This week we read three chapters from Robert Strayer’s book the Ways of the World. Chapter 8: Commerce and Culture discussed the importance of trade. Chapter 9: China and the World, which talked about China’s relations/impacts with other countries. Chapter 10: Worlds of European Christendom which discussed how Christianity spread throughout Europe and the rest of the world during the collapse of the Roman Empire.
The Chapter that fascinated me the most was chapter eight which talked about how trading goods was all started. Although today technology has impacted the way we produce, import and export goods, the idea behind it is the same as it was back then. Different areas all generate different products that are needed in other regions such as China with their production of silk, Southeast Asia and their spices, and Sahara for their salt. During this time they did not necessarily always sell their goods for money, in some cases they traded one good in exchange for another. For example West Africans needed salt so they turned to Sahara for their salt and in return gave them the gold of their region. It was interesting that as trade became more popular, people started specializing in a particular product that they knew would be in demand. Trade caused consumers to become less self-sufficient and heavily rely on those who produced the goods that they needed. The biggest thing that came out of trade to me was the idea that certain items would now symbolize wealth and status. For example silk had become a highly desired commodity that symbolized a person’s wealth/status.
As I continued reading, chapter 9 caught my attention when they contrasted women during the Tang dynasty to the women in the Han dynasty. Images during the Han dynasty depicted images of female submission and passivity where as in the Tang dynasty they described paintings and statues depicting women having been a part of a social life and given more freedom than they had in classical times. The quote by Sima Guang, “The boy leads the girl, the girl follows the boy; the duty of the husbands to be resolute and wives to be docile begins with this,” really stood out to me. The whole idea that man was dominant and women were just basically along for the ride was really apparent during this time period. It made me thing how lucky that today we as women have so much more freedom than women had in the classical times. I can’t even imagine what someone from the classical era would say if they knew how we lived today.
After reading the assigned chapters I still cannot believe how easy this book is to understand. I am so used to taking a history class and trying to decipher what the author is trying to say but this is not the case. I feel that I am able to truly grasp the ideas and am gaining a lot of insight on things that I have not learned before. I look forward to next week’s readings.
