people held across the social spectrum, or where they the views of
the native elite, considering who wrote about the conquest and for what
overriding purpose.
Required
Readings: "Views
of the Conquest," ch. 3 in Mesoamerican
voices: native-language writings from Colonial Mexico, Oaxaca, Yucatan, and
Guatemala, edited by Matthew Restall, Lisa Sousa, and Kevin Terraciano
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2005); Robert Haskett, "Primordial
Titles," in Sources and methods in
the study of postconquest Mesoamerican ethnohistory, edited by James
Lockhart, Lisa Sousa, and Stephanie Wood (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities
Project, 2007).
Recommended
Readings: Stephanie
Wood, “The social vs. legal context of Nahuatl títulos,” in Native
traditions in the postconquest world, edited by Elizabeth Hill Boone and
Tom Cummins (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 1998), 201-230.
Thursday, July
31, 2008
Presenters: Dr. Musick and Professor Wood
Methodological Focus: We will introduce a
collection of colonial Mesoamerican pictorial manuscripts that have been
digitized and are in the process of being dissected for close scrutiny of their
component parts, whether texts or images, for the purpose of transcription,
translation, and analysis. We will demonstrate the "distance research
environment" where scholars from around the world collaborate in the
analysis of manuscripts. We will also show how this content is being databased
for search and retrieval, with examples of classroom applications.
Required Readings: Tom Cummins, "The Madonna and horse: becoming colonial in New
Spain and Peru," in Native artists
and patrons in colonial Latin America, edited by Emily Umberger and Tom
Cummins, pp. 52-75, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1995; Jeanette
Peterson, "The Florentine Codex
imagery and the colonial tlacuilo,"
in The work of Bernardino de Sahagún:
pioneer ethnographer of sixteenth-Century Aztec Mexico, edited by J. Jorge
Klor de Alva, H.B. Nicholson, and Eloise Quiñones Keber, pp. 273-293, Institute
for Mesoamerican Studies at University of Albany, SUNY and University of Texas
Press, Austin,1988.
Afternoon:
“The Mapas Project: Case Studies”
Presenter: Professor Wood
Methodological and Topical Focus: Professor Wood will explore sample
Mesoamerican pictorial manuscripts as social and cultural records of life for
indigenous peoples in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, and
as windows onto ways of conceptualizing space, ethnic origins, community,
family, historical events, religious pride. Comparisons will be made to the
more textual manuscripts discussed by Professor Haskett last week, highlighting
the ways images can both illustrate texts and add information and nuances not
already provided alphabetically.
Required Readings: Stephanie Wood, "A Proud Alliance: The Mapa de Cuauhtlantzinco," chap. 4 in Transcending conquest: Nahua views of
Spanish colonial Mexico (Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press,
2003); and an excerpt from Joseph W. Whitecotton, Zapotec elite ethnohistory: pictorial
genealogies from eastern Oaxaca (Nashville, Tenn.: Vanderbilt University,
1990); Elizabeth
Boone, "Stories of migration, conquest, and consolidation in the central
valleys," in Stories in red and
black: pictorial histories of the Aztecs and Mixtecs, pp. 163-196,
University of Texas Press, Austin, 2000; and, Stephanie Wood, "The
Techialoyan codices," in Sources and
methods in the study of postconquest Mesoamerican ethnohistory, edited by
James Lockhart, Lisa Sousa, and Stephanie Wood (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities
Project, 2007).
Friday, August 1, 2008
Morning
Workshop: Incorporating Film into the Curriculum
Presenters: Professor
Wood and student assistants
We will provide
examples of ways film clips can be used in the classroom: to illustrate a
topic, to spur to discussion around a particular theme, or an exercise in
analyzing representation. Professor Wood will demonstrate some of the clips that
are available for participants to use, with full permission, from all the films
in the institute's optional film series, offered every evening, as well as the
many hours of footage shot in Mesoamerican archaeological zones and museums and
donated to the project. For those with considerable skill in this area,
attendance may be optional.
Required Reading: Introduction
to the Popol Vuh: Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life (e-book), http://www.19.5degs.com/ebook/popol-vuh-mayan/1314/read#list
and see: http://www.popolvuh.ufm.edu.gt/eng/popolvuh.htm.
Afternoon
Workshop: Editing Video Clips
Presenters: Dr. Musick and student
assistants
Musick and student
assistants demonstrate some simple, hands-on video editing techniques (using
Flash Pro 8 and iMovie) so that interested participants can practice making
film clips and dropping them into their slide presentations or making DVDs with
these clips for multiple purposes in their classrooms, as demonstrated in the
morning workshop. For those with considerable skill in this area, attendance
may be optional.
Monday,
August 4, 2008
