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History 380
Indigenous Histories in
Latin America


Tuesdays and Thursdays 12:45 2:00
Liberal Arts 204


Professor R.A. Kashanipour

Office Hours: Fridays 9:00 11:00
or by appointment
Biological Sciences 206
ra.kashanipour@nau.edu



Course Description

This course examines the indigenous histories of Latin America from the pre-Hispanic era to the
modern period. Although frequently relegated to the margins of history, indigenous peoples were
the focus of numerous colonial and modern campaigns of conquest, subjugation, and exploitation.
Recent scholarship on the histories of indigenous peoples has illustrated their importance to the
construction of the institutions of authority, religion, and identity. Ethnohistorians of Latin America
have recently begun to direct the scholarship towards the ways that natives served as active members
of colonial and modern societies. Indigenous groups, far from mere objects of the past, functioned
as proponents of communal identity, regional cultures, and government institutions. Likewise,
modern indigenous movements for autonomy have legitimized histories and identities that were
long suppressed by official institutions and governments. Indigenous histories, therefore, have
become central to understanding the colonial and modern histories of Latin America.

This is an advanced examination of the issues and themes pertaining to indigenous societies in Latin
America. The aim of this course is threefold. First, we will attempt to survey the history of Latin
America through the eyes of native peoples. As an advanced history course, the basic assumption is
that all students enter the course with at least standard, traditional knowledge of Latin America. Our
aim will be to investigate against those traditional perspectives by highlighting the importance of
native histories. Second, we will try to understand how these views have been shaped by colonial
and nationalist regimes and, conversely, how indigenous experiences shaped these regimes. A
consistent focus will be on identity as a means to examine the internal and external dynamics of
local, communal, and regional structures of social, cultural, and political interaction. We will also
engage a series of films that represent popular views of natives. Throughout this course, then, we
will examine the numerous contradictory perceptions of being indigenous. Finally, this course will be
run as a discussion-centered seminar in which we will engage in historical processes of interpretation
and analysis. The overall focus of the course will rest in discussions and group analysis. We will also
explore the craft of producing history by engaging a series of important currents in the scholarly
exploration of indigenous peoples in Latin America. Our discussions of the scholarship will serve to
Sergei Einstein, Que viva Mexico! (1930)




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survey scholarly perspectives and our analysis of primary sources will advance critical constructions
of individual, informed evaluations.

Texts and Readings

This is an advanced history course and it is reading and writing intensive. Each week, students will be
responsible for reading a collection of works organized around a general theme. These readings will
serve as the basis for a broader discussion. The Course Schedule details the specific readings.
Articles and chapters will be posted to Blackboard in advance of each weeks discussion. The
following books are available for purchase in the bookstore:
Joanne Rappaport, Cumbe Reborn: An Andean Ethnography of History (University of Chicago
Press, 1994).
Rigoberta Menchu, I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala, (Verso, 1992).

Attendance

This course is designed as an open forum to discuss ideas and concepts. As such, consistent
attendance and active participation are vital. At a basic level, regular attendance is expected. I make
no distinctions between excused and unexcused absences, but those individuals who miss more than
two classes will be subject to a grade reduction of at least a full letter grade.

Participation and Discussion

Beyond merely being present, everyone is expected to attend class fully prepared for discussion and
engagement with the material. Active participation is an essential element of this course. During
discussions, students should demonstrate engagement by summarizing arguments, expressing
questions, and offering viewpoints. Participation accounts for ten percent of the overall course
grade. In advance of each weeks discussion, everyone will submit a minimum of three discussion
questions on at least one of the readings. Discussion questions will be shared on Blackboard and
will be due before midnight the night before class. Discussion questions will account for ten percent
of the overall course grade. There will be discussion leaders for each of the weekly assigned
readings. Discussion leaders will be responsible for summarizing main arguments and posing
questions on individual works. Discussion leaders will submit brief two-page synopses of their
respective readings. Leading the discussion will account for five percent of the overall course grade.

Reflective Journal

Students will maintain a journal of ideas, questions, and reflections based on readings and
discussions for each weekly topic. The aim here is to provide an arena for individual, critical
reflection on issues raised by the scholarship and our discussions. For each week, the entries should
be at least two pages. The format is informal for the entries, but they should be thoughtful and
creative reflections on issues and themes. At the end of each unit I will collect and evaluate the
journals for completion and levels of critical inquiry. The journals represent twenty-five percent of
the overall course grade, so treat them seriously.

Source Exercises

Twice during the semester, students will research, analyze, and present a primary source that deals
with indigenous Latin America. The first source exercise will focus on primary sources of the




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European conquest of the Americas. This exercise is scheduled for February 23. The second
exercise will focus on contemporary indigenous worldviews and is scheduled for April 1. For each
of these exercises, students will locate a primary source and write a four-page analysis of its contexts
and significance.

Film and Book Reviews

Students will write two, four-page reviews during the course of the semester. We will be viewing
numerous films to explore the popular representations of indigenous peoples in Latin America. We
will, for instance, watch Mel Gibsons Apocalypto to examine how some in the popular media
characterize prehispanic native societies. Among the other films that we will view include Rolando
Kleins Chac, Salvador Carrascos La otra conquista, and John Sayles Hombres armados. We will also be
reading I, Rigoberta Mench and Joanne Rapports Cumbe Reborn in the entirety. Rigoberta Menchs
work is a testimonial on the Guatemalan Civil War and deals with how natives became targets of
state-level terror. Joanne Rapports book is an historical investigation of the power of indigenous
identity in the modern Andean world. Students will write two reviews based on a film and book of
their choosing. Each of these reviews account for ten percent of the overall course grade. Details
on the reviews will be posted on Blackboard.

Final Essay

There is no in-class final exam in this course. Instead, students will write a ten-page essay on the
role of indigenous histories in shaping historical and contemporary perspectives. The aim here is to
provide an arena for students to critically reflect on the issues of the course in a formal essay. The
final essay accounts for twenty percent of the overall course grade.

BSED Majors

All students registered as History Education majors are required to participate in a limited series of
pedagogically-oriented assignments. We will use this class as a setting to both train and consider
how to teach indigenous history. BSED students, then, will create lesson plans and practice
teaching. For all the assignments, including the journal and reviews, I would like each student to
consider issues related to teaching, such as the usefulness of specific works in the classroom.
Beyond generally considering pedagogical issues, BSED students are required to write and present
two lesson plans in lieu of the source exercises. We will discuss the details of this as the semester
progresses.

Course Evaluation

Participation 10%
Weekly Discussion Questions 10%
Discussion Leaders 5%
Journal 25%
Source Exercises 10%
Review Essays 20%
Final Essay 20%







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with faculty.







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Course Schedule
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Part I Prehispanic Societies, Modern Memories

Week 1 (Jan 17 & 19) Introductions and Orientations
Jan 19 No class

Week 2 (Jan 26 & 28) Conceptualizing Ethnohistory
Readings:
James Axtell, Ethnohistory: An Historians Viewpoint, Ethnohistory 26:1 (1979): 1-13.
Stanley Krech, The State of Ethnohistory, Annual Review of Anthropology 20 (1991): 345-
375.
Melissa Meyer and Kerwin Lee Klein, Native American Studies and the End of
Ethnohistory, in Studying Native Americas, edited by Russell Thornton (Wisconsin, 1998),
182-216.
John Chance, Mesoamericas Ethnographic Past, Ethnohistory 43:3 (1996): 379-403.
Matthew Restall, A History of the New Philology and the New Philology in History,
Latin American Research Review 38:1 (2003): 113-134.
Kelly Chaves, Ethnohistory: From Inception to Postmodernism and Beyond, The
Historian 70:3 (2008): 486-513.

Week 3 (Jan 31 & Feb 2) Perspectives on Indigenous Histories
Rolando Kleins Chac (1975)
Readings:
J. Eric Thompson, Introduction, Maya History and Religion (Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, 1970), xiii-xxvii.
Evon Vogt, The Maintenance of Mayan Distinctiveness, in The Indian in Latin American
History, edited by John Kizca (SR Books, 1994), 215-228.
David Freidel, Linda Schele, and Joy Parker, Worlds Apart, Joined Together, in Maya
Cosmos (Quill, 1993), 29-58.
Victor Parera and Robert Bruce, Introduction, in The Last Lords of Palenque (California,
1982), 2-33.

Week 4 (Feb 7 & 9) Imagining the Pre-Columbian World
Feb 9 Reflective Journal Part I Due
Mel Gibsons Apocalypto (200???? )
Reading:
Michael Coe, Maya Life on the Eve of Conquest, in The Maya (New York: Thames and
Hudson, 1996), 192-229.
Popul Vuh (review excerpts)






*
Subject to change, adjustment and negotiation.




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Part II Colonial Communities: Resistance, Accommodation, and Hybridity

Week 5 (Feb 14 & 16) Interpreting Conquest
Readings:
Lisa Sousa and Kevin Terraciano, The Original Conquest of Oaxaca: Nahua and
Mixtec Accounts of the Spanish Conquest, Ethnhistory 50:2 (2003): 349-400.
Matthew Restall, Conquests and Recontextualizing Calamity, in Maya Conquistador
(Boston: Beacon Press 1998), 3-50.
Views of the Conquest, in Mesoamerican Voices, Matthew Restall, Lisa Sousa, and Kevin
Terraciano eds. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 23-61.

Week 6 (Feb 21 & 23)
Feb 23 Source Exercise Due
Salvador Carrascos La otra conquista ( )
Reading:
Bartolom de Las Casas, Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies


Week 7 (Feb 28 & Mar 1) Interpreting Colonialism
Mar 1 Reflective Journal Part II Due
Readings:
Kevin Gosner, Native Societies after the Conquest and Religion and the Moral
Economy of Maya Politics, in Soldiers of the Virgin (Tucson: University of Arizona Press,
1992), 69-121.
Irene Silverblatt, Becoming Indian in the Central Andes of Seventeenth Century Peru,
in After Colonialism: Imperial Histories and Postcolonial Displacements (1995): 279-298.
Laura Lewis, Authority Reversed, in Hall of Mirrors: Power, Witchcraft, and Caste in
Colonial Mexico (Durham: Duke University Press, 2003), 103-131.


Part III Nation Building: From Building Blocks to Targets of the State

Week 8 (Mar 6 & 8) The Indian Question
Readings:
Rebecca Earle, Citizenship and Civilization: The Indian Problem, in The Return of the
Native (Durham: Duke, 2007), 161-183.
Brooke Larson, Columbia: Assimilation or Marginalization of the Indian?, in Trials of
Nation Making (Cambridge: Cambridge, 2004), 71-103.
Greg Grandin, A Pestilent Nationalism: The 1837 Cholera Epidemic Reconsidered
and A House with Two Masters: Carrera and the Restored Republic of Indians, in The
Blood of Guatemala (Durham: Duke 2000), 82-109.

Spring Break (Mar 13 & 15)


Week 9 (Mar 20 & Mar 22) The Indian Problem
Readings:




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Greg Grandin, The Strange Case of La Mancha Negra: Maya-State Relations in
Nineteenth-Century Guatemala, Hispanic American Historical Review 77:2 (1997): 221-243.
Jeffrey Gould, Vana Ilusin!: The Highland Indians and the Myth of Nicaragua
Mestiza, 1880-1925, in Identity and Struggle at the Margins of the Nation-State, Aviva
Chomsky and Aldo Lauria-Santiago, eds. (Durham: Duke, 1998), 52-93.
Aldo Lauria-Santiago, Land, Community, and Revolt in Late-Nineteenth-Century
Indian Izalco, El Salvador, The Hispanic American Historical Review 79:3 (1999): 495-534.

Week 10 (Mar 27 & 29) Indigenismo Conceived
John Steinbecks The Forgotten Village (1941).
Readings:
Jos Vasconcellos, La raza csmica/The Cosmic Race [1925].
Miguel ngel Asturias, Guatemalan sociology: the social problem of the Indian = Sociologa
guatemalteca: el problema social del Indio [1923] (Tempe: ASU, 1977).
Jose Carlos Mariategui, The Problem of the Indian and The Problem of Land in
Seven Interpretative Essays on Peruvian Reality [1928].

Week 10 (Apr 3 & 5) Indigenismo Realized
Readings:
Alexander Dawson, From Models for the Nation to Model Citizens: Indigenismo and the
Revindication of the Mexican Indian, 1920-1940, Journal of Latin American Studies 30:2
(1998), 279-308.
Rebecca Earle, Indigenismo: The Return of the Native?, in The Return of the Native
(Durham: Duke, 2007), 284-216.
Richard Adams, The Evolution of Race in Guatemala: Hegemony, Science, and
Antihegemony, Histories of Anthropology Annual 1 (2005), 132-180.

Week 11 (Apr 10 & 12) Indian Targets of the State
Reading:
Rigoberta Menchu, I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala, Elisabeth Burgos-
Debray, ed. (Verso, 1992).

Week 12 (Apr 17 & 19) Representing Genocide
John Sayles Hombres armados (1997)
Readings: To be determined


Week 13 (Apr 24 & 26) The Power of Indigenous Identity
Reading:
Joanne Rappaport, Cumbe Reborn: An Andean Ethnography of History (Chicago, 1994)

Week 14 (Apr 1 & 3) Flex Week


Final Exam
Tuesday May 8, 12:30 2:30