Peoples and Cultures of Mesoamerica

Catalog description

This course provides an overview of the peoples and Cultures of Mexico and Central America that comprise the Mesoamerican culture area. Course begins with an examination of Pre-Columbian civilizations and the Colonial Period before focusing on contemporary indigenous peoples, their institutions and relationships to the modern state. Using rich ethnographic accounts of contemporary Nahautl and Mayan communities we will examine gender, religious systems and world view, transformations of the economy, language and identity, and political oppression, culminating in the ongoing revitalization movements currently taking place as exemplified by the Zapatistas in Chiapas and Guatemalan Mayans.