Reflection #3

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.

Chapter 6 Study Guide/ Group Questions

Chapter 6 Study Guide:

Eurasian Social Hierarchies (500 B.C.E-500 C.E.)

• In India a 26yr old Hindu woman from Goa puts a personal add in the newspaper/internet in order to seek a partner. (puts name, age, education level, employment, drinks/smokes, but most importantly what her cast is)
• This woman listed herself as a “scheduled cast” known as Chambar/ “untouchables” = lowest category of the hierarchy of India’s ranked society.
• These personal adds shows how India still refers to the cast system and how deeply entrenched/enduring ancient patterns of social life can be.

Most Recent 250 Years

• Social structures which were once thought to be a natural/permanent way of life have now been put to question. Although many caste/class/patriarchy/slavery has disappeared in most countries,
• in places like Eurasia they still exist (in political frameworks of states/empires) define between rich/poor, powerful/powerless, slaves/free people, men/women
• French/Russian/Chinese Revolution challenged/ destroyed ancient monarchies and class hierarchies
• Abolitionists in 19^th century attacked slavery
• Women’s movement  confronted patriarchal assumptions of the relationship between man and women
• India’s struggle for independence in the 20^th century (Gandhi) to raise status of “untouchables” to Harijan (“children of God”)

Society and the State in Classical China

• Shaped by actions of the state.
• It was apparent that there was political power and social prestige of Chinese state officials. For over 2,000 years, the bureaucrats/officials acted in the name of the emperor in both capitals and provinces.
• They were more loyal to the central state rather than their families/regions
• Confucius believed select based on merit/personal morality rather than by birth/wealth
• Han dynasty had authority in China (200B.C.E and required each province to send a man of promise to the capital where they could be evaluated based on their performance

An Elite of Officials

• 124 B.C.E, Emperor Wu Di established an imperial academy where officials were trained (with an emphasis on Confucian teachings) By the Han dynasty there were over 30,000 men that were enrolled. Mostly filled with wealthier men, some were from the lower class but had been sponsored to pay for their education.
• Those who made it into the bureaucracy entered a realm of high privilege and prestige.

The Landlord Class

• In China, wealth=land
• By the Qin dynasty unified China by 210 B.C.E, most of the land was owned by peasant farmers. The pressure of pop. Growth and taxes made it so that they would go into debt. The only way that they could get out of this debt was to sell their land. As wealthy landlords took over, they were able to acquire enough land to avoid paying taxes which decreased states revenues and made it so the peasants had to pay more taxes with money they didn’t have. Also they were able to get their own military forces to challenge the authority of the emperor.
• Wang Mang (believed in a Confucian good government) he ordered private estates to divide up and be nationalized and divided up among those who didn’t have land, government loans to peasant families, limits on how much land a person can own, and end to private slavery. This was opposed by wealthy landowners/invasions/poor harvests and led to Mang’s assassination in 23 C.E.

Peasants

• Throughout China’s history most of its population has been peasants. (Households of 4-5 people, representing 2-3 generations) some had land or sold things in the Markey but for many it was a hard struggle. Most would end up having to sell their land to large landowners and work as tenants of sharecroppers.
• Such hardships created periods of rebellion.  Groups came together to form what was know as the Yellow Turban Rebellion (got its name from the yellow scarves they wore around their heads) 360,00 armed followers looked forward to the “Great Peace” which would be a golden age of complete equality and social harmony and common ownership of property. But was suppressed by the Han dynasty but had weakened it so much that a few years later were able to overthrow the Han dynasty.

Merchants

• Peasants were oppressed/exploited but were also honored/celebrated in ideology of the state for being the solid productive backbone of the country.
• Merchants were viewed as unproductive and as those who made money off of others hard work. Social threat because their way of live impoverished others and deprived revenue from the state.
• Many of them became wealthy enough to buy land or educating their sons and sending them to civil service examinations
• Many had back door relationships with state officials/landlords

Class and Caste in India

• Like China, birth determined social status for most people. These inequalities were seen as natural, eternal, and ordained by the Gods.
• Indian society truly embodies what we call the caste system (casta=race/purity of blood)

Caste as Varna

• Formed by the god Purusha and was seen as eternal/changeless.

• Some say the cast system evolved from and encounter between light-skinned Aryan invaders and darker-hued native people and others say that it came from the interaction of many culturally different people along with different inequalities. Race was not as important in the caste system.
• Hierarchical system:
• Brahmins/priests: whose rituals/sacrifices could ensure proper functioning of the world (now Tribal medicine men/ sorcerers are in this class)
• Ksatriya: warriors/rulers who protected and governed society
• Vaisya: Commoners who cultivated the land (now evolved into a business class with a prominent place for merchants)
• Sudras: native peoples that have been incorporated into Aryan society.  Were regarded as servants and were not allowed to take part in Aryan rituals. (now became the domain of peasant farmers)
• (Below Sudras evolved the “untouchables”: who did work that was considered unclean/polluting.

The 3 top classes were seen as pure Aryans and were called the “twice born” (they experienced both physical birth and a formal initiation into their respected varnas and status as people of Aryan decent.

Chart page: 162

Caste as Jati

• Another set of social distinctions arose from specific occupations. These occupational groups (jatis) blended with the varna system to create classical India’s unique caste-based society.
• Emerged from Hindu notions of rebirth as a reflection of the good or bad deeds of a previous life (karma).

Slavery in the Classical Era: The Case of the Roman Empire

• Some say the domestication of animals provided us the model for enslaving people
• War, patriarchy, and the notion of private property all lead to the growth of slavery

Slavery and Civilization

• Slavery generally meant ownership by a master, the possibility of being sold, work with no pay, “outsider”, and bottom of the social hierarchy. For most it was looked as a “social death” no rights/independence

Chart page: 166

The Case of Rome

• Greek attitude towards slaves= it wasn’t good to be a slave, but it was good to own one
• Many slaves were prisoners of war
• Slaves were regarded as “barbarians”- lazy, unreliable, immoral, prone to thieving

Resistance and Rebellion

• Most did what they had to do in order to survive but some went against  enslavement by committing mass suicide, or resorted to weapons of the weak= small scale theft, sabotage, pretending illness, working poorly, placing curses on their masters, fleeing
• Catching slaves became and organized business
• Famous uprising of slaves occurred in 73 B.C.E when a slave gladiator named Spartacus led 70 other slaves for a school for gladiators in a desperate bid for freedom

Comparing Patriarchies of the Classical Era

• Men= superior over women, sons preferred over daughters
• Men could have more than one wife and regulated the social/sexual lives of wives/daughters/sisters
• Men had legal property rights
• Restrictions on women were more prominent in the classical era than the pastoral/agricultural societies

A Changing Patriarchy: The Case of China

• Han dynasty
• Yang, masculine related to heaven/ strength/ rationality/ light
• Yin l, lower feminine principle, earth subjects/ weakness/emotion/ darkness
• 2 notions…(1)”men go out, women stay in” (2)” three obidenences”-husban,father,son
• Male officials blamed the fall of the dynasty on “unnatural/disruptive” influence of women in public affairs
• Daoism provided new images of the feminine and new roles for women (dao=mother)

Contrasting Patriarchies in Athens & Sparta

• Fluctuated over time, varied place to place
• Women had to be represented by a guardian in legal matters, not referred to by name
• Women= man who was infertile
• Women’s roles were domestic affairs/ raise sons
• Aspasia & Pericles
• Sparta =more restrictive against homosexuality
• Sparta=patriarchy

Reflections: Arguing with Solomon and the Buddha

• Buddhist teachings: “impermanence”-everything changes; nothing remains without change

OUR GROUPS QUESTIONS:

Danielle, Noel, Sheila, & Chris

1) What is the difference between India's and China's social systems? (chapter6)

2) Why were the Chinese successful where as the Romans failed to unify their empires during the classical era? (chapter4)

3) Give at least 5 reasons behind the collapse of the Chinese and Roman empires.(chapter4)

4) What were the functions of the caste system in China and India?(chapter6)

5) What caused the collapse of the Mayan civilization?(chapter7)

6) Legalist, Confucian, and Daoist all had answers to China's search for order. Elaborate on one.(chapter5)

WORLD HISTORY REFLECTION #1

                                                            Week 1 Reflection 

When I signed up for this class I really did not know what to expect. I was relieved to find out that although we are going to be learning a lot of information in a short period of time, I am not going to have to memorize every date there is. I love history, but it has always been hard for me to recall specific dates. I have taken four history classes in junior college and enjoyed each one of them. I am really looking forward to learning more about the 5 different major eras of Homo-sapiens that we briefly discussed in last weeks lecture.

Chapter 1 focused on how Homo sapiens populated the planet.  I found it fascinating that Homo sapiens all started out in Africa and from there migrated throughout Europe, Australia, the Americas, and the Pacific.  It was hard for me to picture the world as it was in the past. The book talked about how there was pieces of land (countries) that had once been connected and that different parts were frozen over by ice so people were able to migrate to different parts of the world. Seeing the world as it is today separated by massive bodies of water, I do not see how people made it without the technology we have today. It was interesting how man kind has been able to adapt and survive in a variety of environments. 95 percent of the time that we have inhabited this planet, we have survived by gathering wild foods, scavenging, hunting, and fishing. As we had discussed in class and reiterated by the book, our ancestors were known as “gathering and hunting,” peoples not “hunters and gatherers.”  

Chapter 2 goes into a discussion of the first farmers and the revolution of agriculture. This period was when we shifted from “gathering and hunting” to domesticating aspects of nature for the benefit of human kind. Instead of hunting, we tamed and started selectively breeding sheep, cows, and chickens to be better than the ones that they would have caught in the wild. This entire chapter was so interesting to see how over time many things have changed. Today we now use chemicals to alter our food so it lasts longer and machinery to replace people that would have been working in the fields. To see all this change it makes me think, what is going to happen next?

Chapter 3 was about the first civilizations of cities, states, and unequal societies. It discusses the hierarchies of class from upper class, commoners, and at the bottom slaves. Gender roles also came into play during this time. Women took on more motherly roles such as raising children, cleaning, spinning/weaving, and making pots. Men tended to take on the role of being the provider. The part that stood out to me the most in this chapter was the section on writing and accounting. To see the various symbols that were used to stand for animals (that were shown in the  chart on page 71) compared to what we use now is completely different. Both written and oral communication has changed over time and it is hard to believe that even with the many different languages that are spoken all over the world today, we are still able to communicate and have the ability to learn different languages.

BLOG #1

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