Primary Source Analysis

What does it
look like?

The Great Learning from Women
looks like a document or article.

Who wrote it?
Why?

Kaibara Ekken wrote
this piece because she
believes that women
should act or do things
a certain way to please
their husbands.

How does the author
communicate ideas?

Ekken communicates
her ideas by saying
that women have five bad
infirmities and how they
should not trust themselves.

What are the
big ideas?

The big idea in this
article would be the five
worst infirmities that
women have. She does
focus more in one infirmity,
silliness. She also says things
regarding the husband and
children as if the women is
living to prove herself to them.

What ideas
are left out?

The idea that women
can be independent and
live for herself is left out.
The whole article was about
how if a women feels a certain
way, she shouldn't say anything
or else she is 'foolish'.

Whose perspective
does it reflect?

This reflects Kaibara
Ekken's perspective
on how women should
behave. This article could
also reflect the men's
perspective during the
17th century.

Whose perspectives are
omitted/questioned/challenged?

The perspective of every
woman is omitted
in this article. Ekken does
not care about what women
think women should be like.
He simply decided that his
opinion was the only one that
mattered.

Which questions can this
source help me answer?
Which can it not?

This article helped me
further understand how
men felt about women
during the 17th century.
A question that is not
answered is why did he feel
the need to write this article?

How much change
was caused/reflected in
this source?

Compared to today, there
has been a lot of change
regarding women and how
society thinks they should
behave/live. I'm not sure if
much, if any, change was
caused due to this article.

How revealing is this
source of the attitudes
and beliefs of the time?

This source was very
revealing about the
attitudes and beliefs
towards women in the
17th century. The author
made it very clear that
women were thought very
low of.

What does it
look like?

The Turtle Ship
looks like an ancient
ship and reminds
me a little bit of a
sailboat.

Who wrote it?
Why?

The turtle ship was
created by Yi Sun-sin.
The purpose of this
ship was to provide
safety for soldiers during
war. The turtle aspect
comes into play because
the outside of the ship
was supposed to be a hard
protective outer layer, like
a turtle's shell.

How does the author
communicate ideas?

The creator of the
turtle ship wanted
a very safe ship for
soldiers. This is shown
by the hard outer layer
on the ship, and how big
the ship was. There were
many different defensive
weapons/objects on board
to scare away the enemy.

What are the
big ideas?

The big idea here
is to keep the men
in battle safe.

What ideas
are left out?

I do not think
that anything was
really "left out". I
think that Yi Sun-sin
had thought thoroughly
when creating the ship.

Whose perspective
does it reflect?

The turtle ships reflects the
Korean men's perspective, as
well as Sun-sin's. From reading
about the creation of the ships,
I understand that Sun-sin's
goal was to keep the men safe
at war.

Whose perspectives are
omitted/questioned/challenged?

The enemy's perspective
would be omitted just
because the Korean's are
trying to win that war and
do not want their men to die.

Which questions can this
source help me answer?
Which can it not?

This helps me understand
where Korea was in their
construction of ships. I
also getting a better
understanding of what
the Korean men were trying
to achieve during this time.

How much change
was caused/reflected in
this source?

There was a big change
from this source because
it was the first type of ship
that was very defensive and
safe for the men in battle.

How revealing is this
source of the attitudes
and beliefs of the time?

This source reveals a lot
about how bad the men
wanted win their battle.

What does it
look like?

The Fall of the Aztecs
looks like an article of
some sort. Possibly out
of a book or historical
document.

Who wrote it?
Why?

It doesn't say who
the author of this
article is, but I assume
a historian may have
written this due to the
document being in past
tense. The historian wrote
this because it is an important
part of Mesoamerica's history.

How does the author
communicate ideas?

The author simply states
facts and tells the story
of how the Aztecs fell to
the Spanish.

What are the
big ideas?

The fall of the Aztecs
and the Spanish were
brought up multiple times
which makes me think that
those are the most important
ideas in this text.

What ideas
are left out?

I do not think any
ideas are left out, but
this is also my first time
learning about the fall
of the Aztecs.
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Whose perspective
does it reflect?

This is a perspective of
a historian/bystander. I
know this because it is a
story being told and there
is no bias towards either the
Spanish or Aztecs.

Whose perspectives are
omitted/questioned/challenged?

I do not think anyone's
perspectives are pushed
aside since it is just a factual
story.

Which questions can this
source help me answer?
Which can it not?

I know that many Aztecs
died due to smallpox and that
increased the fall. This can not
help me answer if there were
any Aztecs left? If so, where did
they go?

How much change
was caused/reflected in
this source?

There was a lot of change
for the Aztecs and Spanish
since the Aztecs fell. The
remaining Aztecs would have
to live a whole new way of life,
which could have been very
difficult.

How revealing is this
source of the attitudes
and beliefs of the time?

This source reveals how
competitive everyone was
to rule certain places and to
take over land. From this
source, I can tell that back then,
it was all about being superior.