This course traces the evolution of technology and human environmental adaptations from the arrival of people in the the Americas to the beginnings of agriculture and settled life focusing mainly on Paleo-Indian and Archaic cultures of Mesoamerica and the Greater Southwest. From this point to European contact, the focus is narrowed to three representative culture areas of the Meso-America -- the Valley of Oaxaca, the Valley of Mexico and the Eastern Lowlands. Emphasis is on technology choice and its long term social and ecological consequences including the gradual development of complex societies and their sudden "collapse".
The course includes films, museum visits, hands on experience with reconsturctions of tools and weapons and an introduction to computer modeling of technological change. The term paper assignment may be presented as a multi-media, hypertex document.
Texts for this course are:
Dixon, E. James, Quest for the Origins of the First Americans. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1993.
Blanton, Richard E., Kowalewski, Stephen A., Feinman, Gary M., Finsten, Laura M., Ancient Mesoamerica: A Comparison of Change in Three Regions. 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press, New York, 1993.
They are available in the CSM bookstore.
Offered Fall 1999 TTh 9:30 - 10:45 for 3 credit hours satisfying the humanities requirement.
For further information look here. in the CSM Information Space, contact the LAIS office in Stratton 302 or contact the instructor by any of the means listed below.