ANTHRO 3AC Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Biological Warfare, Repressor, Mortal Sin
Document Summary
2. 1 cultural collisions 9/1: the aztecs and cortes: explanations for victory/defeat, why the spanish conquered the aztecs with such ease and speed against overwhelming odds in 1521, montezuma"s indecision- hesitant, poor advisors, genuine ambiguity, aztecs notorious for indeeds. Cortes and genuine: vigorous protest against montezuma stole everything that belonged to them . forced to work as if they were slaves , tributary labor over those the empire dominated, these villages saw in cortes some kind of liberation. Spanish superiority in weaponry: biological warfare- deliberately infecting blankets with infections, todorov"s argument. Spanish won quickly bc of decisive importance of communication. Spanish chronicles: priest, conquistador, and scholar together- biased by being in the service of the chronicles: highly literate with hieroglyphic and books of maya and aztecs. There has to be a reason- usually sorcery, social explan. Future not open, everything already determined for you, no free will.
