SPRING 2000
This information effective for Spring 2000.
Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes..
Carter Wilson, instructor
Tuesday and Thursday, 2:00 - 3:45 Stevenson 175
NOTE: This is the syllabus from Spring 1998. There will be a few changes in the course...more accessible reading in a couple of cases...and DISCUSSION SECTIONS. These are not listed in the schedule of classes, but a selection will be available either in the addendum or on the first day of class. Class meets in Kresge 321, not Stevenson, but at the hour listed above.
Today over four million people, most in southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras&emdash;but some also in south Florida, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz&emdash;are characterized by certain affinities of culture, history, and language as being Mayans. Though the living themselves are responsible for some monumental achievements (survival for 500 years in the face of genocide, a vibrant oral literature tradition, art, for one woman the Nobel Peace Prize), worldwide "the Maya" are most widely known for the stunning art and architecture their ancestors accomplished before the Invasion (or "Conquest").
The modern record on the Maya has become so extensive that one leading archeologist (Linda Schele) now makes the provocative claim that ancient Mayan culture should no longer be thought of as having been destroyed, but only as being dispersed&emdash;i.e., that the entire world of the Preinvasion still exists, although in an atomized or distributed form.
Many travelers through Mayan areas remain relatively unaware of the fact that in both the Preinvasion and the long period since, Mayan history is characterized by conflict. LALS 80M deals with major instances of uprising and rebellion of Mayan people against oppressor groups from colonial times to resistance in Guatemala in the 1970s and 80s and the struggles of the EZLN (the "Zapatistas") and other groups in Chiapas now.
The course concentrates on the last 500 years, and on individual lives, but it also attempts to describe the Mayan achievement as a whole thing. It is a beginning course in literature, history, and ethnography. Some aspects of Preinvasion art will be touched on, though not at the high level Professor Dean deals with them in her Art History course on the Maya.
There is a good deal of visual presentation: photography and film/video.
A central problem raised in the course is the issue of the nature of the interpretive record of the last five hundred years. Where do these interpretations come from? What are their politics? Friar Diego de Landa, the first ethnographer of Yucatán Maya (1566), was also the person responsible for the destruction of 5,000 "pagan" idols. John L. Stephens, the 19th century gringo explorer, supposed the Indians he employed to clear jungle temples might be the descendants of the builders, but he had no proof. Even today, TV documentaries on Mayan sites heavily feature white, English-speaking archeologists as their heroes and heroines and tacitly maintain the "unknowability" of the Mayan workers who also appear in the film.
Format: Two lecture-discussion meetings a week
General Education Requirement met: "E"
* Regular attendance and participation in discussions
* Four short papers
A required reader will be available for purchase the first day of class.
The other required items are available at the Bay Tree Bookstore. All items, including the reader, will also available in McHenry on 24 hour reserve. The texts represent a fairly large dollar investment, but for those with ongoing interest in the subject, they will form part of a permanent personal library.
Michael Coe, Breaking the Mayan Code (Thames and Hudson)
George Collier, Basta! Land and the Zapatista Rebellion in Chiapas (Food First)
Robert Laughlin and Carol Karasik, Mayan Tales from Zinacantán: dreams and stories of the people of the bat (Smithsonian Institution)
Rigoberta Menchú, I, Rigoberta Menchú (Verso)
Ricardo Pozas, Juan the Chamula (University of California)
Dennis Tedlock, ed., Popol Vuh (Touchstone)
I have tried to hold the reading to between 100 and 150 pages a week (3 to 4 hours), with a few exceptions (the Rigoberta Menchú autobiography is long for a week's reading). Most of the reading is fairly attractive&emdash;though the Popol Vuh initially may seem very opaque. Students aren't formally "tested" on the books and articles, but having read them should be reflected in papers and in discussions.
There is no final exam in LALS 80M, and the course is set up so that it is over at the end of the 10th week (all papers returned, or nearly). The scheme means that if students do the work in the time allotted, they will find themselves completely free to study for exams, write their other papers, and so forth after June 11.
On April 28 (and 29) instead of lecture we will visit McHenry Library in smaller groups to see Special Collections' copies of the Mayan Codices. There will be a sign-up sheet and everyone will need to commit to one of these 40-minute sessions (2 and 2:40 and 3:20 on Tuesday or 1 PM Wednesday the 29th).
Tuesday April 7: Introduction: "Indians" and Indigenismo
Film clip, Eisenstein, "Que Viva Mexico"
Thursday April 9: Colonian Life in Yucatán and the Canek Rebellion
Week's reading: Ermilo Abreu Gómez, Canek (reader); D. H. Lawrence, "Indians and Entertainment" (reader)
Tuesday April 14: The War of the Castes
Thursday April 16: The Cruzob and Other Heirs of the Colonial System Today
Week's reading: Nelson Reed, The Caste War of Yucatán and Gary Bevington, Maya for Travelers (selections, reader)
Tuesday April 21: Epigraphers All
Thursday April 23: "People of the Year-Bearer"
Film, "Appeals to Santiago"
FIRST PAPER DUE
Week's Reading: Michael Coe, Breaking the Mayan Code, (Preface, Prologue, Chapters 1-2 and 8-10) and John L. Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan (selections, reader)
Tuesday April 28: Special Collections Visits
Thursday April 30: The Draw of the Corporate Community; the return of Juan Pérez Jolote
Reading: Ricardo Pozas, Juan the Chamula; Christine Eber, Women & Alcohol in a Highland Maya Community (first selection, Chapters 3-4, reader)
Tuesday May 5 and Thursday May 7: In Dreams (and Tales) Begin Responsibility
SECOND PAPER DUE
Reading: Robert Laughlin and Carol Karasik, Mayan Tales from Zinacantán, Introduction, dreams pages 25-50 (Romin Teratol) and 103-130 (Tonik Nibak); tales 131-159, and 210-224
Tuesday May 12 and Thursday May 14: Genocide in Guatemala; the story of Rigoberta Menchú
Visit of Guillermo Delgado May 14
Week's reading: Rigoberta Menchú, I, Rigoberta Menchú
Tuesday May 19: "We Are a New Wind" &emdash; the Zapatistas
Film: "The Sixth Sun"
Thursday May 21: Other Chiapas Movements
THIRD PAPER DUE
Week's reading: George Collier, Basta! Land and the Zapatista Rebellion in Chiapas, Introduction, Preface, and pages 1-87; Christine Eber, Women & Drinking (Chapters 10-12, reader)
Tuesday May 26: NO CLASS (EXCHANGE DAY)
Thursday May 28: "The Book of the Dawn of Life"
Film: "Popol Vuh: the creation myth of the Maya"
Reading: Dennis Tedlock, Popol Vuh, Preface, Introduction, into Part One
Tuesday June 2 and Thursday June 4: "Popol Vuh"
FOURTH PAPER DUE (June 4, Thursday)
Week's Reading: Popul Vuh, pages 61-156 (concentrate on 104-156)
Tuesday June 10: Eternal Return: Fact and fiction of Landa (reconstructing life in the Yucatán before 1511)
Thursday June 12: Conclusions
Week's reading: Landa, Yucatan before and after the Conquest (reader)