Discussion Essay 1 Prompt - Native Peoples, First Encounters, and the Conquest
See all of our films and carefully read all of our material up through the week this essay is due. See our syllabus and course announcements to make sure you've seen all of our films and read all of our readings before you begin writing; you cannot just read the one document you're writing about- you'll miss the big picture and miss the full historical context. I have three copies of each of our books on reserve at the library.
ESSAY DIRECTIONS. This essay has TWO equally weighted parts.
PART I: From your films "500 Nations: Ancestors," "Engineering an Empire: Maya," "Engineering an Empire: Aztec," and your readings on Native Peoples Before the Conquest, write an essay in which you discuss in detail the "big picture" developments- urban planning, advances in agriculture, water management, and architecture- and how those facilitated the growth of and contributed to the complexity of city-states like those of the Maya, the Aztecs, the Anasazi and "Mississippi Mound-builders". Be sure to incorporate material from your readings, especially Kiczach. 2, into your essay. Show us that you're making connections to the readings. Do not just re-narrate the film (all of us have seen it) -flesh out those ideas with material from your readings (provide citations where appropriate) and provide insights into the Native world before the Conquest.
Length of Part I: about two well developed paragraphs with specific examples.
PART II: Choose one primary source from Lepore's Encounters in the New World, chapter 2, pp. 33-57, (she gives an introduction, in bold, to each primary source), and then reproduces the primary source in regular text) and write an essay in which you analyze the importance of this primary source for our understanding of the Early Americas (make connections to Dickason's article "Some First Reaction" in Benjamin's The Atlantic World -the articles in this reader are very important). To know where Lepore got her primary source, be sure to consult the "Text Credits" (Lepore, pp's 167-171)- this is where she puts the information about where she got each primary source.
Now, for the primary source that you've chosen to analyze, discuss the following:
a) Tell us all about the document that you've chosen- who wrote it? to whom? when? why? what was its purpose? * If you're discussing the "Gods, Savages" documents, be sure you re-read my lecture notes on the Conquest- the section on The Florentine Codex- the documents on omens and native views of the conquest are from The Florentine Codex. This is a primary source, but NOT an eyewitness account- it was written about two generations after the conquest, around 1576, so it is a "snap-shot" of the 1570s, two generations after the conquest (this is very important to know!).
b) Provide historical context from the rest of our readings and our films on this topic- i.e. tell us the history behind the primary source- what has happened and what is going on at the time this primary source is produced?
c) Analyze the primary source. Remember most of these are "first impressions" and they're very important for us, but as students as History, we can't take them at face value - why not? What are some assumptions behind these statements? Tell us why assumptions matter. (Like the one where the Pope as head of the Church, and Christendom, is dividing the "New World" (the Americas) between the Spanish and Portuguese monarchs- what is the assumption about the 70 million people who already lived in this part of the world?) Why do we need to be aware of these assumptions if we are to understand the significance of that document to the way colonization unfolded? If we only read documents like this one you're analyzing, do we get the full picture? If not, what other kind of documents do we need to consult to have a full understanding?
d) What specific contributions does your primary source make to our understanding of the history of the early Americas? What were some consequences of this primary source for Native/European relations during this foundational period? What is the historical significance of this document?
Be sure to make connections between the primary sources you're analyzing, our readings from Kicza and Horn, and the rest of our readings, especially Dickason's article "Some First Reactions" in Benjamin's The Atlantic World (the articles in this reader are very important).
Length of Part II: at least two well-developed paragraphs with specific examples.
Length of your entire Discussion Essay 1: about four to five well developed paragraphswith specific examples
Submit them together as one file in Blackboard (just label each part, Part I, Part II).
Write your essay in a word processing program so you can always have a copy. When you'veproofread it and spell-checked it (this is formal writing- please no "text-ese" and capitalize when appropriate), click "create thread" in the Discussion Board forum called "Discussion Essay #1,"paste your essay in there, and click "submit". (Use a 12 pt font)
Required Response Essay to a classmate's original essay (this is different from Parts I and II): You are also required to respond to at least one other student's original essay after you post your own (see the due date for that). You can amplify on a point made, raise a related point,discuss the issue in relation to other readings, films, or documents, agree or disagree withsupporting evidence, and/or raise new informed questions that we should all think about. One or two thoughtful, well-developed, and well-supported paragraphs should suffice for your response essay. These are response essays, not "good job" notes- show us that you're making additional connections to our material and that you're showing complexity.