AMS 150 Exam #1
American Studies Approach
Interdisciplinary: borrowers and thieves of other methods (anthropology, architecture, etc.) Arts: cultural artifacts interact with formalities
Migrations
Internal Migrations -Rural to urban -Within nation, across borders External Migrations -Global migration of labor -NYC and Chicago
The Dawes Act of 1887
Making Indians American -Also known as the General Allotment Act -Indian boarding schools -Both merge from the idea of the assimilation policy -They need to drop their culture and traditions and pick up new ones that are considered normal for Americans -Does America want to be a pluralistic society (accepting of other cultures) or do we want to be a melting pot (not accepting) -Both approaches erase the Native Americans in different ways -The closing of the American frontier creates a lot of anxiety -Leads us to find new frontiers or make them
Culture
Traditional Definition: "Culture is to know the best that has been said and thought in the world" -Matthew Arnold Modern Definition: "Culture is invisible" -Marshall McLuhan Ethnocentrism: judging foreign peoples or groups by the standards and practices of one's own culture Ex: We drive on the right side of the road and Europe drives on the left side Modern Anthropology Definition: "Culture, then, consists of standards for deciding what is, standards for deciding what can be, standards for deciding how one feels about it, and standards for deciding how to go about doing it" Ex: Are you sick because of a change in environment or because an evil spirit possesses you
Onotto Watanna
"A Japanese Nightingale" -Direct response to Madame Butterfly -Winifred Eaton posed as a Japanese woman to sell the novel -Role reversal of Madame Butterfly -It's about female empowerment
Marcel Duchamp
"Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2" -Not even recognizable body parts -Armory show as a whole was pathological -Duchamp made the body more like a machine as its moving
Jacob Riis
-"How the other half lives" picture documented the lives of poor, urban immigrants (1890) -He was born in Denmark in 1849 -Arrives in NYC in 1870 as an immigrant -He works in Journalism as a reporter of underside of urban life -Poor=victims of greedy landlords and unhealthy environment -No racial inferiority involved in the people coming over, its the environment that they live in when they get here -Magic lantern shows: travel around and appeal to the middle class to make them more aware of what's going on
Hull House
-20 years at Hull House (1910) -Settlement house for urban poor, immigrants -1900: every major city has settlement houses -1910: over 400 houses across the nation -Idea came from England and they brought it to the major cities -Reformers were white, middle class, wealthy, educated, and women -Wanted to assimilate immigrants into dominant culture -Provided classes to help immigrants get jobs in the city
1893 Columbian Exposition
-400th anniversary of Columbus in the new world -The White City: high culture Grand architecture Stability, order, and harmony Over awed and draining -Midway Plaisance: mass culture Fair grounds and circus acts To appeal to the masses Casual fun -To make measure of where U.S. was at
The Armory Show
-American and European artists -High degree of abstraction -Responses to the show: Threat to artistic standards Threat to your sanity Immoral Lots of people came out to the show
Consequences
-American progress and prosperity challenged -Riis=progressive and conservative -Look to middle class reformers -Riis wants to address the issue before a revolution happens
Ellis Island
-Arrivals and processing (1890-1924) -An average of 4,000 people a day are processed -Takes each person about 4-5 hours -2% get rejected because of disease, mentally ill, or a communist -Once processed they're placed in the city
Jane Addams
-Born in Cedarville, IL (1860) -Work in social reform and received the Nobel Peace Prize (1930) -Political democracy=height of progressive society
Department Stores
-Carried absolutely everything -Uncontested safe public space for women -4 or 5 stories high -Included tea rooms -Elevators and escalators -Acceptable to be unescorted here -Men's department right by the door -First thing that moved women out of the home and into the wider world
Lee Tung Foo
-Chinese American baritone who was born in California -Vaudeville; popular and operatic songs -Mimic ethnic accents -Instead of white people playing Asian, the Asian is playing white -Identity can be changed, shaped, and formed -Identity is a role play and performance
Context
-Cultural artifacts and circumstances: the broader surrounding environment context changes over time -The U.S. changes along with it's culture Ex: Herman Melville's Moby Dick -Published in 1851 and he knew it was good -the reaction was silent because no one understood the book -Most people didn't read his 800 page book during his lifetime -1920: context changes how we read the text -It is now seen as a masterpiece -The text never changed -In the 1850s, they didn't have the tools or the context to understand the novel -It was NOT a timeless classic -History and other circumstances made it
Ashcan School
-Emphasis on close observation of real life scenes -Primary focus: celebrating the lives of ordinary Americans -Paintings deemed "too vulgar" by the art establishment -Newspaper reproduction happened by going out and sketching what they see instead of taking photos -Not interested in airbrushing and doctoring the painting or sketch -Want it to be real -Robert Henri painting was provocative and got rejected -George Luks painting encourage people to push past stereotypes and see them in a new way -Riff Raff of humanity and a menace to children -William Paxton and John Sloan paintings -The world magazine emphasizes their status as rebels -Ashcans were interested primarily in people
Idealism/Victorian Art
-Idealism: Training centered in art academies Rigid rules and conventions for painting and sculpture Artist is expected to paint idealized images, not realism -Not free spirited -Means you don't paint the flaws -John La Farge painting: about abstractions and ideals more than concrete reality -Abbott Thayer painting: not dressed in contemporary clothing but in costume like clothing -Idealism doesn't give you a lot for the ragtime era
After Ellis Island
-Immigrants packed into tenements -Hester street in downtown Manhattan -Dirty, unsanitized, and cramped -No one can move to walk in the streets
Industrialism
-Industry overtakes agriculture -1880-1890: American industrial production doubles -Accompanied by urbanization and growth of the transportation network, particularly railroads
Orient and Empire
-Interrelationship between U.S. foreign and domestic policies: American overseas expansion Incorporating Asian cultures into American identities -Divine inspiration: claiming the westward land as our home (manifest destiny) -Consumer capitalism: mass produced material goods -Democratic benevolence: desire to spread democracy across the globe -Far East=Far West (and south) -Loving and loathing: Chinoiserie, Japonisme (french terms) Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882: first act where one specific race is targeted Gentleman's Agreement, 1907: targeted against Japanese
Japanese Architecture
-Japanese Temple: wood block prints, paintings, carvings, want ancient stuff -Ward Willits House: designed as part of nature, peacock room included golden peacocks, Chinese pottery, and lanterns, Princess of the Porcelain Land
Paternalism
-Means acting like a father to a child (Americans to Indians) -The great white father in Washington -Congress decides to stop making treaties -"Father" knows best -The U.S. made the best decisions for Indians
Modernist Art
-Modernists were interested in the environment/city -Max Weber painting: unrealistic colors, unrecognizable, and chaotic -He was trying to capture the city changing vastly -Primary focus: built landscape and new technology (bridges, skyscrapers, electric lights) -Used geometric abstraction to capture sense of motion and dynamism of the modern city -Paintings were deemed "too abstract" by the art establishment
Movie Palaces
-Motion pictures grew longer -More upscale clientele -Featured large marquees, architecturally elaborate interiors, lush balcony seating, and live orchestrated music
Methods of Assimilation
-Native Americans are focused on to reservations and the land is seized and used for settlement -Standing Bear: arrested for leaving the reservation o bury his child in Nebraska -Case attracts national attention -Sarah Winnemucca: "Friends of the Indian" advocate for: 1. Investigations of government mismanagement 2. Changing Native cultures (i.e. assimilation) -Assimilation Policy: proposes getting rid of tribal governments and tribal land holdings (arguing that Indians need private property to become "civilized") -Every family gets 160 acres -Granted citizenship and deed to land after 25 years -Land allotment doesn't work -"Kill the Indian and save the man" -Richard Henry Pratt: Founder of Carlisle Indian School -Attendance was made mandatory -Given new Anglo-American names -Cannot speak anything but English -Children don't fit into society after they finish school -Literacy and knowledge of American culture allow them to advocate for Indian rights -The idea of assimilation is pushed overseas -Teddy Roosevelt: the U.S. would "destroy and uplift" the less "civilized" peoples of the world, in the same way that they were attempting to change Indians -Finding colonies and outposts overseas: 1893, Hawaii is annexed; Spanish-American war means U.S. military incursions in Cuba and Philippines
Text
-Read aspects of culture as text -What does it reveal about society? Ex: interpreting NYC -Frank Lloyd Wright (messy, chaotic, and ugly architecturally) -Jazz Music: all instruments play off a back beat, NYC is like jazz music, Manhattan skyline is the result
Catalogue Shopping
-Rural areas didn't have department stores -You could buy anything in the sears catalogue, even your house -Order through the catalogue and have it shipped to your house
Frederick Jackson Turner
-Said that the frontier defines the American people -If the frontier is closed, what defines us as Americans? -Causes concern among Americans because its going to become urban -Everything claimed, labeled, and settled but not all the way developed
Madame Butterfly
-Short story by John Luther Long -The year the U.S. starts expanding into the pacific -Basically a western fantasy of western Asians -American Naval Lieutenant hooks up with Madame Butterfly and gets her pregnant. He leaves and she raises her son by herself. He comes back with his wife and takes his son. Madame Butterfly kills herself.
Nickelodeons
-Simple store front spaces which featured slot machines, kinetoscopes, and other penny arcade attractions -Curtained-off spaces for motion picture viewing (short films at 5 cents each) -Targeted working class customers and catered to specific ethnic communities -Dominated from 1900-1915
New Women
-Started college if they could convince their parents that it wouldn't permanently ruin your health (mental and physical) -Dress code: hair up, underwear, shift, corset, corset cover, petticoat, stockings, shoes, blouse, and then lady suit -Given the right to vote -Change in dress code: knees showing, trim and slim, and skin showing
Henry Ford
-The Model T was originally $600 and went down to $290 -It went from a luxury good to a mass produced good because of the assembly line -Workers were paid $5 a day and it encouraged them to stay for a while -Electrification: generators, turbines, creates appliances and all kinds of new stuff
Baseball
-The game was predominately urban, not rural -Not agricultural, industrial -Not outdoor labor with the hands, but indoor labor with the head (stress is created) -Not sunup to sundown, but 9 to 5 (8 hours on the job, 8 hours of sleep, 8 hours of leisure) -Not tasks and seasons, but time clock discipline -From face to face intimacy, to mass anonymity -From isolation to concentration (society through voluntary association) -People didn't know what to do with their leisure time -Alexander Joy Cartwright (1820-1892) was given the credit for organizing the Knickerbocker baseball club (1845) and wrote the original rules -A surge in literacy rates -Walt Whitman: father of baseball -Reform: self-discipline, social cohesion, respect for authority and the rule of law, and avoiding vice -Henry Chadwick (1824-1908): the box score -Cincinnati Red Stockings (1869) had 83 consecutive wins (Aaron Champion) -Vital form of urbanized, modern leisure -Baseball and mass production -Division of labor (everybody has a sphere of control and they don't intersect) -Standardized parts (series of players for what you need to put together a strong team) -Assembly line (battling to first, to second, to third, etc.) -High wages -Baseball and the values of urban-industrial society Control Interdependence Statistical measurement Segmented space
Coney Island
-The steeplechase park -An architecture of pleasure -Loosening the self-restraints and having fun -An amusement park for adults -So many races mingle in a common place for a common good
Closing of the Frontier
1890 Census: "The Frontier is Closed" -All territory in the U.S. was settled or claimed -63 million people in the U.S. (mostly eastern of the Mississippi) -Takes 400 years to claim the whole continent 1920 Census: "An Urban Nation" -First time the U.S. was marked as urban -More people in cities than in rural areas -106 million people in the U.S. (mostly eastward of the Mississippi)
"The Jungle"
1906 -Upton Sinclair: a socialist and believed the consumer is worthy of being protected -The Jungle: meat packing industry, described graphic conditions, consumer movement, Pure Food and Drug Act, tremendous change in 1906
Moral Regeneration
Before: -Women and men are more fundamentally different than alike, marriage is economic, called a young matron, women were more moral than men, women don't have sexual feelings of any kind After: -Women will vote for the greater good and clean up the mess -1920: new view of women -Now women are much like men
