This assignment may be turned in late, but with the usual penalties.

Popular understandings of the encounter between Europeans and the indigenous peoples of the Americas often fall into one of two broad parables:

(Parable A) capitalism and civilization forcibly pushing aside what had been societies of lazy natives uninterested in (or incapable of) commerce and industry.

Or

(Parable B) racist whites destroying native societies for whom living harmony with both their environment and with each other was an inherent and unchangeable part of their cultures.

In this paper, answer the following question:

How well (and why) does the evidence from the Alan Taylor readings and the film Black Robe support or dispute both of these parables?

Keep in mind that your answers to HW7 provide you with much of the raw resources in the form of textual evidence that will you need for this paper; that is, the assignments build upon one another.

Some important things to keep in mind:

1) The evidence might support both parables, one but not the other, neither, or parts but not all of both.

2) Notice that in both parables, the Euro-American arrival into the New World destroyed much about the societies of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. That destruction is not what distinguishes one parable from the other.

3) Don’t address only one aspect of a particular parable while ignoring others. Be sure, accordingly, that your analysis addresses the entirety of both Parable A and Parable B.  So, for example, don’t forget to address this part of Parable A: “natives uninterested in (or incapable of) commerce and industry.” Likewise, don’t don’t forget to address this part of Parable B: “Native societies for whom living harmony with both their environment and with each other was an inherent and unchangeable part of their cultures.”

4) Be sure to organize your paper around a thesis expressed near the beginning of your essay. This thesis must be a concise answer to the question asked above and it must explain to your reader HOW and the WHY your argument is a valid interpretation of the evidence.”

5) You must have at least 12 pieces of evidence for this paper; six from the Alan Taylor reading and six from the film. Your thesis, however, might easily require more.

FILM TRANSCRIPT AVAILABLE HERE

WRITING REQUIREMENTS

A. Length: 600-900 Words

B.. You will want to organize around your essay around a concise thesis statement that appears near the beginning of your paper. Be sure to underline your thesis statement (5 points off if you do not)..

C. See minimum quotation requirement from the reading and film above.

D. When using direct quotations, be sure to use method 3 or 4 for introducing quotations (-5% if you don’t) and also be sure to reduce your quotations to ten for fewer words. See here on how to reduce quotations.

E  When making your arguments, be sure to ground those arguments in specific evidence.

F.   Be sure in those paragraphs where you make points from evidence to organize those paragraph in the familiar cl/ev/wa format and that you put a (CL) in front of your paragraph’s claim, an (EV) before the evidence, and a (WA) in front of the warrant.  (Keep in mind (A) not all paragraphs should be in cl/ev/wa format–just those that make a point from evidence. Also keep in mind (B) that the cl/ev/wa format is for organizing individual paragraphs rather than for organizing whole papers. A strong paper will likely have a series of cl/ev/wa paragraphs as well as a number of paragraphs that are not in that format.)

END OF ASSIGNMENT