Dym Syllabus Atlantic History Seminar

Race, Class and Ethnicity in Latin America, 1520-2000 - History 316A
Prof. Jordana Dym
Skidmore College
Fall 2000

Check here for direct link to this syllabus which contains images and links to their sources.

Reading

Secondary Sources
Clendinnen, Inga, Ambivalent Conquests
Cope, Douglas, The Limits of Racial Domination
Graham, Richard, The Idea of Race in Latin America, 1870-1940
Martínez-Alier, Verena, Marriage, Class & Colour in Ninetenth-Century Cuba
Thurner, Mark, From Two Republics to One Divided
Williams, Eric, Capitalism & Slavery

Primary Sources
De Landa, Yucatán Before & After the Conquest
Paz, Octavio, Labyrinth of Solitude & Other Writings

Fiction
Carpentier, Alejo, Kingdom of This World
Matto de Turner, Clorinda, Torn from the Nest
Fuentes, Carlos, The Crystal Frontier

Course Description
This course looks at how different ideas about race and ethnicity have shaped Latin American politics and societies from colonial times to the present. Themes covered include: interactions of Iberian, American, African and Asian peoples; official and unofficial management of multiethnic and multicultural societies; scientific racism; and the relation between theories of race and development of ideas about class, gender and nation.

Course Structure and Requirements
The literature on race, class and ethnicity in Latin America and the Caribbean is voluminous. This course does not pretend to provide complete coverage of all issues and historiography. Instead, it presents principle ideas and themes. Emphasis in the course is on critical reading of historical texts and the ability to present brief, written analyses of material covered. Students will have the opportunity to pursue their own particular interests in the comparative essay. The essay assignment is not expected to be a piece of research based on primary sources, nor strictly a historiographic review. Instead, it allows students to draw on the rich secondary literature available in order to explore a specific historical case or problem of choice. Students should present a one-page statement of the paper topic and intended bibliography to the professor by Monday, October 23. Each student will circulate drafts of their papers on Monday, November 27 and should be prepared to make a brief presentation in the last week of class.

1. Participation-20 %
All students will be expected to come to class, keep up with weekly readings and participate in class discussions. Instructor will look for faithful attendance, prompt completion of weekly readings, thoughtful participation, and a desire to create a friendly, respectful and articulate atmosphere in the classroom.

2. Reaction Paper (2)- 25% (12.5% each)
Twice during the course of a semester students will hand in reactions to one selection from weekly readings. Each essay will be handed in on the Monday of the week the material is to be discussed in class, and will be circulated to all class members to facilitate discussion. The review should be 2-3 typewritten, double-spaced pages long. It should contain some descriptive notes and reflections that demonstrate a critical reading of the week's assignments (What was the principal question the author asked? How did he/she answer it? Was the argument/evidence persuasive? What did you learn from this reading? Was it puzzling, surprising, or striking to you in some way? What did you think was missing, and how might the author have included this missing evidence in his/her work? How does this reading connect to other readings?). To prepare for these papers, it is recommended that students consult the Book Review section of historical journals (The American Historical Review, Latin American Research Review, etc.) to see how scholars critique each other’s work. There will be a sign-up for reviews in the second week of class.

3. Primary Source Review Essay -20%
Each student will prepare a thoughtful 6-8 page review of one primary source or fictional work. The essay should analyze the historical value or interest of the work. Questions addressed in the reaction paper should be useful for this assignment as well. Students should indicate which primary source they will review by week 3 of classes.

4. Comparative Essay – 35%
Each student will write one 9-12 page comparative essay, due no later than the final day of class. The essay will draw from class readings and additional sources (a suggested list of works will be provided by the professor) and will be based on a minimum of 4 articles or 2 books and one article. The essay may compare one topic in different periods or places (i.e. miners in colonial and contemporary Latin America; Indian women in colonial Mexico and Peru; race in Brazil). Students may choose a primary or fictional source and contrast it with scholarly treatment of a subject or may focus on different approaches to a single topic.
Students should choose their topic and bibliography no later than October 23.

Background Readings
These works are on reserve at Scribner Library, and have been included for your information only. If you are interested in pursuing how historians have discussed race in the Americas, or general texts on Latin American history, see:

Foundational Texts-Race, Class & Ethnicity
Borah, Woodrow, “Race & Class in Mexico,” Pacific Historical Review 23:4 (1954):331-342 (Periodicals)
Harris, Marvin, Patterns of Race in the Americas (NY: Norton, 1974) (Call No: F1419.A1 H3)
Mörner, Magnus, Race & Class in Latin America (NY: Columbia U. Press, 1970) (Call No: F1419.A1 C65 1965)

Latin American History
Benjamin Keen, A History of Latin America, 5th Edition, 1996 (or 6th, 2000) (Scribner has 1986, F1408.3 .K44 1986) Peter Winn, Americas (Call No. F1414 .W56 1999)
Stanley and Barbara Stein, Colonial Heritage of Latin America (Call No. HC125 .S76)
Leslie Bethell, ed., Colonial Spanish America (Call No. F1410 .C1834)
Thomas Skidmore, Modern Latin America (Call No. F1413 .S55 1984)

COURSE SCHEDULE

Week 1: Theories of Race, Class & Gender in the Latin American Context
September 6: Overview & Video
September 8: What are Race and Ethnicity? How can they be studied in relation to Class & Gender?

Reading:
1) Peter Wade, Race & Ethnicity in Latin America, Chapter 1;
2) Ira Berlin,“Time, Space and the Evolution of Afro-American Society on British Mainland North America,” in American Historical Review 85:7 (1980)
3) Malcom Gladwell, “Black Like Them,” The New Yorker, April 29/May 6, 1996
4) Karl Marx, “Wage Labour and Capital,” pp. 203-217 in The Marx-Engels Reader, Robert C. Tucker, ed.
5) Carol A. Smith, “Race-Class-Gender Ideology in Guatemala: Modern & Anti-Modern Forms,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 37: 4 (1995)
6) Peter Wade, ““Race” Nature & Culture,” Man 26 (March 1993): 17-34

PART 1: THE COLONIAL HERITAGE

Week 2: Early Colonial Encounters & Conquests
September 11: Clendinnen, Ambivalent Conquests, xi-56
September 13: Clendinnen, Ambivalent Conquests, 57-128
September 15: Clendinnen, Ambivalent Conquests, 129-189

Week 3: Processing the Other, Setting up the Paradigms
September 18: Nancy Farris, “Maya Elites: The Fixed Center” and “Survival as a Corporate Enterprise” in Maya Society under Colonial Rule, pp. 227-285
September 20: Frank Saloman, “Indian Women of Early Colonial Quito as Seen through their Testaments,” The Americas 44, No 3 (1988) 325-341; Ann Zulawski, “Social Differentiation, Gender, & Ethnicity: Urban Indian Women in Colonial Bolivia, 1640-1725”, Latin American Research Review, pp. 93-113.
September 22: Eric Wolf, Chapters 9 & 10, Sons of the Shaking Earth, pp. 176-232

Primary Sources (Weeks 2 & 3)
Diego de Landa, De Landa, Yucatán Before & After the Conquest
Miguel León-Portilla, ed., The Broken Spears
Christopher Columbus’ “Letter to the Sovereigns” announcing the Discovery in Greenblatt, New World Encounters, pp. 1-11
Alonso Zurita, Life and labor in Ancient Mexico: the brief and summary relation of the lords of new Spain (U. of Oklahoma Press, 1994)

Week 4: Colonial Labor 1: The Multi-ethnic Plebe (Mestizaje)
September 25: Cope, Limits of Racial Domination, pp. 3-67
September 27: Cope, Limits of Racial Domination, pp. 68-124
September 29: Cope, Limits of Racial Domination, pp. 125-168
Castas: “La pintura de castas, Artes de México , no 8, Summer 1990, 81-88

Week 5: Colonial Labor 2: The African Factor
October 2: Williams, Capitalism and Slavery, pp. 3-84; 126-153, 169-177, 197-208.
October 4: Women, Slavery & Class, Martínez Alier, Marriage, Class & Colour in Ninetenth-Century Cuba, 1-7; 11-41; 57-80
October 6: Martínez Alier, Marriage, Class & Colour in Ninetenth-Century Cuba, 82-142

Primary Sources (Weeks 4 & 5)
“The Foundation of Nuestra Sra. de Guadalupe de los Morenos de Amapa, Mexico (1760)” in Mills & Taylor, eds., Colonial Spanish America
Solange Alberro, “Juan de Morga and Gertrudis de Escobar: Rebellious Slaves”
Solange Alberro, “Beatriz de Padilla, Mulatta Mistress & Mother” in Mills & Taylor, eds. Colonial Spanish America
Pierre Dessales, Sugar & Slavery, family and race: the letters and diary of Pierre Dessalles, planter in Martinique 1808-1856 (JHU Press, 1996)

PART 2: POST-COLONIAL TRANSFORMATIONS

Week 6: From Caste to Citizenship
October 9: Yom Kippur (no class)
October 11: Thurner, From Two Republics to One Divided, 1-53
October 13: Thurner, From Two Republics to One Divided, 54-98, 137-152

Week 7: From Indians to Peasants (Solving the Indian Problem I)
October 16: Matto da Turner, Torn From the Nest, xiii-xlvi; 1-75;
October 18: Matto da Turner, Torn from the Nest, 79-174,
October 20: Study Day (no class)

Primary Sources (Weeks 6 & 7)
Alexander von Humboldt, Problems & Progress in Mexico, ca 1800
Simón de Bolívar: Message to the Congress at Angostura, 1819
José María Morelos, “Sentiments of the Nation: Chilpancingo, Mexico (1813), in Mills & Taylor, eds, Colonial Spanish America, pp. 341-344.

Week 8: From Slaves to Freemen to Citizens: Abolition in the Americas
October 23: The Haitian Solution: Revolution & Independence (Geggus)
October 25: The Creole Solution I: Abolition (Scott & Trochim)
October 27: The Creole Solution II: Citizenship
**(By October 27: Complete Carpentier, The Kingdom of this World)

David Geggus, “The Haitian Revolution”
Rebecca Scott, “Gradual Abolition and the Dyanmics of Slave Emancipation in Cuba, 1868-1886,” HAHR, 63: 1983: 449-477.
Rebecca Scott, “Defining the Boundaries of Freedom in the World of Cane; Cuba, Brazil & Louisiana after
Emancipation,”American Historical Review 99: 1 (Feb 1994): 70-102
Michael R. Trochim, “The Brazilian Black Guard: Racial Conflict in Post-Abolition Brazil,” The Americas 44:3 (Jan. 1988): 285-300.

Primary Sources (Week 8)
Miguel Barnet, ed., Biography of a Runaway Slave
Joseph Dimock, Impressions of Cuba in the 19th Century: the travel diary of Joseph J. Dimock (Scholarly Resources, 1998)

PART 3: NEW APPROACHES TO RACIALIZED SOCIETY

Week 9: Eugenics & the 20th Century
October 30: Skidmore, in The Idea of Race in Latin America, 1870-1940, 7-36 ; Helg, Our Rightful Share, 1-55
November 1: Stepan, The Hour of Eugenics, pp.1-62
November 3: Stepan, The Hour of Eugenics, pp. 63-102

Week 10: Brazil: The Myth of Racial Democracy
November 6: Gilberto Freyre, The Masters & the Slaves (excerpts)
November 8: J. Needell, “Identity, Race, Gender & Modernity in the the Origins of Gilberto Freyre’s Ouevre,” American Historical Review, 100 (Feb. 1995): 51-77; Emilia Viotti da Costa, “The Myth of Racial Democracy,” in The Brazilian Empire: Myths and Histories
November 10: Race, Class & Music: Deborah Pacini Hernández, “The Merengue: Race, Class , Tradition and Identity,” in Americas: An Anthology, 167-172; Peter Wade, “Black Music and Cultural Syncretism in Colombia,” in Slavery & Beyond, 121-146

Week 11: Race, Gender & Nation
November 13: Stepan, The Hour of Eugenics, pp. 103-170.
November 15: “Women are more Indian”: Ethnicity & Gender in a Community Near Cuzco,” in Brooke Larson, et al, eds. Ethnicity, Markets & Migration in the Andes, pp. 239-348; Deborah Poole, “A One Eyed Gaze: Gender in Nineteenth Century Illustration of Peru,” Dialectical Anthopology, 1989; Carol A. Smith, “Myths, Intellectuals and Race/Class/Gender Distinctions in the Formation of Latin American Nations,” Journal of Latin American Anthropology 2:1, Fall 1997: 148-169
November 17: Video: Americas (Bolivia)

Primary Source
Maria Eugenia Echenique, The Emancipation of Women, 1876

Week 12: Alternate Communities: Asian & Arab Immigrants
November 20: Jeffrey Lesser, Negotiating National Identity: Immigrants, Minorities & the Struggle for Ethnicity in Brazil (Duke Univ. Press, 1999), pp. 1-79; Michael J. Gonzáles, “Chinese Plantation Workers and Social Conflict in Peru in the late Nineteenth Century,” Journal of Latin American Studies, 21:3 (Oct.1989): 385-424
November 22 & 24: Thanksgiving Break

Primary Sources
Excerpts, Miguel Barnet, Biography of a Runaway Slave, pp. 88-90; 151.
Hari Prasad Singh, The Indian Struggle for Justice and Equality against Black racism in Trinidad and Tobago: 1956-1962

Week 13: Mexico: The Cosmic Race (Solving the Indian Problem II)
November 27: Wolf, Sons of the Shaking Earth, Ch. 11; Graham, ed., Ideas o f Race in Latin America, Knight, 71-114;
November 29: Paz, Labyrinth of Solitude, “The Sons of Malinche,” and “The Mexican Intelligentsia”; Richard Rodríguez, “Mixed Blood: Columbus’ legacy: A world made Mestizo,” Harper’s Magazine (November 1991): 47-56.
December 1: The Mexican Muralists
Video: Re/visions: Mexican Mural Painting (Mexico through the Eyes of Octavio Paz)

Primary Sources (Week 13)
José Carlos Mariátegui, “Seven Interpretaive Essays on Peruvian Reality, 31-76;
José Vasconecelos, La raza cosmíca/The cosmic race (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press, 1997)
Octavio Paz, The Labyrinth of Solitude

Week 14: Race, Class & Gender in a Neoliberal Age
December 4: Carlos Fuentes, The Crystal Frontier: "Malintzin of the Maquilas," "Las Amigas," "The Crystal Frontier";Burdick, Blessed Anastacia, vii-24
December 6: Burdick, Blessed Anastacia, 25-88
December 8: Burdick, Blessed Anastacia, 89-148
Video (Americas/Protestantism in Brazil)

Primary Sources (Week 14)
Elizabeth Burgos-Debray, I, Rigoberta Menchú
Thomas F. Reed & Karen Brandow, eds., The Sky Never Changes: Testimonies from the Guatemalan Labor Unions
Frank Solomon, Huarochiri, A Peruvian Culture in Time

Week 15: Conclusions
December 11: Outside Views—Caricature
December 13: Conclusions; Final Papers/Projects Due