Reading Reflection: History and Culture

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Reading Reflection
The three reading materials namely Johnson and Molineux’s Putting Europe in Its Place, Bleichmar’s The Imperial Visual Archive Images, Evidence, and Knowledge in the Early Modern Hispanic World, and Morgan’s Partus sequitur ventrem: Law, Race, and Reproduction in Colonial Slavery are all in-depth discussions involving history and culture. The different aspects of history are highlighted which contributes to creating an understanding of how various nations have progressed throughout the centuries. The material traces, visual archives, and legal history aid the modern world in further understanding history.
A fascinating part of understanding and studying history is the connection between various pieces of evidence that can be found in literature, archaeology, and visual archives. These provide perspectives that create a narration of what has transpired in the past, including the practices and beliefs of the people in society back then. A topic mentioned in the essay is Ferdinand Abraham and by using court records and the historical significance of the jury’s decision during the execution, there is a lot of information that can be drawn. This is truly interesting because it showcases some of that time’s characteristics like the power that Christianity has on society, and its level of inclusivity that is present. The justice system also proved to be much different back then also including the punishments that were given at the time, such as burning and strangulation (Johnson & Molineaux). Due to the correspondence, records, and other pieces of evidence, the stories are interpreted and shared among the multidisciplinary team.
More examples of evidence were provided in Bleichmar’s essay. In comparison to the stories and their relationship to material traces, it focused on the visual archives. This involves images and maps that are drawn to provide a depiction of what was encountered during the expeditions and travels of the people. I find this interesting due to the level of effort that is required to create each drawing that is able to share knowledge about various things. It is a genius way of effectively bridging the barriers when it comes to language while still promoting sharing of the reality that was seen and experienced during the exploration of new places and cultures. The steps that were involved to produce art that is capable of telling a story behind its lines and colors also include gathering and reporting of new information. This effectively showcases the innovation that society implements as the years passed. The Trujillo del Peru is one of the mentioned works that contains 1,400 drawings of pure ...