No Readings for the First Day of Class
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Pre-Columbian America was a complex world of diverse peoples with a dynamic history. For this class, we will consider how the peopling of the Americas has been studied and debated. The readings include texts by nineteenth-century writers trying to make sense of mounds and other material remains. In addition, texts from the 1990s and 2000s demonstrate how early peoples of the Americas are still a contested topic. The answers to the loaded question of who occupied the Americas first continues to have political implications. |
Audio file: Context for today's class:http://youtu.be/F_dARCz1Lnc
Readings
John Noble Wilford, Human Presence in Americas Is Pushed Back a Millennium, New York Times (February 11, 1997) (University login required).
John Denison Baldwin, Ancient America, in Notes on American Archaeology (1871). Read pp. 33-34.
H.M. Brackenridge, Views of Louisiana: containing geographical, statistical and historical notices of that vast and important portion of America (1817). Read pp. 166-183.
Study Questions
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