LATIN AMERICAN & IBERIAN STUDIES

CRN	90453	Distribution	C/D
Course No.	LAIS 202
Title	Colonial Latin America
Professor	David Tavarez
Schedule	Tu Th 11:30 am - 12:50 pm OLIN 306

Cross-listed: History

This course is an introduction to the major issues in the historical and anthropological study of Spanish and Portuguese colonial domination in the Americas from the sixteenth until the early nineteenth century. The course begins with an overview of three major Classic and Postclassic state formations in the Americas-the Maya, the Aztec, and the Inca-and with an examination of the Christian reconquista in the Iberian Peninsula. The course will then examine the consolidation of Spanish and Portuguese political and economic domination in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the never-ending "spiritual conquests" of native Americans, the institution of slavery in the New World, and the legal, social and economic organization of colonial indigenous communities. We will then examine the social fabric of the colonial order through an analysis of the boundaries of class, ethnicity, and gender. Afterwards, we will turn to the dynamics of social and military conflicts between native peoples and the colonial order. After an assessment of late eighteenth-century reforms, the course will end with a consideration of the independence movements that swept the Americas in the early nineteenth century. This course is a pre-requisite for taking 300-level courses in LAIS.

CRN	90447	Distribution	C/D
Course No.	LAIS / HIST 206
Title	Latin American Revolutions
Professor	David Tavarez
Schedule	Tu Th 3:00 pm - 4:20 pm OLIN 201

Cross-listed: History, Political Studies

From the 1720's until the early 20^th century, hundreds of regional rebellions shook the countryside in Latin America, threatening the stability of colonial and national governments. In fact, one is tempted to conclude that either Latin America had too many revolutions-if every armed rebel is regarded as a revolutionist-or too few-if one takes into account only those armed movements that ushered in a new political order. This course will interrogate the rapport (or lack thereof) between spontaneous armed rebellions, political ideology, and organized insurrection in contemporary Latin America through several case studies: the Mexican revolution (1910), the Bolivian revolution (1952), the Cuban revolution (1959), the Nicaraguan revolution (1979), and the ongoing symbolic duel between the EZLN and the Mexican state (1994 - 2001). Through historical data, testimonies, and post-mortem analyses, we will confront some basic questions: Are there significant structural similarities in the emergence and outcome of these movements? What is the rapport between the formation of revolutionary ideologies and the pragmatic outcome of insurrection? What is the role of civil society in these social processes? How are collective and national identities refashioned by ideologies of revolution?

CRN	90165	Distribution	B/C
Course No.	LAIS 310
Title	Mesoamerica I:Mixtec and Zapotec Ethnohistory and Ethnography
Professor	David Tavarez
Schedule	Wed 1:30 pm - 3:50 pm OLIN 304

Cross-listed: Anthropology

This course-the first installment of a three-course sequence on Mesoamerica-is an intensive survey of the ethnohistory and ethnography of two sociocultural and linguistic groups in central Mexico: the Mixtec (Ñuu Dzahui) and the Zapotec (Bene Zaa). Both the Mixtec-authors of Pre-Columbian books without words, conquerors of the Zapotec, and accomplished artisans and painters-and the Zapotec-authors of one of the earliest Mesoamerican scripts, builders of Monte Albán, and leaders of the earliest Amerindian rebellion against colonial power (1660)-usually receive, along with the Maya and the Aztec, the forbidding label of "ancient Mesoamerican civilizations." However, such "civilizations" are anything but extinct: historical accidents and migration patterns have generated a vibrant mosaic of communities that thrive both in their traditional locations in Oaxaca, and in diasporic enclaves in northern Mexico and California. After an examination of Classic and Post-Classic history and social organization, this course will focus on the responses, adaptation, and cultural survival of Mixtec and Zapotec communities in the colonial order. Drawing upon the instructor's research on Zapotec ritual and legal genres, the course will examine the various textual genres-historical and narrative accounts, ritual songs, testaments, and the odd suicide note-that flourished in colonial Mixtec and Zapotec. We will then appraise the rapport between native communities and the Mexican nation-state in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. The course will end with an assessment of the contemporary cultural and political status of Mixtec and Zapotec communities, and with an examination of regional cultural renaissance movements.