Reed College
Reed College

Humanities 110

Introduction to the Humanities

Paper Topics | Spring 2024 | Paper 5

Due Saturday, Februrary 10, 5:00 p.m., to your conference leader

Target length: 1,700-1,900 words

Choose one of the following topics:

  1. How does the Lienzo de Tlaxcala present the role of Malinche in the conquest of Tenochtitlan? Explain by doing a close visual analysis of any three panels from across the Lienzo. 

  2. The Florentine Codex and the Codex Mendoza both catalog the succession of Mexica rulers (known as tlatoani in the singular, tlatoqueh in the plural). Analyze how the Florentine Codex represents this history differently from the Codex Mendoza. What elements of kingship–its privileges, responsibilities, and challenges–does each choose to emphasize and why? Focus on the reigns of no more than two kings (tlatoqueh).

  3. Camilla Townsend argues that after the Spanish conquest, the Mexica “were not destroyed but rather maintained their balance. Like so many people in other times and places, they had to learn to make peace with their new reality so they would not go mad…. In short, the Aztecs were conquered, but they also saved themselves” (Fifth Sun, p. 8). Assess Townsend’s argument by drawing on two of the following sources: Barbara Mundy’s argument about the Nuremberg map of 1524; textual and/or visual evidence from the Florentine Codex; textual and/or visual evidence from the Codex Mendoza.

  4. The valley of Mexico (the plateau in central Mexico where Tenochtitlan is located) is prone to various cataclysmic forces of nature: volcanos, earthquakes, flooding. With reference to specific textual, visual, or material evidence, how did Mexica philosophy and/or art make meaning out of this intense power of nature? Draw your evidence from a detailed comparison of two of the following sources.   

    • the “Cosmic Ages” (León-Portilla translation, originally from an anonymous source from the 1560s); 
    • the birth myth of Huitzilopochtli (León-Portilla translation, originally from the Florentine Codex); 
    • the physical layout of Tenochtitlan and/or the Templo Mayor (use evidence from Thomas Kole’s 3-D reconstructions and Margot Minardi’s lecture);
    • the sculptures of Coyolxauhqui, Tlaltecuhtli, and/or Coatlicue at or near the Templo Mayor;
    • Barbara Mundy’s analysis of the Nuremberg map. 

  5. What connections might there be between the principles of Mexica metaphysics identified by James Maffie and the way in which stories are told or information presented in one or two of the following: the Tira de la Peregrinación, the Codex Mendoza, the Birth of Huitzilopochtli, the Templo Mayor, the Lienzo de Tlaxcala or the Universal History of the Things of New Spain? Focus your analysis on two or three principles of Mexica metaphysics and one or two of the listed works

  6. In consultation with your conference leader, write on a topic of your own devising.