Spring 2001
Kathryn Kamp
Goodnow 208
ext. 3140
Sign-up for Appointments via Email
Goals of the Course
We will examine the cultural dynamics of a series of Meso and South American Polities including the Olmecs, the Mayas, the Teotihuacanis, the Aztecs and the Incas in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the way states work, how and why they develop and why they fail.
Requirements
1. Class Participation. Reading Assignments are Due on the Day Assigned . You should plan on attending every class and coming to class prepared. If there are more than 3 absences for any reason other than MAJOR illness, you will lose the points allotted for participation. Chronic tardiness will also lead to a decrease in participation points.—10%
2 Oral presentation of one assigned article. Presentations are due on the day assigned. The class is depending on you! No make-ups will be allowed except with official medical excuse.—15%
3. Completion of three short discussion preparation assignments. These MUST be typed. No discussion preparation assignments will be accepted after the assigned class period. If you are ill, send your assignment to class with someone. If you must miss class because of a sports event, turn it in ahead of time--5% each—Total 15%
4. Three papers: one each on the Incas, Aztecs, and Mayas—20% each—Total 60%
Late Paper Policy
Papers are due at the beginning of the class period. Do NOT fail to attend a class or come late because you are completing a paper! Because we will be discussing the paper topic in the class period when it is turned in, NO late papers will be accepted unless there is a MAJOR medical emergency. If you are ill, send the paper with someone. If you must miss class because of a sports event, turn it in ahead of time
Texts
Conrad and Demarest--Religion and Empire: The Dynamics of Aztec and Inca Expansionism
Urton—Inca Myths
Smith--The Aztecs
Henderson--World of the Ancient Maya
1/23 Overview: Areas and Goals—Thinking about the Function of Governments
The Inca: A Case Study in Empire and Governance
1/25—Subsistence Patterns and Local Organization
READ: Urton, Introduction.
Moran, Emilio F. 1982. Human Adaptibility, pp. 157-170.
Coe, Sophie D. 1994. Americas First Cuisines , ch. 12-13.
1/30—An Overview of Inca Statecraft
READ: Cieza de Leon, Pedro de. 1959. The Incas of Pedro Cieza de Leon, translated by Harriet de Onis, pp. 153-171, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Report on Costin, Cathy Lynne, 1995. Cloth Production and Gender Relations in the Inka Empire. In Research Frontiers in Anthropology, edited by C.R.Ember, M. Ember and P.N. Peregrin, pp. 91-116. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall. (Done by instructor as an example.)
2/1—Managing Resources
READ: Murra, John V. and Craig Morris. 1975. Dynastic Oral Tradition, Administrative Records and Archaeology in the Andes. World Archaeology 7: 268-279.
Report on D'Altroy, T. and C.A. Hastorf. 1984. The Distribution and Contents of Inca State Storehouses in the Xauxa Region of Peru. American Antiquity 49(2):334-349.
Report on Stehberg, Ruben and Nazareno Carajal 1988. Road System of the Incas in the Southern part of Their Tawantinsuyu Empire. National Geographic Research 4(1): 74-87.
2/6—Managing People
READ: Rowe, John Howland. 1980. Inca Policies and Institutions Relating to the Cultural Unification of the Empire. In The Inca and Aztec States, 1400-1800, pp. 93-118. New York: Academic Press.
Report on Morris, C. 1979. Maize Beer in the Economics, Politics and Religion of the Inca Empire. In Fermented Food Beverages in Nutrition.
Report on Silverblatt, Irene. 1987. Moon, Sun, and Witches, Chs 3 and 4, pp. 40-108. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
2/8—Recording-Keeping Devices
READ: Urton, Gary. 1997. The Social Life of Numbers: A Quechua Ontology of Numbers and Philosophy of Arithmetic, pp. 177-191. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Cieza de Leon, Pedro de. 1959. The Incas of Pedro Cieza de Leon, translated by Harriet de Onis, pp. 172-175 and 177-178, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Report on Zuidema, R. Tom. 1982. Bureaucracy and Systematic knowledge in Andean Civilization. In The Inca and Aztec States, 1400-1800, pp. 419-458. New York: Academic Press.
2/13-- The Role of Religion
READ: Urton
Report on Patterson, Thomas C. 1985. Pachacamac: An Andean Oracle Under Inca Rule. In Status, Structure and Stratification: Current Archaeological Reconstructions, edited by M Thompson, M.T. Garcia, and F. J. Kense, pp. 13-18. Calgary: Archaeological Association of the University of Calgary.
And
Cieza de Leon, Pedro de. 1959. The Incas of Pedro Cieza de Leon, translated by Harriet de Onis, pp. 181-193, 334-337, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Report on Isbell, William H. 1997. Mummies and Mortuary Monuments: A Postprocessual Prehistory of Central Andean Social Organization, Chs. 2 and 3, pp. 39-100. Austin: University of Texas Press.
2/15—The Rise of the Inca
READ: Conrad and Demarest, Ch. 3
2/20—Evaluating the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Inca System—Paper I Due
The Aztecs: A Different Model of Governance
2/22--Overview of the Aztecs--Sources, Ethnohistory, and Settlement
READ: Smith, Ch. 1-3.
Report on Brown, Betty Ann, Seen But Not Heard: Women in Aztec Ritual—The Sahagun Texts. In Text and Image in Pre-Columbian Art: Essays on the Interrelationship of the Verbal and Visual Arts, edited by J.C. Berlo, pp. 119-153. Oxford: B.A.R. Reports.
2/27--Aztec Economy and Social Structure
READ: Smith, Ch. 4-6.
Report on Brumfiel, Elizabeth M. 1991. Weaving and Cooking: Women's Production in Aztec Mexico. In Engendering Archaeology, ed. by Joan Gero and Margaret W. Conkey,pp.224-251.
Report on Joyce, Rosemary A. 2000. Girling the Girl and Boying the Boy: The Production of Adulthood in Ancient Mesoamerica. World Archaeology 31(3):473-483.
3/1--Aztec Empire
READ: Smith, Ch.7,8.
Anawalt, Patricia. 1980. Costume and Control: Aztec Sumptuary Laws. Archaeology 33(1):33-43.
3/6--Aztec Myth and Religion
READ: Smith, Ch. 9, 10
Harner, M. 1977. The Ecological Basis for Human Sacrifice. American Ethnologist 4(1):117-135.
Report on Brotherston, Gordon 1974. Huitzilopochtli and what was made of Him. In Mesoamerican Archaeology, edited by Norman Hammond, pp. 155-165.
3/8-- Another interpretation of the Aztecs
Conrad & Demarest, Chs. 1 and 2
3/13--Evaluating the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Aztec System—Paper II Due
3/15 The Nature of Empire
READ: Conrad and Demerest, Ch. 4-5
SPRING BREAK
PART II--THE RISE OF STATE--LEVEL SOCIETIES IN MESOAMERICA
First Civilizations: the Olmec
4/3 An Overview of Olmec Culture
READ: Clark, J.E. 1997. The Arts of Government in Early Mesoamerica. Annual Review of Anthropology 26L211-234.
Report on Grove, David C. 1981, Olmec Monuments: Mutilation as a Clue to Meaning. In The Olmec and Their Neighbors, ed. EP. Benson. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, pp. 49-68.
Report on Furst, Peter T. 1968. The Olmec Were Jaguar Motif in the Light of the Ethnographic Reality. In Dumbarton Oaks Conference on the Olmec, ed E. P. Benson, pp. 143-174. Wash. D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. Also reprinted in M. Leone, ed., Contemporary Archeology, pp. 333-353.
4/5 Theories of Rise
READ: Rathje, William 1972. Praise the Gods and Pass the Metates: A Hypothesis of the Development of Lowland Rainforest Civilizations in Mesoamerica. In Contemporary Archaeology: A guide to Theory and Contributions, edited by Mark P. Leone, pp 359-392. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Carniero, R. 1970. A Theory of the Origin of the State. Science 169:733-738.
Report on Flannery, K.V. 1968. The Olmec and the Valley of Oaxaca. In Dumbarton Oaks Conference on the Olmec, edited by E.P. Benson, pp. 79-110.
Teotihuacan, Predecessor of the Aztecs
4/10 An Overview of Teotihuacan
READ: Cowgill, George L. 1997. Annual Review of Anthropology 26: 129-161.
Report on Heyden, Doris 1975. An Interpretation of the Cave Underneath the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, Mexico. American Antiquity 40(2):131-147.
4/12 Domestic Accommodation and Reflections on Decline
READ: Manzanilla, Linda 1996. Corporate Groups and Domestic Activities at Teotihuacan. Latin American Antiquity 7(3): 228-246.
Millon, Rene. 1988. The Last Years of Teotihuacan Dominance. In The Collapse of Ancient States and Civilizations, pp. 102-164, ed. by N. Yoffee and G.L. Cowgill. Tucson: U of Arizona Press. Read pages 142-158 only (unless you are really motivated, of course).
Rise of the Maya
4/17—Overview: Subsistence, Settlement, and Writing
READ: Henderson, Chs 1-3.
Marcus, Joyce 1998. Maya Hieroglyphs: History or Propoganda? In Research Frontiers in Anthropology Vol. I, edited by C.R. Ember, M. Ember, and P.N. Peregrine, pp. 241-264.
4/19 The Early Maya and the Rise of Stratification
READ: Henderson Ch. 5
McAnany, Patricia A. 1998. Ancestor Veneration in Lowland Maya Society: A Case Study from K’axob, Belize. In Research Frontiers in Anthropology Vol. I, edited by C.R. Ember, M. Ember, and P.N. Peregrine, pp.265-288.
4/24-- The Classic Maya--Insights into Subsistence and Hierarchy
READ: Henderson, Ch. 6
Report on Maya foods using Coe, Sophie 1994 America’s First Cuisines. University of Texas Press, Austin.
4/26 Classic Maya--Hierarchy and Religion
READ: Henderson Ch. 7
Haviland, W. A. 1977. Dynastic Geneologies from Tikal, Guatemala American Antiquity 42(1):61-67.
Report on Joyce, Rosmary A. 1996. The Construction of Gender in Classic Maya Monuments. In Gender and Archaeology, edited by Rita A. Wright, pp. 167-195. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Report on Schele, Linda and David Freidel, 1990. The Children of the First Mother: Family and Dynasty at Palenque, Ch. 6 In Forest of Kings, pp.216-261. New York: Quill William Morrow.
5/1 The Classic Maya--Mythology and Religion
READ: Henderson, Ch. 8.
Report on Schele, Linda 1984. Human Sacrifice among the Classic Maya. In Ritual Sacrifice in Mesoamerica, edited by E. H. Boone, pp. 7-48.
PART III—THE DECLINE OF CIVILIZATONS
Case Study: Reasons for the Maya Collapse
5/3 The Post-Classic Maya
READ: Henderson, Ch. 9 and 10.
Culbert T. Patrick. 1988. The Collapse of Classic Maya Civilization. In The Collapse of Ancient States and Civilizations, ed. by N. Yoffee and G.L.Cowgill, pp.69-101.
Report on Flannery, Kent V. 1972. The Cultural Evolution of Civilizations. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 3:399-426.
Report on Santley, Robert S., Thomas W. Killion, and Mark T. Lycett. 1986. On the Maya Collapse. Journal of Anthropological Research 42: 123-159.
5/8 Reasons for Collapse
READ: Fagan, Brian. 1999. The Classic Maya Collapse. In Floods, Famines, and Emperors: El Nino and the Fate of Civilizations, pp. 139-158. New York: Basic Books.
Sabloff, J.A. and W.L. Rathje. 1975. The Rise of a Maya Merchant Class. Scientific American 233:72-82.
5/10 Why Did the Maya Fail? Or DID They?—Paper III Due