Olivia Schienke

 Hey Amanda! I like how you brought up the term "probanzas de meritos" to show that people don't always have the greatest intentions. People do tend to want to make themselves look better which is why we need to look at multiple perspectives rather than just accepting one. Cortes wrote in a way that made himself look good most likely to get back on the good side of the King and Bernal Diaz wrote about how he knew what happened almost like they were both looking for praise as the term shows perfectly!

One thing that stood out to me this week in class is the idea that some sources can be bias but still have truth to them. As we read and analyzed Cortes' article, we can infer that it was most likely bias based on the fact that he was a rebel at the time and trying to get back on the good side of the King. However, the historical facts about the places they traveled and the battles they fought were probably true. We can't just assume that because the source comes from one person's perspective it is completely untrustworthy. Rather, we should look for more sources to compare the information to. The Bernal Diaz article was a source that we can compare to Cortes. Because the historical events matched that of Cortes, we can infer that they are most likely true. However we can't just assume that the whole letter is completely true. From Professors Starks part of the class, we read the Oudijk and Restall article which told more about the Indigenous roles in these events. It b...

      As I have started reading Townsends book "Fifth Sun" for Professor Starks class, it has been very informational on how the Indigenous lived before the Europeans came in. So far from what I have read, I understand how civilized these people really were. It explains all of the history of different rulers and how they came to power. Also how it explains the way that power over the kingdom shifted in a sort of swinging pendulum between the two families of Huitzilihuitl and Itzcoatl showed how organized these people were and how determined they were to keep peace. Relating to Professor Serrata's class, when we read the letter from Columbus, it puts into perspective how naïve the Europeans were to think these Natives were uncivilized. In the letter, Columbus portrays the people of the land as being somewhat lazy and gullible and implies that they were willing to hand everything over to the Spaniards. Learning the history of the Indigenous puts into perspective how th...

    What stood out most to me this week is looking into the Codex Mendoza. Being able to look at the picture and interpret it ourselves without any former information on it was very telling in how different people can interpret things. Within our learning communities it caught my attention how critical thinking can be key for not falling into believing false information. As we said in class, all people have different interpretations of what they see, that is why it is important to look at the main object ourselves so we can make our own conclusions without the bias or misinterpretation of others. This idea also applies to the movie that we watched for class. It portrayed Columbus and the Europeans as heroes and victims throughout the whole movie. People who see that with no context about the indigenous peoples are obviously going to think that the Natives were the villains of this story when in reality, it was actually the Europeans that came in and started trouble. We need to...

      This class has been very eye opening for me as we have talked about the things that were left out of our history books. I was always under the impression that the Europeans were civilized good people but as we look at the story from the indigenous point of view, it shows a much different story. Looking into this, it has made me realize how reversed the roles really are. Also, the concept of material culture that we read about in the Woodward article was very interesting to me. Baudrillard's view on the subject caught my attention because he explained that all objects in life today are used for some further meaning or interpretation. A lot of material things are not used for their material purpose, instead, they show us deeper meaning such as status, religion, and interests to the person in possession of the object. This further understanding of material culture helps us analyze certain characteristics and beliefs of the different people we have learned about so far!...