Close Readings

The Color of Food: Stories of Race, Resilience, and Farming, by Natasha Bowens

Ms. Bowens writes:

“For many, agriculture can represent deep pain because of the history of slavery, but also because of current land loss, forced migration, and oppressive farm labor practices . . . But I like to think that we recognize that our legacy with the land is so much more than that . . . ‘We have legacies of innovative and cooperative agriculture, traditional food ways, family heritages and powerful stories rooted in the land. How could we not embrace farming as part of our culture and a sacred connection to celebrate?’ ” (4)

“Close- Read” the passage above. Consider: the comparison of a history marred by slavery and colonization to the beauty, bounty and generosity of indigenous societies harvesting food, ensuring all people in the community are fed, and the peace of prioritizing farming practices that sustain the land.

In her prologue, “Sowing Seeds for the Road,” Bowens brings forward her personal history in relation to American land work and chattel slavery. She writes:

The chosen story for people of color in agriculture seems to play out on repeat, reducing our agrarian identity to slavery or farm labor and summing up our communities as deserts in need of food and water. But I know our story is so much richer than that. I can feel that richness when kneeling in the sunshine to sow seeds into the damp soil. I can sense it at the community garden when harvesting side by side with elders born on foreign soil. I can see it when volunteering on urban farms led by Latina mothers changing the health of their communities. I know that if we don’t change the story being told, we will continue to lose that connection to our food, culture and land. We will continue to be known as the underserved communities instead of the strong and resilient communities that we are. We will continue to scoff at the idea of tilling the land instead of embracing the beautiful tradition. If we don’t tell our stories, we risk being pushed further into the shadows of the national dialogue on whole foods and sustainable living, a dialogue promoting the diets and practices our ancestors had well before the term “organic” came into vogue. (IX)

“Close-Read” the passage above. Consider: How does knowing one’s own history and ancestry contribute to one’s sense of self, particularly in relationship to food, land, farming and culture? How does telling one’s own story bring truth and knowledge where there may have been stereotype or marginalization? How can research and understanding of indigenous societies, their practices, beliefs and actions, allow us to imagine a healthier, equitable, and truthful relationship to food and culture today? How can this research and understanding also allow us to analyze and constructively criticize the current food industry, its corporatization, cultural appropriation and inaccessibility?

As we consider the complex and numerous historical and present-day connections in our class book, let us begin with some introductory resources. The resources below support a broad understanding of the ancient and historical land and farming connections of African civilizations, Native American (now North America) civilizations, Asian civilizations, and South American civilizations (Indigenous peoples of what is now Central and South America). This framework will allow us to explore more details of this history, as well as make poignant connections to present-day resiliences, triumphs, challenges and injustices surrounding land, farming, and food industry.

Farming in Ancient Egypt:

https://quatr.us/africa/farming-ancient-egypt.htm

“The Taínos: Men of the Good” by Jose Barreiro:

http://teamsigmasocialstudies.weebly.com/uploads/2/2/7/0/22708616/reading-men_of_the_good.pdf

History of Wheat Farming (West Asia):

https://quatr.us/west-asia/history-wheat-west-asia.htm

South American Farming History:

https://quatr.us/history/norte-chico-history-south-america.htm

Writing Strategy: Asking Critical Questions and Close Reading for Meaning

Writing strategies are literary tools, devices, structures for organization, methods of research, practices in rhetoric and tone, that support and shape your strongest written expressions and claims.

We will cover many Writing Strategies in this course. For Week 1, we will consider Critical Questions and Close Reading. You will be asked to apply these Writing Strategies in the coming weeks for your writing assignments. For now, get familiar with the concepts and try your best to review the Lecture Content (videos and handouts) using your Critical Questioning and Close Reading skills.

Critical Questions: Critical Thinking is all about pursuing truth through Critical Questions. Critical questions support your arrival at unbiased, well-informed, equitable conclusions or decisions. Critical questions allow you to avoid emotion-based responses or to avoid being manipulated by speakers or advertisers who appeal to emotions rather than facts.

Consider: “We’re constantly bombarded by messages designed to persuade us. These messages appear in the following places:

Op-ed pieces that attempt to shape our beliefs
Work documents or meetings where colleagues try to win our support for their proposals
Advertisements that want to persuade us to buy a product

Without critical thinking skills, we are at risk of being manipulated, deceived, or mindlessly led to conclusions that others want us to have. We need strong critical thinking skills so that we can assert our own beliefs and reach our own conclusions.

Here are some general guidelines for Asking Critical Questions:

To understand the structure of the argument, the key questions are:

What are the issue and the conclusion?
What are the reasons?
What are the assumptions?

From here, we can further evaluate the quality of the argument:

4. Are there any fallacies in the reasoning?

5. How good is the evidence?

After analyzing the reasons and assumptions, searching for fallacies, and weighing the evidence, you can then decide whether or not you agree with the argument’s conclusion.

So for any persuasive message you encounter, whether a written document or a speech, you can ask the five questions above to perform your critical analysis.

Additional Guidelines for Critical Questioning:

Classification of Critical Thinking Skills

1. Comprehension (Understanding): to convert information into a form that is personally meaningful, i.e., that makes sense to the individual who is learning it.

• How would you put ______ into your own words? (Paraphrasing)

• What would be an example of _______? (Illustrating)

• How would you translate _______ into visual form? (Concept-Mapping)

2. Application: to apply abstract or theoretical principles to concrete, practical situations.

• How can you make use of _______?

• How could ________ be put into practice?

• How would _______ be converted into an action plan?

3. Analysis: to break down or dissect information into its component parts in order to detect the relationship among the parts or the relationship between the parts and the whole. (For example, identify the underlying causes or sources of disagreement during a class discussion.)

• What are the most important/significant ideas or elements of _______? (Prioritization)

• What assumptions/biases underlie or are hidden within ________? (Deconstruction)

• What parts of ________ would be similar to/different than ________? (Comparison-andContrast)

4. Synthesis: to build up or connect separate pieces of information to form a larger, more coherent pattern. (For example, connect related ideas discussed in separate sections or units of a course into a single, unified product, such as a concept map; integrate ethical concepts learned in philosophy course with marketing concepts learned in a business course to produce a set of ethical guidelines for business marketing and advertising practices.)

• How can this idea be combined with ________ to create a more compete or comprehensive understanding of _________? (Integration)

• How can these different ideas be grouped together into a more general category? (Classification)

• How can these separate _________ be reorganized or rearranged to produce a more comprehensive understanding of the “big picture?”

5. Evaluation: to critically judge the validity (truth), morality (ethics), or aesthetic (artistic) value of ideas, data, or products by using relevant assessment criteria (standards for judging quality).

• How would you judge the accuracy or validity of _________?

• How would you evaluate the ethical (moral) implications or consequences of ________?

• How would you rate the aesthetic quality (beauty) of ___________?

(Sources: https://medium.com/@ameet/5-questions-to-improve-your-critical-thinking-skills-part-1-283cf3d1506c

https://www.lavc.edu/profdev/library/docs/promotethink.aspx)

Now, on to Close Reading:

Close Reading: Close reading is thoughtful, critical analysis of a text that focuses on significant details or patterns in order to develop a deep, precise understanding of the text’s form, craft, context and meanings. Close reading directs the reader’s attention to the text itself, rather than exclusively focusing on the content. For example, if you were to read a poem, you could analyze the words of the poem or the lines to make meaning. When close reading the poem, you can ask critical thinking questions like: when was this poem written? what was the social or political climate at that time? where is the author from and how might that give them an important perspective or expertise in the poem? what are some responses to this poem; how has this poem been received by society or academia?

Ultimately, Close Reading is about making meaning while asking critical questions. Asking critical questions supports your critical thinking. When we are asked our opinion on a matter, we can often derive our most informed, thoughtful and extended perspective when we prioritize critical questions and critical thinking.

Here are some additional tips to get us started with Close Reading:

1. Read with a pencil in hand, and annotate the text.

“Annotating” means underlining or highlighting key words and phrases—anything that strikes you as surprising or significant, or that raises questions—as well as making notes in the margins. When we respond to a text in this way, we not only force ourselves to pay close attention, but we also begin to think with the author about the evidence—the first step in moving from reader to writer.

2. Look for patterns in the things you’ve noticed about the text—repetitions, contradictions, similarities.

3. Ask questions about the patterns you’ve noticed—especially how and why.

4. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. (p. 10)

Here is how Nancy Boyles in an excellent Educational Leadership article defines it: “Essentially, close reading means reading to uncover layers of meaning that lead to deep comprehension.”

Thus, what “close reading” really means in practice is disciplined re-reading of inherently complex and worthy texts. As Tim Shanahan puts it in his helpful blog entry, “Because challenging texts do not give up their meanings easily, it is essential that readers re-read such texts,” while noting that “not all texts are worth close reading.”

The close = re-read + worthy assumption here is critical: we assume that a rich text simply cannot be understood and appreciated by a single read, no matter how skilled and motivated the reader.

(Sources: https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/how-do-close-reading

https://www.teachthought.com/literacy/what-close-reading-actually-means/

Close Reading: The Taínos: Men of the Good

Close Read: “In the Taíno culture, as with most natural world cultures of the Americas, the concept was that the primary bounties of the earth, particularly those that humans eat, are to be produced in cooperation and shared” (2).

–For how long did the Taínos prosper on their land? What does the earliest human fossil date to? What were the values of the Taínos, and how were their lifestyles different than as described by the Spanish? What foods were harvested by the Taínos?

Information given and inferred: Practicing Reading Comprehension, Inference, and Related Research

Fossil: 1,500-15,000 years old

Culture is respectful of nature/land, farm with sustainability practices

Cuisine: corn, roots, ducks, fish, turtles (corn as sacred/as part of cultural belief in human creation)

“Centeotl (sometimes spelled Cinteotl or Tzinteotl and sometimes called Xochipilli or “Flower Prince”) was the main Aztec god of American corn, known as maize. Centeotl’s name (pronounced something like Zin-tay-AH-tul) means “Maize Cob Lord” or “the Dried Ear of the Maize God”. Other Aztec gods associated with this all-important crop included the goddess of sweet corn and tamales Xilonen (Tender Maize), the goddess of seed corn Chicomecoátl (Seven Serpent), and Xipe Totec, the fierce god of fertility and agriculture”

Source: https://www.thoughtco.com/centeotl-the-aztec-god-of-maize-170309

“Primitive” used insultingly by Spanish and Europeans to describe Taínos, even though Taíno social values and practices are advanced. A False binary is presented by European assessment of Taíno culture. The either/or binary presented: weaponry/uncivilized, Christianity/uncivilized. Meaning Europeans colonizing lands believed the Taíno societies to be less advanced or less civilized because the Taínos did not have firearms or Christianity. However, research finds that the Taínos value human life to the extent that they avoid fighting to the death or attempting to kill entire groups of people. This sustainable and humane perspective is actually far more advanced that societies willing to enact genocide.

Taíno Community is high functioning, millions of people eat (no poverty, no starvation), and there is equity in responsibilities and work. Taínos are invested in maintaining and nurturing the land.

Native American views on land “property”: no ownership of the land is possible, rather the land is a gift for all to care for, to renew, and to migrate upon.

*Selfless, fair, equality, communist, respect other communities/no “take-over” or devastation

Taíno cultural values and technological advancements: valuing life and quality of life for each person in the community. Suataining highly developed Irrigation systems, an advanced form of agricultural science for crop production and the removal of waste or toxins from the land.

“The Mayans were fond of multi-cropping, the process of planting and harvesting the same area of land various times within the same year. And although this greatly depleted the fertility of these lands, the practice of terracing and intensive farming techniques helped the Mayans meet the demand for food”

Additional Reading on the advancement of Mayan irrigation and agricultural systems:

https://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/16/a-mayan-water-system-with-lessons-for-today/

https://www.historyonthenet.com/mayan-farming

Genocide of the Taínos and Arawak native people of the Caribbean – influences the start of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Products, Foods, and Resources are forcibly harvested, stolen and exported by European colonization and the enslavement of Native and African people. The crops and resources most emphasized include: Sugar, gum, chocolate, tobacco, metal

Imperialism: the policy of extending the rule or authority of an empire or nation over foreign countries, or of acquiring and holding colonies and dependencies. Includes the increase in colonial and “homeland” economy through the exploitation of native and African people, their crops, and resources.

Genocide: attempt to eliminate a group of people based on a shared characteristic or perceived characteristic

Indigenous, native – people that are originally from that land.

Because Europeans societies did not develop these advanced irrigation systems and agricultural relationship to the land, bacteria had more opportunity to fester and lead to illness, like the bubonic plague of 1347. The plague killed ⅓ of the population of Europe and, alongside their interpreted Christian beliefs and political aims, prompted their movement to colonize.

References: Book, “Lies my Teacher Told me” (James Loewens).

Lecture Notes: The Taínos were excellent agriculturalists, farmers, fishermen, and sea travelers, among other skills. The Taínos, like the Mayans, created advanced irrigation systems that nurtured the land and filtered waste away from their living space. These systems were efficient at preventing disease or illness. The Taínos are Sea goers/seafarers.

Additional Sources: http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/vpit/vpadvance/artgallery/gallery/taino_treasures/mendez_essay_a.htm