Vol. 30 No. 1 SPRING 1994
The Newsletter (ISSN 0069-8466) of the Conference on Latin American History is published semiannually (Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter) in the offices of the Secretariat, located in the Institute for Latin American Studies at Auburn University. Deadlines for submission of material for the Newsletter are March and September. Receipt of the Newsletter is contingent upon membership in CLAH. For information regarding dues and other activities of the Conference please write to:
CLAH Secretariat: Institute for Latin American Studies 2195 Haley Center Auburn University Auburn University, AL 36849-5236 INTERNET: ilas@mail.auburn.edu VOICE:(205)844-4161 FAX:(205)844-2378
CONFERENCE ON LATIN AMERICAN HISTORY PUBLICATIONS
CLINE, HOWARD F. Comp. and ed. Latin American History: Essays in Its Study and Teaching, 1898-1965. Two Volume Set, 828 pages. 1967. Cloth ISBN 0-29908210-5. $20.00
CHARNO, STEVEN M. Comp. Latin American Newspapers in United States Libraries: A Union List. 636 pages. 1968. Cloth ISBN 0- 299-08210-5. $20.00
GRIFFIN, CHARLES C. Ed. Latin America: A Guide to the Historical Literature. 730 pages. 1971. Cloth ISBN 0-200- 08220-2. $32.50
BARTLEY, RUSSELL H. Ed. and trans. Soviet Historians on Latin America: Recent Scholarly Contributions. 364 pages. 1978. Cloth ISBN 0-299-07250-9. $25.00
LOMBARDI, CATHRYN L., and John V. Lombardi, with K. Lynn Stoner. Latin American History: A Teaching Atlas. 162 pages, 136 maps. 1984. Cloth ISBN 0-299-09710-2 $22.50 Paper ISBN 0-299-09714- 5. $6.95
GRIEB, KENNETH J., ET.AL. Research Guide to Central America and the Caribbean. 430 pages. 1985. Cloth ISBN 0-299-10050-2. $35.00
Order CLAH publications from:
The University of Wisconsin Press 114 North Murray Street Madison, WI 53725 Telephone: (608) 262-8782
Individuals must prepay; the Press pays postage. Master Card and Visa are accepted. Wisconsin residents add 5% sales tax.
INDEX (Page numbers may vary from the printed version because of the transfer to electronic format)
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
MESSAGE FROM THE SECRETARIAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
TREASURER'S REPORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
COMMITTEE REPORTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
PROPOSED CLAH PROGRAM GUIDELINES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
REPORTS ON SESSIONS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
ANNOUNCEMENTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
CALL FOR PAPERS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
AWARDS & FELLOWSHIPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
1994 CLAH OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL NOTES
PUBLICATIONS AND RESEARCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
GRANTS, FELLOWSHIPS, HONORS AND AWARDS. . . . . . . . .. . 48
PROMOTIONS, APPOINTMENTS, TRANSFERS AND
VISITING PROFESSORSHIPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
INSTITUTIONAL NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
PRIZE WINNERS FOR 1993 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
Florencia Mallon
It seems ironic that, as a member of the generation that protested the Vietnam War, I now find myself composing a presidential message for the CLAH Spring Newsletter. The long and short of it is this: I can no longer deny that, by the criteria of that time, I am now a member of the establishment. Or, as we were accustomed to saying twenty-five years ago, I am "part of the problem."
Times do change, don't they? (If they didn't, of course, most of us would be out of a job . . .) And yet, still the stubborn idealist and optimist, I continue to feel that we can contribute to making things change for the better. In small ways, I think this is happening with CLAH right now.
To begin with, when I pass the CLAH "claw" to my successor, Donna Guy, in Chicago in January 1995, it will be the first time that a woman succeeds another as president of our organization. Further, as many of you already know, the "passing of the claw" will occur in Chicago rather than Cincinnatti because the AHA membership voted to avoid Cincinnatti after that city passed a resolution eliminating sexual orientation as a basis for barring discrimination.
Indeed, the AHA Council adopted a policy statement against holding annual meetings in sites where city or state laws would subject AHA members to "discrimination on the basis of age, gender, marital status, national origin, physical ability, race, religion, or sexual orientation."
Secondly, thanks to the initiative of my predecessor, Eric Van Young, and Michael Conniff and Donathon Olliff, the new Executive Secretaries, our membership drive has been very successful over the past year or so, and we are striving to reach a membership of 1,200 at the end of the present campaign. Now that we seem organizationally healthy in most respects, we have begun to think about reorganizing officeholding and election procedures.
Among the initiatives before the CLAH membership this spring, therefore, is the extension of the Presidential term to two years (which would become effective with Donna Guy's term) and some suggested procedures for electing the officers of the regional and topical committees.
Thirdly, our ever conflictual relationship with the AHA Program Committee is in the process of improving. The 1995 CLAH Program Committee, ably chaired by Stuart Voss, has put together a truly exciting program that emphasizes the comparative, theoretical, and cross-regional dialogues that Latin Americanist historians have been developing over the past few years. As a part of this effort, there is also before the membership some suggested revisions in the CLAH Program guidelines that will help reflect our growth and increasing diversity, and institutionalize better communication with the AHA.
Finally, additional recent events point to our greater dynamism and health. At our January 1994 meeting in San Francisco, 115 members gathered to hear Donna Guy speak on the importance of gender theory in Latin American history. The turnout was so large that some people were forced to finish their meal downstairs before joining the crowd for Donna's talk and the presentation of the awards.
Also announced in San Francisco was a large bequest made to CLAH in the will of prominent Cuban scholar Lydia Cabrera, an endowment that will help CLAH support research in Cuban history from 1492 to 1868. (See the announcement in this issue.) Starting in 1995, we will be able to make several small research grants to dissertation and postdoctoral researchers to aid them in their use of materials contained in Spanish, U.S., and Mexican archives.
So there are good reasons for the thickness of this newsletter. Please support our ongoing dynamism by making your views known on our various initiatives, and by participating actively in the 1995 and 1996 programs.
As the 1960s generation continues to spread its influence in our profession, let's hope that our much-vaunted (if sometimes exaggerated) tradition of participatory democracy bears fruit!
See you in Chicago!
A MESSAGE FROM THE SECRETARIAT
Donathon Olliff
Michael Conniff
As with the previous message, it is appropriate to give a bienvenidos and bem-vindos to our new members. The response to our membership drive continues to be encouraging. Ethan sent out some 1400 recruitment fliers and as a result our membership has grown to 850. We hope that you will continue to encourage your graduate students to join.
We encourage our members to make full use of electronic mail. If you have an e-mail address and have not informed us, please do so soon so we can include it in the next Membership List. Use of e- ail saves us (and you) money. E-mail also opens the door to H-
LATAM and the 20 odd other history electronic fileservers that are now available as a part of H-NET.
The CLAH Secretariat's office has a new e-mail address: "ilas@mail.auburn.edu." Please use this new address when communicating with our office. We have also had inquiries about the HAHR e-mail address: hahr@servax.fiu.edu.
H-LATAM continues to support stimulating electronic discussions and circulation of news among CLAH members. Membership (free) is now about 350 in 19 countries and is growing daily. The Secretariat has used H-LATAM a number of times to make announcements or solicit information. Co-moderators Jackie Kent and Phil Mueller continue to work out the bugs, control quality, and expand services. By the time you read this, the gopher should be up and running, containing (among many other things) the Fall 1993 CLAH Newsletter, the January membership list, and the Constitution and Bylaws. And by the way, the cluster of history fileservers, H-NET, just received a $155,000 grant from the NEH to continue expanding. Congratulations to Jackie and Phil!
Please note that included with this newsletter is a two-page ballot on the proposed amendments to the CLAH Constitution and Bylaws. Please mark your ballot and return to the Secretariat as soon as possible and no later than 30 April 1994.
The Secretariat wishes to thank those who put together the outstanding program, participated in the program, served on the regional and awards committees, and all the other unnamed individuals whose efforts contributed to make our San Francisco meeting such a success. The Secretariat is indebted to you. We also wish to thank Stuart Voss and the rest of the 1995 Program Committee for their work in planning an excellent program for the 1995 meeting.
TREASURER'S REPORT
1993
Receipts Membership dues (from UAZ)
1,719 Endowment fund (from UAZ)
41,732 Membership dues
9,663 Luncheon tickets
875 Mail label rentals
650 Refund from AHA
492 Endowment donations - Lydia Cabrera
202,926 Endowment donations - Lewis Hanke
3,120 Investment dividends
7,639 Miscellaneous
440 Total
269,256
Disbursements Printing costs
6,648 Prizes (Scobie)
900 Clerical Services
1,100 Conference expenses
400 Legal expenses
1,085 Miscellaneous
5 Total
10,138
Receipts over Disbursements
259,118
Cash, 28 Jan 1993
10,276
Cash Balances consist of the following: Operating Account
5,977 Lydia Cabrera
208,439 Lewis Hanke
3,120 Certificates of Deposit (Arizona)
7,672 General Endowment
44,186 Total Cash at Dec. 31, 1993
269,394
COMMITTEE REPORTS Andean Studies Committee
The co-chairs, Thomas Abercrombie and Karen Powers, opened the meeting by thanking Alfonso Quiroz and Paul Gootenberg, the previous co-chairs, for their service to the Committee. Brooke Larson then spoke about the future of the Colonial Latin American Review and requested that committee members encourage their institutions to subscribe to the journal. The remainder of the session was devoted to the panel, "New Approaches to Andean Rebellion." Two papers were presented: "Communities in Crisis: Conflict and Contradiction in the Thupa Amaro Rebellion" by Ward Stavig (University of South Florida) and "Peasants, Local Elites and the State in the Aymara Districts of the Highlands of Peru 1900-1930," by Marcela Calisto (University of Toledo, Ohio). Karen Spalding (Wellesley College) was the commentator.
Ward Stavig examined the participation of the peoples of Quispicanchis and Canas y Canchis (Department of Cuzco) in the Thupa Amaro rebellion. Although he admitted the importance of Structural pressures (demographic growth, economic demands and state policies), he emphasized that the complexities of local political configurations and the cultural contradictions of indigenous communities themselves were also important forces in a group's decision to rebel or refrain from protest. More specifically, he posed a correlation between a group's potential for rebellion and form of protest on the one hand with the relationship it had with its curaca and its cultural values regarding community and crime on the other. In the region under investigation, Stavig claimed that the relationship between community and curaca remained unusually solid and that the face to face relations between community and curaca and between the curaca and local authorities determined whether a people participated in the rebellion. He also concluded that indigenous values concerning crime -- a deeply rooted Andean disdain for thievery, for example-- reduced the revolutionary potential of the peoples of rural Cuzco. In addition, Stavig posed that the convergence of Andean and Spanish values regarding crime helped to legitimize the colonial state to indigenous communities, thereby ruling out social banditry as a form of protest and enhancing the power of both communal authorities and Spanish officials.
Marcela Calisto examined rural conflict in the Department of Puno from 1900 to 1930 and determined that land shortage was not the only or even the primary cause of political struggles there. Nor was protest the result of state exactions, but rather of the abusive manner in which local authorities carried out those exactions. For example, Calisto claims that Indians did not complain about the state's land tax, but rather about the way it was collected. Calisto underscored that peasant political behavior was also determined by anger over local authorities' obstructionist use of their traditional intermediary role to misrepresent or trivialize peasant complaints to the state. She then supported her arguments empirically by recounting events leading to a rebellion in the province of Chucuito in 1903. Among her conclusions were: that peasant discontent with the mediation of local authorities and their creation of parallel political apparatus reflected a desire to become integrated into national society; that in many cases, the "rebellions" were actually fabrications of local elites; that violence was a last resort along a continuum of protest forms that included refusal to perform labor on public works, to serve in the army, to pay the land tax, to obey official orders, and demonstrations in the towns; and that Indian struggles at the turn of the twentieth century transcended the local sphere.
Karen Spalding praised both presenters for treating peasants as actors instead of reactors and for seeing rebellion as part of a continuum. She questioned Stavig's use of the phrase "traditional relationship between curaca and community" pointing out that "traditional relationships" were a matter of wishful thinking. She also commented that while examining the links between the community and the larger society is crucial, looking at crime as a vehicle is problematic, since "crime" as a concept needs to be deconstructed. She added that "curaca" and "crime" were words with loaded meanings. Eric Van Young commented that he admired Stavig's willingness to come down below the radar by emphasizing "face to face" relations. Thomas Abercrombie then questioned both presenters on use of the term "community" for both eighteenth and twentieth centuries and asked more pointedly how collective institutions were constituted. He and Spalding then discussed how one might look at the realm of secrecy or clandestinity in these communities to see that constitution.
With regard to Calisto's paper, Spalding remarked that what lies behind the paper is "the dance of opposition," that is, relations with the larger society. She also commented favorably on the methodology of putting the sources on the witness stand. Van Young admired Calisto's attack on the essentialist categorization of peasants as being pre-political, but stated that we can go too far with presenting peasants as actors instead of reactors; he expressed a need for more nuanced interpretations. Michael Gonzalez then suggested that Calisto highlight major rebellions. Eric Langer commented that land issues were not that important in Puno because Indians were occupied more with transport, hence struggles would likely be over labor services.
The meeting was well attended and the discussions lively. Karen Powers, Northern Arizona University
Rio de la Plata-Chile Committee Meeting
We gathered to have an open-ended discussion about authoritarianism in Argentina. In the past few years, several books have come out, touching on different aspects of the same issue: David Rock's Authoritarian Argentina; Donna Guy's Sex and Danger in Buenos Aires; Ronald Dolkart and Sandra McGee Deutsch's (eds.) The Argentine Right. We asked Rock, Guy, Dolkart, and Tulio Halperin Donghi to reflect on the nature of the historiography and their own positions. Each spoke for some fifteen minutes, and then the rest chimed in.
Dolkart provided a master-overview of the shifting directions of interpretation, pointing out the original liberal- modernization diagnosis' emphasis on social pathology: there was something just "wrong" about Argentine society. This, Dolkart suggested, pointed to Argentina's uniqueness as a modernizing society. More recent approaches, informed by new social history, and dealing with a broader array of social actors, shifted the terrain of analysis, to confront the deep class cleavages in Argentine society. Lastly, Dolkart spoke of the more recent trend toward cultural and intellectual approaches to the history of authoritarianism.
David Rock's book is already becoming a much-discussed treatment of the subject among scholars in the field. Rock rehearsed the original motives and reasons for writing it, and suggested ways in which he might have altered his analysis. Uncomfortable with the strong socio-economic or materialist accounts for Argentine politics (of which he himself was a seasoned practitioner), David Rock became increasingly alerted to specific cultural and ideological manifestations. Here he recounted his own experience of living in Argentina in the 1970s and being witness to the horrors of both the final days of the Peronist years and the early dictatorship. This process could not be reduced to a mechanical economic cause. Reflecting on this led him to consider writing what eventually became Authoritarian Argentina.
Guy urged us to place gender at the center of analysis. Hitherto, classes, states, ethnicities, living space, have all been conceptualized, in Guy's view, as if sexual identities and their constructions did not exist. A perilous departure point in general, it has weakened our potential understanding of authoritarianism in particular. So Guy suggested that we might begin by focusing on first the family, and familiar relationships--though not, as it were, as kinship structures-- and second, the larger social constructions of male, female and other sexual identities beyond the domestic world. One important implication was that Argentina cease being treated sui generis as some bizarre abberation from a liberal norm, but as an example of how specific liberal gendered practices of personal and social relations may create authoritarian propensities.
Tulio Halperin Donghi, rather than deal with his own work, questioned some of the essentialism in others (including many of those present). It is not easy to summarize, nor do justice to his remarks. His principal concern was that historians may not find in the deeper reaches of the country's ideas either very satisfying or plausible accounts for what happened in the 1970s. Such an effort would require close attention to specific contingencies--especially, though not exclusively, in the political realm. In other words, any account of the 1930 coup would have to confront the specific problems presented by President Yrigoyen's political style and mode of incorporating voters. Likewise, the coups of 1955 and 1966 might be treated, not as manifestations of an authoritarian lineage, whether liberal (as Guy suggests as one avenue) or reactionary- nationalist (which would be Rock's position). Of course, the 1976 coup, and the barbaric acts which preceded it were, to a very large extent incommensurable and irreducible. Here, Halperin Donghi drew flak from other panelists and those present.
There were two principal queries. First, was not Halperin Donghi invoking a perhaps overly-tight notion of authoritarianism--one which expresses itself in moments of political crisis? It might be argued, for instance, that authoritarianism percolates through various channels--in labor relations, family dynamics, or even education. Halperin Donghi, while not seeking to subordinate these aspects of intolerance and repression, did not feel that these were sufficient causal forces to explain the tragedy of the 1970s. Second, was not Halperin Donghi rejecting the possiblility that authoritarianism might be a deep structural aspect of Argentine society? Clearly, Guy, Rock and others pointed toward an embedded notion of the problem, and one whose origins dated back prior to their first manifestiation. Again, here Halperin Donghi resisted misrepresentation. He was not arguing that structures were unimportant, but that any explanation for a specific event, episode, or process cannot ignore the politics of the moment. There was indeed, a long-term drift within Argentine society, of an essentially liberal order thrown into crisis in the 1930s, and which, by the time a new dominant (and in this instance populist- -though Halperin Donghi, perhaps deliberately, did not use this word) order emerged after the Second World War, was deeply split. Each contending side, Peronist and non-Peronist alike, invoked mutually exclusive sources of legitimacy. Here may lie a pattern which, as it unfolded with greater violence and confrontation, led to the 1970s.
We also, unanimously, elected Joel Horowitz of St. Bonaventure University's Department of History, as the new secretary of the Rio de la Plata-Chile Section of CLAH. Jeremy Adelman Princeton University
Colonial Studies Committee Meeting
About thirty participants attended the 1994 meeting of the Colonial Studies Committee. At the request of several committee members, the meeting began with a discussion of the role of the committee, its function, and the possibility of additional activities or meetings with scholars of colonial Latin America from other disciplines. Although no firm conclusions were reached, the committee agreed that the chair and secretary should undertake a survey of committee members in order to learn their feelings on a variety of subjects, including the amount of support for an interdisciplinary conference on colonial Latin American society and culture. The survey will be mailed to committee members later this spring, along with a request for nominations for the position of committee secretary, currently held by John F. Schwaller who will become chair of the committee at the 1995 meeting.
Following the business portion of the meeting, Elizabeth Kuznesof presented a paper on "Gender Differences in the Meaning and Social Construction of Race in Colonial Spanish America." Kuznesof first made a quantitative argument that, given colonial migration statistics on Spanish women, the "Spanish" population in Mexico and Peru could not have been as large as censuses suggest by the mid-eighteenth century. Instead, according to Kuznesof, mestizo children in the first two generations were often categorized as "Spanish," following racial criteria not specifically based on blood-lines. Among the various features of the social construction of racial categories, Kuznesof cited: the ways in which race, as used by Spaniards, connoted elements of character and "civilization" in addition to genetic elements; The belief that the "civilized" elements were inherently stronger than the "barbaric" elements, even though contemporary racial discourse argued that the "barbaric" could neutralize or debase the "civilized;" the perception that the male racial heritage was stronger than the female, with the notable exception that the offspring of female slaves inherited their mothers' legal status; the "racial drift" that was relatively common in colonial Latin America as women acquired the racial status of the men they married; the possibility that Indian men were disadvantaged because they lacked the opportunity for social advancement through affiliation with the dominant racial group, an opportunity open to Indian women.
Kuznesof supported her arguments with a detailed discussion of marriage patterns and a number of slides depicting changes in the social construction of gender. The ensuing questions and comments by members of her audience resulted in a lively and enthusiastic discussion, focusing on Mexican casta paintings and the role of race as a social marker at various stages in the colonial period.
Committee on Population and Quantitative History
Twenty scholars attended the meeting of the Committee on Population and Quantitative History. Chair Donald F. Stevens (Drexel University) called the meeting to order and, after a brief business meeting, introduced the featured speaker. David S. Reher (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) spoke on "Population Pressure and Living Standards in Late Colonial Mexico", a presentation that combined economic and demographic analysis. Reher contended that real income declined as economic growth was surpassed by population growth in late Bourbon Mexico. He based his extensive and provocative analysis of prices, production, and demography on data published by Morin, Garner, and others. Although maize prices and production may not be indicative of all commodities, tithe receipts can be a proxy for production when deflated by the appropriate price index. Reher's deflated series of maize production for the eighteenth century (a 13 year moving average) indicated a rising trend till 1760-70 and a leveling off after that. In comparing population growth in Mexico by regions, Reher noted wide regional differences with rapid growth in Guanajuato, Michoacan, and Hidalgo but stagnation throughout the century in Puebla and Tlaxcala. Reher concluded that per capita agricultural production in Guanajuato and Michoacan declined with notable short-term swings from 1690 to 1720, stagnated with large oscillations from 1720 to 1760, and steadily declined with little annual variation from 1760 till the end of the century.
Reher then turned his attention to demographic data to test Malthus's hypotheses that economic decline would have specific effects on marriage and child-bearing. Using separate figures for Indians and other groups. Reher showed graphs illustrating the close parallel between trends in nuptiality and the standard of living. Fertility levels appeared to follow nuptiality with a lag of varying sizes. Reher concluded that the standard of living fell in Bourbon Mexico and that demographic trends showed the expected adjustments to this decline.
Richard Garner (Pennsylvania State University) remarked that he was fascinated with Reher's analysis. Nevertheless, Garner found himself forced to argue against his own research, at least as it had been used by Reher. Garner was less certain about the economic decline, saying that Morin's figures for Michoacan indicate that population growth was up against the agricultural limits, but that this seemed to be a regional peculiarity that Garner had not seen elsewhere. Measuring of standard of living would require income and consumption figures and would be more complicated that Reher's analysis indicated. Garner indicated that living standards had declined by the end of the eighteenth century but not as much as Reher suggested and may have increased by 0.2%. Part of the difference can be attributed to differences in measurements of inflation. Garner noted that maize prices were very volatile and that wheat and meat prices showed no trend of a slight decline over the century. Garner noted that Malthus never took weather or war into account. He concluded that Mexico's economy was strong enough to maintain the population over the long term, that the economy grew at twice the rate of population, and that real growth after inflation amounted to 0.1 to 0.3% per year over the century.
Reher responded by drawing parallels to European studies. Maize would be a large part of a composite price index and that it would be impossible for the price of maize not to dominate a composite index. There was a decline in European living standards in late eighteenth century and that an increase in Mexico would be unique. Reher reiterated that both the economic and the demographic data indicated a crisis. He emphasized that detrended figures for standard of living and marriage were closely parallel and that this could not happen unless there were a Malthusian crisis. Discussion continued with comments from Woodrow Borah, Barbara Tenenbaum, Elizabeth Kuznesof, Robert McCaa, Roger Schofield, Donald Stevens, John TePaske, Linda Arnold, Cynthia Radding, and Dawn Keremitsis.
Teaching and Teaching Materials Committee
Teresa Meade (Union College) chaired the meeting, which featured three presentations on the topic: "H-Net, Electronic Communications and Latin American History." Philip Mueller (Xavier of New Orleans) explained the uses of the H-LATAM network for interacting with colleagues in similar with similar interests. He and Jacquelyn Kent (SUNY, Cortland) are the facilitators of the H-LATAM network and provide subscribers with the electronic newsletter and distribute information among Latin American facilitators of the H-LATAM network and provide subscribers with the electronic newsletter and distribute information among Latin American historians and those in related Latin American disciplines. Mark Kornbluh (George Washington University) discussed the electronic network as a medium for communicating with libraries, data bases, and other colleagues. Wendy Plotkin (University of Illinois-Chicago) presented a detailed discussion of uses of Internet and related electronic methods. Her talk, "Internet Resources, Listserv, Telnet, FTP and Gopher: A Brief Introduction" is summarized below.
Through the generosity of Robert Cherny, History Department, San Francisco State University, the committee was able to log onto the Internet and for State University, who loaned us use of his account, we were able to log on to Internet and have a short demonstration of ways to access Internet, Gopher, Listserv and other resources.
The committee discussed briefly plans for the next year. Along with the Publications Committee, the Teaching Committee has proposed a session for the 1995 AHA meeting that will include several professors who teach the Publications Committee, the Teaching Committee has proposed a session forthe 1995 AHA meeting that will include several professors who teach the Latin American history survey course and representatives of several presses that publish LA history textbooks. This will be a roundtable discussion that will hopefully bring together those of us who teach with those who publish teaching materials so tht we can exchange ideas on what tools, texts, etc. work best in the classroom.
Report submitted by Teresa Meade.
Internet Resources
Listserv, Telnet, FTP and Gopher
A Brief Introduction
Prepared for Conference on Latin American Historians
Wendy Plotkin
H-Net
University of Illinois-Chicago
History Department (m/c 198)
Chicago, IL 60607-7049
U15608@uicvm.uic.edu (312)996-3141
The Internet is the connection of computers at universities
and many other institutions around the world, allowing them to communicate information with each other. It is used to send e-mail to individuals (like print mail, but sent over the wires instead of via the postal service) and to groups of people engaged in discussions on various topics. H-Net is the organization at the University of Illinois that has organized over 20 scholarly discussion groups on history, including the History of Latin America, or H-Latam. H-Latam has been in operation since 1993, and welcomes new subscribers. To subscribe, send mail to Listserv@uicvm or Listserv@uicvm.uic.edu with no subject line and the message: SUB H-LATAM.
In addition to allowing exchanges among the various subscribers, these discussion groups have the ability to store files in so-called "Listserv" archives. To find out what is available, send a note to Listserv@uicvm or files in so-called "Listserv" archives or send a note to Listserv@uicvm or Listserv@uicvm.uic.edu with no subject line and the message: INDEX H-LATAM or "Index GROUPNAME" if it is a different H-Net List in which you are interested. At a minimum, the running "logs" or notebooks of the discussions of the group are available, in monthly or weekly installments. In addition, some groups store other types of files--Calls for Papers, Conference Programs, articles -- of interest to its subscribers. The names of these are included on the Index that is available through the Index" command, along with instructions on how to obtain a copy of the file.
Listserv archives are not the only way to store information on the computer, however. An alternative type of archive is the FTP site, which is usually free-standing, unlike the Listserv archive that is always associated with a discussion group. Many universities have established FTP sites, in which they store similar information to that stored in Listserv archives. The procedure for obtaining the information is different, involving a complex set of commands. Both of these types of "archives" or "storage sites" have in common that you cannot see the file before you obtain it -- you only know it by name.
An alternative type of connection between computers on the Internet is Telnet, which allows one to connect to a computer at an institution to "browse" a variety of information. Although Telnet theoretically connects you to the entire computer system of that institution, the institution generally limits you to a particular use -- most often, on-line library catalogs. This is an extraordinary value in broadening the availability of reference resources. The only disadvantage of Telnet is that it is primarily a browser, and does not include an automatic way to transfer the information to oneself or one's computer.
Most on-line and personal computers have means of transferring the information, but the person who is telnetting must be familiar with these means ahead of time, and take several steps in advance of telnetting. The benefits of all of these technologies is becoming available with GOPHER, one of the newest technologies on the Internet.
GOPHER is another set of electronic archives of textual, visual and audio information that is usually distinct from FTP and Listserv archives. The ease of use of Gopher and the ability to use it "interactively" -- looking at the information as well as transferring it -- has meant that the types of files it includes are much more inclusive than FTP and Listserv -- it includes on-line phonebooks, publishers' catalogs, course catalogs, course syllabi, weather reports, and many other useful" types of information in addition to traditional texts. Many universities and other institutions from around the world, including governments and non-profit organizations, are putting files onto Gopher. It may be that in the future, the Gopher, FTP and Listserv sites will be linked, or the documents on the latter types will be transferred to Gopher sites. Gopher also offers you access to Telnet sites of which you may not be aware, and in the case of many on-line libraries, Gopher also offers you access to Telnet sites of which you may not be aware, and in the case of many on-line library catalogs, will inform you of the log-in procedure and password without having to know this in advance. Most universities these days are able to access Gopher sites. Check with your university computer center or guru.
If you do not have access to Gopher from your university, Then you can access it from several universities around the world using TELNET. To obtain information on how to use those sites, send a note to Listserv@uicvm or Listserv@uicvm.uic.edu with the message: GET GOPHER SITES.
The way to access Gopher from your computer account depends on your university or commercial provider. In most cases, it just involves typing the word GOPHER and hitting return; however, it may be different. If typing GOPHER does not work, consult your computer center or guru. From this point on, you are presented with a set of menus. Using Gopher is only a matter of putting the cursor on the item of interest, and pressing return. If you use Windows or another system, it may be slightly different (e.g. "clicking) but most likely is just as simple.
Generally, There are a number of ways of finding files available at other universities and institutions through GOPHER. Generally, one of the top level menus of Gopher will allow you to search by LOCATION, PHONEBOOK, or by SUBJECT.
LOCATION is organized by a set of nested menus -- e.g., World, North America, U.S.A., Illinois, University of Illinois. This is especially useful if you want information from a particular location -- usually, each university has a phonebook of its faculty and staff; or a listing of its courses; or a description of how to get to the university; or various other types of information.
One of the most useful types of information available is academic publishers' on-line catalogs. The Princeton University Press includes in its Gopher its own catalogs as well as those of many other presses. To access the Press, make your way down the LOCATION menus to New Jersey and then hit return.
PHONEBOOK: Also quite useful is the phonebook. Generally, you can make your way to a specific university (via the location menus), and find out if it has a phonebook. If it does, it usually asks you to search on a specific name, and will give you the address, phone number, and e-mail address of the person, if available.
If you cannot find the category for the LOCATION index on your gopher system, you can gopher directly to gopher.micro.umn.edu and select "Other Gopher and Information Servers" to obtain the top-level LOCATION menu.
There is also a Gopher-wide PHONEBOOK search system available, usually at the same level as SUBJECT and LOCATION. By selecting PHONEBOOK, you are asked to insert a name of a person, and Gopher will search a set of phonebooks for that name and give you the result if it finds it.
If you cannot find the PHONEBOOK category on your gopher, then gopher directly to gopher.nd.edu and select "Non-Notre Dame Information Sources". Then select "Phone Books at Other Institutions".
SUBJECT is also organized by a set of nested menus -- History, Geography, Latin American Studies. Several universities have organized all of the GOPHER information in the world by SUBJECT, so that you have a choice of which subject index (and menus) to use.
As I said, it is usually soon after you begin gopher with the GOPHER or similar command that you are presented with a choice of LOCATION or SUBJECT indexes/menus. If you cannot find the top-level SUBJECT index on your gopher, then gopher directly to chico.rice.edu and select: "Information by Subject Area."
SUBJECT searching is most useful if you are interested in a specific discipline. Included under a subject may be anything ranging from course descriptions of various universities in that subject, publishers' information on books in that subject, and faculty members who teach that discipline to electronic journals, articles, announcements, list of Internet resources associated with that discipline, and primary papers that have been converted to electronic form. It is possible to obtain an electronic copy of _Alice in Wonderland_ and of _The Origin of Species_ via Gopher, as well as a list of Latin American documentary films and an article about "post-modernism" in Latin America.
The best way to find out what is available is to begin to use Gopher, and to browse. Increasingly, catalogs will become available listing the types of information that are available as well.
VERONICA is an alternative strategy for searching most of the Gophers in the world. It is a program that allows you to search the titles of the categories or documents included on Gophers everywhere. It is usually found at the same level as the LOCATION and SUBJECT INDEXES.
Thus, instead of working my way down the Subject menus, I can choose VERONICA, and enter the search word: Latin America. I will be presented with a wide choice of "categories" and documents" that have these words in their titles. The "categories" will lead me to documents that have been purposely put underneath that category title; the documents I can read or transfer to myself.
A final way of finding files is to use a specific Gopher address, as has been suggested above in finding the LOCATION, PHONEBOOK, and SUBJECT indexes at various universities. This may be provided to you by someone else ("Gopher to gopher.xxx.yyy") or your system may show you the address in a corner of the screen when you successfully gopher your way there using the menus. You may write down the gopher address so you can gopher there directly in the future.
In addition, most Gopher systems allow you to set "bookmarks" at a particular part of any menu, so that by pressing