Chapter 7
I suppose I didn't really know when all of these trade routes came about, but for some reason it came as a shock to me that it was in this third-wave civilization time period. The amount of time it took to cross the Sahara trade routes makes it all the more impressive that people could accomplish this so regularly. It mentioned that this was only doable after camels were introduced to the area, but didn't mention where they came from...I will have to do some further investigating as this piqued my interest. In so many Western Civilizations classes, the history is obviously presented to you with a Western bias, so learning that so much spreading of technology, religions and luxury items were being traded all over the world during the same time frame was fascinating. These trade routes also carried the diseases that we so often heard about as Western Civilizations covered so much about the plague, but to see civilizations thriving, growing, and people making fortunes off of these luxury goods definitely has me looking at this time frame from a new perspective. Noting the difference between Eurasia and the Americas, in terms of how it was much harder to spread agriculture between the northern and southern hemispheres seems to make all the difference in understanding how the two parts of the world developed so differently. Even if these items were brought to a new land, they most likely would not be a viable option to grow there. Eurasia had a much easier time of things, because even though the terrain could be different, the temperatures, zones, water sources, etc. didn't vary as much between a great many more lands. The people in the Americas could have traversed the land and water just as well as the people of Eurasia, so the difference between their progress and spread of agriculture and culture must lay in the physical differences of the lands. It is also always interesting to hear of civilizations that I never had before where the gender differences weren't as extreme, and that women were held in higher regard for their contributions, like the people of Angkor.
Chapter 8
I was most intrigued by two parts of this chapter. The first being the general theme, how connections between people and places can change a culture, but not always into a mirror image of itself. People surrounding but in contact with China were heavily influenced but China's luxury goods and often their political and cultural practices. While some things were gladly taken on without question, many ways were altered to best suite the adopters. Beliefs and practices were taken on piecemeal in an effort to make them understandable and approachable to the people, and resulted in something that the Chinese would barely even recognize. This practice still occurs the same way today, as rapidly accelerating globalization exposes new cultures and practices to other people. While some criticize the process as homogenizing the world, others note that while an idea might be taken as a jumping off point, almost all cultures assimilate the idea to become something easily adopted by their people. Take, for example, social media. People all over the world use the same several applications, but they employ them in many different ways. While Twitter might be used by a Californian to bolster their business, advocate for a cause or political leaning, or by celebrities and regular people to stroke their own egos, people in the Middle East used it as a means to educate, congregate, and rebel. Same platform, different people with different needs, so therefore different uses.
The other thing that I found interesting was the rise of the samurai warrior class. This part of Japanese society was created out of a time of political decentralization, and smaller groups placed emphasis on the virtues, values, and talents of warriors. Their bravery, endurance, and self-sacrifice was exalted over the Chinese values of state hierarchy and loyalty, and of brain over brawn. When reading this passage on page 382 of the text, I was struck by the similarities between how the Japanese samurai and Chinese mainland differed and how the Spartans and Athenians differed, respectively. One set of people placed high value in warrior tactics, loyalty and bravery in battle, while the other emphasized the power of the government and the education and higher thinking of certain classes of people. This was just an brief thought bubble in my mind, but I would be curious to research any real comparisons between the two sets of people if given the opportunity in the future.
Chapter 10
The main thought I was struck with regularly while reading this chapter was, "what if...". There were so many odd turns that are glossed over as inevitable when studying Western Civilizations, but reevaluating in this text make you think about what could have been otherwise. What if Rus had decided to take on Western Christianity or Islam as its religion? How would history have changed? Thinking of our more recent world wars, tensions, and battles, it seems strange to think that current powers would likely not exist in their borders or with their mentalities had another choice been made. What if the crusades had succeeded in maintaining power in the conquered areas? What would that empire have looked like? How long could it have been sustained, and where would the world's borders be now? What if Greek philosophy hadn't been revived and taken on by the greatest minds of the time? What would our civilizations, technologies, and schools look like today? It is so interesting to enter this fantasy land and play out the next few steps in your mind to think about how different every successive, clearly not inevitable, moment in history would have unfurled.
No comments:
Post a Comment