HIS 244 Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic: Race, Class, and Gender during the Transition to Capitalism and Today -Q
Today, conversations around race and gender typically include the idea that these are socially constructed concepts. This course will explore the construction of these concepts through an examination of the creation of difference in Europe and its colonies during the transition to capitalism the beginning in the 15th century. The title of the class draws on important concepts that relate to the development of race, class, and gender during the early modern period of Europe and the Americans as one cannot separate the institutions of slavery and the multiple sustained attacks on women that take place in the early modern period and culminate with a series of witch hunts both in Europe and in the American colonies period.
It turns out, extreme violence, chattel slavery, and witch hunts facilitated the rise of capitalism in early modern Europe and its American colonies. Aside from the elite learned classes, every day European peasants and artisans maintained a deep belief in magic. Magical beliefs were systematically quashed by the promoters of the enlightenment as philosophers and political theorists pushed an increasingly individualistic ideology that destroyed communalism and cooperation. Early modern elites associated magic with women, who in turn were derided as witches.
The reading seminar will be fully discussion based and will be divided into two parts, with the first part focusing on the historical processes that influenced the development of ideas around race and gender and how those two ascriptive categories intersect with class creation. The second portion of the class will shift its focus to the modern world asking students to apply the knowledge that they've gained from the first half of the class along with readings in psychology, sociology, and economics that help to describe the way that difference has manifested in our modern capitalist society.
Prerequisite
Honors Only