Author Archives: William Brethel

Discussion Question

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Question: What do the reactions to the Haitian Revolution tell us in regards to the cause of the revolution?  What do these reactions tell us about Haitian society at the time in regards to race relations?

Answer: The primary sources give us a wide variety of opinions towards what was happening in Haiti at the time.  Antoine Dalmas’ reaction, seen in his source on page 77), gives us a colonist’s perspective on the events.  Dalmas makes an effort to portray the slaves as barbaric and their revolution lacking a just cause.  An example of this is his reaction to the ritual before the revolution was to be carried out which involved the drinking of pig’s blood (78).  Dalmas’ account can be seen as attempting to portray the revolution as something done simply out of desire for bloodshed, with his multitude examples of atrocities being committed.  By attempting to portray these slaves seeking freedom from their life of servitude, we see a part of colonialist society that demonizes the slaves and finds their desire for freedom as unnecessary and excessive.  This opinion is also seen in Olympe De Gouges’ primary source.

Gouges’ reaction to the revolution is similar to Dalmas’ as she directly condemned the actions of the slaves and people of color.  Her reaction shows that she views the violent acts as unnecessary despite the horrible conditions met by the slaves (97).  Gouges, unlike Dalmas, represents a mainland French perspective of the revolution, showing that those in France were trying to portray the Haitian Revolution as one done out of desire for violence.  This was not the only opinion, though, as Thomas Clarkson’s account shifts the cause of revolution to slavery itself.

Clarkson’s reaction to the revolution points to the slave trade “as the real cause of all West Indian Insurrections”(102).  Clarkson’s opinion differs heavily from Gouges and Dalmas because it attempts to justify the revolution, stating that the cruelty of slavery is the primary cause of the violence and that this violence is to be expected (102). This opinion reflects part of colonial society that condemned slavery and understood the reasoning behind the Haitain Revolution.

Coffee, Bees and Climate Change

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Climate change has become more and more of an issue and increasingly prevalent in our lives.  One part that climate change has a drastic impact on is agriculture in various regions of the world, in this case Latin America.  NPR’s article touches on how the coffee beans and the area they grow have been affected.  Aside from the area the beans can grow, the bees that pollenate the plants are also being affected by changes in the climate.  “Researchers [project] that by 2050, climate change could reduce the amount of ground usable to grow coffee in Latin America by up to 88 percent”.

The loss that could occur is much more than the price increase to coffee, but instead it affects the livelihood of the millions of people who work to grow these beans.  While “the researchers project that about 34-51 percent of areas will become less suitable to growing coffee but see more bee diversity, somewhat offsetting farmers’ losses”, some farmers believe that the gain will not be worth the loss.

In regards to how this article portrays Latin America, the beginning of the article does not really distinguish the different parts of Latin America until later on the in the article.  To me, this was another example of Latin American countries being grouped together despite sharing distinct differences aside from just names.  On the other hand, while the article primarily focuses on the findings of a researcher, the author makes sure to add the opinions of farmers who would be affected by these changes.  Overall, I think NPR does a decent job explaining the situation without silencing the voices of Latin Americans.

What drew me to this article was how it related with our recent discussions on how important the environment is to the livelihood of people in Latin America, and how climate change can have a drastic effect on people. The first example that came to mind was the video slideshow we had watched on the Kamayura.  What stuck out the most about their situation was the impact that climate change was having on their life. The most striking aspect was how it affected their diet, as rivers that contained the fish they commonly ate were drying up.  In the case of NPR’s article, the climate change affects the livelihood of people who grow these beans, drawing a direct comparison of how the environment still plays a central role in agriculture today.

Kennedy, Merrit.  “Coffee, Bees and Climate Change Are Linked In Ways You May Not Have Expected.” NPR.  September 11, 2017.  http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/09/11/550169720/coffee-bees-and-climate-change-are-linked-in-ways-you-may-not-have-expected

Wikipedia Critique – Quipus

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For our critical analysis of a wikipedia article, I chose to look at the wikipedia article for the quipus that we had discussed in class last week.

Upon first glance the article seems well written and contains plenty of sources in the reference section. The most eye catching part of the page, though, is the incredibly brief section on the etymology.  Personally, I believe this piece of information could have been placed in the introduction or in another section.  Some paragraphs on the “Purpose” are missing sources despite being an important part of the information given.  As for the rest of the page, in terms of sources, almost every paragraph contains at least one citation.  There still exists a few paragraph that needs citation involving the literary uses of the quipu as well as the common spelling issue an English.  This stems from the fact that there are many ways people spell quipu, but according to the discussion of the page, wikipedia uses the most common name, which a user noted was “quipu”. Overall, aside from the few problems I believe the article is well written and contains plenty of sources and citations.

9/6 Class Notes

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In class on Wednesday we began by going over general information involving our wikipedia training.  The most important part of information was that we need to find an article related to the class and post a critique of it, using the information we learned in training as guidelines.  After this we listened to Julia talk about renewable energy in Chile.  Given Chile’s location it is hard for people to have reliable access to energy, so having wind turbines proved incredibly helpful.  Chile’s windy climate further helped the turbines utility.

Per usual, after these two items we divided into groups based on people around us to discuss what we read the day before and our answers for the Historical Analysis Prep involving the Quipus, an important part of Incan culture.  We discussed the importance of various figures towards the Quipus, including a Spaniard, an Incan who was taught Spanish and served as a translator, as well as someone who was half Inca, half Spanish.  Quipus were a matter of great culture importance for the Incan, as it allowed them to keep information without having a written language.  This was met with curiosity by the Spaniard in question, as opposed to the feelings of disgust amongst other Spaniards.  Even today these quipus are incredibly important to the indigenous people of Peru.

Following our discussion on the readings, we watched the short video in class again about the quipus in modern day.  This opened up an interesting dialogue about how to interpret the video and the creator’s views.  Multiple images were utilized as well as audio clips of native people talking about how the quipus are still a treasure amongst people.  One critique that came up was that in the slideshow, some of the images did not have much to do with his main point, essentially distracting the audience and possibly making his point harder to understand.

As for terms, we in particular focused on the definition of Mita. Mita was an Inca institution where people had to perform forced labor for the central government, mainly involving construction of large buildings, roads, or waterways. These people were to come from all over.  This reflected how when the Incas conquered other people, they drafted men into their military, thus increasing their strength.  An important distinction was made in class involving the term forced labor and slavery.  It is important for us to realize the key differences between slavery and forced labor, especially the racial aspect that existed in uprooting Africa people from their homeland and exploiting their labor.

Another term/idea we discussed was the geography of the Andes that was well utilized by the Incan people.  Given the Andes was an incredibly hilly area, with plenty of different altitudes, it could be very hard to have sustainable life in the area.  The Incan, though, made the best of their situation by setting terrace farms and grew different crops in different areas, for example growing cacao in lower, warmer areas and other plants in the higher, colder areas.  KH Note: this is called a “vertical archipelago” system.  An interesting fact we discussed was how the high altitude proved helpful for the breathing habits of people, looking particularly at soccer and how the high altitude mountains made it hard for people who were not acclimated to the altitude to perform.

Links:

Exam Questions:

  • How do the quipus relate to another important concept we have discussed in class: material culture? What do they say about materialism in Incan society?
  • What potential issues could have plagued the Incan considering their geographic location in the andes? How did they navigate these issues? What does this tell you about the Incan people?
  • Name 2-3 examples of how the cultures of Spaniards were fused with the Incan.  What does this tell you about the interactions between the two very different cultures?

 

Introduction

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Hello! I am William, a senior Chinese major from Columbus, Ohio.  My focus for my IS is women’s portrayal in film and literature from around mid 20th century until now.  The main focus being on women writers and how they perceive what was happening during the cultural revolution and the rise of the communist government. This was mainly inspired by my love for Chinese films and the 1935 film New Woman.

I decided to take this class in order to gain a new perspective of history that wasn’t European and was outside of Asia.  Having taken Spanish through middle and high school and the first semester of my freshman year, I’ve always been interested in the history of the Spanish speaking world.  I am particularly interested in the relations between the various cultures in Latin America as well as their interactions with their colonizers.