Chapter 12: The Worlds of the Fifteenth Century

Its interesting how the chapter begins by saying "Columbus was a perpetrator of genocide..., a slave trader, a thief, a pirate, and most certainly not a hero. To celebrate Columbus is to congratulate the process and history of the invasion". With this said it is ironic that we still celebrate Columbus, when we all know that he was never a hero he was a terrible person with the people that they were conquering. I personally feel that he should not be celebrated because we are celebrating him for all the terrible things he did. Another part of this reading that I found interesting was the Aztec Empire, the Aztec state was the work of the Mexica people, a semi-nomatic group from northern Mexico. The conquered people and cities had to deliver to their Aztec rulers impressive quantities of textiles and clothing, military supplies, jewelry and luxuries, foodstuff, animal products and many other things. This empire is very impressive, it had palaces, temples, pyramids, canals, dikes, causeways, and bridges. The Aztec people seemed very prosperous with their food and their structures. One thing that surprised me the most was that among the "goods" that the pochteca obtained were slaves, many of whom were destined for sacrifice in bloody rituals so central to Aztec religious life. I found this terrifying because I do not understand how their religion would ask them to sacrifice other people.

Chapter 11 Documents

In the document "The Secret History of the Mongols", first begins talking about two friends Temujin and Jamugha. Both of them decided to renew their old pledge and love each other forever. I was a little confused with this document because it talks about the mongols as people who cared for each other and accepted when they had done any mistakes. From what I learned in class I thought they were more aggressive people. But with this document it seemed that they were different people. I find this credible because this is history from a mongol source. In document "Letter to Changchum", was a letter sent to a Chinese Daoist master named Changchun from Chinggis Khan. I enjoyed reading this document because it is giving a different side of Chingis Khan, in the letter he expresses how he cares about his people. Chinggis says, "I eat the same food...I consider the people my children, and take interest in talented means if they were my brothers..." After reading this letter it made me think that Chinggis Khan was not a bad rulers that he actually cared for his people, which is a great quality for a ruler. The oly thing he wanted from the Chinese Daoist was wisdom. When Chinggis says," I at least hope that at least thou wilt leave me a trifle of thy wisdom." This part made me feel like he was a humble and sensor person. In the document about the Russian view of the mongols was different the Russians saw them as devastation, destruction, and brutality. The document "The Chronicle of Novgorod", gave a different perspective of the mongols. In this document we can see that the mongols wanted to take over a town. It says,"And the Tartars took over the town on December 21... They likewise killed the Knyaz and Knyaginya, and men, women, and children, monks, nuns, and priest." This document gave a different perspective of the Mongols, they were killers and took over other people's land. In the document about the Chinese perceptions of the Mongols, talks about a Mongol official named Menggu. In the document "Epitaph for the Honorable Menggu", talks about Menggu as a person who took charge and helped everyone to live peacefully. Document says, "the violence became obedient and no one any longer dared violate the laws. Farmers on the fields and travelers on the roads felt safe, and people began to enjoy life." With his document I was able to see that the Chinese people respected Menggu because he brought peace and safety, and showed love for the people. Maybe this lead the Chinese to admire him and like him. I found all these documents to be interesting because I was able to see the different perspectives of the mongols, and not only think that they were bad people who liked to hurt others. There were some Mongols who seemed to be good people that cared for others. 

Chapter 9 Documents

One document that I found interesting was document 9.1 it began by talking an God/Allah and telling him he has guided them through the right path. Then it goes on to Jesus were he begins by talking about who he is and what he will be thought the wisdom and the law of the Gospel. This part is similar to the Bible. Then it continues on society, this part is telling us the people how we should act. For example "You should do good unto your parents and kinsfolk, and the orphans, and the poor". What shocked me the most on men and women was when it said " admonish them, refuse to share their beds, beat them; but if they return to obedience, seek not against them. I do not understand why it is saying to beat up women when it talked about doing good, and that is definitely not good. Another one was document 9.3, I found interesting that Muslims have to pray five times a day exempt for women who are recovering from childbirth. The rules about marriage were strange, I don't understand but man could not marry two sisters, and they had to set free their slave girl before marrying her. It confusing because I did not think that men could be married to free women and a slave women. I found all these laws to be strange because I do not see how they affected in any way a person who wanted to do good for there religion. For example men and women not being able to eat and drinker keep ointments in vessels of gold or silver. 

Chapter 9: The Worlds of Islam

I found very interesting how the Arab empire was made. The new Arab state became a huge empire, encompassing all or part of Egyptian, Roman/ Byzantine, Persian, Mesopotamian, and Indian civilizations. There faith, culture, and language began to spread out of the empire. Because there was a mixing/blending of people this caused a third- wave civilization. They were bound by their faith but divided by culture, class, politics, and religious understanding. After Muhammad's death in 632, the Arab empire began to govern most of Europe and China. The Quran viewed women as inferior to men. The Quran gave women both restrictions but also protection. It is interesting that men were limited to four wives, and had to treat each one equally. Did this mean that they could be married to all four at once? It did not really seem that women really have to much protection because they were seen as week.

Ch 10: The Worlds of Christendom

I had always believed that Christianity had been one of the first religions to ever exist and the most popular. It was interesting that in China, the decimation of Christian communities occurred within a century after Muhammad's death in 632, and only a few groups remained.  As well in Africa were Muslims began to take over and Christianity began to disappear. But in Egypt Christianity had become a major religion that by the time the muslims took over around 640, for the next 500 years large number of people still practice Coptic and practice their religion as dhimmis. I also found interesting how Russia got converted into Easter Orthodox. This happened because Prince Vladimir of Kiev was looking for a religion but he rejected Islam because it prohibited alcoholic drink. This is interesting how a person chooses a religion taking in account if they are going to let you drink or not.

China and the World

The first Dynasty in China was the Sui dynasty, but the dynasty collapsed. Then two other dynasties followed, the Tang and Song dynasty. It seemed that the Song dynasty was the most successful because they built a state structure, the richest, most skilled, most populous country in the world. I found interesting that the reason that made China the richest was because of its rapid growth in population. They also had achievements in agriculture production. During the Song dynasty it seemed that because they were reviving Confucianism, they began to see women as submissive. Very interesting that women had to do foot binding to enhance their marriage prospects . China was a country with an economic revolution and than had an impact on technological innovations. The Chinese technologies were transferred from one place to another. China was definitely a country that began many things and innovations and one of the richest. I think that even today China has a huge impact on everyone because everything that we have is mostly all made in China.

Chapter 7 Documents

One of the documents that I found very interesting was document 7.1 A Chinese Buddhist in India. Xuanzang. He traveled to India in search of Religion, and spend ten years in India learning about Buddhism. In the Record of the Western Religion Xuanzang talks about a description of Indian civilization. He talks about the towns and villages, towns and villages had inner gates. They also talk about the caste and marriage, this was something very interesting because they had four classifications for the division of families. The first are the Brahaman, 2nd are the Kshattriya, 3rd are the Vasyas, and the 4th are the Sudra. The laws they had for caste and families was very interesting because they did not allow promiscuous marriages between  relations and women can only marry once. I found these document the most interesting because the description for there civilization are interesting to see how they acted.

Commerce and culture

Commerce was a big factor and change for daily life. Merchants became distant social group, they were viewed with suspicion by others because of there impulse for wealth without them producing anything themselves. When people bought products that possessed luxury goods from a distance were seen as powerful societies, they also conveyed status in communities. Trade also transformed political life. They were controlling and the taxing trade motivated the creation of states. Because trade became so popular it also brought many disease. These disease traveled through the trade routes of Eurasia. People began to be exposed to to unfamiliar disease for which they had little immunity. I think trade was very important but I think people were not ready to deal with all the diseases that came along the trade route. I feel that people were not as interested in thinking that diseases would be brought instead they were more focused on the products arriving to them.

Chapter 6 Documents

I was not sure if I understood Document  6.4 about the gold. I think the story was talking about a place were there was a lot of gold and then people would use it to trade. They used there gold in order to trade for something else. Something that I found interesting was the Mayan art. it said that the Mayan art was more complex, subtle, extensive, and innovated than the Americas. By looking at the Mayan art I was able to see ho where art has a lot of detailed, and it seemed like there was a story behind the art. I really found interesting how in both 6.2 and 6.3 the Mayan culture focused on fighting because you can always see them with there weapons. I found astonishing how the Mayans would have rituals for example the bloodletting ritual, where Shield Jaguar would let his blood flow. I am not sure what the ritual meant? Overall these documents were investing but they were as well hard to understand. 

Society & Inequality in Eurasia

In the Chinese society males the most prestige of the Chinese state officials. Emperor Wu Di established an imperial academy were officials were trained as scholars. They were dealing with history, literature, art, and mathematics, and with an emphasis on Confucius. In the Chines society officials came from wealthy families and their prestige that accompanied their education and a membership in the official elite. In India birth determined social status, and great inequality characterized by social life and religious or cultural traditions defined the inequalities. I found very interesting the Caste as Varna were the caste evolved from a racially defined encounter of light-skinned Aryan invaders and the darker-hued native peoples. In the Rome, society was based on slavery. In classical Athens it was a home for 60,000 slaves, about 1/3 of the population. Philosophers in Rome bought that being a slave was horrible but owning a slave was good.

Ch 5 Documents

The Chinese women were limited importance in chinese society. This women wrote instructions for women. One of these instructions was humility, and says "Let a women retire late to bed, but rise early to duties; let her nor dread task by day or by night."By saying this she means that women's have to do everything even though they might say up late doing there duties. In An Alternative to Patriarchy in India, women were never to be independent, and they could not have more authority than ordinary life. Women began to write poems where they talked about their religious experience. In the Roman Women in Protest talks about the Roman authorities passed the Oppian laws were women could not use luxury goods. Overall these documents talked about women's not been equal as men. They were inferior and did not have rights they were seen mostly like house wires that had to take care of the kids and their home.

Chapter 4 Documents

In The Analects I enjoyed reading about Confucius ideas. I liked many of his ideas about how a ruler should be, and how there needs to be laws for a country to work properly. Confucius says" If they be led by virtue, and uniformity sought to be given them by the rules of property, they will have the sense of shame, and moreover will become good." I like his ideas of how a person can change and become good. Another interesting idea that Confucius had was always mentioning the virtues. Another document that I enjoyed reading was The Gospel of Matthew which talks about Jesus teaching people and telling them that if they do good they will have the kingdom of heaven and that they will be called sons of god. He is telling people that they have to do things right and be good people. Both Confucius and Jesus have the idea that people can be good and do great things, and they are giving people moral and ethical teachings.

Culture and Religion

It is interesting how the Chinese and the Greeks thinkers focused more on the affairs of the world and credited human rationality with the power to understand the reality. But the Indian, Persian, and Jewish intellectuals explored the unseen realm of the divine and the relationship of God or the gods to human life. In order to solve Chinas problems they had three answers. The first answer was the Legalist answer which was to lay the rules or laws, and strictly enforced through a system of rewards and punishments. Second answer is the Confucian answer. The answer to Chinas disorder was the moral example of superiors was the key to social harmony. Lastly the Daoist answer. Daoist answer focused on the withdrawal into the world of nature and encourage behavior that was spontaneous, individualistic, and natural. I think that from all the answers I would take all three of them and apply them because they are all good and would help restore a country.
In the Buddhist and Christian Religion I found interesting that neither the Buddha and Jesus had intentions on founding a new religion. Jesus never claimed divine status and saw himself as a teacher or a prophet, whose close relationship with god could be replicated by anyone. The Buddha viewed himself as as an enlightened but fully human person.

Confucius

In The Analects by Confucius we can see that he beliefs that there are rules that people need to follow. That would be the only way for something to work. I found interesting that he thinks thinks a person news to have sincerity, and tell the truth, dignify, no anxiety or fear in order to be a superior man. I think that he has a very good description of how a superior man needs to be in order to serve others. On XV.36 says" The superior man is correctly firm, not merely firm" This means that he has to be firm and not do things that are bad that way his people will also do good.  

Reflection: Ch 3 Documents

In the Roman Empire had a century of autocratic but generally but benevolent rule. In Rome, Aristides delivered to the imperial court in front of the emperor. The Roman Empire had a combination of democracy and aristocracy. In the Chinese Empire was ruled by a single emperor who mediated between heave and the human realm. In The Writing of Master Han Fei it talks about how the country was weak if the people would not follow the rules. But if people were to listen then country would be strong. they had to follow the law of the country. The Indian Empires followed the rules from his emperor Ashoka. It seemed more as a teachings of life. In The Rock Edicts says" Beloved-of-the -Gods thinks that even those who do wrong should be forgiven where forgiveness is possible" These to me seem like teachings, ways that people should live. If I had to choose were to live I would chose the Roman empire because it had a combination of democracy and aristocracy, because I would not like to live in a country were one person has all the power.  

Chapter 2 Sources

I thought all these documents were very interesting, but the most interesting document were the laws. The laws seemed to harsh, most of the laws if you did something then you would be killed. For example "If any one is commiting robbery and is caught, then he shall be put to death. " I really think this laws were to harsh on there punishments. With this laws it seemed that it did not matter if you were poor or rich and you committed one crime you would deserve the punishment. I think that was good that rich people had the same punishments as a poor person. Another document that I thought was very interesting was the Book of the Dead because it showed that people really wanted to become immortal and have eternal life. In this document someone is entering the hall of the goodness of Truth to ask for eternal life. This person is telling the Lord of Truth that he has been good and has not done anything wrong. And because he has not done anything wrong he wishes to be granted eternal life. 

First Civilizations

Civilization has changed the way of life during the years, it has absorbed, overran, or displaced people practicing other ways of living. Civilization emerged around 3500 B.C.E. to 3000 B.C.E. It is interesting how the first seven civilizations were scattered around the planet. They did not just happen in one certain place and then began to scattered. In gathering and hunting societies equality was more evident, but on urban based civilizations the inequality was multiplied. All of these inequalities helped make the transition of the major turning points of humankind. Some people began to have more money than others, this was seen by the way they lived and dressed. All the way in the bottom of the social hierarchies were the slaves. Slaves were put to work, people had the idea that they could own other people which definitely was not true. The inequalities of gender and class shaped the character of the First Civilization. During this time women were subjected to men, men had more right and power than women. The mens were defined as rulers, warriors, scholars, and heads of household. Women's role was productivity and reproductive. This is very interesting to see how everything that humans have done has helped to shape the way we are today either for good or bad. They have been an influence to the way we do things.

Paleolithic people more Egalitarian?

Paleolithic people were more egalitarian than later people. We can see this because both men and women could do the same things. Both of them could have lovers, Nisa says"I did have lovers and so did he."(p.49) She also keeps talking about how women's had to have lovers and not sit around when she says" When you are a woman, you don't just sit still and do nothing- you have lovers."(p.49) When reading this it seemed like for everyone it was normal to have a lover. She also mentions that people from long ago would also have lovers. She says" Because affairs... is something that even people from long ago knew. Even my father's father's father's father's knew."(p.49) It was not a sock to them that women or men had lovers even though they might have a wife and children. It feels like Paleolithic people were much more open about things. Paleolithic societies were more egalitarian with power, they had a ceremonial leader who was seen as a person with power. Also it talked about the people who collected food better than others that also made you superior. Finally Nisa talks about wealth, she described people as being stinge because everyone was poor. She says" If a person doesn't give something to me, I won't give anything."(p.48)

Response/reflection on the primary source documents

Is there any indication in the documents that paleolithic peoples were more egalitarian than later peoples in wealth, status, power or gender? 

In the documents Nisa talks about how she lived in the bush, and talks about food making her happy. Then she says" It's the same today. Here I am, long since an adult, yet even now, if a person doesn't give something to me, I won't give anything to that person...." This means that Paleolithic people thought the same way as we think today. If no one gives anything to us it means we probably won't give anything either. Nisa also talks about lovers she explains how she married her fourth husband and because she did not love him she had lovers. And she talks about it like being something normal for both of them having. It seems like paleolithic people did not care about wealth, status, power or gender. When they would marry it seemed like they did not care too much who they would marry because they could replace them with another husband. But men were the ones who would bring the food home while women's would stay with the children. In one of the documents it talks about that their might of been "matriarchal society" were women dominated, but then also said there was balance of power. This might means that men and women had the same rights.  I enjoyed reading the documents they helped to give me an idea of what life might of been like in the Paleolithic era. By reading the documents it seems that paleolithic people are not to different, both men and women had the same rights, and when they would marry someone they did not care about status or power. 

Agriculture

The Neolithic Revolution(New Stone Age) was the age were the gathering and hunting in most parts of the world. Agriculture represented growing populations, settled villages, animal- borne disease, horse- drawn chariot warfare, cities, states, empires, civilizations, writing literature and many other things. People began ti be really smart with the idea of growing food. Then people began to change the nature, they were directing the process of evolution. As people began to see that the population began to grow they began to take advantage of food. I think that people began to see that they could grow and have a lot of food that is why they kept making more until they ended up exploring the land. Because they wanted to make  more food people began to invent new things. One of the new things was the digging stick and hoe. They made new things that were going to help with the process of making more food.

Paleolithic migrations; Population of the planet

According to archeologist and anthropologists the evolutionary line of descent leading to Homo Sapiens diverge from chimpanzees. They are the closest primate relatives, around 5 to 6 million years ago in easter and southern Africa. Hominid species began to change over time, their brains began to grow larger by the size of the skulls. For a long time Homo Sapiens lived in Africa but sometime after 100,000 years they began to migrate to Eurasian landmass. This is really interesting because this means that all are decedents come from Africa because that is were everything began. With the people living there they were able to have technological innovations. For example stone blades, and tools made out of bones. Interesting that historians have said that human numbers dropped 500,000 by 30,000 years ago and then to 6 million by 10,000 years ago.

WW Prologue

The history of the universe is fascinating, the most action took place in the first few milliseconds of January 1. It is said that the universe began in an eruption of power an heat, and out of the explosion of creation emerged matter, energy, gravity, and electromagnetism. What surprise me the most was that the stars were formed around 1 to 2 billion years after the big bang. Which was the end of January to mid- February on the cosmic calendar. It is so weird that in around a month and half it was actually 1 to 2 billion of years had actually past. In the history of the planet it is said that over the past 600 million years or mid- December on the cosmic calendar, species including plants and animals of land, sea, and air have been been dying and evolving. It is also said that Homo sapiens history occurred in the few minutes of December 31, which means that the United States occurred in the last second. This is very surprising because its hard to understand how a species could be created in a second and all of its history.

Yay- I'm done!