Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Silk Road was pretty cool
The Silk Road, which connected the Mediterranean and China, played a major role in the spread of ideas, crops, religion, and humans. Caravans brought goods along the way, and pastoral nomads provided animals, handlers, and protection for the Silk Road. These Nomads' homes were on four-wheeled wagons dragged by oxen. The Silk Road later became an avenue to transport religious ides, which ended up playing a significant role in societies. The use of chariot warfare and mounted men by stirrup was spread by means of the Silk Road. Once the Mediterranean Ocean System was established, ocean trade became convenient and popular. For example, the Mozambique Channel spread crops and language. Sailor men often married women from port cities, therefore making families more cultured and diverse. With the expansion of territories and growing wealth in temples, traders were enticed to travel farther for goods. This effected the entire society, not just wealthy elites.
Hump Day
Hi Guys,
Just finished up the reading.
I thought that Bulliet had some really cool points in this reading, one of those being the idea that the Silk Road became so extensive and complex that it grew into a social system of it's own. It is remarkable to think back on the amount of languages, religion, and culture that were all flowing in to the Silk Road, along with the goods, and even currencies.
I also hadn't really thought about WHY the Silk Road happened in China. I think Bulliet makes another good point when he says that it depended somewhat on the type of people that were in China and the surrounding areas at the time. Those people were pretty mobile, and though they didn't tend to move for trading purposes, these people were often schlepping their belongings on the backs of certain animals, some horses, and mainly camels. This idea helped build the foundation for a system like the Silk Road, where people could travel it and wind up with a bigger purpose, and making better money. In fact this adoption became crucial and important to those in the Sasanid Empire, who were taught how to transition from being a nomadic person, to being a trader with a caravan. Most interesting I thought, was that, because so many people were schlepping products and culture all the way through the Silk Road, inventions like the Stirrup became super popular, as a result.
In conjunction with the Silk Road, the Indian Ocean System also played a huge role in facilitating goods to other places. In fact, the Indian Ocean System specifically brought highly valued goods with high demand across seas from anywhere from the east coast of India, to the China Malays, to the Persian Gulf. Some of these goods included copper, ivory, and wood. Important in this form of trade, was the social system as well. Coastlines became popular places to live, hubs, and ports became a center of trade and commerce, and women began to play a huge role in their ability to mediate the different cultures of sailors, and the natives of the land.
Just finished up the reading.
I thought that Bulliet had some really cool points in this reading, one of those being the idea that the Silk Road became so extensive and complex that it grew into a social system of it's own. It is remarkable to think back on the amount of languages, religion, and culture that were all flowing in to the Silk Road, along with the goods, and even currencies.
I also hadn't really thought about WHY the Silk Road happened in China. I think Bulliet makes another good point when he says that it depended somewhat on the type of people that were in China and the surrounding areas at the time. Those people were pretty mobile, and though they didn't tend to move for trading purposes, these people were often schlepping their belongings on the backs of certain animals, some horses, and mainly camels. This idea helped build the foundation for a system like the Silk Road, where people could travel it and wind up with a bigger purpose, and making better money. In fact this adoption became crucial and important to those in the Sasanid Empire, who were taught how to transition from being a nomadic person, to being a trader with a caravan. Most interesting I thought, was that, because so many people were schlepping products and culture all the way through the Silk Road, inventions like the Stirrup became super popular, as a result.
In conjunction with the Silk Road, the Indian Ocean System also played a huge role in facilitating goods to other places. In fact, the Indian Ocean System specifically brought highly valued goods with high demand across seas from anywhere from the east coast of India, to the China Malays, to the Persian Gulf. Some of these goods included copper, ivory, and wood. Important in this form of trade, was the social system as well. Coastlines became popular places to live, hubs, and ports became a center of trade and commerce, and women began to play a huge role in their ability to mediate the different cultures of sailors, and the natives of the land.
Camels and Ideas
So, in the prompt Mr. Chaput asked, "How do they move goods and ideas?", and because we just read about trade and camel saddles, I am going to assume that goods and ideas travel by trade and camel saddles. I do not believe that any society actively shares their ideas(unless they send missionaries). I can't imagine a king sending out a subject to go from town to town sharing new ideas. I believe ideas are exchanged passively along with goods. When a trader arrives in a new town he might sit down at a bar and talk about his customs to his fellow men. I can easily picture a ancient greek merchant enter a Roman restaurant and ask for a menu and when they told him that they don't have menus because they don't have written language, he would get irritated and tell them that back in his country they have this awesome thing called the alphabet. Goods and travel by the Indian Ocean and camels. I assume that when nations fall, people seek out guidance and are more open to new ideas.
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Judaism
“The association of monotheism with Judaism was further developed with the codification of the Hebrew Scriptures, which also showed reflected the influence of Mesopotamian cultural and legal traditions. The Assyrian, Babylonian and Roman empires conquered various Jewish states at different points in time. These conquests contributed to the growth of Jewish diasporic communities around the Mediterranean and Middle East.” And “The core ideas in Greco-Roman philosophy and science emphasized logic, empirical observation and the nature of political power and hierarchy.”
As the story of the scriptures came to be, the Mesopotamian systems began to change as well. The Old Testament began to collect the Israelites' history and formulate the history. This caused dispute among many people and they began to build religious systems around it, including the belief in one god, Yahweh. This was the beginning of monotheism, the belief in one god. The conflict between old religions and new began to arise as many Israelites were interested in new religion. The two Israel kingdoms fought and the north was victorious in forcing the losers to migrate to the east. This would soon mark the real start of the Jewish faith as when offered a position back centuries later, the large populace would decline, and only a few would make the trek back to Judah to rebuild and edit the Hebrew Bible. The Jews would begin to foster a sense of community in their isolation.
As the story of the scriptures came to be, the Mesopotamian systems began to change as well. The Old Testament began to collect the Israelites' history and formulate the history. This caused dispute among many people and they began to build religious systems around it, including the belief in one god, Yahweh. This was the beginning of monotheism, the belief in one god. The conflict between old religions and new began to arise as many Israelites were interested in new religion. The two Israel kingdoms fought and the north was victorious in forcing the losers to migrate to the east. This would soon mark the real start of the Jewish faith as when offered a position back centuries later, the large populace would decline, and only a few would make the trek back to Judah to rebuild and edit the Hebrew Bible. The Jews would begin to foster a sense of community in their isolation.
The strength of the Jewish kingdom was solely reliant on the power of the king, and unlike other states, like Egypt, that could survive with a not great king, Israel could not. They never had the change to become en established power like rome and Egypt did. They were also in a bad spot geographically, as there was not much room around them to expand. They have evolved into a society that has to hide behind walls to survive. Even to this day, Israel is persecuted my many different countries of different faiths.
Judaism
Coming away from Asia and polytheistic faiths, we have encountered
our first monotheistic faith and into the Middle East, which I truly enjoy learning about but not really the prompt. Judaism believes in one
central God who will bring them out of enslavement and into the Promised Land. Starting
with Abraham who discovered the Promise Land by his central God, “Yaweh” the
Jewish religion developed through oral Hebrew speaking and the Hebrew Bible.
Following the Torah and 10 Commandments Judaism worshipped God to live their
life through those two main religious scriptures. After a loss of Jewish
political autonomy and being exiled Jewish community started living by strict
and rigid rules which effect their lives socially, politically, ant economy;
this shows a similar correlation to the strict rules in Legalism only a little
less harsh. Judaism went under many different changes throughout time, each
change effecting old beliefs and causing changes throughout the society.
Judaism
When Judaism first started, its people were promised a land by their God "Yahweh". From that point on, the religion has gone through a relativity large number of changes. The faith is the first faith introduced to us as a monolithic faith so far, with Jews believing that their God is the only god and that there would be severe consequences for believing otherwise.
After being over taken by other monarchies, the remaining Jew communities were dispersed and scattered. This dispersion unified them and sharpened their Jewish identity and reinforced it. Jews established their own sets of rules and traditions. They placed a lot of importance on their rituals and values, which can be seen to this day.
After being over taken by other monarchies, the remaining Jew communities were dispersed and scattered. This dispersion unified them and sharpened their Jewish identity and reinforced it. Jews established their own sets of rules and traditions. They placed a lot of importance on their rituals and values, which can be seen to this day.
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