Chapter 11 Documents

When reading Chapter 11 Documents I really liked the aspect of anda, which is a close relationship between two related men. When reading about the Temujin and Jamugha I felt happy to see how close they were to one another and how they acted like brothers by protecting and loving one another unconditionally. I think this is an interesting concept for the Mongols to have since they are known for their aggressive behavior and usually don’t ever show signs of love and respect.

            After reading the first two documents I start to have this view of the Mongols of not so bad of people, and then I get to the document about Russia, and my idea of loving Mongols has completely disappeared. The Mongol invasion in Russia is really sad to read. The author talks about how so many people were killed in the fire, like when he talks about how children were killed in front of their mothers and fathers, and vice versa. It is such a tragic thing to talk about and I go back to my thought of thinking how horrible Mongols were and how aggressive and angry they were.

Chapter 9 Documents

Reflecting on the question “what it would be like to follow the Quran and reading Chapter 9 documents there are things I was surprised to read. I agree with the Quran’s understanding of Allah and how it resembles Christian ideas about God. There is only one God.  I like how the Quran focuses heavily on charity and giving to the poor and less fortunate. I think this is something that people need to be more aware of, especially now during the holiday season.

I was not happy to read about the subject of gender, which said that God gave men more strength then the other, I have to disagree with that, I believe that either gender can obtain more strength than the other. Another statement was that if women and disloyal that they should be beaten lightly (EXCUSE ME!)… This part really pissed me off because there should be no rule or regulation that a women or any person should be treated with violence, I was surprised to read that the Quran would even state that in the first place. The Quran had its ups and down with me as I read it but looking back in my opinion, as a woman, I would not be happy about following the Quran.

Chapter 7 Documents Reflection

Xuanzang was a Buddhist monk from China and what motivated him to travel to India was based on his religion, Buddhism. He visited many of the holy sites in India that were associated with Buddha. He wrote the Record of the Western Regions that was an account of his travels and impressions of Indian civilizations in the 7^th century C.E.

There were various rules and regulations during this time. The families were divided into 4 classes. I thought it was surprising how people could rise or fall into a specific class. I think that it allowed fairness into the caste system because they did hold specific rules on marriage, such that women can only be married once and promiscuous marriages were not allowed. This helps enforce the fact that the people cannot abuse that fact that they can change their caste level through marriage. I believe this idea is smart and something that I would have to agree with. 

Chapter 6 Documents + Packet

Evidence Handout

The handout that we received was very interesting. I literally didn't know about the "kelp highway" that  it talked about. It was really interesting to think and visualize about how there was sea level areas of fish, shellfish, and seaweed from the Americas to Asia. The people who migrated were available to hunt and gather food and the packet says that this helped other adapt to coastal lives and hunt for new food sources-such as shellfish.


Chapter 6 Documents

I took me awhile to understand the readings in the chapter 6 documents. The peoples' form of writing is definitely getting more complex and heavily detailed then the documents in previous chapters before. I want to focus on Rufinus's story because it was something that I believe was a very important story since it explains how Christianity came to Axum. I really like Frumentius in this story, I believe he is that role model for others since he has so much faith in his religion and others. He is a good leader and well organized. I feel like he expressed the "treat others as you would like to be treated" expression. Since this story is not strong primary sources, since Rufinus admits that these facts are from what he heard from Aedesius.

Patriarchy in Athens

During class, my group was assigned to focus on patriarchy. As sad at it is, I had no clue what patriarchy actually meant so here is the definition from Merriam-Webster for all of you that are reading this and asking the same question that I did. A patriarchy is a family, group or government controlled by a man or a group of men (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/patriarchy). In Athens, women had no role in political life. They were considered “infertile males” because they do not produce sperm, which is believed to be the form/soul of human beings. This part was surprising to me because women were considered passive or inactive in the reproductive process. That put me in shock when I read it because I believe that women carry the most important role in reproduction. Women’s bodies carry and nurture the baby for 9 months until it is born. The men do not have to deal with childbirth, having terrible mood swings, and aches. This part of the book was just shocking and very controversial.

Chapter 5 Documents

Looking at the Chapter 5 document and reading them were difficult to understand. It was not like I did not get what I was reading I just couldn’t believe that women would agree to put themselves down in such a way. For example, in the document Lessons for Women, the author tries to explain the principles of Confucianism to that of women in society. It was crazy to read about the ancestor’s three customs about the birth of a baby girl. One of the customs is the baby is supposed to be placed bellow the bed to symbolize that she is weak and low in status. This is saddening to think about, if I had to do this to my own child, I could never. Women had such strict and ridiculous rules that they had to lead and follow. It is just crazy comparing women today in modern  day, to that of Ban Zhao.

Chapter 4 Documents

I enjoy reading the documents in each Chapter cause it helps me further learn more about the subjects and I feel more confident in specific topics we discuss in class because these documents are primary sources, which is crazy to think about. These documents date from hundreds to thousands of years ago and are still read and studying today, pretty cool to think about.            

In the Chapter 4 documents, The Analects was the most interesting to me. I really enjoyed learning about Confucius and his teachings and principles in class. I think is interesting how the Analects was not written by Confucius, but his followers or as in the book, his disciples. It shows the great appreciation that Confucius’ followers had for him and how they truly remembered and followed his teachings and conversations. I thought it was also surprising how Confucius’ teaching and conversations were written and documented similar to how Jesus’ teachings were. Jesus’ sayings and actions were recording in the Gospels by his followers (some of them being his disciples). Just reading and analyzing this connection was just really interesting to me since it was something I never knew before.