J. Pablo Silva  
Fall Semester 2006
History 105. Cultural Encounters in History

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 When cultures encounter each other, people struggle to understand and adapt themselves to rapidly changing conditions. Their struggles leave interesting historical records that can provide insight into how cultures work. The goal of this class is to teach you what we can learn from those records.


In this class, we will look at six important cultural encounters. To understand them you will need to repeatedly ask basic questions about encounters. Who was involved in each encounter? What was the outcome? How and why did these outcomes come about? The answers are never as obvious as you might think. But if you consistently think through these questions, during the semester you will learn a lot about the specific encounters, something about culture, and a bit about how cultural encounters have shaped how people think about each other.

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Last Modified: August 11, 2006