Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Fordham University/Aztec Art and Architecture (Spring 2017)
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- Course name
- Aztec Art and Architecture
- Institution
- Fordham University
- Instructor
- Barbara Mundy
- Wikipedia Expert
- Shalor (Wiki Ed)
- Subject
- Aztec art, Aztec architecture
- Course dates
- 2017-01-17 00:00:00 UTC – 2017-06-09 23:59:59 UTC
- Approximate number of student editors
- 20
An examination of works of art and architecture created in central Mexico in the 15th and 16th centuries by the people history has dubbed the Aztecs, but who called themselves the Mexica. At the time of first contact with Europe, their capital city of Tenochtitlan (present-day Mexico City) was one of the largest cities in the world in the 16th century. Here ecological and political imperatives gave shape to the urban form, architecture, and programs of public monuments. Until 1978, prehispanic Tenochtitlan was known almost exclusively through historical texts, literary works in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztec and works of art, often accidental finds. But since the late 1970s, extensive archeological work has been carried out in the urban core. As an interdisciplinary core course, this course will combine readings of primary historical sources with interpretations offered by art history, archeology and ethnohistory to gain understanding of how different disciplines can shed light (and sometimes reach very different conclusions) over the same set of data. By the end of the course, students will gain an understanding of what kind of questions archeologists, historians and art historians ask, and how they answer them. In addition, we will be using digital platforms (Wikipedia, class website) to make our research public. As an EP-3 class, the class is focused on class discussion and offers many opportunities to improve skills in speaking and writing; these are outlined below. You are participating in a seminar, so be prepared to devote at least 5 hours a week to reading for the course.
Timeline
Week 1
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 17 January 2017
- In class - Introduction to the Wikipedia project
Welcome to your Wikipedia project's course timeline. This page will guide you through the Wikipedia project for your course. Be sure to check with your instructor to see if there are other pages you should be following as well.
Your course has also been assigned a Wikipedia Content Expert. Check your Talk page for notes from them. You can also reach them through the "Get Help" button on this page.
To get started, please review the following handouts:
- Editing Wikipedia pages 1–5
- Evaluating Wikipedia
- Assignment - Practicing the basics
- Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you.
- It's time to dive into Wikipedia. Below, you'll find the first set of online trainings you'll need to take. New modules will appear on this timeline as you get to new milestones. Be sure to check back and complete them! Incomplete trainings will be reflected in your grade.
- When you finish the trainings, practice by introducing yourself to a classmate on that classmate’s Talk page.
Week 2
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 24 January 2017
- The World of the Deities
Each week you will familiarize yourself with editing Wikipedia by adding a citation or making a small change to an article related to the course. There are a few ways you can do this:
- Remove old links or dead links from the reference section;
- Contribute new citations or references (to peer reviewed academic literature or other sources as learned in the Sources & Citations training);
- Re-write a section that is particularly poorly written or hard to understand;
- Add 2-5 new sentences of content, backed up with a citation, to an area that could use improvement.
For ideas of articles to work on, consider browsing these article lists:
- Category:Aztec and any of its sub-categories
- Like Category:Aztec artifacts for example
- Category:Mesoamerican art
In class, in order to put our knowledge to work, let's begin with the Wikipedia list of deities.
What is the source for this list? Why are some deities conflated with others? How can the list be improved?
Then look at any of the deities listed that you've read about. Can you edit this page with better information?
You can also look at the page on Human Sacrifice in Aztec culture. How does, for instance, the use of Spanish sources (including the Spanish text of Sahagún's Florentine Codex ) compare to the possible use of Nahuatl sources?
Week 3
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 31 January 2017
- In class - Sacrifice
In class, we've read about different ideologies of sacrifice among the Aztec. Let's continue with the page on Human Sacrifice in Aztec Culture. How can we improve it?
You'll be working in groups of four students, and each of the five groups in the class will tackle one of the following questions for the page:
--Are the ecological and nutritional explanations the same? Could these sections be re-edited or combined into one?
--How could this page incorporate archeological evidence?
--One sentence reads, "There are numerous depictions of sacrifices in Mexica statuary." Is this true? Look through your book to either identify such statutes, or correct this statement.
--Why is there no "religious" explanation offered along with the political and ecological?
---The quotations from Sahagún are all from the Spanish translation. Look at the English translation from the Nahuatl original. How can you change some of these statements?
As you are working through the page, look at mechanics, like the embedded citations. Should they be footnotes? Look at the links at the bottom--do they link to reliable, published sources?
Week 4
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 7 February 2017
- In class - Add images to an article
In class, we'll be looking at ways to identify and add images to articles.
- Assignment - How to find and add images
At the end of this training module, please find an image in WikiCommons, and correctly identify it. Then add it into an article that needs illustration.
- In class - In class, giving Richard Townsend his view
Take a crack at revising the following, based on Townsend's analysis:
Group 1: Aztec Calendar Stone
Group 2: Stone of Tizoc
Group 3: Dedication Stone
Group 4: Teocalli of Sacred War
Week 5
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 14 February 2017
- In class - Add to an article
See week 2
Week 6
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 21 February 2017
- In class - Add to an article
See week 2