Thousands of years before the rule of the Inca, the Tiwanaku civilization emerged from the southern shores of Lake Titicaca and reached across the borders of present day Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. The city of Tiwananku is recognized by many Andean scholars as a major center of political, economic, and religious life, and is marked as one of the most important civilizations of the pre-Colombian Americas. Reaching its height from 500 to 900A.D, only its impressive stone monuments remain as evidence of their influence that are now protected archaeological sites. Author John Wayne Janusek is associate professor of anthropology at Vanderblit University and has conducted extensive archaeological research in the Andes for the past two decades. On the topic of the ancient Tiwanaku, Janusek attempts to gather a wealth of past and current research to explore the civilization in its geological and cultural setting, along with its raise and violent fall to power, and its vast political influence. The author approaches the information in the novel from a theoretical approach that highlights the importance of the Tiwanaku’s environmental settings, the mundane daily life of its citizens, its extensive economic ventures, and religious prestige. In the concluding segments of the book, Janusek argues that the study of the Andean past can shed light on current national ideologies and geopolitics worldwide.
The novel itself is divided into nine chapters, of which there are sub-segments that aid the author in addressing specific concepts in the chapter. Chapter one is entitled, “Unveiling Tiwanaku’s Mystery” and details the history of the archaeological research conducted on the civilization, as well as an overview of their cultural development. The a...
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...ression of data found in the area and an expansion of what is yet to be uncovered. The illustrations, maps, and contemporary photographs help to solidify the existing research presented in the book. These pros aside, I did find a fault in his reliance on the Tiwanaku as the main source of influence in both their artwork and those of the Wari. Although he does briefly mention Wari influences in the art styles found in Moquegua, yet this influence might have extended further into the Tiwanaku center because of the interactions and exchange between the two cultures. Despite this minor fault, in my opinion, this book serves as a great introduction for those interested in the antiquity of Tiwankau, providing a benchmark for a new generation of Andean scholars.
Works Cited
Janusek, J. Wayne.
2008 Ancient Tiwanaku. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, England
Napoleon Chagnon has spent about 60 months since 1964 studying the ‘foot people’ of the Amazon Basin known as the Yanomamo. In his ethnography, Yanomamo, he describes all of the events of his stay in the Venezuelan jungle. He describes the “hideous” appearance of the Yanomamo men when first meeting them, and their never-ending demands for Chagnon’s foreign goods, including his food. There are many issues that arise when considering Chagnon’s Yanomamo study. The withholding of genealogical information by the tribesmen, and how Chagnon was able to obtain his information is an interesting and significant aspect of this study. Why did Chagnon feel that this genealogical information was important? And was Chagnon’s choice to study the Yanomamo, despite their hesitancy to cooperate, a wise and ethical one?
Through the study of the Peruvian society using articles like “The “Problem of the Indian...” and the Problem of the Land” by Jose Carlos Mariátegui and the Peruvian film La Boca del Lobo directed by Francisco Lombardi, it is learned that the identity of Peru is expressed through the Spanish descendants that live in cities or urban areas of Peru. In his essay, Mariátegui expresses that the creation of modern Peru was due to the tenure system in Peru and its Indigenous population. With the analyzation of La Boca del Lobo we will describe the native identity in Peru due to the Spanish treatment of Indians, power in the tenure system of Peru, the Indian Problem expressed by Mariátegui, and the implementation of Benedict Andersons “Imagined Communities”.
William Edward Burghard Du Bois and Booker Taliaferro Washington were both civil rights leaders of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Du Bois was born as a freeman in Massachusetts, he studied at Harvard University and became the first African American to earn a doctorate from Harvard. . Washington was born as a slave in Virginia, he worked in the salt mines while attending school, and later attended the Hampton Institute to learn trade skills. Although Du bois and Washington had the same goal of achiving equality, they sharply disagreed on strategies concerning voting rights, social change, education, and the role of the black man in the South, Washington had a gradual approach as opposed to Du Bois who wanted immediate equality.
Varner, John G. and Jeanette Varner., trans., ed. The Florida of the Inca. Austin: U of Texas P, 1951.
After slavery ended, many hoped for a changed America. However, this was not so easy, as slavery left an undeniable mark on the country. One problem ended, but new problems arose as blacks and whites put up “color lines” which led to interior identity struggles. These struggles perpetuated inequality further and led W. E. B. Du Bois to believe that the only way to lift “the Veil” would be through continuing to fight not only for freedom, but for liberty - for all. Others offered different proposals on societal race roles, but all recognized that “double consciousness” of both the individual and the nation was a problem that desperately needed to be solved.
The United States after the Civil War was still not an entirely safe place for African-Americans, especially in the South. Many of the freedoms other Americans got to enjoy were still largely limited to African-Americans at the time. At the beginning of the 20th Century, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois emerged as black leaders. Their respective visions for African-American society were different however. This paper will argue that Du Bois’s vision for American, although more radical at the time, was essential in the rise of the African-American society and a precursor to the Civil Rights Movement.
Many arguments have occurred over the centuries since the Spanish marched into the Andean highlands and took over the Incan empire, over whether the Incan's were part of an ideal human society, or just a group of tyrannical rulers. While the Incan society had created a stable political, economic, and social system in the Andean world it was far from being an ideal society. On the same note, the Incan's were not tyrannical rulers, did not exploit their subjects or take away their land for no reason. The reading entitled "Was Inca Rule Tyrannical?" discusses this argument about the Incan empire, tries to classify the form of government the Incan's lived under, and searches for the truth about what the Incan empire was really like. The truth about the Incan empire lies somewhere between the romanticized views, and the views meant to justify the Spanish conquest, while it is impossible to classify in modern terms the form of government the Incan's had.
From slavery being legal, to its abolishment and the Civil Rights Movement, to where we are now in today’s integrated society, it would seem only obvious that this country has made big steps in the adoption of African Americans into American society. However, writers W.E.B. Du Bois and James Baldwin who have lived and documented in between this timeline of events bringing different perspectives to the surface. Du Bois first introduced an idea that Baldwin would later expand, but both authors’ works provide insight to the underlying problem: even though the law has made African Americans equal, the people still have not.
In the documentary, The Black Atlantic, the narrator explores the beginnings of slavery and the impact slavery had on the new world up to 1800. The black Atlantic is the first episode of a series of films called The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. in which African American culture is analyzed since slavery up to the election of the first African American president. The purpose of the documentary is to inform viewers of what slavery was like by providing stories of those who lived through slavery. For example, a ten-year-old girl named Priscilla who was taken from Sierra Leone to South Carolina in the mid-18th century. in the documentary, Henry Louis Gates Jr discusses the slave trade after the discovery of America while doing so he incorporates the experiences of certain slaves for example the slaves who arrived at Jamestown, Virginia. Additionally, the narrator talks about the first known African in America, Juan Garrido, who was brought along with Spanish explorers in 1513. The filmmakers reveal the story of another black man, Esteban the moor, who crossed a Texas desert with three other men while taking part in a Spanish expedition. Eventually throughout the documentary the filmmakers discuss and illustrate how slavery transformed from an informal arrangement to a racial system.
and challenges to African Americans from 1910 until about 1930. Du Bois felt that Americans
At the turn of the Twentieth Century America is one generation removed from the civil war. For African Americans times are supposed to be improving following the Reconstruction of the south and the ratification of the 15th amendment. Except, in actuality life is still extremely tough for the vast majority of African Americans. Simultaneously, the birthing of the industrial revolution is taking place in America and a clear social divide in daily livelihood and economic prosperity is forming across the country. This time is known as the Gilded Age because as the metaphor emphasizes, only a thin layer of wealth and prosperity of America’s elite robber barons is masking the immense amount of impoverished American laborers. Among the vast majority
Between the years of 1985 to 1987 Conklin spent a total of 19 months living amongst the Wari’ tribes. Her primary source of gathering information was to interview the Wari’ about their own culture and history. Performing return trips to the Amazonian society in 1991, 1999, and 2000 Conklin was able to confirm her gathered information by asking different Wari’ about their beliefs and cultural history. Amongst Conklin’s interview subjects were dozens of elderly Wari’ who could remember the life before the outside world had become a major influence. They c...
Patterson, Thomas C. "Tribes, Chiefdoms, and Kingdoms in the Inca Empire.” Power Relations and State Formation (1987): 1-15,117-127.
Ponting describes the historical background of Easter Island, which is a small island far off the coast of South America in the Pacific Ocean. Despite its desolate nature it is inhabited and the lives of this population show how resource use is important to survival both of the people living there and the ecosystem itself. The uses for the island varied over time but one period had evidence of a modern society despite the surrounding periods of primitive behavior. More than 600 stone statues were dispersed over the island. These sculptures had to been created by a society other than the more barbarous clans. However despite the advanced level of skill this society had it died out, showing that their skills were not sufficient to ensure their continued survival (Ponting, 1991).
In many U.S homes, as is the custom in most western cultures, the first beverage consumed at the start of every day is coffee. From its origins in Ethiopia, the strong black liquid has evolved from its modest beginnings to become an art form, a gourmet luxury, and the addiction of millions. The documentary Black Gold directed by Nic and Marc Francis addresses issues that rarely cross the minds of its consumers: who produces the coffee, and how does the coffee we drink directly affect the livelihood of those farmers who grow it? The documentary highlights the poverty that plagues Ethiopian coffee farmers by contrasting the impoverished African cities with the wealth of the western countries that control the market in order to gain the highest profit from their commodity. This essay will seek to analyze the racial and economic implications of the documentary using the theoretical works of sociologist and civil rights activist W.E.B Du Bois, with specific concentration on his concepts of The Color Line, The Veil, Double Consciousness, and False Consciousness. The concluding portion of the essay will include a critique on Du Bois’s work from a feminist perspective with respects to his inadequacy in including women as a part of his notion of The Talented Tenth, and how his views on African-American women do not fit the cultural context of the women in Africa.