History 506:402 Section 18

Undergraduate Seminar

EARLY LATIN AMERICAN VIEWS

Spring 2005

Monday 6:10-9:00 p.m.

Gail D. Triner VanDyckHall 002C 732-932-6696 e-mail: triner@ix.netcom.com web site: http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~triner/

Office Hours: Monday: 4:30-5:30 Thursday: 11:30-12:30 other times, by appointment

European and North American travelers often documented their travels to Latin America from the 16th to the 19th centuries. These travelers included a wide variety of individuals: conquerors, government administrators, Church officials, wealth seekers, adventurers (& adventuresses), scientists, military people, and weirdoes. What they found, and what they wrote about their experiences, reveals much about life in various Latin American regions during these exciting years; it also reveals much about the worlds from which the writers came.

In this seminar, we use the original writings of these travelers to Latin America during the Colonial era and nineteenth century to explore the perceptions of outsiders to the region. Attached to the syllabus, I offer three broad themes from which you can choose a research topic. We will organize the class into groups of students choosing each theme. Each student will prepare an individual research project that results in a 20 to 30 page paper based on a selection of writings produced by foreign writers. During class sessions, we practice reading and using a selection of travelers’ documents, and we will work through each of the steps that comprise historical research in order to complete a large project.

Please read the syllabus carefully; it includes:

· Course requirements

· A schedule of class sessions and readings

· A description of three research themes for the seminar, which suggestions of specific paper topics (If you have a research interest that you want to pursue and is not on this list, feel free to talk to me about it.)

· Selected writing guidelines.

The Undergraduate History Seminar is the first (and perhaps only) opportunity for history majors to engage in the practice of what historians do. As such, it is a course which requires a serious commitment from its participants. The requirements for the course reflect that, with a fairly heavy work load. However, I also assume that you have not had a class of this nature before. I hope and expect to guide students on a close individual basis.

Books available at RU Bookstore:

Erauso, Catalina de; Lieutenant Nun: A Memoir of a Basque Transvestite in the New World

Storey, William Writing History

Readings available on-line

(from the class website: http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~triner/LAViews/syllabus.htm; files are in pdf form):

Selections from:

· Mills, Kenneth and William B. Taylor; Colonial Spanish America: A Documentary History

· Dessalles; Sugar and Slavery, Family and Race

· Conrad, Robert Edgar; Children of God’s Fire

Course Requirements and Grading:

1. Attendance at all scheduled class meetings. You will be expected to complete all assignments prior to class, and to participate in discussions of the readings and all other class activities. Any unexcused absence will result in lowering of your final grade. Classes will begin at the scheduled time. (Class participation will account for 20% of your grade for the class.)

2. Three short papers (each about 3-5 pages) based on the assigned readings. Paper topics are given on the schedule of class session. These are broad topics; you should discuss them from the perspective that seems most relevant or interesting to you. (Each paper will be 5% of your course grade; but failure to submit a paper will lower your final grade for the class by ½ grade.)

3. Interim steps towards your final paper:

· A formal research proposal, with statement of topic and preliminary bibliography.

· Interim reports on the reading that you have done for your papers

· Outline of paper.

· Rough draft of paper (defined as complete draft, including all topics your paper will cover, footnotes and bibliography).

· A 10-15 minute presentation to the class of your final paper.

4. A 20-30 page paper which cogently discusses your topic, sources, methodology and findings. (The paper, including the interim steps above, will contribute towards 65% of your final grade.)

Due dates are noted in class schedule below. Each of these assignments is due at the beginning of the class of their due dates. The research proposal, outline and rough draft are ungraded. However, any one of these not submitted on schedule will result lowering your final grade by ½ grade.

See instructions for paper submission through turnitin.com.

On dates when class does not meet, but assignments and/or progress reports are due, you should submit your work by e-mail. (“Machine problems” are not an excuse for late work.) When class does not meet, I will be in my office and available to meet with students. If you can anticipate that you will want to meet with me, it is best to make an appointment. But during scheduled class-time, if I am not with another student, the time is yours

CLASS SESSIONS

24 Jan.	Introduction
31 Jan.	Documents from early travelers
	Read	Erauso; Lieutenant Nun Writing History, Ch.1
	Due	3-5 page paper on: What are the circumstances that bring Catalina de Erauso to Peru, and how do they affect her perceptions of the society she finds? Underline your thesis sentence.
	Choose a research theme and begin thinking about a specific research paper topic
7 Feb.	Bibliographic Research
	Read	Writing History, Chs. 2 and 3
	Due	Come to class with possible research topics in mind. (They can be very vague.)
	Computer Lab	Meet in Computer lab in basement of Records Hall Electronic search of new sources for research papers
	Meet with me during week of 9-16 February (after class, during office hours, by appointment, or by e-mail [if possible]) to discuss your paper topic
14 Feb.	Issues in research Individual research groups meet & discuss initial ideas
	Read	Alonso Ortiz’s Letter to His Wife, Mexico City (1574?) Writing History, Ch. 4 and 9
	Due	3-5 page paper on: Alonso was in Mexico about thirty years prior to Catalina’s arrival in Peru. He set up shop as a tanner. Use the information you derive from his letter to his wife to compare their working lives. You might want to consider their attitudes about work, the impact of their personal lives on their working lives, the types of business arrangements they entered, or any other information that you gather from the readings. What do we learn about how (non-farming, non-mining) Spaniards labored in early colonial Spanish America? Underline your thesis sentence. Written research proposal, with statement of topic and preliminary bibliography.
21 Feb.	Research projects Individual research groups meet to discuss research Bring to class: ONE of the primary sources for your project. Be prepared to discuss your primary source: What is it? What do you expect it to provide for your project?
	Due	First progress report

28 Feb.	Issues in Research
	Read	Dessalles; Sugar and Slavery, Family and Race Conrad (ed.) Children of God’s Fire Writing History, Chs. 7 and 8
	Due	3-5 page paper: Compare the treatment of slaves as depicted in the two readings. Among the factors you may wish to consider are: relations between slaves and owners, attitudes of owners towards slaves, material circumstances of life, work routines – or any other topic that seems interesting to you. In your paper, be sure to consider the differences that result from the types of sources you are using, such as: · The author of one source was a slave- and plantation- owner; the authors of the other were observers of slavery · Location (Martinique vs Brazil, urban vs rural …) Underline your thesis sentence. Progress report
7 Mar.	No class
	Due	Progress report
14 Mar.	SPRING BREAK
21 Mar.	Individual research groups meet to discuss each others’ outlines
	Due	Outline – with current version of thesis sentence and bibliography
28 Mar.	Individual research groups meet to discuss on-going research.
	Read	Writing History, Chs. 5 and 6
	Due	Draft of one section of the body of your paper (not from the introduction or conclusion) – and if drafting this section has changed your mind about your thesis, included your re-stated thesis. Bring a copy of draft section.
4 Apr.	No class; individual meetings & group meetings.
	Due	Progress report
11 Apr.	Be prepared to discuss with the class your project (what you are researching, your sources, the problems you are having …) and your experiences in writing the 1^st draft
	Read	Writing History, Ch. 10
	Due	1^st draft of paper; bring a copy of draft (Underline your thesis sentence.)
18 Apr.	No class; individual meetings & group meetings.
	Due	Progress report
25 Apr.	Presentations
2 May	Presentations Final papers due (Remember to underline your thesis sentence.)

EARLY LATIN AMERICAN VIEWS

Spring 2005

RESEARCH THEMES

RESEARCH THEME #1

Writings of Europeans in the Americas during and immediately after Spanish “Conquest” vigorously debated the enslavement of the indigenous population on moral and practical grounds. Analyze these debates and their importance to the subsequent history of Latin America. In thinking about the importance of the early perceptions that Europeans had of indigenous populations, choose one cohesive theme for your focus. Some possibilities include:

• The precedent these debates had for establishing future relations between Europeans and Amerindians
• The religious significance of these debates for the Catholic Church
• The role of European perceptions of Amerindians in the introduction of large-scale transatlantic African slavery

Some primary sources that present these debates include:

· Matson & Fontana eds “Friar Bringas Reports to the King”

· Lockhart, James (ed. & Trans) We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico &

· Las Casas, Bartolemé de. The Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account; trans. by Herman Briffault (Baltimore: 1992).

· Hallenbeck The Journey of Fray Marcos de Niza [SW of US]

· Alva, Don Bartolome de. A Guide to Confession Large and Small in the Mexican Language 1634 U-Oklahoma Press, 1999.

· Cortés, Hernando. Five Letters of Cortés to the Emperor; trans. J. Bayard Morris (New York: 1969).

· Sahagún, Fray Bernardino de. Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; 12 vols. (basic texts written by Indians before 1550 in Nahuatl, translated into English - with Sahagún's Spanish paraphrase & commentary) –

· a general selection edited by A.J.O. Anderson & C.E. Dibble. The War of Conquest: How it was Waged here in Mexico. The Aztecs' Own Story as given to Fray Bernardino de Sahagún (Salt Lake City: 1978)

These sources only offer a small selection of possibilities. For your project, you will need to find at least three additional sources that are not on this list.

EARLY LATIN AMERICAN VIEWS

Spring 2005

RESEARCH THEMES

RESEARCH THEME #2

European and North American women traveled extensively through Latin America during the nineteenth century. Many did so while accompanying their husbands; others tried to earn a living (either as single women or with their husbands.) Many documented their travels in letters home, in journalism accounts and in memoirs. These writings provide interesting views on social relations and opportunities for Latin American women with respect to: gender relations among different classes of people, the organization of home life and everyday life in households, consumption of material goods (fashion, household furnishings, etc.) Choose a specific theme, or Latin American location, or author’s perspective to use as the lens through which you analyze a selection of foreign women’s perspectives on Latin America.

Some of the primary sources that can provide a start for this research include:

· Toussaint-Samson, A Parisian in Brazil, (Delaware 2001: [1891])

· Nugent, Maria Lady Nugent’s Journal: Jamaica one hundred and thirty years ago Institute of Jamaica, West India Committee: (London: 1934)

· Howe, Julia Ward A Trip to Cuba (Boston: 1860)

· Calderón de la Barca, Madame Frances. Life in Mexico (London: 1987).

· Iglehart, Fanny Chambers Gooch; Face to Face with the Mexicans… (New York: 1887

· Rankin, Melinda Among the Mexicans. A Narrative of Missionary Labor (Cincinnati: 1875)

· Humphrey, Alice R. A Summer Journey to Brazil (New York: 1900)

· Graham, Maria Dundas; Journal of a Voyage to Brazil…

· Tristán, Flora Peregrinations of a Pariah, 1833-1834 (Boston: 1986)

· Pffeifer, Ida; A Lady’s Journey Roung the World …(London: 1850)

· ----- A Lady’s Second Journey Round the World (New York: 1856)

For this topic, Hahner, June; Women through Women’s Eyes – especially the material in the introduction, bibliography and bibliographic essay – may offer a very useful secondary source.

These sources only offer a small selection of possibilities. For your project, you will need to find at least three additional sources that are not on this list.

EARLY LATIN AMERICAN VIEWS

Spring 2005

RESEARCH THEME

RESEARCH THEME #3

European and North American “naturalists” (including artists) traveled extensively through Latin America, from very early dates. They were fascinated by natural setting, and studied it extensively. Often, these observers made comparisons both with the worlds that they came from. They also derived theories about the nature and capabilities of native human populations that related them to their natural environment. Organizing an essay by time period, theme or location, analyze the perspectives that these observers offered. Some ideas for such essays might include:

• Did early explorers consider the indigenous populations to be “fully human” – or somewhat less than biologically human?
• Compare 16^th and 19^th century perceptions of the Amazon
• Did native populations become less “exotic” during the period of Hispanic colonization?
• The impact of Darwin’s perceptions of native populations on his theory of human evolution (What did Darwin see and think of native Latin Americans?)

Some of the primary sources that may help you with these questions include:

· Agassiz, Louis. A Journey in Brazil.

· Alacon, Hernando Ruiz de. The Treatise on Superstition. Aztec Sorcerers in Seventeenth Century Mexico. Ed. Michael D Coe & Gordon Whittaker.

• Brandão, Ambrosio Fernandes Dialogues of the Great Things of Brazil
• Coronado, Francisco Vasquez The West Coronado’s Report to Viceroy Mendoza Sent from Cibola; 3Aug 1540, [PBS: translation http://www.pbs.org.weta/thewest/resources/oncorona8.html]
• Darwin, Charles. Voyage of the Beagle.

· Artists, such as J-B DeBret & JM Rugendas

• Hallenbeck The Journey of Fray Marcos de Niza [SW of US]

· Kidder, Daniel. Sketches of a Residence and Travels in Brazil (2 vol.), (1845).

· Las Casas, Bartolemé de. The Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account; trans. by Herman Briffault (Baltimore: 1992).

• Medina, Jose Toribio, (ed). The Discovery of the Amazon according to the account of Friar Gaspar de Carvajal and other documents
• Tschudi, J.J von. Travels in Peru, during the Years 1838-1842, on the Coast, in the Sierra, across the Cordilleras and the Andes into the Primeval Forests. trans. Thomasina Ross., (London: 1847)

· von Humboldt, Alexander. Political Essay on the Kingdom of New spain (4 vol; London: 1811).

o Personal Narrative of travels (1799-1804)...

o The Island of Cuba

o The Travels and Researches ... (1833)

These sources only offer a small selection of possibilities. For your project, you will need to find at least three additional sources that are not on this list.