ESPM 50 SPRING 2004  159 MULFORD HALL 11- 12 M, W, F

PROFESSOR SALLY K.  FAIRFAX

125 Giannini Hall – sally@nature.berkeley.edu

Office hours:  8:30 – 10 on Friday or by appointment

TEACHING ASSISTANTS:

JESSICA KASLOW, jkaslow@nature.berkeley.edu

AMY BOONE, aboone@uclink.berkeley.edu

Course Goal:  The purpose of this course is to explore and compare ideas about land and land management in different American cultures.  We will use the central theme of property to probe ideas about nature, the relationship between humans and nature, and the consequences of different ideas of three American cultural groups--Native Americans/American Indians, Asian Americans, and Hispanic/Latino/Chicano Americans—for the landscape. 

We will look briefly at how groups in general are defined, and then explore their influence on land and land use in the Western US and California in several ways. 

We will begin by noting that although the variation within groups is important, nevertheless, each group as a whole has understood land and property in ways that differ from the others and from, in most instances, the increasingly dominant Euro American culture.  And in each instance, a dominant theme/event will be used to show how the dominant culture came to own or control the land that the Indians, Hispanics, and Asians had considered their own.

To trace ideas of property and accompanying forms of land management, we will look at the subsistence based land management of native Americans, and the food that dominated their management priorities until European foresters came along to emphasize trees in the forest.  We will look at the Hispanos in the South West, and juxtapose their notions of common property with the US Forest Service’s notion of the “most economic producer” for trade.  Finally we will look at Asians in California as a source of labor in converting the western landscape through construction of the railroads and factory farms.

In the final section we will look at the admixture of all groups in modern California agriculture and how the production system is or is not being “transformed” by a growing critique of modern industrial agriculture.  What, we will speculate, are the implications of the critique and the putative transformation for California’s diverse citizens?  If past is prologue, it is not encouraging. 

Course requirements:

The course has four elements:  lectures; two midterms and a final; a paper; and participation in discussion section.  All four of those elements are built on the presumption that students diligently complete the readings for each class. 

The midterms will be short answer and brief essay questions.  They are designed to help you keep up with the readings and do not involve reflecting creatively on the course materials.  That will come in the final, which will include brief essays, and in the paper and discussions.

Both the midterms and the exam will cover the lectures, the readings, and the points raised in discussion.  And they will be cumulative—that is, the second midterm will invite and require some distinguishing from and comparison with the material covered in the first, and so on. 

The paper will allow students to engage more thoroughly and personally with the course materials.  It also is designed to help you learn how to construct a written argument.  We will use discussion sections to go through a rather stylized process—making an outline, marshalling material, and structuring a paper that builds towards a conclusion.   The paper must be well organized and argued and is limited to three double-spaced 12-point pages.  Material on any 4th page will not be read.  So tell ‘em what you’re gonna say, say it, and tell ‘em what you said. 

Students will have the best opportunity to interrogate the readings and lectures, discuss the issues raised, and try out their own ideas during the discussions.  They are central to the course.  Indeed, even if you take this class pass/fail, you cannot get a pass without a passing grade in section.

Grading: 

Midterms:  15% each

Final:     20 %

Paper:   25%--10% for outline; 15% for final copy

Class participation:  20%

READINGS:

A course reader is available from Odin Readers, which can be purchased at Ned’s Bookstore on Bancroft across the street from the ASUC Bookstore.  Two other books are required and can often be found used at the ASUC Bookstores or other local bookstores:

Silko, Leslie. Ceremony. New York, NY: Penguin Books; c1977, 1986.

Kingston, Maxine Hong. China Men. New York: Vintage Books; 1981; 1988.

In addition, we recommend that you acquire Sucheng Chan’s This Bitter-Sweet Soil:  The Chinese in California Agriculture 1860-1890.  Several chapters are included in the reader and others are on reserve, but the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.  It is too expensive to require, but you can get used copies on the web. 

Rules:

1.  If you have questions about the course assignments or just want to discuss class materials, please visit with your GSI and/or Instructor during office hours or make arrangements for an appointment.

2. We have trouble keeping track of late papers.  We take no responsibility for losing them and will deduct 5% of the grade each day that assignments are late.

3. Students who have problems writing are strongly encouraged to seek editorial help with their papers from other students, the Student Learning Center (Writing Section), or other resources, as papers will be graded for form as well as content. The Student Learning Center is in the Golden Bear Center off Lower Sproul Plaza; drop-in hours are M-Th 9-4, F 9-12. The SLC also offers semester-long, individual tutoring sessions - inquire very early in the semester if you are interested. You may also find the video “Revising Prose” offers useful advice on writing clearly and succinctly. The video (27 mins long) is available in the Media Center on the first floor of Moffitt Library.

4. Plagiarism is a major and unacceptable offense. It is your responsibility to know what it is and how and when to cite the ideas of others. If you are caught plagiarizing another student’s work on exams or papers, or purchasing a paper, or copying large chunks of text off the web, you will get an automatic F in the course. We have a database of papers submitted in previous years, so do yourself a favor and write your own.

5.  Please do not talk, read the newspaper, or chew loudly during class. In general, don’t do things that make it hard for other students to pay attention during the lecture period—this includes noisily packing all your books up at five minutes to the hour. Please do not arrive late or leave early. I will do my best to start and stop on time, and I expect you to arrive on time. If you fall asleep, I will wake you up and ask you to take your nap elsewhere.

A Tip: Study groups can also help immeasurably in preparing for examinations. Use your study groups and meet regularly. You can diagram or review lectures, outline readings, and discuss course materials.

Keep up with the readings! It will help you get the most from the lectures, and will make the class much easier. There is too much reading to do it all in one night!

ESPM 50 ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS

Jessica Kaslow will be our computer maven.  You must subscribe to the ESPM 50 list serve to remain fully informed about the class.  We will hold you responsible for knowing everything that is posted on the web page at least 48 hours before you are required to know it, so check in frequently.  We will add new readings, replace old ones, and announce other important events on the web page.

To subscribe, send a message to

Espm50-request@nature.berkeley.edu

With subscribe (no quotes, italics, etc, as the Subject

Or as the single word in the body of the message.

To unsubscribe, do the same thing with the word unsubscribe

UNIT ONE—TOOLS AND CONCEPTS

WEEK 1

Jan 21—introduction to course and requirements

There are no readings assigned for today and sections will not meet.  However, we recommend that you enjoy the suggestion for this week’s section.   And we suggest you start reading Silko’s Ceremony, a marvelous book that we assign reluctantly for fear we may convince you not to read it.

Jan 23—Basic categories used to distinguish different populations for different purposes. 

Race, gender, ethnicity, place, profession, what else is and is not used—we will start with the census survey and see what we think.

Lawrence Wright, “One Drop of Blood,” The New Yorker, July 25, 1994. 

John Cassidy, “The Melting-Pot Myth,” The New Yorker, July 14, 1997. 

Section will not meet in week one. In lieu of a discussion section, we urge you to go out to eat at an ethnic restaurant—preferably of an ethnicity that is not in your normal cultural and/or gustatory domain, and think about what the food suggests about the culture and the use of resources in that culture.

To get some ideas on that, we recommend:

Sylvia Ferrero, “Comida Sin Par.  Consumption of Mexican Food in Los Angeles:  ‘Foodscapes’ in a Transnational Consumer Society.”  In Warren Belasco and Philip Scranton, eds, Food Nations:  Selling Taste in a Consumer Society. 

And if that seems like fun, try Donna R. Gabaccia, We Are What We Eat:  Ethnic Food and the Making of Americans (1998), on reserve. 

WEEK 2

Jan 26—Ideas about culture and nature interact

The basic point of today’s lecture and reading is that nature is not out there, freestanding.  Nature and culture are not separate and ideas about one color what we see and do in the other. 

Nancy Langston, “Forest Dreams, Forest Nightmares,” epilogue from Miller, American Forests:  Nature, Culture, and Politics (1997).   If you have already read the article, the book by the same name is on reserve.  Read the chapter on native American forestry. 

Or try Carolyn Merchant, “Environmental Ethics and Political Conflict,” in Radical Ecology (1992) (on reserve). 

Jan 28—Culture and nature ideas—Property

Jan 30—More on property

We will talk about property throughout the course as a unifying element:  different cultures have very different ideas about what property means, and therefore act very differently on the land.  In these two lectures, we will set up the basic notions of the dominant culture, Lockean private property, and also common property, and traditional usufructory approaches to property. 

William Cronon, Changes in the Land, 1988, chapter 7.

Lynn Huntsinger and Sarah McCaffrey, “A Forest for the Trees:  Forest Management and the Yurok Environment, 1859-1994,” 19:4 American Indian Culture and Research Journal (1995), pages 155-161.  WRITE AN ABSTRACT OF THE HUNTSINGER/MCCAFFREY PROPERTY DISCUSSION TO SECTION WITH YOU WHEN IT MEETS. 

C.B. Macpherson, Property:  Mainstream and Critical Positions, (1981), Chapters 1 and 2.

And for a little assistance, peruse J.W. Bruce, “Review of Tenure Terminology,” in Tenure Brief (July, 1998). 

Section will focus on reading and abstracting/writing skills using the property material as a focus. 

WEEK 3

UNIT TWO—INDIGENOUS RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Feb 2—Indians on the Frontier:  Myth and Reality

We will talk about the frontier as a major theme in American history and the nation’s vision of itself.  And we will wonder where the Indian fits in that iconic story.

Frederick Jackson Turner, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History”  (1894).  WRITE AN ABSTRACT OF THIS PIECE AND BRING IT TO SECTION THIS WEEK.

Patricia Nelson Limerick, Something in the Soil:  Legacies and Reckonings in the New West (2000), Chapter IB, “The Adventures of the Frontier in the Twentieth Century.”

On reserve, if you find this interesting:

Elliott West, “American Frontier,” Chapter Four in Clyde A. Milner, et al, eds, The Oxford History of the American West.

The classic problematizing of the frontier is Limerick’s Legacy of Conquest (also on reserve).  If you haven’t read it, there’s no time like the present. 

Feb 4—Changing Ideas of the Indians:  Americans’ visions of what constitutes an Indian have been shaped by fears and policy preferences more than by the Indians themselves.

J. Schimmel (1991), “Inventing the Indian” from William H. Truettner, ed, The West As America.

Feb 6—Resulting Policies about Indians—American policy toward Indians has been shaped by whites’ desire for Indian lands as much as anything else.

Vine Deloria, Jr and Clifford M. Lytle, American Indians, American Justice (1983).  As you read this, try to cross walk the periods in AI/AJ with the periods in the Schimmel. 

For an interesting perspective on who gets counted and how, see C. Matthew Snipp, American Indian and Alaska Native Children in the 2000 Census, Annie E. Casey Foundation, and April 2002.  The Internet location of this reading for viewing/downloading is

http://www.aecf.org/kidscount/indian_alaska_children.pdf

Section:  will focus on concepts of property.

WEEK 4

A Case Study:  Indian Land Management—we will follow up on Langston’s piece, juxtaposing traditional Native American goals for land management—focusing on the food that they produced—with the kind of forest management that is more familiar to the US Forest Service.  We will conclude with a discussion of contemporary Indian land management in California. 

Feb 9—We will start with a look at contemporary diets of northern California Indians.  Joanne Ikeda a cooperative extension specialist focusing on nutritional needs of California’s diverse population, will talk about her work. 

Joanne Ikeda, Murphy S, Mitchell RA, Flynn N, Mason IJ, Lizer A, and Lamp C.  “Dietary quality of Native American Women in Rural California,”

J Am Diet Assoc. 1998 (7):812-4.

Joanne made a film in connection with her research that is on reserve and available for viewing.  Check with Amy or Jessica to find out how. 

Feb 11—We will then discuss the “Dominant Paradigm” of forestry.  Sally will discuss progressive era forest management, emphasizing the consequences of the embrace of science for experiential knowledge and indigenous people.

L. Fortmann and S. Fairfax, 1989.  “American Forestry Professionalism in the Third World. (1989).”

If this is enthralling, look at R.W. Behan, “Forestry and the End of Innocence” on reserve.

Feb 13—Professional Forestry and Indian Land Management—Lynn Huntsinger will discuss contemporary conflicts between professional forestry and Indian priorities for land management. 

Continue reading the Huntsinger and McCaffrey piece. 

Section:  will focus on Native American property and land use. 

WEEK 5

Feb 16—HOLIDAY

Feb 18—Traditional land management.  Chuck Striplen, ESPM graduate student, will talk about indigenous forest management focusing on the Yurok of northern California. 

Feb 20  Lynn Huntsinger will conclude our exploration of contemporary Indian forest management

Chuck and Lynn may have handouts.  Meanwhile, continue with the Huntsinger and McCaffrey piece. 

Section:  Will focus on integrating notions of property and American’s understanding of indigenous management.  Bring your own version of a timeline regarding Indian land management priorities. 

WEEK 6

Feb 23—MID TERM

UNIT THREE:  THE SPANISH AND THE COMMONS

Feb 25— We will introduce the notion of the commons, its many critics and elaborators.   If you have read Garrett Hardin, read it again and then move on to some of the debates. 

Garrett Hardin, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” 162 Science (3 December 1968). 

F. Berkes, D. Feeny, B.J. McKay, and J.M. Acheson, “The Benefits of the Commons.”  340 Nature (13 July 1989).

Science Magazine recently did a 35th anniversary re-analysis of the original Hardin piece.  That alone suggests the importance of the debate.  Available on the web at http://www.sciencemag.org/sciext/sotp/

Between Feb 27 and Mar 12 we will focus on the Spanish land grants, how they were acquired from the Indians and used by the Spanish and Mexican settlers, and what happened to them.

Feb 27—We will explore the Hispanic tradition of holding land in common.  We will begin with parts of the film Tierra o Murete in class.

Section:  will explain the paper assignment in the context of discussing the notion of common property.

WEEK 7

Mar 1, 3, 5— We will begin discussing the evolution of Spanish common property.   We hope to have a guest lecture from Jake Kosek who just finished his Ph.D. on relations between the Hispano community and the US Forest Service in New Mexico. 

John Wesley Powell, “Institutions for the Arid Lands,” (1890) in George Grossette, Selected Prose of John Wesley Powell (1970). 

Starrs, Paul.  Let the Cowboy Ride (1998).  Chapter 2, Rio Arrriba County, New Mexico. 

If this is all news to you, try some basic information

http://academic.udayton.edu/race/02rights/guadalu6.htm

Be sure to read the TREATY OF GUADALUPE HIDALGO linked to this site. 

http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/5views/5views5.htm

http://www.rootsweb.com/~cascgs/intro.htm

http://www.mountainvalleyranch.com/califranching.htm

Section:  We will walk the campus to look at the trees and discuss their traditional uses.

WEEK 8

We will continue talking about Spanish land and land grants. 

For Mar 8, 10, and 12,  add to your readings

Ziesing, Grace H.  From Rancho to Reservoir:  History and Archaeology of the Los Vaqueros Watershed, California (1999), Chapter 2:  Disputed Range:  Ranching a Mexican Land Grant Under U.S. Rule, 1844-1880. 

Available on the web at

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Disputed+Range&btnG=Google+Search

Trillin, Calvin, “U.S. Journal:  Costilla County, Colorado; A Little Cloud on the Title.”  The New Yorker, 26 April, 1976122-32.  

William deBuys, Enchantment and Exploitation:  The Life and Hard Times of a New Mexico Mountain Range (1985), chapter 8, “Bully Boys and Bureaucrats.” 

Joseph L. Sax. “The Trampas File,”  84 Michigan Law Review 1389 (1986). 

Section:  Will talk about common property and subsistence producers as opposed to (?) production for trade.

WEEK 9

Mar 15—We will close by talking about collaborative management of southwestern ranches.

Laura Pulido  “Sustainable Development at Ganados del Valle” chapter 8 in

Robert D. Bullard, ed, Confronting Environmental Racism:  Voices from the Grassroots. (1993). 

Hadley, Drummond.  “The Gray Ranch” Chapter 2 in Dan Dagget and Jay Dusard, Beyond the Rangeland Conflict:  Towards a West that Works (1995).

Mar 17—We will spend a period reviewing and integrating the material covered regarding traditional and contemporary Hispano land issues. 

Section:  focuses on the current debate over Spanish land claims.

Mar 19—MID TERM

SPRING BREAK

WEEK 10

UNIT FOUR:  ASIAN IMMIGRANTS IN CALIFORNIA

Mar 29—Starting afresh—where were we and what were we doing

In lieu of readings, PREPARE A DRAFT PARAGRAPH ON YOUR PAPER TOPIC TO HAND TO SALLY DURING LECTURE.  

Mar 31— The Asian Immigration and the Frontier:  Going the Wrong Way?

Ronald Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore:  The History of Asian Americans (1989), Chapter 2, ”Overblown With Hope.” 

If you have read that, try “The Chinese Diaspora,” Chapter one in This Bittersweet Soil, on reserve.

Apr 2—The Western US Gold Rush—of all the groups that came during the Gold Rush, the Chinese probably had the most decisive influence on California land and land management. 

Suecheng Chan, This Bittersweet Soil, Chapter 3, Feeding the Miners.

The web is full of interesting materials on this topic.  Look for some on your own.  Start, for a simplified overview, with a Sacramento Bee “historical” discussion of the people of the gold rush: 

http://americanhistory.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.calgoldrush.com%2F

Section:  Will discuss the midterms and the continuing importance of the frontier.  Print your two best finds on the Chinese in the Gold Rush and bring them to section. 

WEEK 11

April 5--The Chinese and the Railroads

Start with the wonderful pictures on the Central Pacific Railroad Website.

http://cprr.org/Museum/Chinese.html

Then start delving into Maxine Hong Kingston China Men. 

And, for those inclined, Ong, Paul M.  “The Central Pacific Railroad and Exploitation of Chinese Labor, 13 Ethnic Studies 2 (1985).

Section:  Will discuss the Gold Rush and its impact on diverse groups in California. 

April 7- The American Response:  19th Century Chinese Exclusion Policy

The Chinese Exclusion Act and a brief introduction is available on the web at

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/documents/docpages/document_page47.htm

Apr 9— Yick Wo v Hopkins and Similar Phenomena—what is racial exclusion and what is legitimate public health and environmental regulation?  The question is not a new one.

Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356 (1886). 

Section:  We will compare Native American and Spanish Land Claims in discussion this week.

WEEK 12

Apr 12— The Delta:  The Chinese and Japanese Immigration

The experience for Japanese and Chinese immigrants was very different.  Here we shall explore reasons for those differences and their impacts.

This Bittersweet Soil, Chapters 5, 6. 

Apr 14— The Japanese:  Who Owns the Farm?

David Mas Masumoto, Country Voices, selections from Section III, The Land (1986). 

Apr 16— Agricultural Labor—We will explore the basic view of California factory farming and its requirements for labor. 

This Bittersweet Soil, Chapter 8.

If this is interesting to you, Chapter 9 is on reserve.

Section:  Working on structuring a paper.  BRING YOUR PAPER OUTLINE TO SECTION TO HAND IN. 

WEEK 13

Apr 19— Asian Agricultural Labor in the Valley

Today we will look at the agricultural labor movement in California agriculture before World War II, the intergroup rivalries and the cooperative efforts between and among groups.

Street, Richard.  “The 1903 Oxnard Sugar Beet Strike:  A New Ending,” 39 Labor History 193 (1998).

Salomon, Larry, “Movement History:  Filipinos Build a Movement for Justice in the Asparagus Fields,”  2 Third Voice 30 (1994). 

Street, Richard Steven.  “The ‘Battle of Salinas’:  San Francisco Bay Area Press Photographers and the Salinas Valley Lettuce Strike of 1936.”  26 Journal of the West 42 (1987). 

Apr 21—The Japanese Internment—

If you don’t know much about the Internment, try, for starters Sandra C. Taylor, Jewel of the Desert, chapter 2.  The whole book is available at http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft5q2nb3t5/

Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, Personal Justice Denied (1997), Chapter 4.  “Economic Loss”

Inada, Lawson Fusao, “Editorials in the Wake of Pearl Harbor’ in Only What We Could Carry:  The Japanese American Internment Experience.

Taylor, Sandra C.  “Evacuation and Economic Loss:  Questions and Perspectives.”  Chapter 4 in Taylor, Daniels and Kitano, eds,  Japanese Americans.

Taylor, “The Federal Reserve Bank and the Relocation of the Japanese in 1942.”  5 The Public Historian 9 (1983).  Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, “Economic Loss,” Chapter 4 in Personal Justice Denied (1982).  Look on the web at

http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/4417/personaljusticedenied.html

UNIT FIVE:  A SUMMARY—AGRICULTURAL LAND AND LABOR IN CALIFORNIA’S INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE

Apr 23—Factory Farm System:  Agricultural Labor, Migrant Workers, and Land Values—Brian Wright of the UC Berkeley Ag and Resource Economic Department will talk about the impact of labor supply on land prices.

Brian will hand out a reading during or just before class. 

Meanwhile, for starters, try the classic Carey McWilliams, Factories in the Field:  The Story of Migratory Farm Labor in California, (1939), Chapter 7, “Our Oriental Agriculture.”

Section:  Students will discuss the Japanese Internment, historically and its current meaning. 

WEEK 14

Apr 26—Migrant Labor—Amy Boone will talk about the Bracero program. 

Start with the photos at

http://digitalcollections.library.oregonstate.edu/bracero/

and this classic Woody Guthrie tune:

DEPORTEES

by Woody Guthrie

The crops are all in and the peaches are rotting

The oranges are filed in their creosote dumps

They're flying 'em back to the Mexico border

To take all their money to wade back again

  Goodbye to my Juan, farewell Roselita

  Adios mes amigos, Jesus y Maria

  You won't have a name when you ride the big airplane

  All they will call you will be deportees

My father's own father, he waded that river

They took all the money he made in his life

It's six hundred miles to the Mexico border

And they chased them like rustlers, like outlaws, like thieves

The skyplane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon

The great ball of fire it shook all our hills

Who are these dear friends who are falling like dry leaves?

Radio said, "They are just deportees"

Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards?

Is this the best way we can raise our good crops?

To fall like dry leaves and rot on out topsoil

And be known by no names except "deportees"

Copyright Ludlow Music, Inc.

Also read selections from David Gutierrez Walls and Mirrors: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the Politics of Ethnicity.

Apr 28— The Environmental Costs of Industrial Agriculture:  Agricultural Workers and Pesticides

Apr 30— Strawberry Fields:  What Methyl Bromide Means for Ag Labor and Upward Mobility—Melanie Dupuis, a professor atSanta Cruz and author of Nature’s Perfect Food, a book about milk, will talk about her present research on agricultural labor in the Central Valley and pose a major dilemma regarding the intersection of farm labor and pesticides. 

Section:  The class will discuss Cycles of Agricultural Labor in California—HAND IN A FINAL VERSION OF YOUR PAPER

WEEK 15

May 3— Agricultural Transformation—Who Is Included and Who Is not?  

Organic, artesianal, or “traditional agricultural production is frequently portrayed as a way both to combat the adverse environmental effects of industrial agriculture and to revitalize flagging rural economies with high priced local products and agro tourism or agrotainment.  What are the consequences for agricultural labor?  Sally and Compton Foundation program officer Jennifer Sokolove will speculate based on research they are doing for a new book. 

May 5—Biotech and its Discontents—And Why is Mexican Genetic Purity an issue?  Corn Racism or What?

Ignacio Chapella will talk about the impacts of genetically engineered corn on the gene pool.

Start with

http://www.gene.ch/genet/2001/Dec/msg00015.html

May 7 --Summary:  Panel of Discussion Section Representatives Discuss Race, Ethnicity, the Land, and American Culture

WEEK 16

May 10--Wrap up and Course Evaluation—we will also plan review sessions for the exam.