l'Histoire d'Enfance

Second Critique

2005-05-10T22:06:00.000-04:00

I critiqued both Rickita's paper and Ann's paper. Hopefully if this works, the critique can be found here:

http://us.f2.yahoofs.com/bc/4281684e_7041/bc/My+Documents/critiques.doc?bfhzWgCB8rKYJ9gu

Ann's critique is below Rickita's on the same file.

I guess it doesn't work so here are the criqitues:

Critique of “Redefining the Black Role: Education in Freedman’s Village, 1863-1888”

Rickita, now that you have a complete essay, this was much easier to critique. Your paper explores an interesting subject while it simultaneously takes the reader through the experience of one particular post-bellum school for black children, which in a way, was a microcosm for the whole educational experience of black children in the South at the time. Additionally, I thought that both the beginning and the end of the paper framed the content nicely.

Unfortunately, although this paper has made significant improvement since last time, there are still some areas that need to be worked on.

I identified your thesis to be “Although there were a number of Freedmen schools developed in the South, few were as successful as Freedman’s Village located in Arlington, Virginia.” With that said, I think its placement at the beginning of the third paragraph is a little awkward. However, I am used to seeing theses only at the beginning of the first paragraph or the end of an introductory paragraph so perhaps I am just biased. What I suggest is moving the thesis to the end of the second paragraph, and turning the rest of that third paragraph into a greater paragraph about the background of the Freedman’s Village. A way to do that is to move the content in “Establishment of Freedmen’s Village in Arlington” to that paragraph.

Similar to what I just suggested, there are entire sections of the paper that don’t appear to be necessary to include in order to understand or reflect on the subject of the paper: education in Freedman’s Village from 1863-1888. The sections that I think should entirely go are “Northern Reactions to the South During the Civil War”, “Organization of the Freedmen’s Bureau”, and the “Historical Background of Arlington.” If you feel that discussing those subjects are absolutely necessary to understand education in Freedman’s Village, then they could easily be mentioned or summarized in a couple paragraphs or less. Ideally, when discussing background, it should be no more than 2 pages in length because such a lengthy discussion of material that is not the subject of the paper tends to cause the reader to forget the subject matter and lose track of what the argument of the paper is. Another way to include the subjects is to introduce them as they become relevant to a discussion directly relating the argument of the paper. For instance, when discussing the ambivalent attitudes the Southerners held about the education of blacks, a brief background or mention of where the ambivalence came from would be helpful. However, in general these subjects don’t really need to be included in detail in order to understand the context of the material. A couple or several paragraphs of information would be fine at the most. A couple others in the class had a similar problem with the inclusion of background information and if I remember correctly, they were recommended to sum up things like the Holocaust and the Russian Revolution in a couple paragraphs.

Other than that, there just needs to be a re-reading of the paper to correct grammatical mistakes. There are a few awkward sentences like “Freed children slaves represented a shift in the role of blacks in the United States” on page 2. In the last paragraph there are a couple of typos like “However once freed people became education…” and “It was one the longest…”. Basically stuff like that. I’m not so sure about the quotes you have in the beginning of “Education Efforts for Freedmen”, “First Years of Freedman’s Village Schools” and “School Year 1863-1864”. They are nice to read and make your paper look like a book, but some teachers might think it’s just taking up space. I guess just use your best judgment. I personally think ones like the quote in “First Years of Freedman’s Village” are effective.

Anyway, overall, it’s a nice paper; it just needs some help with getting rid of all that background and focusing more on the thesis. If I had to give it a grade, it would be between a C+/B.

Critique of “Negative/Positive, That is Not the Question: Children in Motion Pictures from the Eighties to the Early Twenty-First Century”

Ann, what can I say, overall you have an excellent paper. The introduction is good, the argument is clear; the main paragraphs all have topic sentences relating to the main argument, the argument progresses in a logical manner and the conclusion is strong. I even like the way you handle footnotes, though I have no idea if the way you did them is correct. I only know how to cite a reference, I’ve never actually written out information like you see in professional articles. If it is stylistically correct, then I liked what you did because it gave a lot of the background information outside of the content of the main paper so that one does not get distracted reading about the background.

Honestly, most of the criticism that I can find is grammatical. There are only a few things I would take into consideration stylistically.

What stuck out stylistically to me was how you structured your thesis, particularly the beginning of it where you say “Before discussing the film Better Luck Tomorrow the first part of the paper will….,” (if I am correct in assuming that is your thesis). When I had my conference with Prof. Petrik, she pointed out something very similar in my paper and referred to it as “stage direction.” Never having looked at that kind of structure before, I realized that it is just better to say something than it is to direct the reader like “before”. In a way, removing the directions strengthens the argument just out of style. Also, the sentence before “Before,” is rather long. If that is part of your thesis, it can be broken up and rephrased so that it is more focused. I write a lot of long sentences, myself, so it’s kind of hard for me to give suggestions other than what’s obvious, but hopefully that helps.

Now, concerning the grammar there are actually a lot of consistencies with the errors I saw. Most of the corrections that need to be made deal with endings, like plurals and singulars and the use of the verb to be in the present tense (is/are), which is also related to singular and plural. Thus, an understanding of singular tense and plural tense would help correct these errors. Here is one example that has other errors relating to singular/plural tense as well. On page 6 you write,

…June exhibit a range of emotions resembling feeling typical nine-year old children might experience.

This is how it would be corrected:

…June exhibits a range of emotions resembling the feelings a typical nine-year old child might experience.

These errors with singular and plural can be found in both the main paper and the footnotes. I wish I knew of a way to help you correct the mistakes. Well, when the subject of a sentence is plural, like films, the “to be” verb relating to it should be plural, such as with the present plural form of to be: are. Together it should be films are instead of films is. I’ve noticed that when the subject is not next to the verb it becomes harder. Here is an example that I’ve made up:

The girls in the movie is attractive.

The correct way would be:

The girls in the movie are attractive.

I am pretty bad at other types of grammar, so that is really all that I spotted. There were some awkward sentences here and there, like the first sentence on page 11, “The four boys adventure in Las Vegas lead to another point that the movie brought forth that is radically daring from other movies are the exploitation of sexuality”, but since that involves the topic sentence of a paragraph and grammatical mistakes I make as well, I’m not really sure how to correct it.

Anyway, as I’ve already said you have an excellent paper that has primarily grammatical problems only. Because of that, if I were giving you a grade I would give you a B+/A depending on how much grammatical errors were important in terms of grading.

#11 Critique

2005-04-20T22:11:00.000-04:00

I critiqued Rickita's paper. It can be found here:

http://pastteaches.blogspot.com/2005/04/blog-entry-seven-redefining-black-role.html#comments

Goofed up

2005-04-19T16:04:00.000-04:00

After reading Rickita's critique of my paper, I just realized that I sent the prof the incomplete version of my essay. My full essay with title page, appendix and biblio was saved on my A drive and not my hard drive.

OH where are my brains?

If anyone else wants to critique my paper, shoot me an email and I'll email you it.

Paper

2005-04-18T17:43:00.000-04:00

Place paper critique comments here.

Correction

2005-04-07T09:33:00.000-04:00

My paper has been revised as best as I could, though I'm almost positive that tense is a problem.

As for the images, I will include the few I have that are from the internet that are used in my paper so the paper is not completely bereft of photographs.

Behind

2005-04-07T08:30:00.000-04:00

Oh I am so screwed. I thought the papers were due 24 hours before your conferences, not actually in class today.

I don't have any of the images in my paper and I don't think I'll get to revise it, not to mention I've had a hell of a time with tense and grammar. My paper is a mess.

I don't have the images because I have to take digital photographs of them and my dad hasn't had time yet to upload them to his computer and then email them to me where I can edit them and put in captions.

This is probably the most important assignment we've had yet and I went and screwed it all up.

Brief Update on First Draft

2005-04-04T16:01:00.000-04:00

As usual with me, my draft has taken a life of its own. It's generally following the outline, but I can't say it fully is. A lot of the stuff I wrote in my outline were either not correct or unnecessary to include. I didn't realize how fast 10 pages would go by! I'm not there yet, mind you, but I'm getting there without having gotten to what I thought my main points were. I may omit my last paragraph entirely since space is running out and that's a concept that has been discussed already in much detail. I'm liking how I'm discussing things that are not focused on a lot.

So yeah, I'm just writing this because while doing a yahoo search my journal came up. I don't want people to read this and think it is entirely accurate. My outlines are always a rough idea of what I think the research shows, as opposed to what I really discover once I dive into my paper.

#8. Native American Children in Photos from the 1860s-1920s OUTLINE

2005-03-31T19:34:00.000-05:00

Outline

Like Keith, a formal outline is awkward and usually not representative of my final paper. It generally provides the skeleton of my paper, but not the details. I am the kind of writer that changes things as I write. Many times, I end up discovering new things as I go along, or completely toss out earlier ideas. My thesis is the main victim of this style of mine because usually by the end of a paper, it will have been changed at least two times. With that in mind, this is just a general idea of what I plan. I may or may not stick to it. At this point, I am not comfortable inserting quotes or sources that I will use. It’s easier for me to find the exact support that I will use once I actually write my paper. This is because of the way I write and how things and even ideas change as the words flow from my head to my fingers.

Introduction and Thesis Statement
1 paragraph
The introduction will open with a quote from Edward Curtis on photographing Native Americans. I will then briefly comment on the meaning and significance of the quote in light of the time period and general history of the photography of non-Whites of that period. I will then connect this with Native Americans and continue by alluding to the attitudes towards Native Americans through the 1860s-1920s. From there I will bring in the scantily analyzed significance of children in understanding the history of the portrayal of Native Americans in photographs from that time period. I will conclude with my thesis statement which should be something along the lines of: Photographs of Native American children from the period of the 1860s-1920s mirror the concepts that existed among non-Native Americans about how a Native American should look.

Background
1-2 paragraphs
Here, I will go into the background of photography during the 1860s-1920s, which will elaborate on how the camera became an anthropological and ethnographic tool for anyone who could find Native Americans and take their picture. From here I will further explain how because it was being yielded by those without an anthropological background, the photographs did more for understanding the photographers than it did for understanding Native Americans. If this flows accordingly, I will go into the second paragraph with an explanation of the cultural attitudes towards Native Americans through the 1860s-1920s and how these photographs became reflections of the concepts. I will end the paragraph by mentioning how children were particularly good for serving these concepts.

First Example
2 paragraphs
The first concept I will tackle is the photograph of the Native American child as the exotic “other”. This category involves images of Native American children in studio or studio-like settings that imitate White portraits in terms of sitting styles, but are distinguishable by their costume, which is often gaudy or stereotypical of how a Native American should look. Some of these are noticeably from the 1860s, but in general, this, like many of the styles, these depictions can be found throughout the late 1800s. It all depends on the photographer, and not the time period, per se. When portraying the exotic “other” child, it is frequently seen swaddled in a cradleboard [description of such an image]. When the child is older, it is generally sitting in front of the adults on the floor, if not being held. Rarely is the child standing with or above the adults, like is seen in many White photographs of the period. I will analyze why this could be [compare and contrast examples].

Second Example
2 paragraphs
The second concept will focus on the portrayal of Native American children as examples of savagery or wildness. At some point I will briefly discuss Social Darwinism and its role in these pictures, but I don’t want to elaborate on it too much because it is better fitted for the example of forced assimilation. These photographs will involve images of children running around naked with messy hair and dirt on their bodies. An example will be provided and another will be described. I will then discuss how the composition of these photographs is usually wide and from a distance, which suggests the separation between civilization (the camera and the cameraman) and savagery (the children, Native American culture). I may include some mention of exhibitions of Native American photographs that reflect this. Also, there will be mention of people like Edward Curtis, who assigned their own understandings to the various Native American cultures, by incorrectly describing what they took a picture of (generally simplifying the subject matter). Although he will be more thoroughly included later, I will show how he has his own “wild child” photographs (which are where the descriptions come from). Two photographs will be shown in this paragraph and two or more described.

Third Example
2 paragraphs
This example will connect with the previous one, but show Native American children as an extension of nature that promotes an idea of “wild innocence”, almost like the image of a wild animal baby would. Here is where Edward Curtis’ position is uncertain. His “wild” photographs fit into both categories. Irregardless of that, this concept will have pictures of children in the wild doing everyday things or seemingly doing nothing. These are more romanticized than the wild child photographs, but still insinuate that the subjects possess a certain degree of savagery, if not noble savagery. Joining with the first concept, they will also come off as being somewhat exotic because of their connection with nature. Many of these photographs will show girls as opposed to boys. These girls may be indirectly sexualized because of an association with nature (and the natural world) with uninhibited sexuality. Ora Eddleman Reed’s “Types of Indian Girls” will be examples of how the attitude was present and how she attempted to defeat it by having girls indoors. I can say that this example will be taken from the article “Strike a Euroamerican pose”. However, after quoting her, I will put my own interpretation to it by suggesting not a savage wildness from the first category, but a more romanticized wildness that is more appropriate to this subject (the article suggests just wildness, thus making my interpretation different). From my experience with Bedouin images and images of African girls, all of whom are similar in terms of a connection with nature and thus sex, these images are romanticized and sold for excitement than to portray savagery. In a way, it is like the Victorian man’s interest in things like fictional harems that were full of naked women. I will probably have to go into attitudes of the time period to correctly explain this. I will probably just use one photograph and then describe maybe a couple others.

(For the following I can’t figure out what order to put them in. It will just have to snap into place once I actually write the paper)

Fourth Example
3 paragraphs
For now, the first and maybe second paragraph will focus on the use of Native American children as a means to symbolize Native American womanhood. Since in the majority of these photographs, the derogatory term “squaw” is used, I’ll explain how in a way, these babies serve as a means to indicate “squawness”. These images are in abundance and can be found among all types of photographers. What’s more amazing is that they basically all look the same (show one example, explain others). These photographs are generally comprised of profiles of women with a cradleboard on their back, which is generally labeled as a “papoose” even though that is not the correct term for it. With the constant abundance of these images, it calls into question what the purpose is. I will analyze how these photographs represent what qualifies a woman to be a “real” Native American in the eyes of the photographers and the people seeing the photographs. In these photographs, the poor children are just a nameless symbol referred to only by “papoose”. When there is no woman present, the babies are alone but still bound in the cradleboards and are again, rarely named, unlike the adults. This then becomes the symbol for Native American babies and how they are supposed to look, which can be called “papooseness”. Rarely, are babies shown outside of a papoose. When they are, it’s a photograph that’s not professional or artistic (example will be shown). This will be the third paragraph.

Fifth Example
3 paragraphs
Now this example will focus on the blatant examples of Social Darwinism and acculturation, among other similar concepts. For these paragraphs, I will show how Native American children are used to portray the “noble savage” and their “civilizing”. This might take up the first paragraph. The second paragraph will go into the popular examples of Indian school photographs. The group photographs always have before and after shots. Then, from there are photographs of the various activities the children took part in, whether staged or real. Finally, I can show the photographs of the children after attending school, usually posed in the same manner and dress as White people. The last paragraph will deal with the ambiguous or obviously requested photographs of Native American children that are culturally assimilated partially or fully. One picture I will either describe or include has a man dressed in “Native American” clothing while his son is in a Western suit. I will discuss why photographs like these exist. Others I will talk about are photographs that seem to be of normal families who have adapted to American culture, most notably photographs from the 1920s in which those are most prevalent form of photograph of Native American children.

Sixth Example
3-4 paragraphs
Lastly, this paragraph will address the very popular subject of the concept of the “vanishing Indian”. I will explain what that means and how Native American children figure into those types of photographs. There will probably be a lot from the more famous photographers who really defined that style, like Edward Curtis. I will hopefully take a new slant on the subject by getting into the over-romanticized and inaccurate depiction of such children. I will also go into how those photographs, even while romanticized, still conformed to stereotypes about Native Americans. Hopefully, I will be able to connect this subject with various parts from the other subjects, like how these photographs amplify the notion of the exotic “other” as well as the wild child, the natural child, and the “Indian child/Papoose/Squaw”. Since this incorporates a lot of elements, and will probably require three photographs, I’m planning for it to be somehow divided into about 3-4 paragraphs, making it the longest part of the essay.

Conclusion
1 paragraph
The conclusion will restate the thesis in different words. It will then go over the significance of the attitudes of the various periods and how they were reflected on the portrayal of Native American children in photographs from the 1860s-1920s. I will explain the effect the concepts and attitudes the various periods embraced and how Native American children are used to satisfy these concepts, whether intentional or subconscious. Basically, this will sum up the historical significance with some message about culture.

Revised and Updated Bibliography

2005-03-27T18:06:00.000-05:00

For those who did not attend class, my topic has changed from the history of Native American children in popular visual media to an analysis of Native American children in photographs from the 1840s-1920s. Through my research, I've found and noticed several themes/ideas that exist in these photographs of children: the child as a portrayal of the "exotic other" (typical of the era), the wild child (also wild children before and after "civilization"), the stoic child, the "vanishing" child or the natural/wild innocence lost child, the sentimental family/children as an extension and representation of the family, the child as a symbol of Indianness/Squawness (I use these terms sarcastically) and the partially or fully assimilated child. I hope for my paper that I will let the photographs speak for themselves. I've already read of several books about photographers that have no problem judging the intentions of the photographer. As a student of history, I cannot even pretend to know the intention of another person unless testimony of such exists. What I can do, however, is analyze what I have before me and come to conclusions based on what the evidence states. Hopefully, that is what I will be able to accomplish, which will give my paper a unique take on the subject.

This bibliography is a revision of the earlier, with new sources added. Primary sources (photographs) are specifically excluded at this point because I am not sure which specific photographs I will chose to incorporate from now until the outline. I imagine my choices will change frequently until the outline is finished. There are a plethora of other articles I have not included in my bibliography because I am still in the process of locating them. As usual, once I have more sources, I will update the bibliography.

Bataille, Gretchen M., ed. Native American Representations First Encounters, Distorted Images, and Literary Appropriations. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001.

Bernardin, Susan. Trading Gazes : Euro-American Women Photographers and Native North Americans. New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press, 2003.

Hill, Rick. 1996. Images of Urban Native Americans: The Border Zones of Mixed Identitites. Journal of American Culture 20 (1):27-30.

Hirschfelder, Arlene. American Indian Stereotypes in the World of Children: A Reader and Bibliography. Second Edition ed. London: Scarecrow Press, 1999.

Johnson, Tim, ed. Spirit Capture: Photographs from the National Museum of the American Indian. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998.

Kosmider, Alexia. 1998. Strike a Euroamerican pose: Ora Eddleman Reed's "Types of Indian Girls". American Transcendental Quarterly 12 (2):109-132.

Lippard, Lucy R., ed. Partial Recall. New York: New Press, 1992.

Mitchell, Alfred L. Bush and Lee Clark. The Photograph and the American Indian. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1994.

Morris, Kelly. 1998. The Shadow Catchers. The Lancet 352 (9138):1480-1482.

Reif, Wanda. 2001. Tragic Evolution of American Indians. The Lancet 358 (9279):428.

Warren, Louis S. 1999. Vanishing Point: Images of Indians and Ideas of American History. Ethnohistory 46 (2):361-372.

New Look

2005-03-23T23:12:00.000-05:00

Well, my previous template got screwed up from something I typed in my bibliography post, so I picked a new one to see if it would be compatable and what do you know, I like this style better.

#7 Bibliography (part 1)

2005-03-23T22:57:00.000-05:00

Here is an early version of my very rough bibliography. This version does not include movies and many primary source books (that is, books with photographs in them...only a few are given). I felt like I should post something instead of absolutely nothing.

Bibliography

Bataille, Gretchen M., ed. Native American Representations First Encounters, Distorted Images, and Literary Appropriations. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001.

Bernardin, Susan. Trading Gazes : Euro-American Women Photographers and Native North Americans. New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press, 2003.

Donnelly, Joseph P., ed. Wilderness Kingdom, Indian Life in the Rocky Mountains, 1840-1847 : the Journals & Paintings of Nicolas Point. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967.

Hilger, Michael. From Savage to Nobleman : Images of Native Americans in Film. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1995.

Hirschfelder, Arlene. American Indian Stereotypes in the World of Children: A Reader and Bibliography. Second Edition ed. London: Scarecrow Press, 1999.

Johnson, Tim, ed. Spirit Capture: Photographs from the National Museum of the American Indian. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998.

Kilpatrick, Jacquelyn. Celluloid Indians : Native Americans and Film. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1999.

Lippard, Lucy R., ed. Partial Recall. New York: New Press, 1992.

Lorant, Stefan, ed. The New World; the First Pictures of America, Made by John White and Jacques Le Moyne and Engraved by Theodore De Bry, with Contemporary Narratives of the Huguenot Settlement in Florida, 1562-1565, and the Virginia Colony, 1585-1590. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1946.

Mitchell, Alfred L. Bush and Lee Clark. The Photograph and the American Indian. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1994.

O'Connor, Peter C. Rollins and John E., ed. Hollywood's Indian : the Portrayal of the Native American in Film. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1998.

Parry, Ellwood. The Image of the Indian and the Black Man in American Art, 1590-1900. New York: G. Braziller, 1974.

Silet, Gretchen M. Bataille and Charles L. P., ed. The Pretend Indians : Images of Native Americans in the Movies. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1980.

#6 (Late) Update -- Running in Circles

2005-03-23T20:44:00.000-05:00

Well, I've realized that I am severely overwhelmed by not only my sources, but just how I should handle them for my paper.

It turns out that I've found a substantial amount of secondary source books that analyze Native Americans in film and even photography. Articles, on the other hand, are lacking. Honestly, I haven't really looked at any articles yet because I have so many concise books. Since the nature of my paper cannot rely on primary source articles (everything is visual), I'm scared that if I start looking at articles, I'm going to have an overwhelming abundance of secondary source information that I don't really need. So, I'm not really sure how to balance this. Also, I have a couple books that are compilations of articles from journals, and so I wondering if those count as articles.

My other overwhelming problem is the nature of documenting the primary source images in a bibliography. Almost all photographs, paintings and woodcuts are being pulled from books, with their original sources mentioned, if available (just as if I had found a primary source document inside a secondary source book or article, somthing I have done many times, especially with hard to find sources). Do I just include the books from which images are pulled like I would in the case of a primary source document in a secondary source, or do I have to include each image that will be referenced in the bibliography? If I have to do the later, that is going to be a problem because it is taking me time to gather images. What's ironic is that I already have ideas from the secondary sources instead of primary ones and so my research is going backwards since the images are harder to collect than outside information on the subject.

In general, the images are hard to collect because there are so many books I can pull from (yet another source of being overwhelmed). To make it worse, these books tend to be big and heavy. I've already had one stranger help me carry books to my car, and my parents have helped me carry books out of my car. Well (thinking as I type) I suppose I could park my car in the meter section and relay books two at a time. The idea I had in mind, however, was to somehow convince my dad let me borrow his digital camera so I can just take pictures of the pictures, without having to even check out books. I was planning on doing that this weekend.

As for movies, I'm overwhelmed by them as well (haha I'm gonig nuts!). I've considered just analyzing movies since there seems to be a lot of secondary opinion on Native Americans in movies, but then I don't know if there would be enough information for a 15 page paper (5 or 8 page paper, sure). For the most part though, it's just a matter of what movies to pick, how to get a hold of them (planning on just renting them) and how to make the time to watch them (depending on the number of movies I use). My initial list of movies was quite long. Now that reality is setting in, I'm starting to think I should just use a few that are representitive of certain attitudes or time periods or whatever. However, by reading the secondary sources, I'm finding that only a couple Native American movies are specifically discussed repeatidly, if at all. That makes me toss around the idea of just using those movies and a couple others not mentioned in secondary sources.

Don't get me wrong, in my papers I always use secondary sources to support my own statements and observations. If I had my way, I wouldn't even use secondary sources. I am just clarifying that I am not dependent on them to form my thesis or analysis. Reading them over, and sorting out which I can use in my paper are just part of my standard routine.

Anyway, I guess all this is really saying that my paper requires a lot more thinking and preparation than I had expected. Because this has thrown me off schedule, I won't be able to post a bibliography until Friday, when I have a full day/afternoon. Tomorrow (thursday), I am on campus all day. As probably expected from my frustrations and questions, it's going to be a rough bibliography (which for me is VERY normal) of mostly books (secondary sources and possible books that contain my primary sources) and a narrowed down list of movies.

Brief Research Update

2005-03-10T07:27:00.000-05:00

I've discovered that what the Library of Congress lacked, GMU significantly made up for. There are a plethora of books about Native Americans in film and a few on Native Americans in photography. There are also a lot of books on general collections of Native American photographs and paintings that I could use to pull photographs and paintings from. Some of the books are checked out, but that shouldn't hinder my progress because I'm usually good at finding hard to find things.

I still have a list of articles to look up, which I will do tomorrow or this weekend, begining first with JSTOR and moving from there. Those may prove to be rather tricky since I need to find a collection that includes these Native American specific hisotrical journals.

#5. Books in the Library of Congress? Where?

2005-03-05T17:11:00.000-05:00

So I went to the Library of Congress with Rickita and Sarah today (Saturday) and let's just say we had an interesting experience. I think the height of our experience was eating in the Coffee Lounge.

For me, the problems started when I walked in the door. I had picked up a brownie at a local cafe, but couldn't finish all of it. When I went inside, I tried to explain that I wanted them to hand search my brownie and let it go through the metal detector, but they wouldn't let me get my words out. They just ordered me to put it on the x-ray machine conveyer belt. Being pregnant, I refused to risk ingesting radiation since I've read to stay away from x-ray machines, period. So, I had to throw my half-brownie away. Then, Sarah and I (we met each other on the metro) found the room where you get your reader registration cards, and it was like a desert. I got in trouble again because they told me not to check my coat when I thought you were required to, so yet again I was embarassed and suggested that from there Sarah goes first. ;) In the card room there was no one there except the employees. So, that whole process was quick and easy. When we finished the computer part, we were worried about how we were going to meet up with Rickita since none of us expected it to be a dead zone, but she came in right on time. We got our pictures taken and my picture ended up being horrible looking, in my opinion, but I never have the courage in those situations to say "hey I want a new picture" so I just accepted it in disapointment and moved on.

Once we got our cards, we were ready to go. As we stood in front of the room listings in the hallway to figure out where to start, a guard informed us that every room we needed was closed and that we had to go to the Jefferson building where a whole two rooms were open, the Local History/Genealogy room and the Main Reading Room. At the time, however, we didn't catch that those were the only rooms open so we were open-minded after seeing what rooms were there, and pretty hopeful.

Just to briefly comment, walking to the Jefferson building in the tunnel was a very strange experience. It was like stepping into a cheesy Sci-fi, horror or thriller movie. It was practically empty, very long, and made strange industrial noises.

Anyway, we reached the Jefferson building, and got to walk down another strange corridor, this time with Roman-style murals (I'm guessing the same artist who did the Capital?) with construction pipe and plastic around us. As we walked, we got excited about the various rooms because on the walls were small vignettes of what the collections held. In one such window, there was a picture of a Native American boy (Folklife Collection), so I was psyched about checkig that room out. Well, go figure it was closed. Disappointed, we decided to go to the Local History room because we figured Rickita would be able to find a lot of sources for her project.

Going in the Local History/Genealogy room was weird. It was very small. We just sat at a table and saw the big catalogues and started to flip through them. (From here, I'll just talk about my research experience so as to not take away from Rickita's or Sarah's post) At first, I didn't find a single thing under "Native Americans" or "American Indians". After Sarah and Rickita made the suggestion to look by tribe, I tried just that, lazily flipping through to see if any names caught my eye. I finally found a small section on the Cherokee and Cheraw I believe (people near the Peedee River in SC). One book was entitled "Sketches of such and such" and so I was excited. The only other book I found that wasn't just a genealogical catalogue said it had several pictures of the Cheraw (or whatever they were called). So, I filled out forms for those books and waited. And boy, did all of us wait. I had remembered to bring a book with me to kill time while I waited, but Rickita and Sarah did not, so I felt bad reading and honestly was too distracted to really pay attention to my book, anyway. We ended up waiting a long time. The longer we waited, the more we realized we were in fact, pretty hungry. Soon, after about an half hour to an hour, our table was a chorus of stomach grumbles. Eventually, Sarah and Rickita got slips back, but we didn't know what they meant and what to do with them. Rickita figured out that if the slip said "located in LH & G" we could just get the book off the self. After waiting long after Sarah and Rickita got their slips back, I eventually got one of mine back. It indicated that I could get it and so did. Much to my disapointment, the book had no images of Native Americans in it, even though it said it was about Native Americans. All the pictures were of white colonists. It was very frustrating. After waiting a while longer, and all of us very hungry, I just decided (with Rickita's help) to just go and check it my other book was on the shelf, since they were allowing us to get it eventually, anyway. Lo and behold not only was it sitting right on a shelf, it was right in front of our table. Go figure, however, that the book entitled "Sketches of..." had absolutely no illustrations. It was very disapointing, but what made up for it was the fact that Rickita had found for me a nearby book that had ONE picture of Native American children in it, which I quickly photocopied. After I found my books, we basically finished up and left, very disapointed.

From there we went to the coffee place and got ourselves a lot to eat. It was rather expensive, but we were so hungry from waiting so long, that we ate everything up.

After we ate we decided to try the Main Reading Room in Jefferson, thinking it probably just has a lot of general books. When we eventually got there, it wasn't what I had expected of a big reading room. There were no long tables or green lights, like I have seen in other such libraries. It was rather small and still used the 1999 paper catalogues. So, once again we embarked on our hunt for books by flipping through the catalogues. At first, we thought we found a jackpot, but then reality hit and we all had only two books. We eventually gave our slips to the attendants once we were ready, and were told that it would be a 2 hour wait because the system wasn't working. We were just like "whatever" because it was still only 2:30, so we waited.

While waiting Sarah and I went to the bathroom on the second floor. After going, we walked down the hall a bit and found the Rare Books room, but unfortunately, like everything else, it was not open. So we went back down to the Main Reading Room. At that point, I was real hot, so I wore my the sweater I had on me around my wasit. As I showed my card to the guard, he stopped me and asked what was on my waist. He was concerned that it was a jacket or a bag. I kept saying sweater or shirt I think and then he finally understood once I untied it and let me in.

As usual, we waited and waited and waited. I can't remember how long the wait exactly was. It was at least an hour I believe, before I got my whole two books. Luckily, one of the books ended up being useful. It not only had a photograph of a Native American child on the cover, it also had brief entries on Native Americans in film and photographs. Each entry also listed a variety of sources, which look very helpful for my project, if I can find them. I photocopied all those pages, and was basically done. Rickita had already left since she had nothing, and Sarah was also left with nothing, so Sarah and I decided to leave. By that point it was about 4.

Oh, the drama wasn't over just because we were leaving. Once again, I got stopped and was asked to show my bag AS I LEFT. I showed the guard the bag, and didn't realize he was talking to me when he said "OK, you can go" and so he said it one more time, but louder and more forceful. It was pretty frustrating. I've never been such a problem in a place before. I've gone to ALL the museums fully covered and have had no similar problems, or even get close to it. Guards would talk to me, not treat me like a terrorist despite being obviously Muslim, and my purse would just get glanced at.

Anyway, overall, we all agreed the experience was very disapointing and very frustrating. Sarah and I agreed (since Rickita's topic was more tricky and localized) that we would have a plethora more sources if we had just gone to a regular library. I personally know there are many Native American books with woodcuts, photographs and paintings in them so it was very frustrating to go to this big fancy library and find only one book with short entries and one picture.

We discussed going to the library on the weekday, but it will be rather tricky. So far, I think another Friday, perhaps next Friday, will be better. The library is much too scary and intimidating to go alone, especially since I appear to be a walking security hazard.

#4. The History of Native American Children in Popular Visual Media

2005-02-23T16:58:00.000-05:00

When the average, modern non-Native American child thinks of what a typical Native American child looks like, they think of movies like Pocahontas and Dances with Wolves. If they’ve been exposed to Native culture through school, they may conjure up photographs they’ve seen in educational books, generally separated by nation or tribe. [Ask this question after November and a child might draw upon the movie The New World, a historical revisionist (so far looks like a retrograde revisionism) retelling of the story of Pocahontas.] Generally speaking, unless a child lives in an area with a Native American population, they will bring to reference these visual mediums to draw upon what a Native American child looks like. Because Native Americans, like other ethnic groups in America, tend to be viewed as the other or ironically, the outsider, their portrayals in visual media tend to be typecast. For this paper, I will examine the history of the visual portrayal of Native American children through the various eras and will examine why certain periods in history depict Native American children in certain ways.

I hope that by examining Native American children in such a manner, historical light can be shed on the way certain periods in American history imagined children in general. Or, to put it in different words, I hope that my essay will be able to answer: “Historically, how have adults visualized children, and why were certain conceptions popular during certain times?” For instance when Native American children are being romanticized through stereotypical portrayals such as during the 50s, the larger picture would show that in general all children during that time were being idealized in certain ways to fit cultural expectations, nostalgia or ideas.

I plan to trace the history of Native American children in popular visual media through history by focusing on the most dominant form of visual media of various time periods. I may include secondary forms of visual media if I find there are ample enough primary sources (for instance, cartoons or caricatures on children’s products), and it would not make my paper too long.

In general, the forms I plan to look at or try to search for are woodcuts, paintings, photographs and movies in that order. There may be little or none woodcuts available showing children, but I am including them just in case. They would be crucial to have a progression of visual media from the beginning of white contact with Native Americans to the present day, but my essay will not be affected without them. The paintings I will use will be from the famous painters of Native Americans such as George Caitlin. I have one book in my possession that is a large collection of such images. The ways the children are portrayed in paintings are very interesting and just as important to analyze as photographs, in my opinion. Then will come photographs, which will probably be taken from a variety of sources, some famous like Edward S. Curtis, but most probably from unknown photographers. It is very obvious that photographs are going to be my main focus since they are the most prolific. When it comes to movies, I think I am going to limit my sources by starting with movies from the late 50s onward, and instead of focusing on average Westerns of those times, deal with ones that have a primary focus on Native Americans. Movies I will probably include, depending on accessibility, are: The Searchers, Cheyenne Autumn (haven’t seen so not sure in children are in it), Tell Them Willie Boy was Here, Little Big Man, Billy Jack, Black Robe, Windwalker (if I can find it), Powwow Highway, Shadow of the Wolf (if I can find it), Dances with Wolves, Dance Me Outside, Grand Avenue (if I can find it), Smoke Signals, Spirit Rider (if I can find it), The Education of Little Tree (if I can find it), The Missing and The Doe Boy. Although I’ve listed a substantial number of movies, many of them are quite similar and can be lumped together to examine particular times and portrayals.

My comment to another's post:

Responded to Nick

My response to comments:

Responded to Lori

#3. Native American Primary Source 3

2005-02-15T13:16:00.000-05:00

To view full size image, click on image, then click on "View Different Sizes" and select "Large"

Screen Capture: "Where should she go? Yonder was a group of young girls playing a game of konci, or dice. The dice were five plum-seeds, scorched black, and had little stars and quarter-moons instead of numbers. She went over and stood by the group, gently rock-

-226-

ing herself from side to side, pretty much as white children do when reciting the multiplication table. The girls would toss up the wooden bowl, letting it drop with a gentle thud on the pillow beneath, the falling dice making a pleasant clatter which the baby liked to hear. The stakes were a little heap of beads, rings, and bracelets. The laughter and exclamations of the girls, as some successful toss brought down the dice three stars and two quarter-moons (the highest throw), made Nedawi wish that she, too, were a young girl, and could win and wear all those pretty things. How gay she would look! Just then, the little glittering heap caught baby's eye. He tried to wriggle out of the blanket to get to it, but Nedawi held tight. Then he set up a yell. Nedawi walked away very reluctantly, because she wanted to stay and see who would win. She went to her mother's tent, but found it deserted. Her father and brothers had gone to the chase. A herd of buffalo had been seen that morning, and all the men in the tribe had gone, and would not be back till night. Her mother, her sister, and the women of the household had gone to the river for wood and water. The tent looked enticingly cool, with the sides turned up to let the breeze sweep through, and the straw mats and soft robes seemed to invite her to lie down on them and dream the afternoon away, as she was too apt to do. She did not yield to the temptation, however, for she knew Mother would not like it, but walked over to her cousin Metai's tent. She found her cousin "keeping house" with a number of little girls, and stood

-227-

to watch them while they put up little tents, just large enough to hold one or two girls.

"Nedawi, come and play," said Metai. "You can make the fire and cook. I'll ask Mother for something to cook."

"But what shall I do with Habazhu?" said Nedawi.

"I'll tell you. Put him in my tent, and make believe he's our little old grandfather."

Forthwith he was transferred from Nedawi's back to the little tent. But Habazhu had a decided objection to staying in the dark little place, where he could not see"

Excerpt from: La Flesche, Suzette. "Nedawi." (An Indian Story from Real Life.)BY "BRIGHT EYES." St. Nicholas 8 (Jan. 1881): 225-30.

Taken from: Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library
--------------------------------------------

Screen Capture: "Suzette La Flesche, was first the published Native American artist and writer. La Flesche published this story under the English translation of her Native American name Inshta Theumba ("Bright Eyes"). This story though fictional was based on La Flesche's experiences growing up Native American in Omaha during the age of incorporation. The story was first published in St. Nicholas Magazine in 1881. Like Sa's Impressions, Nedawi reveals an Indian childhood full of innocence and story telling. Yet, unlike Sa who leaves comparisons between the upbringing of white and Indian children to her readers, La Flesche makes these comparisons overtly in her text. Nedawi is "no more perfect than any little white girl who gets into a temper now and then." She swings back and forth "pretty much as white children do." This story of La Flesche's, at this time an "inmate" at a boarding school for Indian girls, represents the similarities and argues for the common ground of humanity held between the white and brown races."

Taken from: The Native American and The Culture of Incorporation, Section: Indian Childhood

=========================

This book, although fictional, can be used as a primary source in a research paper because of the material it contains and because of the status of the author. The characters, dialogue and general incidents are to be assumed fictional, but the activities and varying references to cultural concepts and material objects should be considered accurate since they were based off the author's own childhood. For instance, in this screen capture, it clearly details a game of konci. From personal experience, I know the details are accurate because I own a picture of the game and its pieces and they're just as described. So, like the two previous primary sources, this one can aid in an research paper that examins the sorts of games Native American children played. You can also gleam from this resource the general duties and expectations of young girls in similar Native American cultures.

My comment to another's post: Responded to Madeleine

#3. Native American Primary Source 2

2005-02-15T12:08:00.000-05:00

On the previous page: "The Crow woman Pretty-shield reminisced about [miniature household toys] of childhood in Red Mother:

Excerpt: Once several of us girls made ourselves a play-village with our tiny tepees. Of course our children were dolls and our horses dogs, and yet we managed to make our village look very real, so real that we thought we ought to have some meat to cook. We decided to kill it ourselves. A girl named Beaver-that-passes and I said we would be the hunters, that we would go out to a buffalo heard that was in sight and kill a calf. Knowing that we could not handle a bow, Beaver-that-passes borrowed her father's lance that was very sharp and longer than both our bodies put together. We caught and saddled two gentle pack-horses; and both the old fools went crazy before we managed to kill a calf. I helped all I could, but it was Beaver-that-passes who wounded a big calf that gave us both a lot of trouble before we finally got it down and dead. I hurt my leg, and Beaver-that-passes cut her hand with the lance. The calf itself looked pretty bad by the time we got it to our play village. But we had a big feast and forgot our hurts. [1]"

Taken From: Niethammer, Carolyn. Daughters of the Earth: the Lives and Legends of American Indian Women. New York: Touchstone, 1977.

Original Source: 1. Linderman, Frank. Red Mother. New York: John Day Company, 1932.
==========================
This excerpt from a personal account could be used in a research project in many ways. For one, it could be like the first primary source and illustrate that Nations like the Blackfeet and the Crow had play tipis for young girls if there is a discussion of Native American childhood toys or the lives of girls. Similarly, like the images, they also illustrate the difference between girl toys and boy toys (since they did not have miniature weapons, for instance). Futhermore, in a different sort of research project it could illustrate the humanity of Native American girls in a way that is often absent in popular media because of stereotypes and cultural expectations. This excerpt is an example of girls who had astounding personality, audacity, creative and relative freedom.

#3. Native American Primary Source 1

2005-02-15T10:33:00.000-05:00

Caption reads: Toys such as the exquisite ceranmic doll securely swaddled on its cradleboard (right), made by the Indians of the southern Colorado River region, and the play tipi of the Blackfeet girl at left were designed to introduce girls to the role of women. From birth, females were directed toward motherhood and domestic duties.

Taken From: Time-Life Books, eds. Cycles of Life: The American Indians. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1994. (44-45)
==========================
These two images may be used in a research project to illustrate or emphasize the use of toys and miniature reproductions among some or many of the nations and tribes of the plains before reservations. In general, the images illustrate that girls from nations like the Blackfeet had the same kind of toys that girls all over the world generally enjoy (a play house and a doll). Moreover, these images also illustrate what sorts of toys were acceptable for girls in similar cultures. In a research project, it could further lend itself to a discussion about what is expected of Native American girls in their varying societies by analyzing what sorts of toys and leisurely and non-leisurely activities they took part in.

Topic Change

2005-02-11T11:16:00.000-05:00

Now that I'm feeling slightly better than I have been over the past couple of days, I've been able to more rationally decide on the general subject matter for my topic in this class (if you're reading this blog outside without any experience inside the class, this may be confusing). I've solidly choosen to focus in some way on Native American children, past and/or present with a suspected emphasis on their varying culture and lifeways. I'm hoping my grandmother, who used to be a researcher for NARF (Native American Rights Fund), can aid me in my search for primary source materials.

I own one book that should be helpful in finding primary source materials called Daughters of the Earth, which is based primarily on primary sources. I used to own many others that were nation specific, but I sold a lot of them, so I will have to do some hunting down of those. The movie Smoke Signals and books like Rain is not my Indian Name should prove helpful for analyzing modern issues that face some Native American youth today, if I choose to include a modern analysis/comparison.

For now, I have a small collection of photographs and paintings of various Native American children on flickr. The images can be viewed at these locations, sorted by region: Children from the Plains, Children from the Southwest and Children from the East and Pacific Northwest. I'm almost positively going to be using at least one photo from one of those groups for the next assignment.

For now, here is an article I found on modern Native American youth culture:

Beyond Tradition: Today's Native Youth Organizing
By Michael Gaworecki, WireTap. Posted October 23, 2002.

"9 out of 10 people think that as a Native American woman, I'm supposed to look like either that Land-O-Lakes butter girl, or Disney's Pocahontas," says Charlotte Chinana, a 22-year-old, New Mexico-based Native youth activist of Dineh and Jemez Pueblo blood.

Understandably, these stereotypes don't sit well with many of today's Native youth. Images in the mass media (and mainstream culture as a whole) are just one of the challenges Native youth face however. Factor in high rates of poverty, joblessness, alcoholism, and diabetes, and one gets a sense of what's fueling the new brand of youth organizing going on in Native communities.

By 2000, less than 20% of Native Americans still lived on reservations. Though the shift to more urban and suburban areas has introduced its own challenges, it has also opened up a whole new realm of possibilities to Native youth. They are embracing urban-based cultures more than ever, and though this has introduced a kind of gap between today's Native youth and their more-traditional elders, it has not necessarily led them away from their heritage. If anything, despite identifying with a number of non-traditional cultures, today's Native youth are more aware of how important it is that they preserve and maintain personal connections with their traditional culture.

The article mentions the influence and popularity of political hip hop for Native American youth. I've heard some of this music and am familiar with it's popularity, especially in the Southwest. What's interesting, as the article points out, many "minority" youths are drawn to political hip hop, even Muslims, which the article does not mention. There is a huge movement and rise in Islamic hip hop, especially among the middle-lower class Muslims. I just thought it was fascinating to see how all these different groups with large middle-lower class populations are finding solace in the same kind of music and subculture. Punk music is also another genre I've seen Native Americans and other "minorites" enjoy, but there aren't many bands that are actually Native American, Latino, Asian or Muslim. There is only a small outcroping of Desi Punk springing up that I can think of off the top of my head (the term for punk bands comprised of Desi or Pakistani members).

#2. Exploring the Topic of Poor, Immigrant Children in America

2005-02-09T15:48:00.000-05:00

The Sneetches

Dr. Seuss

When the Star-Belly children went out to play ball,

Could a Plain Belly get in the game...? Not at all.

You only could play if your bellies had stars

And the Plain-Belly children had none upon thars.

When the Star-Belly Sneetches had frankfurter roasts

Or picnics or parties or marshmallow toasts,

They never invited the Plain-Belly Sneetches.

They left them out cold, in the dark of the beaches.

They kept them away. Never let them come near.

And that's how they treated them year after year.

This time around, the sections I read were informative and helpful. In Childhood in America, I read the section “The Child’s World”, which was a combination of history, first-hand accounts and excerpts from popular children’s fiction. In the Children’s Culture Reader, I selected “Childhood Innocence”, a section that focused on the concept of the innocent child. After reading these sections, I have decided to concentrate on a topic that involves the experience of the poor and/or immigrant children of the early to mid-20th century.

I came to the decision to change my topic idea after having read “The Case of Peter Pan: The Impossibility of Children’s Fiction” by Jacqueline S. Rose in The Children’s Culture Reader and “American Children and Their Books” by Gillian Avery in Childhood in America. The first essay gave the opinion that children’s fiction is somewhat of an oxymoron because, according to Jacqueline S. Rose, “Children’s fiction sets up a world in which the adult comes first….and the child comes after…but where neither of them enter the space in between” (58). She elaborates her point by focusing on the story of Peter Pan, which she says was never really intended for children and is not primarily enjoyed by children, anyway. After reading that argument in detail, children’s fiction became something complex and psychological for me. What’s worse to think about is the repeated idea of psycho-sexual motivations behind such works. Unfortunately, the author did not include any mention of Michael Jackson and his fixation on being Peter Pan and loving boys in her essay, which would have made her Peter Pan psycho-sexual argument stronger. At any rate, after dwelling on the essay I thought about changing my idea from Victorian/Edwardian children’s literature to colonial or ante-bellum children’s literature. However, the second essay helped spoil the fun out of that idea.

“American Children and Their Books” addressed the popularity and unpopularity of fairy tales and nursery rhymes. Apparently, fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault and Hans Christian Andersen were only popular in America during certain periods in history, and were not as popular as nursery rhymes. Many objected to such tales as being idle amusements, pointless and deceitful. Going along with the negative attitudes towards fairy tales, the essay “Children in Fiction and Fact” by Anne Scott MacLeod continues the downward spiral of children’s literature by stating that children’s fiction was enjoyed more by adults than by children during the ante-bellum and Victorian periods. These children apparently amused themselves with adult books more than children’s books and vice versa. Again, these essays disillusioned me with the subject of Victorian children’s literature and made me rethink my options.

After going over the readings, I realized the essays and segments that I enjoyed reading the most were the personal accounts of childhood in poverty and isolation as immigrants in America. Some of the accounts were very fascinating and informative, such as “Quiet Odyssey: A Pioneer Korean Woman in America” by Mary Paik Lee. I had never known that there were Korean immigrants in America that early in history. Other accounts, such as “Talking to the High Monks in the Snow: An Asian American Odyssey” by Lydia Yuri Minatoya, revealed the very different experiences non-white Americans have in America whether they are immigrants or first or second generation Americans. I’m thinking about making my topic focus on the early experiences of Arab, Turkish and Central Asian immigrant children in America and/or including or focusing on (for more research possibilities and information) Jewish immigrant children, especially from religiously practicing families. If I have to be even more inclusive in my topic, I would extend it to include all non-Christian immigrants (Arabs and Turks being the exception) so as to explore the various levels of confusion, isolation and assimilation or establishment. This is inspired in part from reading about the Russian Jewish girl and how her father had forsaken a rule during the Sabbath and how the young boy in “China Boy” by Gus Lee had a hard time explaining the concept of yuing chi to his African-American friend. From my experience, these sorts of incidents are still very common today. It would be fascinating to explore how people reacted and adjusted in America. Another option that I’m not thinking about as much is what I’ve already mentioned is migrant worker children. I haven’t read anything about that subject and I don’t know what would be really interesting about it.

My comment to another post: Response to Lori's post

HIST 300 Blogs

2005-02-02T19:55:00.000-05:00

#1. Few Topic Ideas from Childbirth, Infancy and Child’s Play

2005-02-02T18:10:00.000-05:00

When I approached the readings in both Childhood in America and The Children’s Culture Reader, I was excited and optimistic since I thought I had selected two sections that would be enjoyable to read. Once I finished the readings, however, I was very disappointed. The sections “Childbirth and Infancy” in Childhood in America and “Child’s Play” from The Children’s Culture Reader were occasionally off-subject, repetitive and tedious to read.

In the section “Childbirth and Infancy”, half of the short essays were focused on women and their roles in conception, childbirth and nursing with scant mention of the infants, themselves. This in itself led me to believe that half of “Childbirth and Infancy” (the “Childbirth” part) was off-subject to the theme of the course: childhood. I should have been more perceptive in my section selection, but I was shortsighted and made a mistake. I suppose it could be argued that childbirth constitutes childhood as it is the beginning, but the essays seemed to primarily focus on women and society. The most notable examples of such misdirection are the essays “Brought to Bed: Childbearing in America” by Judith Walzer Leavitt and “Reconstructing Motherhood: The La Leche League in Postwar America” by Lynn Y. Weiner. In “Brought to Bed”, the essay concentrates on the role of men and science in childbirth in the nineteenth century, and the socio-cultural reasons behind the birth choices women made. “Reconstructing Motherhood” concerns itself with the cultural motivations behind joining the La Leche League. Clearly, both essays discuss socio-cultural implications with little information on the acts of childbirth and nursing.

Much to my surprise, some essays from both sections were repetitive. For instance, “Children’s Desires/Mothers’ Dilemmas: The Social Contexts of Consumption” by Ellen Seiter in The Children’s Culture Reader echoes some of the information provided in the essay “The Mother-Child Dyad Revisited: Perceptions of Mothers and Children in Twentieth-Century Child-Rearing Manuals” by Nancy Pottishman Weiss in Childhood in America. “Children’s Desires/Mothers’ Dilemmas” traces the history of consumerism and its relation and influence on children and child-rearing while “The Mother-Child Dyad Revisited” tackles the nature and trends of the post-war child-rearing manuals. Understandably, in addressing the subject of consumerism in “Children’s Desires/Mothers’ Dilemmas” the subject of child-rearing manuals is mentioned in detail, with specific attention to influential men such as Dr. Spock, J.B Watson and the psychologist Jean Piaget. Not only are these men the subject of the essay “The Mother-Child Dyad Revisited”, they also have their own writings published in Childhood in America in the same “Childbirth and Infancy” section (“Too Much Mother Love” by J.B. Watson and “The Construction of Reality in the Child” by Jean Piaget). Reading about those men and the subject of manuals over and over made the information less captivating.

To make the reading experience even worse for me, I had a hard time understanding some of the essays. In Childhood in America, the three essays that dealt with infant psychology were very difficult for me to comprehend. These essays were “Child Science and the Rise of the Experts” by Joseph M. Hawes, “The Construction of Reality in the Child” by Jean Piaget and “Understanding the Infant” by Jerome Kagan. They seemed to be intended for the scientific community and not an average person.

Overall, the “Child’s Play” section in The Children’s Culture Reader was the most tolerable and helpful for generating topic ideas. I particularly enjoyed reading “The Politics of Dollhood in Nineteenth-Century America” by Miriam Formanek-Brunell. Reading that essay has opened me up to the history of girls in the nineteenth-early twentieth century and their toys, as well as the history and importance of rag dolls, especially in the eighteenth century. “Boy Culture” by E. Anthony Rotundo was also enjoyable to read, specifically because it dealt with the same time period, although I did not gain any topic ideas from it other than toys children played with in the nineteenth century.

My comment to another post:
Response to Keith's post