Class Meetings

All readings posted here are intended for the education purposes of History 465 only, and therefore under fair use exemptions.

I haven't posted links to articles that exist in one of the library's electronic databases. Finding items online and through the library website are skills you need to master.

Readings are subject to change!

WEEK 1:

January 14            Introduction to the Course

WEEK 2: INTRODUCTION

Intro Video on iTunes and here. To watch .mov files, you may need Apple's free Quicktime Player, for Mac or PC.

January 19            The study of women in history

January 21            Discussion

READ:
  1. Scott, Joan Wallach. Gender and the Politics of History. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1988. (Chapter 1 "Women's History;" Chapter 2 "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis")
  2. Perry, Mary Elizabeth. "With Stones and Roasting Spits: Moriscas and a Multidisciplinary Methodology for Studying Women in Golden Age Spain." In Disciplines on the Line: Feminist Research on Spanish, Latin American, and U.S. Latina Women, ed. Ann J. Cruz, et.al. Delaware: Juan de la Cuesta, 2003 (59-78).
  3. Handouts on the use of primary and secondary sources.

Discussion Questions are here.

WEEK 3: INDIGENOUS WOMEN IN THE ANDES

Intro Video (Itunes, Here)

January 26            Gender and class in Incan society

January 28            Andean women in the documentary record

Discussion questions for the readings.

READ:

  1. Burkett, Elinor. "Indian Women and White Society: The Case of Sixteenth-Century Peru." In Latin American Women: Historical Perspectives, ed. Asunción Lavrin. Conn: Greenwood Press, 1978.
  2. Salomon, Frank. "Indian Women of Early Colonial Quito as Seen Through Their Testaments." The Americas 44:3 (Jan. 1988), 325-341.
  3. Silverblatt, Irene. "Andean Women Under Spanish Rule." In Women and Colonization: Anthropological Perspectives. Mona Etienne and Eleanor Leacock, eds. New York: Praeger Press, 1980.
  4. Primary Sources. Selections from:
    1. Garcilaso de la Vega, El Inca. Royal Commentaries of the Incas and General History of Peru. Translator: Harold V. Livermore. Austin, Univ. of Texas Press, 1989 [1609].
    2. Guaman Poma de Ayala. El Primer Nuevo Cronica y Buen Gobierno. Translators: John V. Murra, et. al. Mexico: Siglo Veintiuno, 1992 [1615]. (Text and Drawings)

WEEK 4: INDIGENOUS WOMEN IN MESOAMERICA

Intro Video (iTunes, Here)

February 2            Gender, work, and myth in Mesoamerica

February 4            Mexica women in the documentary record

READ:

  1. Schroeder, et.al., Chapters 1, 2, 5.
  2. Joyce, Rosemary A. "Gender, Performance, Power, and Reproduction" and "Becoming Human: Body and person in Aztec Tenochtitlan." In Gender and Power in Prehispanic Mesoamerica. Austin: University of Texas, 2000.
  3. Primary source selections.
    1. "Nahuatl Speeches and Dialogues," Seleciotns from the "Tetzcoco Dialogues" and the Florentine Codex, Book VI.

WEEK 5: AFRICAN WOMEN

No Intro video this week.

February 9            African societies

February 11            African women in America

Discussion Questions for the Readings.

READ:

  1. Lane, Kris. Captivity and Redemption: Aspects of Slave Life in Early Colonial Quito and Popayan." The Americas 57:2 (Oct. 2000), 225-246.
  2. Townsend, Camilla. "Angela Batallas: A Fight for Freedom in Guayaquil." In The Human Tradition in Colonial Latin America, ed. Kenneth J. Andrien. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2002, (293-306).
  3. Thornton, John. "Slavery and African Social Structure." In Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800 (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1998 (72-98).
  4. Primary Documents.
    1. Selections from: Conrad, Robert Edgar. Children of God's Fire: A Documentary History of Black Slavery in Brazil. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1983.
    2. Socolow, Susan Migden. "Permission to Marry: Eighteenth-Century Matrimonial Files." In Colonial Lives: Documents on Latin American History, 1550-1850, ed. Richard Boyer and Geoffrey Spurling. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2000 (236-248).

WEEK 6: SPANISH WOMEN

February 16            Spanish society

February 18            Legal, economic, and political status of women

READ:
  1. Poska, Allyson. 1996. "When Love Goes Wrong: Getting out of Marriage in Seventeenth-Century Spain," Journal of Social History 29.4: 873-882.
  2. Poska, Allyson. 2004. "Elusive Virtue: Rethinking the Role of Female Chastity in Early Modern Spain," Journal of Early Modern History 8:1-2 (January): 135-146.
  3. Taylor, Scott. "Credit, Debt, and Honor in Castile, 1600-1650" Journal of Early Modern History 7:1-2 (January 2003), 8-27.
  4. Behrend-Martinez, Edward. "Manhood and the Neutered Body in Early Modern Spain." Journal of Social History 38, no. 4 (2005): 1073-1093.

WEEK 7: SPANISH, INDIGENOUS, COLONIAL GENDER NORMS

February 23            Masculinity, Femininity, Empire

February 25            Cross-cultural comparisons of gender norms.

READ:
  1. Gauderman, Kimberly. Women's Lives. Introduction, and Chapter 1.
  2. Schroeder, et.al. Indian Women. Chapters 3,4,7.

WEEK 8: REVIEW AND EXAM

March 2                        Exam review

March 4                        Mid-term exam (Bring green-books.)

WEEK 9: SPRING BREAK

Have a nice Spring Break! Keep an eye on the upcoming readings.

WEEK 10: MARRIAGE AND FAMILY

March 16            Marriage, family structure

March 18            Discussion of Seed, To Love, Honor, and Obey

READ:
  1. Patricia Seed, To Love, Honor, and Obey. Complete book.

WEEK 11: SEXUALITY AND SOCIETY

March 23            Sexuality and social control

March 25            Honor, Shame, and the slightly sullied

READ:
  1. Lauderdale Graham, Sandra. "Honor among Slaves." In The Faces of Honor: Sex, Shame, and Violence in Colonial Latin America, ed. Lyman L. Johnson and Sonya Lipsett-Rivera. Albuquerque: Univ. of New Mexico Press, 2000 (201-228).
  2. Lavrin, Asunción. "Sexuality in Colonial Mexico: A Church Dilemma." In Sexuality & Marriage in Colonial Latin America, ed. Asunción Lavrin. Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1992 (47-95).
  3. Twinam, Ann. "The Negotiation of Honor: Elites, Sexuality, and Illegitimacy in Eighteenth-Century Spanish America. In The Faces of Honor: Sex, Shame, and Violence in Colonial Latin America, ed. Lyman L. Johnson and Sonya Lipsett-Rivera. Albuquerque: Univ. of New Mexico Press, 2000 (68-102).
  4. Primary Sources: Selections from Boyer, Richard, ed. Colonial Lives: Documents on Latin American History, 1550-1850. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2000.
    1. Boyer, Richard. "Catarina María Complains that Juan Teioa Forcibly Deflowered Her," (155-165).
    2. Büschges, Christian. "Don Manuel Valdivieso y Carrión Protests the Marriage of His Daughter to Don Teodoro Jaramillo, A person of Lower Social Standing," (224-235).
    3. Lipsett-Rivera, Sonya. "Scandal at the Church: José de Alfaro Accuses Doña Theresa Bravo and Others of Insulting and Beating His Castiza Wife, Josefa Cadena," (216-203).
    4. van Deusan, "Wife of my Soul and Heart, and All My Solace": Annulment Suit Between Diego Andrés de Arenas and Ysabel Allay Suyo," (130-140).

WEEK 12: EL PECADO NEFADO and other sins

March 30            Homosexuality in early Latin America

April 1                 "Como hombre y mujer"

READ:
  1. The articles and response papers in the Special issue of Ethnohistory. [ebscohost]

WEEK 13: WITCHCRAFT AND WOMEN'S CULTURE

April 6                        Delusion, fraud, or diabolism

April 8                        Under the spell of women

READ:
  1. Behar, Ruth. "Sexual Witchcraft, Colonialism, and Women's Powers: Views from the Mexican Inquisition." In Sexuality and Marriage in Colonial Latin America, ed. Asunción Lavrin. Lincoln:  Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1992 (178-206).
  2. Few, Martha. "Women, Religion, and Power: Gender and Resistance in Daily Life in Late-Seventeenth-Century Santiago de Guatemala." Ethnohistory 42:4 (Autumn 1995), 627-637).
  3. Silverblatt, Irene. Moon, Sun and Witches: Gender Ideologies and Class in Inca and Colonial Peru. Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1987. (Chapter IX ACultural Defiance: The Sorcery Weapon")
  4. Primary Documents:
    1. Selections from Guaman Poma de Ayala. El Primer Nuevo Cronica y Buen Gobierno. Translators: John V. Murra, et. al. Mexico: Siglo Veintiuno, 1992 [1615].
    2. Few, Martha. "On Her Deathbed, Marìa de la Candelaria Accuses Michaela de Molina of Casting Spells." In Colonial Lives: Documents on Latin American History, 1550-1850, ed. Richard Boyer. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2000 (166-177).

WEEK 14: WOMEN AND THE CHURCH

April 13                        Get thee to a nunnery

April 14                        Screening of I, Worst of All (schedule/place TBD)

April 15                        Fringes of Sainthood

READ:
  1. Myers, Kathleen A. "The Mystic Triad in Colonial Mexican Nuns' Discourse: Divine Author, Visionary Scribe, and Clerical Mediator." Colonial Latin American Historical Review 6:4 (Fall 1997).
  2. van Deusen, Nancy E. "Defining the Sacred and the Worldly: Beatas and Recogidas in Late-Seventeenth-Century Lima." Colonial Latin American Historical Review 6:4 (Fall 1997).
  3. Primary Documents
    1. Holler, Jacqueline. "The Spiritual and Physical Ecstasies of a Sixteenth-Century Beata: Marina de San Miguel Confesses Before the Mexican Inquisition." In Colonial Lives, Documents on Latin American History, 1550-1850, ed. Richard Boyer and Geoffrey Spurling. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2000 (77-100).

WEEK 15: WOMEN AND THE ECONOMY

April 20                        Hawkers, chicheras, shopkeeps

April 22                        "Whereas it is in my rights…"

READ:
  1. Gauderman, Women's Lives, Finish.

WEEK 16: THE MALINCHE CONTROVERSY: GENDER, POLITICS, AND IDENTITY

April 27                        Doña Marina and the Conquest of Mexico

April 29                        La Malinche y los chingados

READ:
  1. Schroeder, et. al. Indian Women, Chapter 14.
  2. Brimingham-Pokorny, Elba D. "La Malinche: A Feminist Perspective on Otherness in Mexican and Chicano Literature." Confluencia 11:2 (Spring 1996).
  3. Karttunen, Frances. Between Worlds: Interpreters, Guides, and Survivors. New Brunswick: Rutgers U. Press, 1994. (From Chapter 1 "Three Guides" and Epilogue "Their Children")
  4. Paz, Octavio. The Labyrinth of Solitude: Life and Thought in Mexico. New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1961. (Chapter 4 "The Sons of La Malinche")
  5. Primary Documents:
    1. "Spanish Views of the Conquest": selections from Bernal Diáz de Castillo
    2. "Indigenous Views of Conquest":  selections from the Florentine Codex, Book 12, and the Annals of Tlatelolco