NEH 2014 Summer Seminar

Oaxaca, Mexico

An Analysis of the Evolution of Gender Roles and Identity

Case Study: Mesoamerica

Christine JaworkHarriton High School/Lower Merion School District

Rosemont, Pennsylvania

Essential Questions Addressing Issues of Social Justice Related to Gender I

How and more importantly WHY do gender roles in a society evolve over time and space?

What function do gender roles serve? (Pragmatic and Ideological)

How do historians interpret the identification of gender and the role of gender in society and civilization? To what extent, and for whom, is art and imagery a valid form of literacy?

How and more importantly WHY do gender roles in a society evolve over

time and space? {FUNCTION}

“The largest growing economic force in the world isn't China or India -- it's women. The earning power of women globally is expected to reach $18 trillion by 2014 -- a $5 trillion rise for current income, according to World Bank estimates. That is more than twice the estimated 2014 GDP of China and India combined” (Voigt 2009)

PRESENT DAY USA:http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/12/05/how-far-we-havent-come-all-of-the-terrible-ways-the-media-treated-women-in-2013-in-one-video/

Overview of Unit

• Introduce Gender, “Literacy” and “Lens”

• Analyze Images and Text Pre-contact

Codices (Mapas)

Colonial Creation Narratives Autonomous and Colonial Perspectives

Post ColonialEnvia: Zapotec Women

Resistance and Redefinition of Gender Roles

Analyze Images and Text Pre-contact Codices (Mapas)

Overview of Unit

• Introduce Gender, “Literacy” and “Lens”

• Analyze Images and Text Pre-contact

Codices (Mapas)

Colonial Creation Narratives Autonomous and Colonial

Perspectives

Post ColonialEnvia: Zapotec Women

Resistance and Redefinition of Gender Roles

Lesson ideas to translate theory into classroom practice

- “Literacy” through art/images

- Present and image/photo or set of photos and have learners identify:

- Audience

- Purpose (What does the author wish of her/his audience in viewing

- Lens (angle/size look for bias in the drawing or angle or size

EXAMPLE ON NEXT SLIDE

Analyze the imageLook for:

- Face / Emotion / Gaze / Eyes

- Symbolism (rays of light)?

- Color / hue

- Focal point

- Lens angle (location of viewer)

Gender Roles Redefined / Reclaimed

Analyze how these images connect to our unit

Conclusion: Essay

1. What factors (geography, politics, economics, beliefs, social systems) led to some communities

embracing or resisting Spanish patriarchal institutions and gender narratives?