American Studies 335
New England
Roger Williams University
GHH 109
M, Th  3:30 - 4:50
Spring Semester, 2010
Michael R. H. Swanson, Ph. D.
Office:  GHH 215
Hours: M, W, F  1:00-2:00
T, 9:00 - 10:00 or by appointment
Phone:  254 3230
E-mail:  amst335@gmail.com
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HAPPY PRESIDENTS DAY!

When I was a kid schools celebrated the birthdays of both Washington and Lincoln on the actual days they happened (at least Northern schools celebrated both).  Consequently, I knew (and iknow) the days to sing Happy Birthday Dear George and Happy Birthday Dear Abraham.  How many in this class do?  No fair peeking.

Roger Williams University likes to mess with the calendar more than most places I know.  So Monday happens on Wednesday this week.  But this particular Wednesday complicates this this procedure for some of us even more than usual.  It is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.  I have an obligation to sing a service at 5:30 in Providence, and as I type this I’m not certain what time I’m called for rehearsal.  I think the safest thing for me to do is to cancel class on Wednesday, and if necessary I can hold a makeup class later in the semester.  You can guarantee that won’t be necessary by reading like little demons, and by bringing up questions about what you  need explained or clarified.  There is a double dose of reading here...but you’ve a week to complete it.
For Thursday, February 18

Read, in Wood, Part II, Chapters 1-9, pp. 75-97,

Continue Reading, from Mourt’s Relation, ,
Parts    II -  A Journey to Packanokick. . .   159 - 172
III -  A Visit Made by Ten of our Men. . .      173 - 178
IV - A Journey to the Kingdom of Namaschet. . .     179 - 184
     V - A Relation of our Voyage to the Massachusetts185 - 191
    VI - A Letter Sent from New England. . .                   192 - 203

You should have Mourt downloaded and saved to your computer.  If not, click the link and download it again.
Before you panic looking at the number of pages, remember you’re responsible for only the sections which comprised part of the original book, and not the copious footnotes and geneologies.  Some of these pages have no more than one or two lines of text on them.  In the original, they numbered pages pages 40 - 85.

An internet resource for indigenous ethno-technology focusing on the arts of Eastern Woodland Indian Peoples, providing historical & contemporary background with instructional how-to's & references
The rather difficult to read button above leads to a website which  highlights an idea we need to keep in mind.  Commonly we think of the Europeans as being posessors of "technology" while the Native Americans were not.  Both communities had technology of a sort, and many of the techniques used by Native Americans were more appropriate to New England than the technologies of the English colonists.  Click on the button above and visit NativeTech.org.  Investigate some of the ways Native Americans used the natural resources of their region.  Some of these were adopted by Europeans, some not.  The narrations in Mourt's Relation may offer some insight as to why more Native American technology wasn't adopted.