Extra Credit Taboo, race Evolution of Revolution: Live from and - PDF document

Extra Credit Taboo, race � “Evolution of Revolution: Live from and other Teheran” matters – Thursday, 3/27, 1004 Moore Hall � Human Rights Awareness Week March 22 – This week! � Pow Wow – April 1 + 2 Taboo? Taboos � Natural? � Prohibition supernaturally punished if violated � Learned? � Prominent form of social control in many societies (both state and pre-state) � Raise question of what’s natural and what’s social (I.e., religious). Castes and Taboos Caste and Race � Both seen as immutable; (descent � Marriage rules). � Both regarded as violable through ritual � Eating transgressions. � Both based on equal parts ideological � Physical proximity and economic exploitation. � Both reinforced over time through taboos. � Defilement or Pollution 1

Practical Example: Japan Practical Example: Latin America � Homogenous? � “Negro/Negrito:” Dark skin (Guatemala, Mexico) � “Chino” – hair texture (Mexico) � Pure Japanese – Nise vs. Sensi � “Hindu” – religious category (Mexico) � “There are no black people here” � Japanese v. Koreans (Puerto Rico, Cuba) White (male) privilege Examples from Movies, TV � Your ability to move through the world � Crash (driving while black) and be unaware of who you are. � Black. White. (coffee shop) � Are you “marked” or “unmarked?” – Patterned – Mostly invisible – Ritualized Linguistic HINT: your assignment this week � Tell a joke! � Want to impress your TA? � Tell a story! � Consider describing a ritual that shows your awareness of: – Who is marked/unmarked? – White privilege – Class privilege (Hunger Banquet) 2

Lesson Points 500 years of Global History � How people have been connected for 500 years through different means: – Colonialism – Capitalist World System – Global Production � Nothing new about “globalization”; nothing Part I new about people in contact. Contact subordinated groups to one another. What we will look at is the nature of changes over time. 600 years ago -- before the Age Europe NOT the center! of Exploration (@AD 1392) � Not even the largest cities � Not the most technologically advanced Ottoman Empire Africa � About to be defeated by Turk named � Lots of overland, long-distance trading Timur � Including trade in human beings � Resumed power in 1453 with conquest � Some large kingdoms of Constantinople � And subsurface mining � Reigned for 300 years (dominated Near East, blocked Europe’s access to Orient and deflected European expansion westward) 3

China South America � Inca in 1400 just beginning imperial � Under ethnic Han dominion expansion � Hierchically organized in the god-like Inca � Partly solidified through massive water dynasty (carrier of state religion) infrastructure which required centralized � Aristocracy comprised of dynasty’s relatives bureaucratic control and governance � Local rulers submitted to Inca rule � Local men of rank headed endogamous patrilineal descent groups. � Paid tribute with labor on public works, in agriculture and military service Mesoamerica European Expansion? � Greater political fragmentation � Teotihuacan -- great city, in central valley of Mexico (150,000-200,000 at height) � First century AD, hegemony over large area to Guatemala � Agriculture dependent on massive drainage and irrigation system. � Fell around 700 AD, unclear why � Aztecs in 1400, minor mercenaries � But by 1521 -- the year they fell -- had built a city on a lake of nearly 300,000 people. � Agricultural pace slowed � Plagues � Delicate balance of power shifted with increased demands by military tribute takers � Resistance and rebellions � Feudal Crisis! 4

Solution? Iberian Peninsula: Reconquista � New frontiers (possible because of � Reestablishment of Christian over science/technology) Muslim (Moorish) rule in Spain Portugal � Between 718 and 1492 � Move beyond boundaries � (Portugal consolidated in 1249) � Linked to Crusades � Portugal, Castille-Aragon, United � (Linguistic and Cultural residues all over Provinces, France, England Europe and Latin America) What they found? Atlantic Islands and Sugar � Death and Wealth � Because of death, wealth was possible European conquest of New World began with Old 5

What Columbus carried Population Decimation � Sugar Cane (second voyage) � Germs � Americas in 1492 = 112,000,000 – Smallpox – Typhus � By 1619 = 95% dead – Diptheria – Measles What is colonialism? Homework Slide! Colonialism From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Colonialism is a system in which a state claims sovereignty over territory and people outside its own boundaries, often to facilitate economic domination over their resources, labor, and often markets. � http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonialism The term also refers to a set of beliefs used to legitimate or promote this system, especially the belief that the mores of the colonizer are superior to those of the colonized. Advocates of colonialism have also argued that colonialist rule benefits the colonized by developing the economic and political infrastructure necessary for modernization and democracy. They point to such former colonies as Singapore as examples of post-colonial success. Dependency theorists such as Andre Gunder Frank, however, have argued that colonialism actually leads to the transfer of wealth from the colonized to the colonizer, and inhibits successful economic development. Post-colonialist critics such as Franz Fanon have argued that colonialism What Empires got: What Colonists got: � Skimmed Wealth � Land (England, Spain, Portugal, etc.) � Labor (Spain, Portugal) � Centralized state power � Entitlement to buy and sell people as property (all) � Christians? 6

Mercantilism Why no olives in Mexico? � Strictly regulated trade � Spain and Portugal prohibited � Control of trade goods � To favor/protect olives in the Iberian pennisula � Central state determines which goods available where � Forms of commercial discrimination tied to caste discrimination: � What primary goods produced where � Peninsulares v. Criollos Two Triangles: First Second (emergent) triangle � Finished goods sold to Africa from � New England rum to Africa Britain (mostly guns….) � African slaves to West Indies � African slaves sold to New World � Molasses to New England � American tropical commodities (sugar) sold to mother country and neighbors � ANTI-Mercantilist Quiz 14 T/F Taboos are natural. 1. T/F Taboos are immutable. 2. T/F Europe had the most powerful and 3. technologically advanced populations of the world in 1300. T/F Europe had the largest population 4. centers of the world in 1300. T/F Spain was a Muslim country in 1300. 5. 7