This course compares the
cultural, religios, scientific, and social traditions of three world civilizations.
The particular societies treated in the course vary from semester to semester.
The emphasis throughout is on helping students to develop a sensitivity to multi-cultural
issues through direct study of texts in translation and similar cultural materials.
An Introduction to Comparative History 1.
The problem of sources: linguistic, archaeological, and written evidence 2.
Ecological and historical sources of cultural variation 3.
The uses of comparative history: emerging scientific models of cultural
evolution
4. The material below is a sample outline.
The civilizations of
India, China, Japan, South East Asia, etc., may be used in subsequent offerings.
Pre-Columbian America in the
15th Century
1. The literate civilizations
of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica
2. Pre-Columbian Andean
civilizations
3. Pre-Columbian Caribbean
cultures
4. Indigenous North American
societies
5. Cosmological traditions
in Pre-Columbian America
European Civilization
in 1500
1. Religion and politics
in 15th century Europe
2. Technological and economic
revolutions of late traditional Europe
3. Everyday life in the
age of Columbus
4. Fifteenth century Chinese
and European voyages of discovery
5. Renaissance cosmologies
Western Africa Civilization in the 15th Century
1. African states and city-states
before Western contact: linguistic,
archaeological, and written
evidence
2. African slave traffic
before the 15th century
3. Islamic and animist religious
traditions in Western Africa
4. Traditional African cosmologies
Cultures in Collision:
in the Wake of Columbus
1. Caribbean, Mesoamerican,
and Andean cultures after Columbus: the biological, military, and economic dimensions
2. "Idols behind the altars": syncretic religious traditions in colonial
Mesoamerica
3. Indigenous North American peoples from the 16th through the 19th centuries
4. Western slave traffic from the 16th through the 19th centuries
5. Social and intellectual impact of the New World on early modern Europe
