Preliminary Syllabus: Fall 1999
Updated: 3/99

HEMISPHERIC COURSE: PERFORMANCE & POLITICS IN THE AMERICAS 
THE CONQUEST -- PERU

A course taught simultaneously at New York University (by Diana Taylor),
the University of Rio de Janeiro (by Zeca Ligiéro), and at the Pontífica
Universidad Católica del Peru (by Luis Peirano Falconi), and coordinated
through a shared web-site. 


GENERAL COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This course analyzes the politics of performance in the conquest of the
Americas, with a focus on Peru. From pre-Columbian times through the
establishment of Spanish colonial authority, we witness a radical change
in hegemonic order in which one imperial order comes to eclipse another. 
Performance was fundamental to both indigenous and European colonial
epistemology, and was a primary means through which both cultures
maintained or contested social authority. We analyze the profound changes
wrought on these performance cultures in their encounter with the other,
and examine how performance was strategically altered and used by various
social groups in order to achieve their ends. Through a careful review of
primary readings and critical texts, we will try to gain an appreciation
of the complex function of performance in the political drama of new world
conquest and colonization. Throughout, we remain attentive to the fact
that the meanings of new world performance are relative and contextual,
derived from the different cultural, social, and ideological frames of
reference, which are, brought to bear on the material. 

This is the first course to be taught under the auspices of the new
Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics. As such, the course is
being taught simultaneously at NYU, at the University of Rio de Janeiro,
and at the Pontífica Universidad Católica del Peru in Lima. Each course
follows a similarly structured syllabus, and shares key an essential
reading list. (However, each will have a slightly different emphasis:
NYU's will focus more on Mexico, UNI-RIO on Brazil, and the Universidad
Católica on Peru.) The three courses will be coordinated through a shared
website, which will house course readings, translation software, and other
material related to the course. In addition students from all three
countries are expected to participate in an ongoing discussion list, and
bi-weekly live-chat sessions with the instructors. For each unit of the
course, we will organize at least one interactive web-based event: for
example, a live video-cast of a guest speaker with discussion to follow.

This course is intended as a research eng/seminar. Students are expected to
develop independent research projects related to this material, and work
with primary materials whenever possible. Collaborative research is
encouraged-including collaborative work with students in Peru and Brazil. 
Final projects will be presented as multimedia web pages at the end of the
semester. 


INTRODUCTION: SPECTACLE IN ITS NEW WORLD CONTEXTS

In this introductory unit, we approach the meaning and power of
performance from the vantage of pre-Columbian American cultures. We resist
the usual temptation to understand native performance from the vantage of
the conquerors-from whom we have inherited most of our primary historical
records, as well as many of the problematic, colonial frames of reference
typically used to interpret native performance.  Following an "eng/eng/overview"
of the period we begin our re-orientation to the material, we focus on the
various understandings of performance and representation. We use these
multiple understandings as a site through which to examine our own
methodological and cultural assumptions about the nature and meaning of
performance.

Class One 
"Introduccion: Los Incas" Literaturas de la Americas Precolombinas, p 305-332

The Huarochirí Manuscript: A Testament of Ancient and Colonial Andean

Religion. Trans. Frank Saloman and George Urioste, ch 9, 10, 20, 24. 

Steve Stern, Peru's Indian People and the Challenge of Spanish Conquest,
Huamanga to 1640,  "Pre-Columbian Landscapes" (p 3-26)

"Relatos Miticos," Literaturas de la Americas Precolombinas, p 335-385

Gordon Brotherston, "Fuentes indigenas en lenguaje cverbal y visual" en Ana

Pizarro, ed. America Latina: Palavra, Literatura e Cultura: A situacao
colonial. 


UNIT 1: PRE-CONQUEST PERFORMANCE 

In this unit, we analyze pre-Columbian performance as a complex mode of
social behavior central to the production and maintenance of native
cosmology. We analyze the role of performance in mapping fundamental
relations of space, time, and in maintaining and contesting social power. 
Native performance radically challenges the premises of most Western
dramatic theory, including notions of the 'real,' mimesis, representation,
the ephemeral, and repetition. We will look at specific practices-music,
dances, ceremonies, rituals to explore the various roles of performance in
religious, social and daily life.

Class Two
Mapping Cosmology, Space and Power through Performance
Father Bernabé Cobo, Inca Religion and Customs
Discussion of belief versus "idolatry" -la función de la imágen, de la
representación, dentro del sistema andina^Å

Class Three
Warfare-making Incan political power visible. Political use of spectacle
Huarochirí Mansucript

Class Four
Precolumbian performance forms: 
Danzas, fiestas: Pierre Verges, Fiestas y danzas en el Cuzco o en los Andes
Raul Romero, Musica, Danzas y Mascaras en los Andes.
Rabinal Achi

Class Five
Discussion (all three classes, Peru, Brazil, US) on a
pre-columbian understanding of performance


UNIT 2: THE POLITICS AND POETICS OF ENCOUNTER

In this unit, we analyze the colonial encounter itself as a foundational
performative moment. We read Columbus's first letters and other accounts
by European travelers as establishing the colonial paradigm of the
construction of the "other," a paradigm that informs subsequent encounters
between Europeans and Native Americans. We compare how performance was
differently apprehended by the Spanish and Native American communities,
reflecting distinct systems of signification and religious belief. We lend
special attention to the moments in which both groups began to appreciate
the unexpected effects of their performances on the other, and began to
adjust their performance behaviors accordingly. For the Native Americans,
we witness the radical dis-articulation of the Native American social
universe, as the Spaniards impose new regimes of behavior and social
organization.

Class 5
Columbus, Letters: first letter
Guaman Poma de Ayala, El primer nueva coronica y buen gobierno (1585-1615)  
Jean de Léry, History of a voyage to the land of Brazil, otherwise called
America

Class Six
Nathan Wachtel, "Los vencidos, los indios del Peru frente a la
conquista espanola."

Class Seven
Conquest
Miguel Leon Portilla, "El reverso de la conquista." Testimonios Quechas de
la conquista

Class Eight
Diferentes estilos de guerra. Confrontacion de sistemas muy diferentes de
'performance' (el rol del espectaculo en la conquista)
Pedro de Cieza de León, The Discovery and Conquest of Peru, seleciones. 

Class Nine
Ordenanzas, regimen del cuerpo, control social y espacial
Performance and the resistance of social memory
Ordenanzas en Tom Abercrombie, Pathways of memory and Power, 434-435.


Class 10 
Gender, Sex, Race and Conquest:
Ollantay
Irene Silverblatt, Moon, Sun, and Witches: Gender Ideologies and Class in
Inca and Colonial Peru
Richard Trexler, Sex and Conquest, ch. 5
Louis Montrose, "The Work of Gender in the Discourse of Discovery" (in New
World Encounters)
	
Discussion (all three classes, Peru, Brazil, US) on the conflicting
understandings of performance


UNIT 3: TEATRO DE CONQUISTA Y EVANGELIZACIÓN

How was theatre used in the military and spiritual conquest of New Spain? 
In this unit, we review the performance models brought from Spain in this
period (actos, Corpus Christi performances, loas, etc.) and analyze the
use and abuse of theatre as a tool of colonization. We examine the major
Festivals of the late 1530s, and consider how theatrical performance
provided a space for the imposition and contestation of the new social and
religious cosmology. We read several major Native religious dramas as
well, as complex documents of the transculturation or syncretism, which
marked the period.

Class Eleven
"Historia de la Conquista de Quesaltenango:"  Obra folklorica de los Indios
quiches 
Richard Trexler, "We Think, They Act: Clerical Readings of the Missionary
Theatre in 16th Century New Spain" in Steven Kaplan, ed. Understanding
Popular Culture: Europe from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century
(1984) 189-227.
El Baile de la Conquista, en The Native Theatre in Middle America 211-239
[Guatemala]
	
Class Twelve 
El Güegüence o macho ratón o 
Tragedia del fin de Atau Wallpa


UNIT 4: THEATRICALITY AND COLONIAL AUTHORITY

In this unit, we analyze the role of theatre and theatricality in the
maintenance of Spanish colonial authority and power. We analyze the use of
spectacle as a mechanism to both represent and implement colonial order in
the public sphere, and as a means to exert control over colonial subjects. 
We also look at the subversion of those colonial spectacles through
syncretic performance practices.

Class Thirteeen
Sara Castro-Klaren: "Dancing and the Sacred in the Andes: From the
Taqui-Oncoy to Rasu-Niti" (in S. Greenblatt, ed. New World Encounters)

Sabine MacCormack: "Demons, Imagination, and the Incas." (in S. Greenblatt,
ed. New World Encounters)

Class Fourteen
	
Final Discussion: Discussion (all three classes, Peru, Brazil, US) on a
general  understanding of performance



BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bernand, C. (1988). The Incas: Empire of Blood and Gold. London, Thames and
Hudson.
	
Cid Perez, J. a. D. M. d. C., Ed. (1973). Teatro Indioamericano Colonial.
Madrid, Spain, Aguilar.
	Anthology of plays from the colonial period, translated into Spanish from
native languages. Includes introduction, "Teatro Colonial en lenguas
indias" and substantial bibliography. Plays are: Adoracion de los reyes
(nahuatl); Historia de la conquista de Quesaltenango (quiche); Tragedia del
fin de Atau Wallpa (quechua); El pobre mas rico (quechua); Usca Paucar
(quechua); El Hijo prodigo (quechua);

Cobo, F. B. (1990). Inca Religion & Customs. Austin, TX, University of
Texas Press.
	
Diez, A. (1994). Fiestas y cofradias. Asociaciones religiosas e integracion
en la historia de la comunidad de sechura (siglos XVII al XX), CIPCA.
	
Hemming, J. (1970). The Conquest of the Incas. New York, Harcourt Brace &
Company.
	
Millones, L. (1992). Actores de altura: ensayos sobre el teatro popular
andino, editorial horizonte.
	"Breve historia del teatro andino colonial," "La 'Danza de la degollacion
del Inca,'" "Los Incas en el recuerdo poetico andino," "La muerte de
Atahualpa," "Reflexiones desde la audiencia: cuatro dramas populares"

Poole, Deborah. Vision, Race, and Modernity. Princeton: Princeton UP., 1997