History of the Americas
Histories of the Americas - Part I
Part I emphasizes significant stories from the indigenous peoples of the Americas before 1500 CE, particularly the Mayan, Incan, Iroquois, Tayrona and Anishanabeg cultures. We introduce mythology and storytelling as History, as well as the dance of archetypes. We discuss "What is History?" as well as historiography. Does history begin in the womb? Why is the idea and ideal that ontogeny recapitulates Phylogeny important?
The course will contrast various creation stories, cycles and linear progression models, monism and monotheism, patterns of work and cultural creation, and the roles of women and children in indigenous cultures throughout the Americas.
History of the Americas - Part II
In Part II (1500-1763CE) we focus upon the world transforming European conquest, and analyze factors leading to Western European planetary dominance by the end of the first World War (Treaty of Paris at 1763). In the Americas, 70 to 100 million people lived in a diversity of cultural adaptations at the time of "discovery". The invasion of the Europeans was catastrophic for Native Americans. It brought loss of culture, slavery, disease and death in the longest and worst holocaust of human history, especially enhanced by European germs which killed tens of millions of Americans. Points of emphasis will include the conquest of Mexico and Mayan culture, the Inca empire, the Tayronas, the Iroquois Confederacy, and the Anishanabeg here in Wisconsin and Canada. In addition to European colonial impacts, we will study gifts of Native Americans to world humanity during this period including new foods, medicines, clothing and the plundered gold and silver which capitalized new levels of world trade, almost nonexistent before 1500 CE. This period leads us not only to the present WTO apparatus, but also to modern trans-national corporations, world literacy, modern nation-states, continuous war and preparations for more war, and the final death of indigenous cultures everywhere.
Teachers: Tom Vanderhyden and Jerome McGeorge
