I signed up to teach this class called AGE OF EUROPEAN EXPANSION and sadly Europe started expanding--yes, that's right, try not to panic--before the French Revolution. You know, in that gray and fuzzy time period I like to call "Back in the Day" (or BITD). When Europeans like, road on burros wacking each other with clubs and had witchcraft familiars named Snoony Tom and didn't believe in evolution. It is also called Olde Time and Ye Olde Time.
So the whole first two weeks of this class, I find myself saying things like, "As the Portuguese extended their chain of forts down the west coast of Africa," and using the word "15" things. As in, "1519" and "1562." Numbers that start with 15. As in, as my own voice comes out of my head, it triggers a faint memory of my 10th grade civics teacher saying much the same thing. And terror. It triggers terror, because instead of the old, familiar and answered-before questions (ex: "Was Hitler gay?") you get stopped in your paces whilst in front of your class with doozies like "Did the Maya have money?" "How did the Aztecs select their kings?" "What was the population of the largest city in Europe in 1500?"
Answer: "Well, the Maya didn't have money as we understand it, of course, but they did have units of exchange."
Answer: "Aztec king selection was a complicated affair, with heavy priest involvement and possible human sacrifice."
Follow-up question: "So, did the Aztecs have a hereditary monarchy?"
Answer: "Well, not per se, but being related to the former ruler helped one get power."
(Note: Post-class research revealed that the Mayan money answer is correct (thanks to roommate research dept.) but the Aztec answer is totally wrong!)
It makes you even wish once again to hear the well-known ring of, "I saw a show on the History Channel--Was Hitler on drugs?"
(Note: the show is called "High Hitler.")
Anyway, but finally tomorrow we are moving on to the Atlantic Slave Trade and the book I've assigned takes place in 1823. Whew. I never thought I'd be so glad to see the 19th C. The 19th C, when things finally start making sense.
I feel bad that I once called it "the null century."
8 comments:
How did the Mayans feel about cake bakers?
They were the enemies of pirates, and they knew how to use a possessive apostrophe.
As a historian of the early modern Atlantic world, I am, needless to say, saddened by your failure to appreciate this earlier age of European expansion. It's totally the best time. It's when everyone died! Including the Europeans! They were dropping like flies! It's also the time when slutting it up with natives was encouraged. You don't get that sort of encouragement with High Imperialism, now do you?
But I too feel your pain about the random doozies of questions. One of my students asked me the other day how aware medieval Europeans were of epilepsy. How should I know. But then I feel a lot better about my own intelligence when the students confuse Plato with Plotinus. Dude, how stupid can they be?
I would imagine they were completely unaware of epilepsy. In the sense that while there may have been some people in some communities who occasionally collapsed into spasms, no one was like "Oh! This must be a treatable condition that in no way reflects on their connection with God."
Also, I feel like it would be cool if the Mayans chose their kings based on who could make the awesomest cake.
I thought the disparaging of early modern Europeans would draw comment from CBAM, but I'd also hoped she'd correct the fraudulent witchcraft history, alas. Yes, Mayans engaged in a complex ruler-selection ritual involving the preparation of corn cakes, as well as human sacrifice.
I'm reading Dora at the moment and planning to lecture on how Freud fucked up gender and mental illness somewhat less than previous "doctors" did, and there's the lovely story of Bertha Pappenheim who developed epilepsy as a young girl, but was really found by Freud's mentor Breuer to have been in love with her father as all good young hysterical girls should be. I only wish that those medieval warriors could have been so insightful! Freud would have a field day with my psychosomatic illnesses - I'm pretty sure it will all come back down to being in love with my father though too. Or penis envy.
My favorite part of Dora is when Freud "realizes" that Dora is in love with Freud. This after she storms out and never comes back.
Gotta love signing up for classes without realizing what the hell you are gonna have to cover. (Really? All the way to 1877? Must I?) As an early modernist myself, I shy away from the classes that cover "if my grandparents are able to tell me about it, it ain't history" portion of the catalog. Though, I suppose, the post-class research for those lectures could utilize that new-fangled telephone thingie.
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