Pre-Columbian Art

Professor Jennifer Jolly

Spring 2009                                   

This survey of the arts of Pre-Columbian America is intended to introduce students to the art produced by the cultures of Mesoamerica and the Andes up to the time of contact with European cultures. Organized chronologically within each major region, we will discuss artworks associated with many of the major cultures of these regions, including: Olmec, Teotihuacan, Maya, Aztec, and Chavín, Moche, Paracas, Nazca, Tihaunaku, Wari and Inca. In addition, the course is designed to introduce students to a range of approaches used in studying art and art history. I expect you will gain both a greater familiarity with major cultures and artistic production of the pre-contact peoples of the Americas as well as a nuanced understanding of our strategies for learning about the past.

Course Objectives

1. Develop a familiarity with the art of the major cultures of pre-conquest Mesoamerica and the Andes

2. Consider how art and art history can help us gain insight into these cultures

3. Think self-consciously about how we construct knowledge about the past, and practice identifying and using different methods to this end

4. Practice evaluating evidence and reading source materials with a critical eye

5. Develop research and writing skills

Course Requirements

Class participation: 10%

Reading responses: 20%

Paper and preparatory materials: 30%

Midterm Exam: 20%

Final Exam: 20%

You are expected to attend class and participate in weekly discussions. For the class sessions marked “Discussion” on the Syllabus, you are expected to turn in a short reading response and come to class ready to discuss recent readings. I will drop one of those 8 scores. More than three absences and chronic lateness will adversely affect your final grade – so save those three absences for real emergencies or illnesses. I will not reschedule exams to accommodate travel plans. You must complete all assignments in order to pass the class.

Course Website

www.ithaca.edu/faculty/jjolly/precolumbian

Readings and Images

Three books are available for purchase:

Mary Ellen Miller, The Art of Mesoamerica

Rebecca Stone-Miller, The Art of the Andes

Dennis Tedlock, ed. The Popol Vuh

In addition to these three texts, you will find supplementary readings linked to the syllabus on the class website. Use your Ithaca College email username and password to access them. Plan to do readings in advance of the class for which they are assigned. Pay special attention to the questions and readings assigned on days marked Discussion, as they will be central to class discussion and you will be required to hand in a brief reading response at the start of class.

The course website also has links to image resources and “slidelists,” which contain key terms and artworks/monuments you are responsible for. In addition, we will use the ARTSTOR database of images: www.artstor.org. To access ARTSTOR, you first need to create an account using your full Ithaca College email. Then, you will also need to officially ask to access the Pre-Columbian Art image groups, and can login using the password: “teotihuacan”

Class Expectations

- I expect you to come to class prepared to discuss class readings and ready to engage respectfully.

- Attendance is required. Understanding that we all get sick and have emergencies arise, you can have up to three absences without being penalized (or doing makeup work); save them for when you really need them. I do not differentiate between “excused and unexcused” absences; if you miss more than three classes, plan to talk to me.

- You must complete all course requirements in order to pass the course.

- Academic Honesty. According to College Policy, “Academic honesty is a cornerstone of the mission of the College. Unless it is otherwise stipulated, students may submit for evaluation only that work that is their own and that is submitted originally for a specific course. According to the traditions of higher education, forms of conduct that will be considered evidence of academic misconduct include, but are not limited to the following: conversations between students during an examination; reviewing, without authorization, material during an examination (i.e., personal notes, another student's exam); unauthorized collaboration; submission of a paper also submitted for credit in another course; reference to written material related to the course brought into an examination room during a closed-book, written examination; and submission without proper acknowledgment of work that is based partially or entirely on the ideas or writings of others. Only when a faculty member gives prior approval for such actions can they be acceptable.” (Article 7.1.4. Ithaca College Policy Manual)

Schedule

Part I: Mesoamerica

Week 1 (January 20, 22)

Tuesday: Introduction

Thursday: The Olmec

Miller, chapter 2

Due: write-up from day one class exercise (see me if you missed day 1)

Week 2 (January 27, 29)

January 26^th: Last Day for ADD/DROP

Tuesday: Discussion, The artworks formerly known as “Were-Jaguars”

Peter Furst, “Jaguar Baby or Mother Toad?” The Olmec and Their Neighbors, E.B. Benson, Dumbarton Oaks, 1981, pp.149-162

OR

Carolyn Tate, “Ethnography as Demystification: were-jaguars or human embryos in Olmec art?” Draft, 2004.

Reading response questions: what does your author argue is the true identity and cultural meaning of the objects formally known as “were-jaguars?” Identify (list) 3 pieces of evidence they use to support their theory and consider, what kind of evidence is this?

Thursday: Teotihuacan

Miller, chapter 4

Week 3 (February 3, 5)

Tuesday: Discussion, Teotihuacan

Pasztory, “The View from the Apartment Compound,” Teotihuacan, Norman, London: University of Oklahoma, 1997, pp.46-61

Pasztory, Esther, “Teotihuacan Unmasked: view through art,” Teotihuacan: Art from the City of the Gods. K Berrin and E.Pasztory, editors. Thames and Hudson, 1993.

Reading response questions: According to Pasztory, what does the study of apartment complexes tell us about Teotihuacan’s culture? (ie: what is her thesis about the apartment complexes?) How does she support this interpretation of Teotihuacan, and what kind of evidence is this?

Thursday: The Classic Maya

Miller, pp. 61-69, 108-114, chapter 7

Week 4 (February 10, 12)

NOTE: Monday February 9^th – LAST DAY S/D/F option

Tuesday: Divine Rulership and the Maya

Mary Miller and Simon Martin, “Divine Models of Courtly Culture,” Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya. Thames and Hudson, 2004, pp. 51-65.

Linda Schele and Peter Freidel, “Children of the First Mother: Family and Dynasty at Palenque,” Forest of Kings. New York City: Quill, 1990, pp.216-237 (note rest of chapter, 237-61 is recommended but not required reading).

Thursday: Discussion, The Popol Vuh and Divine Role Models

Dennis Tedlock, Popol Vuh, Part III. NY: Simon and Schuster, 1996.

Review “Divine Models…” reading from last class

Reading response questions: Come to class ready to identify and briefly describe the main characters, and with a basic sketch of the story in your notes. For your paragraph reflection, consider what kinds of lessons the Popol Vuh may have held for its contemporary Maya peoples.

Week 5 (February 17, 19)

VISIT to HANDWERCKER GALLERY

See online Paper Assignment and read the following to prepare for visit:

Rebecca Stone-Miller, “Introduction,” Seeing with New Eyes: Highlights of the Michael C. Carlos Museum Collection of the Ancient Americas. Atlanta: Michael M. Carlos Museum, Emory University, 2002, pp.xv-xxvi.

Wednesday: The Toltecs?

Miller, pp. 174-175, 182-209

Week 6 (February 24, 26)

Tuesday: Aztec History and Myth                                                                                  

Miller, chapter 9

Elizabeth Boone, “Pictorial Codices of the Aztecs,” Ancient Americas. Chicago: Art Institute.

DUE February 24th, Paper phase 1: Short visual analysis and research questions.

Thursday: The Aztec Templo Mayor and Sacred Precinct

Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, “Templo Mayor, the Great Temple of the Aztecs,” Aztecs. E.Matos Moctezuma, ed. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2002, pp.48-55.

Week 7 (March 3, 5)

Tuesday: Discussion, Aztec Ideology and Practice

Richard F. Townsend, “Coronation at Tenochtitlan,” The Aztec Templo Mayor: a symposium at Dumbarton Oaks, 8th and 9th October 1983. Elizabeth Hill Boone, ed. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 1987, pp.371-407.

Reading response questions: According to Townsend, how does the use of Aztec artworks and monuments relate to Aztec ideology? Give two examples of how this works.

Thursday: MIDTERM EXAM

SPRING BREAK March 7^th-15^th

Week 8 (March 17, 19)

Part II: The Andes

Tuesday: Chavín

Stone-Miller, pp.9-16, 17-47

Don Lathrap, “Gifts of the Cayman,” Variation in Anthropology. D. Lathrap, ed. Urban: Illinois Archeological Survey, 1973.

Thursday: Paracas

Stone-Miller, pp.48-81

Week 9 (March 24, 26)

Tuesday: Nazca

Johan Reinhard, “Interpreting the Nazca Lines” Ancient Americas: Art of Sacred Landscapes. R.Townsend, ed. Chicago: Art Institute, 1992, pp.291-301.

Recommended: Anthony F. Aveni and Helaine Silverman, “Between the Lines: Reading the Nazca Markings as Rituals Writ Large” Sciences (July/August 1991): 36-42.

Thursday: Discussion, Ecology and Iconography

Ann H. Peters, “Ecology and Society in Embroidered Images from the Paracas Necropolis” Paracas Art and Architecture, Anne Paul, ed. Iowa City: University of Iowa, 1991, pp.240, 245-312 (note excerpts, you can skim details and read for the big picture questions I put forward below)

Review Reinhard and Lathrap

Reading response questions: What can we learn from using ecology as an interpretive tool as we study artworks? Generally speaking, which animals, or which kinds of animals, get represented in art for Paracas and Nazca cultures, and which don’t? Is there a logic of sorts?

Week 10 (March 31, April 2)

Tuesday: PAPER PLAN DISCUSSION

DUE: Paper Prep assignment

Thursday: Moche Warriors

Stone-Miller, 82-117

Walter Alva and Christopher B. Donnan, “Moche Warfare and the Sacrifice of Prisoners” Royal Tombs of Sipán. Los Angeles: Fowler Museum, 1993.

NOTE: April 6th:      LAST DAY TO REVOKE S/D/F

LAST DAY TO WITHDRAW

Week 11 (April 7, 9)

Tuesday: Discussion, Ritual and Sacrifice

Donald Proulx, “Ritual Uses of Trophy Heads in Ancient Nazca Society” in Ritual and Sacrifice in Ancient Peru. Benson and Cook, ed. Austin: University of Texas, 2001.

Review Alva and Donnan

Reading response questions: According to Proulx, what is the source and purpose of trophy heads? How does Nazca art support this hypothesis?

Thursday: Tiwanaku and Wari

Stone-Miller, 118-152

Week 12 (April 14, 16)

Tuesday: Architecture and Space in Cuzco

Stone-Miller, 180-218

Hemming, “Inca Architecture” in Monuments of the Incas. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico, 1982, 1990.

Thursday: The Incan Landscape and Empire

Bauer, “Introduction,” The Sacred Landscape of the Inca. Austin: University of Texas, 1998.

Week 13 (April 21, 23)

Tuesday: Materials, discussion

Heather Lechtman, “Technologies of Power: the Andean Case” in Configurations of Power. Henderson and Netherly, ed. Ithaca: Cornell University, 1993.

Reading response questions: What are “soft technologies”? To what 2 major purposes are these soft technologies directed in the Andes?

Thursday: Reciprocity

Tom Cummins, Chapter 2: “Andean Festivals and Reciprocity” from Toasts with the Incas. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 2002.

PAPER DUE, April 23rd

Week 14 (April 28, 30)

Tuesday: Discussion, Machu Picchu

Lucy Salazar, “Machu Picchu: Estate in the Clouds” in Machu Picchu: Unveiling the Mystery of the Inca. Richard L.Burger and Lucy C.Salazar (ed.). New Haven: Yale, c.2004.

Reading response question: How does the art, architecture and use of Machu Picchu reinforce imperial Inca ideology?

Thursday: Review

Week 15 (May 5^th)

Final Exam: Tuesday 8-10 am