Oct. 12, 1992

No. 017 Columbus Day
Distributed as part of the Red Feather Institute RADICAL PEDAGOGY Series. The Red Feather Institute, 8085 Essex, Weidman, Michigan, 48893.

Cost:  5 to 20 pts. Generic pts.  Payoff:   Variable Quality Points.
Limit: 5 people may 'buy' this assignment.

HOWARD ZINN   REDISCOVERING COLUMBUS

We are invited by Radford University to attend a lecture by Prof.
Howard Zinn, internationally acclaimed historian, playwright,
author and orator who calls the arrival of Columbus an invasion and
speaks of his efforts here as political crime.  Your assignment is
to use two of the five concepts below to critique his critique of
our history and the Columbus quincentennial.  10 PTS EACH.  5 PTS
FOR SHOWING UP AND HEARING THE SPEECH.

A.   POLITICAL CRIME:  What evidence is there that Spain financed
     an invasion of the Americas to exploit its wealth and/or
     peoples?  If there was no such legal specification forbidding
     such acts, how can it be called a crime??

B.   IDEOLOGICAL HEGEMONY:  Discuss either the media treatment of
     the Columbus Quincentennial or the Zinn Speech as an exercise
     in ideological hegemony.  Which group benefits from such
     efforts to shape consciousness?? ...which group suffers??

C.   IDEOLOGICAL HEGEMONY:  Assume Zinn is correct and that
     American history books present a child's history of Columbus. 
     Why would almost all American Historians join in when history
     and social science is supposed to be value-free (Weber).

D.   MODERNIZATION THEORY:  Conflict theory treats colonial
     explorations as an effort in which force is used to extract
     value from another class or nation.  Structural functionalism
     treats colonial exploration as part of the modernization
     process in which 'civilization' is brought to 'primitive'
     peoples.  What evidence does Zinn present which supports
     Conflict Analysis.  What evidence does he omit which supports
     modernization theory.

E.   CULTURAL PLURALISM: Cultural pluralists would say that Native
     American culture has many positivities not found in the
     European/Spanish culture which replaced them.  Does Zinn speak
     of the positive cultural values/themes lost by the arrival of
     Columbus???  ....of the 'negative' cultural values of Colonial
     Europe imposed on Native Americans...if so, what are they?

THE PAPERS ARE TO BE TYPED AND CAREFULLY EDITED FOR FULL CREDIT.

DO A GOOD JOB--ONE PERSON IN EACH ATTRACTOR WILL BE INVITED BY YOUR
MENTOR TO A MINI-DEBATE FOR 5 MORE POINTS.  

DUE DATE: 12 OCT 1992 [COLUMBUS DAY]