Jorge Canizares-Esguerra’s book Puritan Conquistadors is a much different take on how the Americas were colonized. I have to admit I’m not real sure how I feel about this book. On the one hand it is an intensive examination of the religious aspect of the conquest but on the other hand that is really...
Read more »
Patricia Seed’s Ceremonies of Possession in Europe’s Conquest of the New World 1492-1640 is kind of a twist between landscape archaeology and nautical history, if that makes any sense to anyone reading this. But don’t get me wrong I enjoyed the book; it was a fast read with interesting information. How people physically possess...
Read more »
Comparative history is rarely an easy task. At the very least, it usually involves the comprehension of several different languages and historiographies, at least some of which the historian will have only a partial grasp on. In some cases the historian must rely upon translations for primary sources, and the analytical conclusions of other...
Read more »
Patricia Seed's Ceremonies of Possession in Europe's Conquest of the New World, 1492 – 1640 examines how colonial rule was initiated through ceremonial practices. Seed states that recent literature shows diverse cultures being conquered in the Americ...
Read more »
Patricia Seed's Ceremonies of Possession in Europe's Conquest of the New World, 1492 – 1640 examines how colonial rule was initiated through ceremonial practices. Seed states that recent literature shows diverse cultures being conquered in the Americas but rarely diverse conquerors. European powers are often lumped together when they are should be differentiated, not...
Read more »
Patricia Seed’s Ceremonies of Possession in Europe’s Conquest of the New World, 1492-1640, achieves two goals simultaneously. First, the author has crafted an admirably brief synthesis of the motives and methods of the five European powers who played significant roles in the exploration and conquest of the Americas: the English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and...
Read more »
Patricia Seed’s Ceremonies of Possession is streamlined and short and beautifully written; it was very well received when Cambridge published it in 1995. The argument is simple. Each of five colonial powers—the English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch—enacted their ceremonies of possession in ways that were culturally meaningful only for themselves. While it is...
Read more »
Patricia Seed Patricia Seed received her doctorate from the University of Wisconsin. Seed worked at Rice University before moving to the University of California, Irvine. Seed’s other books include To Love, Honor, and Obey in Colonial Mexico: Conflicts Over Marriage Choice, 1574-1821 and American Pentimento: The Pursuit of Riches and the Invention of “Indians”. ...
Read more »
Patricia’s Seed’s book was a nice read. My initial reactions to many of her statements ran the full gamut, depending on the situation described, from: “Ok, that makes since, so what.” To Wow, I never really thought about it that way.” She does seem to draw a line between the “mundanities” of the English,...
Read more »
I’m sitting on the plane in the air travelling from Knoxville to Mexico City via Dallas. I’m very excited about this because, though I’ve been studying, teaching, and writing about Latin America for more than 15 years, I’ve actually never been to Mexico. The occasion for the trip is the annual meeting of the...
Read more »
