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In tonight’s readings about Yorùbá City planning and the city of Potosí, we see two different themes that have appeared in past readings and sources throughout this course, intertwined with concept of constructing unique spaces. The Yorùbá City Planning reading in particular brought to light the design of the city itself and how that design allowed for different displays of power. Highlighting the “spoke-and-wheel pattern” of the city, accentuated the ruler’s central authority of the city. This more architectural look at societies and how they developed over time gives us a deeper look into these peoples’ societal organization and hierarchical nature. For example, the way the markets functioned as gendered spaces, showing us that women were active and in control of aspects of the economy in these societies.
In his response on the Mangan reading on the city of Potosí, Matthew Liivoja contrasts the types of space that Yorùbá was to the space the Potosí allowed for, with Potosí being a valuable city for foreign powers. Potosí’s economic interaction with the Spanish is the embodiment of other themes throughout the course: imperial expansion and economic imperatives. The city of Potosí was a space that was “dynamic” as it drew indigenous migration as well as the attention of the Spaniards, who had wanted silver. This created multiple sectors within Potosí, with some speaking Spanish, and some sectors that were filled with non-Spanish Europeans who had migrated in the search for silver. Potosí was described as a “beehive of activity”, and in the description of Yorùbá, we see a connection between the two cities in their dynamism and economic activity.