Write an essay on how historians have written on a historical topic over time.

This seminar explores the ways in which access to natural resources has translated into political and economic power in Latin America and the Caribbean, from the colonial period to the present. We will examine how state-building projects (colonialism, capitalism, socialism) have used natural resources as a tool to assert power and legitimacy in the region and on the world stage. We will also explore how Latin American and Caribbean thinkers and activists have offered some of the earliest critiques of capitalism based on the region’s environmental exploitation. How has the long history of resource extraction and resistance played out in Latin America and the Caribbean? In what ways have indigenous and local knowledge been overlooked, even as that knowledge informed scientific innovation or management techniques over time? How can environmental history reveal new perspectives on the history of colonialism, inequality, and resistance in the region? Case studies range from hurricanes in the Caribbean to the fight of the Indigenous Cofán against oil spills in Ecuador. Students will learn how to think and write like historians through participation in class discussions, regular short response papers, and creative research toward a final project.

Research Proposal:

Analyzing indigenous history requires an ethnographic as well as historical perspective to better understand the perspective of indigenous people. Most historical texts are written in a ‘top-down’ approach written by academics, not by indigenous people themselves. This form of appropriation is not necessarily counteractive towards indigenous rights because there are works that analyze the role of globalization against indigenous people and promote indigenous rights. However, a knowledge gap is created by only using historical perspectives. Ethnographic literature is therefore necessary to understand the ‘bottom-up’ perspective. Through these perspectives I have come up with a preliminary question: Are legal courts the best avenue for pursuing indigenous rights?

Focus on: Indigenous rights in a historical context

Bens, Jonas. “The Invention of the Culture Approach to Indigenous Rights: Awas Tingni v. Nicaragua.” In The Indigenous Paradox: Rights, Sovereignty, and Culture in the Americas, 138–66. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv16t6dx7.11.

Hindery, Derrick. From Enron to Evo : Pipeline Politics, Global Environmentalism, and Indigenous Rights in Bolivia, University of Arizona Press, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.libproxy.berkeley.edu/lib/berkeley-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3411832.

Falleti, Tulia G., and Emilio A. Parrado, eds. Latin America Since the Left Turn. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv16t6m7s (Links to an external site.).

These sources all tell a similar story; that the history of indigenous rights is controlled by imperialist forces. The Spanish established direct imperialism, and it has transformed into economic imperialism in the present day. Tribes have won some battles in courts, including a major win for Bolivians to have access to water in their country. Overall, this avenue may not be the most suitable for direct action begging the question, what would work?

Focus on: Alternate paths to rights.

Falleti, Tulia G., and Emilio A. Parrado, eds. Latin America Since the Left Turn. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv16t6m7s (Links to an external site.).

DURSTON, ALAN, and BRUCE MANNHEIM, eds. Indigenous Languages, Politics, and Authority in Latin America: Historical and Ethnographic Perspectives. University of Notre Dame Press, 2018. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvpj7f3c.

These sources explore alternate paths to using courts as a means to attaining human rights for indigenous people. In the book about Latin America since it went left, it explores revolution or indigenous controlled reservations as ways to curtail the effects of globalization. These paths would eliminate or heavily reduce state control on indigenous tribes. Also interesting to consider is how language affects power dynamics. In the book by Durston and Mannheim, they talk about how more indigenous language usage would help tribes organize. The use of Spanish as the dominant language turns out to be another form of imperialism. These works also focus heavily on the importance of understanding indigenous perspectives on globalization and how most tribes would like to be left to their own devices. That is to say, they do not like state control. Most of the time, the state is working against them to extract from the land at their cost.

Focus on: In whose best interest?

Schoultz, Lars. “Conclusion. Whose Best Interest?” In Their Own Best Interest: A History of the U.S. Effort to Improve Latin Americans, 289–304. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press, 2018.

It is important to consider what the intentions of western nations are when interacting with the global south, and more specifically indigenous tribes. In this book, the author only looks at the history of uS imperialism in Latin America and it shows how a majority of the relations between both parties lead to exploitation of Latin America. I’m not sure if this will end up being a major part of my work, but it is important to analyze.

Last Completed Projects

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