Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1
Th 26 Borders: Florida, northern Mexico, Chile and Paraguay 8
The purpose of this course is to provide students with a thorough understanding of the
basic issues of colonial Latin American History through lectures coupled with discussion
of readings. The stress may vary slightly from semester to semester. Here emphasis is
given to the individual and society, as they relate collectively and discretely to the issues
of conquest, Indian relations, the landed estate, urban functions, labor, religion, and
socioeconomic organization. Lectures and readings will cover sequentially the first
foundations, the religious subjugation, native society and resistance, marriage and family,
the plantation complex and the institution of slavery, and Bourbon life and culture. The
lectures and readings will cover sequentially the first foundations (Amerindian, Iberian,
African), the nature and process of conquest and settlement (Restall), the nature and
meaning of the Black Legend (Las Casas), colonial society and the nature of the economy
(Cook & Cook), women, slavery and the Inquisition in the alter colonial period (Few).
Requirements: Students will be assessed on the basis five quizzes (30 minutes, 15%
each), and one 8 page analysis (25 %) - the specific assignment will be made on 22
January. Regular classroom participation is expected, and will count in the final course
grade, in a borderline situation. Any student with a question involving attendance and
discussion should consult the instructor at the beginning of the semester.
Statement on academic honesty: Students are urged to cooperate with each other, in
study groups. They are also encouraged to use the web to search for sources and new
information. But the study work that is turned in should be the sole work of that student.
Any source that is incorporated into the written work must be properly cited. Any
sequence of six words in the same order as appearing in the original source must be
within quotation marks [“text of quotation“], and the source must be properly cited. This
obviously includes any internet source as well as any source published in the traditional
print format. Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism, and will be dealt with according to
the guidelines of the FIU Student Student Manual for University Guidelines Handbook.
You must read that Handbook to avoid unpleasantness and potential loss of the semester’s
work, or suspension from the University, or more.
2
REQUIRED TEXTS: (all were used last semester, and inexpensive used copies should
be readily available)
Mark A. Burkholder and Lyman L. Johnson, Colonial Latin America. New York: Oxford
University Press, 2004. Students may use 4th-6th editions. paperback ISBN 0195156850
Matthew Restall, Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest. New York: Oxford University
Press, 2004. paperback ISBN 0195176111
Alexandra Parma Cook and Noble David Cook, Good Faith and Truthful Ignorance. A
Case of Transatlantic Bigamy. Durham: Duke University Press, 1992. paperback ISBN
0822312220
Martha Few, Women Who Live Evil Lives: Gender, Religion, and the Politics of Power in
Colonial Guatemala, 1650-1750 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002). Paperback
ISBN-10: 0292725493 ISBN-13: 978-0292725492
Bartolomé de las Casas, Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies and Related Texts.
Edited by Franklin Knight, Hackett Publishing Company, 2003. paperback ISBN
0872206254
You may use other sources to enhance your analysis. All sources, the books for class and
any other, must be corrected cited.
a. What are the principal achievements of the native peoples of the Americas in
terms of the domestication of plants and animals.
3
b. What are the principal characteristics and achievements of the Maya?
c. What are the principal characteristics and achievements of the Aztec?
d. What are the principal characteristics and achievements of the Inca?
e. Discuss the impact of the Spain’s “reconquista” on the first “conquistadores” of
the New World.