Hello, everyone!
Today, I would like to talk about the civilization that isn't talked about enough in Western history books: the Mongol Empire. They were a very successful group of pastoral people that are most often painted as bad guys by the losers in history. This is because they didn't really write down history themselves, so we have to get it from unbiased sources.
So let's talk about the Mongols in a more neutral way.
This is Chapter 11, by the way. It's the last post of the year.
First, let's admire their equality toward women. Women were not treated very well throughout history, but in the Mongol Empire? They were also in battles! There was even a Mongol princess that had a huge winning streak when it came to wrestling. It must have been strange for a patriarchal empire to see women on the battlefield, but maybe that was one of the reasons why they won so many battles. Since women make up roughly half of the human population, why not have them conquer with you?
The Mongols really liked ruling China. They liked ruling China so much, they started their own laws to benefit the empire and oppress the Chinese people. The law discriminated the Chinese very clearly, so it's no wonder China tried to get rid of all evidence of Mongolian rule after the Mongolians stopped ruling China.
But you know what country was never under the influence of the Mongol Empire? It was Japan. The Mongols just couldn't win against Japan. The victory was so impressive to the Japanese that they invented a new word during the battle: kamikaze. It means "divine wind," referring to the typhoons that caused the Mongols to leave. Yes, the term was also used in World War II, but it wasn't referring to typhoons anymore.
Also, it was really impressive how the Mongols didn't convert people to their religion. Instead, they were very accepting of other people's religions. They also used shamans in their Mongolian religion, which had similar roles to fortune tellers (telling the future, talking to spirits, etc.). It's amazing how it didn't spread as they spread, as that's really rare in history not to see forced conversions while conquering.
Finally, the Mongol Empire encouraged trade with other countries. It was great that medical practices were spread throughout Eurasia, but it wasn't great that the Black Death spread throughout Eurasia. On the bright side, both things lead to Europe becoming really strong, which, like Mongolian trade, was a mixed bag. Coincidentally, both European colonization and Mongolian trade lead to the spread of diseases, but unlike Mongolian trade, the Native Americans did not benefit from smallpox.
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Madison Rambles #14: The Different Civilizations + Columbus's Journey
Hello, everyone!
Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 and discovered America after losing his way to India. That may sound ridiculous today, but people actually believed that a century ago. There's a lot of controversy over Columbus Day because it's celebrating the genocide of Native Americans, so we won't be celebrating Columbus in this post.
Instead, I'll talk about the different civilizations around Columbus's time, including the Native Americans. It's a late counter-Columbus Day, if you will.
This is Chapter 12, by the way. We'll get to Chapter 11 soon, don't worry.
So Christopher Columbus was a complicated figure, to say the least. He was certainly not the hero everyone portrayed him to be, but even today, Columbus Day is still celebrated. Still, even if he is a terrible person for enslaving the Native Americans and spreading plagues, he did represent a new era in history: colonialism. On one hand, the United States of America and Australia are successful countries due to colonialism. On the other hand, millions of people had to suffer, especially Native Americans and African people. No wonder America notoriously sugarcoats history (I even heard one of the reasons the Revolutionary War happened was because Britain started banning slaves).
China was going to go out to sea just like Europe, but they mysteriously stopped. Can you imagine what would happen if China colonized the world instead of Great Britain? Chinese, most likely Mandarin, would become the lingua franca, people would be complaining about the brutality of Chinese colonialism, languages would have to convert from their alphabet to Chinese characters often... someone should write a story on that. Though, considering China is becoming a world superpower again, I wouldn't be surprised that became the reality a century from now.
The Byzantine Empire was conquered by a 19-year-old Muslim. He had cannons, the Byzantine Empire had walls, and the Muslims managed to conquer the Byzantine Empire. That was the moment Rome truly fell: when a 19-year-old ruler told his soldiers to fire the cannons. It's the failures like these that make history entertaining, but at the same time, that conquer was brutal.
Finally, the Inca and Aztec Empire had something in common with the United States of America: the rags to riches story. It would go like this: people who lived very remote places quickly got an army together, conquered, and created a massive empire. They were run very differently, but it's amazing to see how developed they were. They even had artificial islands! They made fertile Sealand! I want to see those artificial islands and the crops on them right now.
Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 and discovered America after losing his way to India. That may sound ridiculous today, but people actually believed that a century ago. There's a lot of controversy over Columbus Day because it's celebrating the genocide of Native Americans, so we won't be celebrating Columbus in this post.
Instead, I'll talk about the different civilizations around Columbus's time, including the Native Americans. It's a late counter-Columbus Day, if you will.
This is Chapter 12, by the way. We'll get to Chapter 11 soon, don't worry.
So Christopher Columbus was a complicated figure, to say the least. He was certainly not the hero everyone portrayed him to be, but even today, Columbus Day is still celebrated. Still, even if he is a terrible person for enslaving the Native Americans and spreading plagues, he did represent a new era in history: colonialism. On one hand, the United States of America and Australia are successful countries due to colonialism. On the other hand, millions of people had to suffer, especially Native Americans and African people. No wonder America notoriously sugarcoats history (I even heard one of the reasons the Revolutionary War happened was because Britain started banning slaves).
China was going to go out to sea just like Europe, but they mysteriously stopped. Can you imagine what would happen if China colonized the world instead of Great Britain? Chinese, most likely Mandarin, would become the lingua franca, people would be complaining about the brutality of Chinese colonialism, languages would have to convert from their alphabet to Chinese characters often... someone should write a story on that. Though, considering China is becoming a world superpower again, I wouldn't be surprised that became the reality a century from now.
The Byzantine Empire was conquered by a 19-year-old Muslim. He had cannons, the Byzantine Empire had walls, and the Muslims managed to conquer the Byzantine Empire. That was the moment Rome truly fell: when a 19-year-old ruler told his soldiers to fire the cannons. It's the failures like these that make history entertaining, but at the same time, that conquer was brutal.
Finally, the Inca and Aztec Empire had something in common with the United States of America: the rags to riches story. It would go like this: people who lived very remote places quickly got an army together, conquered, and created a massive empire. They were run very differently, but it's amazing to see how developed they were. They even had artificial islands! They made fertile Sealand! I want to see those artificial islands and the crops on them right now.
Monday, November 18, 2019
Madison Rambles #13: We're Finally Talking About China!
Hello, everyone!
Today, I'm going to announce that I'm doing these posts a little differently from now on. You see, the previous posts were long, talking about all of the previous sections and how I feel about them.
I'm not going to be talking about all the sections anymore. It took up to two hours to do, and honestly, that's not the kind of homework I want to do after a 30+ page reading.
So now, I'm going to make these blog posts more accurate to the title: I'm going to ramble. I'm just going to talk about my thoughts, regardless of section. Here I go...
By the way, I'm talking about Chapter 8.
Did you know that China did foot binding? The Chinese people would break a girl's foot, let it heal, and then break it again, going through the cycle until the girl's foot was small enough. It's very painful, and I'm glad it's not as popular anymore.
There was also the concept of "becoming Chinese," similar to the concept of "becoming American." That's because China was like the America of its time period! Even nowadays, China is starting to catch up to the United States. I wonder when it will overtake it...?
そして、中国の文化を覚えたかったので、日本人は中国に行きました。だから、日本語で書く時、漢字を使います！いいですね。しかし、漢字はすごく難しいので、漢検も難しいです。大変ですね…
(Also, because Japan wanted to learn about Chinese culture, Japanese people went to China. Because of that, when writing in Japanese, you use kanji (borrowed Chinese characters used in Japanese)! Isn't that great? However, because kanji are very difficult, the Kanken (a famous Japanese kanji test) is also very difficult. It's terrible, isn't it?)
Finally, let's talk about gunpowder, because China accidentally made it when they were making an elixir of life. It's great for fireworks... but it also helped to invent guns. And while that might have helped us in warfare, it also killed millions, if not billions of people. So it's really an ironic double-edged sword. And before anyone says that I'm using ironic wrong, an elixir of life that kills people is situational irony. There's no arguing that.
Today, I'm going to announce that I'm doing these posts a little differently from now on. You see, the previous posts were long, talking about all of the previous sections and how I feel about them.
I'm not going to be talking about all the sections anymore. It took up to two hours to do, and honestly, that's not the kind of homework I want to do after a 30+ page reading.
So now, I'm going to make these blog posts more accurate to the title: I'm going to ramble. I'm just going to talk about my thoughts, regardless of section. Here I go...
By the way, I'm talking about Chapter 8.
Did you know that China did foot binding? The Chinese people would break a girl's foot, let it heal, and then break it again, going through the cycle until the girl's foot was small enough. It's very painful, and I'm glad it's not as popular anymore.
There was also the concept of "becoming Chinese," similar to the concept of "becoming American." That's because China was like the America of its time period! Even nowadays, China is starting to catch up to the United States. I wonder when it will overtake it...?
そして、中国の文化を覚えたかったので、日本人は中国に行きました。だから、日本語で書く時、漢字を使います！いいですね。しかし、漢字はすごく難しいので、漢検も難しいです。大変ですね…
(Also, because Japan wanted to learn about Chinese culture, Japanese people went to China. Because of that, when writing in Japanese, you use kanji (borrowed Chinese characters used in Japanese)! Isn't that great? However, because kanji are very difficult, the Kanken (a famous Japanese kanji test) is also very difficult. It's terrible, isn't it?)
Finally, let's talk about gunpowder, because China accidentally made it when they were making an elixir of life. It's great for fireworks... but it also helped to invent guns. And while that might have helped us in warfare, it also killed millions, if not billions of people. So it's really an ironic double-edged sword. And before anyone says that I'm using ironic wrong, an elixir of life that kills people is situational irony. There's no arguing that.
Monday, November 4, 2019
Madison Rambles #12: Christian Division
Hello, everyone!
Last time, we talked about the second most popular religion in the world, Islam. Now, we're going to talk about the most popular religion in the world, if all groups are combined into one religion, Christianity.
I don't even think I need to explain what Christianity is. It's so popular, fiction references it constantly, whether it's Christmas, referencing the Holy Trinity, or even quoting directly from the Bible (and that's not even including the genre of Christian media, such as Veggietales).
So let's talk about the religion that represents nearly a third of the world, Christianity.
This is Chapter 10, by the way.
The Beginning of Chapter 10
Did you know that 60% of Christians come from Asia, Africa, or Latin America? I know; it's surprising how a religion that originated in Europe is mostly practiced in, well, not Europe. It shows the success in the spread of Christianity, rivaling even Islam. Though, I do hope most of that conversion was through personal choice and not through violent means...
Sometimes, "Christianity" is a bit too much of a broad term, because there are so many different types of Christianity. There's Eastern Orthodox, Catholicism, Protestantism, Anglicanism... there's a lot. And later on, we'll see how they sometimes don't get along very well.
Christian Contraction in Asia and Africa
In Asia and Africa, Christianity had to compete with other religions, most notably Islam.
In the Middle East, Islam stayed the dominant religion. While Christianity and Judaism were sometimes allowed to be practiced there, but they sometimes had to pay a tax. Occasionally, however, they faced violence, such as destroyed churches and having their crops burned. Religious freedom tended to vary depending on the ruler.
As for China, sometimes they allowed Christianity, and sometimes they didn't. Now, to my knowledge, Christianity can be practiced in China.
In Egypt, Christianity used to be the dominant religion until the Muslim conquest. However, today, roughly 10% of Egyptians identify as Christians, showing that it's very difficult to eradicate a religion from an area.
Byzantine Christendom: Building on the Roman Past
How did Christianity become the dominant religion? That would be mainly because of the Roman Emperor, Constantine.
However, by spreading Christianity throughout Rome, he ended up splitting the religion into two: Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Catholicism. This is because Rome was also split into Western Rome and the Byzantine Empire.
Eastern Orthodox and Catholicism did not get along well. They disagreed on several things, from where the Holy Spirit came from to even the importance of faith. This is most likely why the split is still here today.
By the way, did you know that Russia converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity in 988? It's still a major part of Russia to this day.
Western Christendom: Rebuilding in the Wake of Roman Collapse
So Western Rome fell. Whether you believe it was due to invaders, Christianity, or Rome getting too lazy, Rome is now a distant memory that no longer exists. That led to the Dark Ages of Western Europe, a dangerous time of no central government.
Feudalism was born because people needed protection from invaders. They would give the landowners certain materials, and they would get protection in return. Contrary to popular belief, serfs had rights, and in some cases, it was better to be a serf than an independent, free citizen.
And then there were the Crusades, the religious wars of the era. I remember my high school history teacher teaching about the First and the Third Crusade, because, in his opinion, those were the most important and interesting ones. The Third Crusade in particular was of interest, and he even taught the legends behind the Christian kings teaming up to take back the Holy Land.
Interestingly, he argued that the Crusades are still happening today. Whether he's right or what events he's talking about is up to you.
The West in Comparative Perspective
Just like some U.S. presidents, nobody expected Europe to be the winner of so much of late world history. Even in the 1500's, they just started colonizing the New World and catching up to China and the Islamic World.
So what happened? They learned from other cultures.
Europe went back to Greek texts and learned how to think critically about the world around them. They learned medical knowledge and math from the Islamic world. They even copied some of China's technology, such as paper.
In the end, Europe became dominant in the world. It's descendant, the United States of America, is now a global superpower that rivals China. So it's worth it to learn about the past and to learn about other cultures, because they may have some useful knowledge that people could learn from.
Last time, we talked about the second most popular religion in the world, Islam. Now, we're going to talk about the most popular religion in the world, if all groups are combined into one religion, Christianity.
I don't even think I need to explain what Christianity is. It's so popular, fiction references it constantly, whether it's Christmas, referencing the Holy Trinity, or even quoting directly from the Bible (and that's not even including the genre of Christian media, such as Veggietales).
So let's talk about the religion that represents nearly a third of the world, Christianity.
This is Chapter 10, by the way.
The Beginning of Chapter 10
Did you know that 60% of Christians come from Asia, Africa, or Latin America? I know; it's surprising how a religion that originated in Europe is mostly practiced in, well, not Europe. It shows the success in the spread of Christianity, rivaling even Islam. Though, I do hope most of that conversion was through personal choice and not through violent means...
Sometimes, "Christianity" is a bit too much of a broad term, because there are so many different types of Christianity. There's Eastern Orthodox, Catholicism, Protestantism, Anglicanism... there's a lot. And later on, we'll see how they sometimes don't get along very well.
Christian Contraction in Asia and Africa
In Asia and Africa, Christianity had to compete with other religions, most notably Islam.
In the Middle East, Islam stayed the dominant religion. While Christianity and Judaism were sometimes allowed to be practiced there, but they sometimes had to pay a tax. Occasionally, however, they faced violence, such as destroyed churches and having their crops burned. Religious freedom tended to vary depending on the ruler.
As for China, sometimes they allowed Christianity, and sometimes they didn't. Now, to my knowledge, Christianity can be practiced in China.
In Egypt, Christianity used to be the dominant religion until the Muslim conquest. However, today, roughly 10% of Egyptians identify as Christians, showing that it's very difficult to eradicate a religion from an area.
Byzantine Christendom: Building on the Roman Past
How did Christianity become the dominant religion? That would be mainly because of the Roman Emperor, Constantine.
However, by spreading Christianity throughout Rome, he ended up splitting the religion into two: Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Catholicism. This is because Rome was also split into Western Rome and the Byzantine Empire.
Eastern Orthodox and Catholicism did not get along well. They disagreed on several things, from where the Holy Spirit came from to even the importance of faith. This is most likely why the split is still here today.
By the way, did you know that Russia converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity in 988? It's still a major part of Russia to this day.
Western Christendom: Rebuilding in the Wake of Roman Collapse
So Western Rome fell. Whether you believe it was due to invaders, Christianity, or Rome getting too lazy, Rome is now a distant memory that no longer exists. That led to the Dark Ages of Western Europe, a dangerous time of no central government.
Feudalism was born because people needed protection from invaders. They would give the landowners certain materials, and they would get protection in return. Contrary to popular belief, serfs had rights, and in some cases, it was better to be a serf than an independent, free citizen.
And then there were the Crusades, the religious wars of the era. I remember my high school history teacher teaching about the First and the Third Crusade, because, in his opinion, those were the most important and interesting ones. The Third Crusade in particular was of interest, and he even taught the legends behind the Christian kings teaming up to take back the Holy Land.
Interestingly, he argued that the Crusades are still happening today. Whether he's right or what events he's talking about is up to you.
The West in Comparative Perspective
Just like some U.S. presidents, nobody expected Europe to be the winner of so much of late world history. Even in the 1500's, they just started colonizing the New World and catching up to China and the Islamic World.
So what happened? They learned from other cultures.
Europe went back to Greek texts and learned how to think critically about the world around them. They learned medical knowledge and math from the Islamic world. They even copied some of China's technology, such as paper.
In the end, Europe became dominant in the world. It's descendant, the United States of America, is now a global superpower that rivals China. So it's worth it to learn about the past and to learn about other cultures, because they may have some useful knowledge that people could learn from.
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Madison Rambles #11: Talking About The Second Most Dominant Religion
Hello, everyone!
If you think that I'm going to talk about Islam today, then you're correct!
I know that tensions are high between the Americas and Islam, but it is very important to talk about Muslims and their religion. They represent a large part of the world and have contributed greatly to World History. If I can talk about Christianity and its effects on history, then I can talk about Islam.
Today, I'll talk about Chapter 9. Where's Chapter 8? We'll talk about it in a later blog post. It's pretty exciting.
Intro to Chapter 9
Islam is practiced by 23% of the world's population. That's nearly a fourth of the entire world! Many people think that Islam is only really practiced in the Middle East, but it's actually practiced all over the world. Even in America, there are Muslims that are proud of their religion and dedicating their lives to Allah.
Some may think that Christians and Muslims never got along, but that's far from the truth. In some places today, such as the largely Muslim Indonesia, Muslims and Christians get along well with each other. They share the same roots and the same God, so why shouldn't they be together?
But where did Islam come from? Well, it was actually pretty recent compared to other religions...
The Birth of a New Religion
Before Islam was the dominant religion, the central region of the Arabian Peninsula had a group of people called the Bedouins. They believed in multiple gods and nature spirits, so it was likely that they would reject the notion of one true God.
That is farther from the truth. When Muhammad the prophet told the people the word of Allah, the Bedouins started to accept the belief that their was only one true God, and eventually abandoned their previous gods.
Islam is mainly about submitting to Allah, the God of Islam, and is seen an an obligation to get into Paradise after death. It relies on the Pillars of Islam, the main values of Islam. They involve believing in only Allah, praying five times a day, giving to the poor, fasting during Ramadan, and going to Mecca every year. This shows that Islam is not only a religion, but also a lifestyle that teaches people how to be good.
The Making of an Arab Empire
In order to become the second most dominant religion in the world, Islam needed to spread quickly. And with the rise of the Arab army, Islam became prominent from Europe to China.
Unlike Christianity, though, people converted to Islam as more of a connivance than a need to convert. For example, in places where there were a jizya, or a tax on non-Muslims, people sometimes converted to escape the tax and possibly join the army, which was banned to non-Muslims.
This is a good time to bring up how Islam isn't a completely unified religion, just like how Christianity has Catholicism, Protestantism, Calvinism, and the other religious sects. The two major groups of Islam are the Sunni Muslims and the Shia Muslims. Even to this day, there is disagreement between them on the correct way to submit to Allah.
Islam and Cultural Encounter: A Four-Way Comparison
Remember how Muslims were dominating the Indian Ocean's trade routes? That had some benefits for the spread of Islam.
Islam spread to places outside of the Middle East, such as India and West Africa. However, due to their different cultures and distant locations, there was some conflict between Arab Muslims and the local culture. For example, Muslims did not like the erotic art or the multiple gods of Hinduism.
By the way, did you know that Spain was once ruled by Muslims? That's why some of Spanish's loan words are from Arabic (you can tell if they start with "al", such as almohada). However, the Muslims of the area did not expect the Spanish Inquisition and were kicked out by Ferdinand and Isabella. That was much after the religious tolerance in Spain went down, and turned into hatred for any religion that wasn't the dominant religion (first Islam, then Christianity).
The World of Islam as a New Civilization
Despite the threat of the Mongols and Christianity, Islam thrived throughout Eurasia.
As stated in the last blog post, Muslims were dominating trade routes, but goods weren't the only thing they gave to the world. They were also very intelligent and gave many mathematical and scientific concepts to the world. For example, the numbers we use everyday, around the world (1234567890) were invented by a Muslim. Algebra was also developed by Muslims, and several types of surgeries were invented by them.
Basically, Muslims were advanced for their time in some areas. Why we don't give them as much credit as Euclid or Isaac Newton is a mystery, especially since we use Arabic numbers much more than Calculus (look, I know he "discovered" gravity, but why only focus on revolutionary European people?).
If you think that I'm going to talk about Islam today, then you're correct!
I know that tensions are high between the Americas and Islam, but it is very important to talk about Muslims and their religion. They represent a large part of the world and have contributed greatly to World History. If I can talk about Christianity and its effects on history, then I can talk about Islam.
Today, I'll talk about Chapter 9. Where's Chapter 8? We'll talk about it in a later blog post. It's pretty exciting.
Intro to Chapter 9
Islam is practiced by 23% of the world's population. That's nearly a fourth of the entire world! Many people think that Islam is only really practiced in the Middle East, but it's actually practiced all over the world. Even in America, there are Muslims that are proud of their religion and dedicating their lives to Allah.
Some may think that Christians and Muslims never got along, but that's far from the truth. In some places today, such as the largely Muslim Indonesia, Muslims and Christians get along well with each other. They share the same roots and the same God, so why shouldn't they be together?
But where did Islam come from? Well, it was actually pretty recent compared to other religions...
The Birth of a New Religion
Before Islam was the dominant religion, the central region of the Arabian Peninsula had a group of people called the Bedouins. They believed in multiple gods and nature spirits, so it was likely that they would reject the notion of one true God.
That is farther from the truth. When Muhammad the prophet told the people the word of Allah, the Bedouins started to accept the belief that their was only one true God, and eventually abandoned their previous gods.
Islam is mainly about submitting to Allah, the God of Islam, and is seen an an obligation to get into Paradise after death. It relies on the Pillars of Islam, the main values of Islam. They involve believing in only Allah, praying five times a day, giving to the poor, fasting during Ramadan, and going to Mecca every year. This shows that Islam is not only a religion, but also a lifestyle that teaches people how to be good.
The Making of an Arab Empire
In order to become the second most dominant religion in the world, Islam needed to spread quickly. And with the rise of the Arab army, Islam became prominent from Europe to China.
Unlike Christianity, though, people converted to Islam as more of a connivance than a need to convert. For example, in places where there were a jizya, or a tax on non-Muslims, people sometimes converted to escape the tax and possibly join the army, which was banned to non-Muslims.
This is a good time to bring up how Islam isn't a completely unified religion, just like how Christianity has Catholicism, Protestantism, Calvinism, and the other religious sects. The two major groups of Islam are the Sunni Muslims and the Shia Muslims. Even to this day, there is disagreement between them on the correct way to submit to Allah.
Islam and Cultural Encounter: A Four-Way Comparison
Remember how Muslims were dominating the Indian Ocean's trade routes? That had some benefits for the spread of Islam.
Islam spread to places outside of the Middle East, such as India and West Africa. However, due to their different cultures and distant locations, there was some conflict between Arab Muslims and the local culture. For example, Muslims did not like the erotic art or the multiple gods of Hinduism.
By the way, did you know that Spain was once ruled by Muslims? That's why some of Spanish's loan words are from Arabic (you can tell if they start with "al", such as almohada). However, the Muslims of the area did not expect the Spanish Inquisition and were kicked out by Ferdinand and Isabella. That was much after the religious tolerance in Spain went down, and turned into hatred for any religion that wasn't the dominant religion (first Islam, then Christianity).
The World of Islam as a New Civilization
Despite the threat of the Mongols and Christianity, Islam thrived throughout Eurasia.
As stated in the last blog post, Muslims were dominating trade routes, but goods weren't the only thing they gave to the world. They were also very intelligent and gave many mathematical and scientific concepts to the world. For example, the numbers we use everyday, around the world (1234567890) were invented by a Muslim. Algebra was also developed by Muslims, and several types of surgeries were invented by them.
Basically, Muslims were advanced for their time in some areas. Why we don't give them as much credit as Euclid or Isaac Newton is a mystery, especially since we use Arabic numbers much more than Calculus (look, I know he "discovered" gravity, but why only focus on revolutionary European people?).
Monday, October 28, 2019
Madison Rambles #10: Trade and Plagues
Hello, everyone!
If you've read a history book before, you know about how obsessed the world is with trading. Even today, people talk about the economy and how good or atrocious it is.
But what was trade really like back then? Was it mainly via the Silk Road, or were there other main types of trade?
That's what this chapter is on! Today will be all of Chapter 7, a whole thirty pages! That was a lot to read in one sitting...
The Beginning of Chapter 7
Despite the controversy and working conditions that Amazon is notorious for, their business model is pretty revolutionary. The longest I've had to wait for an order was a month, and that was from Japan. Back then, if I were to order from Japan, I would have to wait a lot longer than a month.
But international trade is nothing new. For centuries, countries have traded with each other using large animals and trade routes, giving each other their goods, technology, and germs. Oh, and animals, too. Why else would there be cows all across the world?
But there is one trade item that was extremely popular, and even had a trade route named after it: silk.
Silk Roads: Exchange Across Eurasia
Do I even need to talk about the Silk Road? It's so well-known at this point, I don't even need to explain it.
But I will explain China's landmark product, silk. Silk used to be only made in China by women due to only China knowing how to make it. However, after a controversial origin that is still disputed to this day, the rest of the world learned how to make silk. It was still highly valuable in the world, and was even restricted to the wealthy in some parts of the world.
But silk wasn't the only thing traded on the Silk Road; culture was also spread in the Silk Road. Remember Buddhism? Despite it's original aversion to materialism, some who adopted Buddhism were rich and loved materialism. So in a way, the evolution of Buddhism is similar to the evolution of Christianity; it was anti-materialistic at the start, but that faded a bit when the rich started to adopt the religion.
However, not all was good on the Silk Road. Plagues were also spread on the trade route, most notoriously the Black Death. We don't need to talk about how disastrous that was, especially when the Europeans went to the Americas.
Sea Roads: Exchange Across the Indian Ocean
Not only was there trade by land, but trade by sea as well! Welcome to the Indian Ocean, the former largest maritime trade route.
Many Eurasian countries far and wide traded in the sea. Persia, China, African countries, India... it's a shock the history books barely talked about this trade route!
But there's one thing I want to talk about, and that's the Islamic influence in the Indian Ocean. Unlike Buddhism, which was anti-materialistic, Islam was founded by a merchant. This means that Muslims contributed greatly to the maritime culture. There were many Muslim merchants that traded in the Indian Ocean, and they converted many people to Islam.
In a nutshell, Buddhism is to the Silk Road as Islam is to the Indian Ocean.
Sand Roads: Exchange Across the Sahara
Along with the Silk Road and the Indian Ocean, there was the Sahara. And the African people couldn't do it without one animal: the camel.
We've talked so much about the culture of trade, but not enough about the animals who accomplished it. The camel has survived days without water, but it keeps on going, helping to transport the goods of the African people. Although cars replaced it in the 20th century, that doesn't excuse the centuries of trade the camel has brought the people of Africa.
Africa would have been more separated without the camel. Thank you, camel.
Speaking of separated and unable to trade very much...
An American Network: Commerce and Connection in the Western Hemisphere
We haven't forgotten about the Americas! So how did their trade fare without large animals to help out with their trade?
Well, they weren't as connected. They definitely weren't communicating with Eurasia frequently until Columbus, despite the Vikings coming over, so they weren't trading with them. And due to the lack of large animals, they didn't trade as much with each other as Eurasian countries did with each other.
However, there were signs of trade between the civilizations. For example, there was a rubber ball game that has traces in the Caribbean, Mexico, and northern South America. Also, there was an "American web" of trade that existed. However, it was not to the extent of the Eurasian trade routes, and it was more informal.
So it's not that they lacked trade. Instead, they were more loosely connected with an "American web" of trade.
If you've read a history book before, you know about how obsessed the world is with trading. Even today, people talk about the economy and how good or atrocious it is.
But what was trade really like back then? Was it mainly via the Silk Road, or were there other main types of trade?
That's what this chapter is on! Today will be all of Chapter 7, a whole thirty pages! That was a lot to read in one sitting...
The Beginning of Chapter 7
Despite the controversy and working conditions that Amazon is notorious for, their business model is pretty revolutionary. The longest I've had to wait for an order was a month, and that was from Japan. Back then, if I were to order from Japan, I would have to wait a lot longer than a month.
But international trade is nothing new. For centuries, countries have traded with each other using large animals and trade routes, giving each other their goods, technology, and germs. Oh, and animals, too. Why else would there be cows all across the world?
But there is one trade item that was extremely popular, and even had a trade route named after it: silk.
Silk Roads: Exchange Across Eurasia
Do I even need to talk about the Silk Road? It's so well-known at this point, I don't even need to explain it.
But I will explain China's landmark product, silk. Silk used to be only made in China by women due to only China knowing how to make it. However, after a controversial origin that is still disputed to this day, the rest of the world learned how to make silk. It was still highly valuable in the world, and was even restricted to the wealthy in some parts of the world.
But silk wasn't the only thing traded on the Silk Road; culture was also spread in the Silk Road. Remember Buddhism? Despite it's original aversion to materialism, some who adopted Buddhism were rich and loved materialism. So in a way, the evolution of Buddhism is similar to the evolution of Christianity; it was anti-materialistic at the start, but that faded a bit when the rich started to adopt the religion.
However, not all was good on the Silk Road. Plagues were also spread on the trade route, most notoriously the Black Death. We don't need to talk about how disastrous that was, especially when the Europeans went to the Americas.
Sea Roads: Exchange Across the Indian Ocean
Not only was there trade by land, but trade by sea as well! Welcome to the Indian Ocean, the former largest maritime trade route.
Many Eurasian countries far and wide traded in the sea. Persia, China, African countries, India... it's a shock the history books barely talked about this trade route!
But there's one thing I want to talk about, and that's the Islamic influence in the Indian Ocean. Unlike Buddhism, which was anti-materialistic, Islam was founded by a merchant. This means that Muslims contributed greatly to the maritime culture. There were many Muslim merchants that traded in the Indian Ocean, and they converted many people to Islam.
In a nutshell, Buddhism is to the Silk Road as Islam is to the Indian Ocean.
Sand Roads: Exchange Across the Sahara
Along with the Silk Road and the Indian Ocean, there was the Sahara. And the African people couldn't do it without one animal: the camel.
We've talked so much about the culture of trade, but not enough about the animals who accomplished it. The camel has survived days without water, but it keeps on going, helping to transport the goods of the African people. Although cars replaced it in the 20th century, that doesn't excuse the centuries of trade the camel has brought the people of Africa.
Africa would have been more separated without the camel. Thank you, camel.
Speaking of separated and unable to trade very much...
An American Network: Commerce and Connection in the Western Hemisphere
We haven't forgotten about the Americas! So how did their trade fare without large animals to help out with their trade?
Well, they weren't as connected. They definitely weren't communicating with Eurasia frequently until Columbus, despite the Vikings coming over, so they weren't trading with them. And due to the lack of large animals, they didn't trade as much with each other as Eurasian countries did with each other.
However, there were signs of trade between the civilizations. For example, there was a rubber ball game that has traces in the Caribbean, Mexico, and northern South America. Also, there was an "American web" of trade that existed. However, it was not to the extent of the Eurasian trade routes, and it was more informal.
So it's not that they lacked trade. Instead, they were more loosely connected with an "American web" of trade.
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
Madison Rambles #9: Focusing on Non-Eurasian Societies
Hello, everyone!
It's time for one of the least Eurocentric blog posts. Today, we're going to talk about ancient Africa, America, and Pacific Oceania history. History books tend to neglect these civilizations with few exceptions, so I have learned a lot about these civilizations today.
We're going to be talking about the entirety of Chapter Six today.
The Beginning of Chapter Six
Native American people still exist today. History books tend to act like Native Americans disappeared in the 1800's, but that is far from the truth. Native Americans are still alive today, and have faced much discrimination since European colonization.
And the Native Americans aren't alone. Africa and Pacific Oceania also have their histories neglected. So how about we finally talk about their true history, so they don't feel excluded or discriminated against in the history books?
Continental Comparisons
So besides, "Europeans are biased," why do histories books neglect three continents' worth of history?
The book justifies this by saying that Eurasia was home to more than 85% of the world's population. This was mainly because of the lack of large animals to domesticate in those regions, so it was harder to have a large population in those areas.
Also, some of these places lacked a writing system, or tended not to write as much down as Rome or China. This meant that historians had less to work with, so they have less to put in the history books.
Honestly, that's a good reason for why we know less about these societies, but not why we sometimes neglect to talk about these societies. Because at the end of the day, this is world history, right? Even in my sixth grade world history class, the most we talked about Africa was Egypt and the other species of the genus Homo.
Civilizations of Africa
Did you know that Africa is not a country, but a continent? Sometimes, it seems like people tend to forget that. Africa isn't one country with one culture; it's many countries with many different cultures.
The Kingdom of Menroe was one such culture. Sometimes led by women, the Kingdom of Menroe was rich and had a strong military. Trade was strong there, and the civilization seemed unstoppable... until deforestation happened. Now, Nubia, the region it took place in, is part of Egypt and Sudan.
Then, there was Axum. Instead of focusing on hoe-based farming, they used plow-based farming. They eventually grew and became a major empire, after Rome and Persia. Christianity took hold there, and then... they also fell from deforestation. They also didn't take good care of the soil, and Islam altered its trade roots, so the civilization fell.
That means that the three major civilizations fell, showing how fragile they truly are. It's sad how we only talk about Rome and Persia, but not Axum.
Civilizations of Mesoamerica
The "New World" isn't quite new, as people have been living there for centuries. In fact, Christopher Columbus technically didn't discover it, as people were already there! Even if people said, "He was the first European to discover it," Leif Erikson beat him to it.
Anyway, the most prominent of these Mesoamerican civilizations was the Maya people. They made some pretty amazing discoveries in their lifetime! They could do complex calculations, predict eclipses, plot the cycle of the planets, make their own calendars... they did much more than we think! The Maya people still survive to this day, but some parts of their empire has collapsed. Even then, we need to give them more credit for their discoveries, instead of making fake conspiracy theories about the world ending because, "their Mayan calendar ended!"
I also want to give credit to the Teotihuacan, for having complex architecture and for creating impressive art. It's pretty impressive what these civilizations could do, and we don't give them enough credit.
Civilizations of the Andres
The Incas weren't the only civilization in the Andres.
There were also the village, Chavin de Huantar, which started a religious movement. There was also the Moche, that had the land ruled by warrior priests, and the Wari and Tiwanaku, two very separate civilizations.
Why weren't they really talked about? Well, they never really wrote anything down, so archaeologists have to use archaeological findings in order to find out more about them. So I'm a bit skeptical if shaman-rulers from Moche used hallucinogenic drugs for religious purposes.
But even if it's just speculation from archaeological findings, they must have had a lot of fun theorizing how all of those societies worked. And if they're correct...?
Alternatives to Civilization
Time to talk about non-civilizations! Since there are so many to talk about, I'll only briefly go over the main ones.
The Bantu was a culture that is strongly associated with a group of languages. Unlike civilizations, Bantu didn't spread by conquering, but rather, it spread slowly and naturally across Africa. This is very interesting, as typically, one would have to go out of their way to spread their culture. Today, Bantu languages are spoken throughout Africa, an impressive feat.
Then there are the Native Americans of what would become the modern-day United States. They didn't really have large domesticated animals, but they domesticated the most-used crop today, corn. There were also mound-building cultures in North America. Still, there was not one culture there, but many, many non-unified cultures in the Americas. So it would be incorrect to call them one culture.
Finally, there were the people in Pacific Oceania. They lived on many small islands, and yet their cultures had their similarities with each other. Also, English has lone words from some of their languages, such as tatau (tatoo) and tapu (taboo). And they're culture is still here today, alive and well. Disney even recently made a movie that starred Polynesian actors, Moana.
It's time for one of the least Eurocentric blog posts. Today, we're going to talk about ancient Africa, America, and Pacific Oceania history. History books tend to neglect these civilizations with few exceptions, so I have learned a lot about these civilizations today.
We're going to be talking about the entirety of Chapter Six today.
The Beginning of Chapter Six
Native American people still exist today. History books tend to act like Native Americans disappeared in the 1800's, but that is far from the truth. Native Americans are still alive today, and have faced much discrimination since European colonization.
And the Native Americans aren't alone. Africa and Pacific Oceania also have their histories neglected. So how about we finally talk about their true history, so they don't feel excluded or discriminated against in the history books?
Continental Comparisons
So besides, "Europeans are biased," why do histories books neglect three continents' worth of history?
The book justifies this by saying that Eurasia was home to more than 85% of the world's population. This was mainly because of the lack of large animals to domesticate in those regions, so it was harder to have a large population in those areas.
Also, some of these places lacked a writing system, or tended not to write as much down as Rome or China. This meant that historians had less to work with, so they have less to put in the history books.
Honestly, that's a good reason for why we know less about these societies, but not why we sometimes neglect to talk about these societies. Because at the end of the day, this is world history, right? Even in my sixth grade world history class, the most we talked about Africa was Egypt and the other species of the genus Homo.
Civilizations of Africa
Did you know that Africa is not a country, but a continent? Sometimes, it seems like people tend to forget that. Africa isn't one country with one culture; it's many countries with many different cultures.
The Kingdom of Menroe was one such culture. Sometimes led by women, the Kingdom of Menroe was rich and had a strong military. Trade was strong there, and the civilization seemed unstoppable... until deforestation happened. Now, Nubia, the region it took place in, is part of Egypt and Sudan.
Then, there was Axum. Instead of focusing on hoe-based farming, they used plow-based farming. They eventually grew and became a major empire, after Rome and Persia. Christianity took hold there, and then... they also fell from deforestation. They also didn't take good care of the soil, and Islam altered its trade roots, so the civilization fell.
That means that the three major civilizations fell, showing how fragile they truly are. It's sad how we only talk about Rome and Persia, but not Axum.
Civilizations of Mesoamerica
The "New World" isn't quite new, as people have been living there for centuries. In fact, Christopher Columbus technically didn't discover it, as people were already there! Even if people said, "He was the first European to discover it," Leif Erikson beat him to it.
Anyway, the most prominent of these Mesoamerican civilizations was the Maya people. They made some pretty amazing discoveries in their lifetime! They could do complex calculations, predict eclipses, plot the cycle of the planets, make their own calendars... they did much more than we think! The Maya people still survive to this day, but some parts of their empire has collapsed. Even then, we need to give them more credit for their discoveries, instead of making fake conspiracy theories about the world ending because, "their Mayan calendar ended!"
I also want to give credit to the Teotihuacan, for having complex architecture and for creating impressive art. It's pretty impressive what these civilizations could do, and we don't give them enough credit.
Civilizations of the Andres
The Incas weren't the only civilization in the Andres.
There were also the village, Chavin de Huantar, which started a religious movement. There was also the Moche, that had the land ruled by warrior priests, and the Wari and Tiwanaku, two very separate civilizations.
Why weren't they really talked about? Well, they never really wrote anything down, so archaeologists have to use archaeological findings in order to find out more about them. So I'm a bit skeptical if shaman-rulers from Moche used hallucinogenic drugs for religious purposes.
But even if it's just speculation from archaeological findings, they must have had a lot of fun theorizing how all of those societies worked. And if they're correct...?
Alternatives to Civilization
Time to talk about non-civilizations! Since there are so many to talk about, I'll only briefly go over the main ones.
The Bantu was a culture that is strongly associated with a group of languages. Unlike civilizations, Bantu didn't spread by conquering, but rather, it spread slowly and naturally across Africa. This is very interesting, as typically, one would have to go out of their way to spread their culture. Today, Bantu languages are spoken throughout Africa, an impressive feat.
Then there are the Native Americans of what would become the modern-day United States. They didn't really have large domesticated animals, but they domesticated the most-used crop today, corn. There were also mound-building cultures in North America. Still, there was not one culture there, but many, many non-unified cultures in the Americas. So it would be incorrect to call them one culture.
Finally, there were the people in Pacific Oceania. They lived on many small islands, and yet their cultures had their similarities with each other. Also, English has lone words from some of their languages, such as tatau (tatoo) and tapu (taboo). And they're culture is still here today, alive and well. Disney even recently made a movie that starred Polynesian actors, Moana.
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Madison Rambles #8: Society is Unequal
Hello, everyone!
Today, I'm not exactly feeling the best today. One of my favorite video game companies, AlphaDream, filed for bankruptcy, and they've been a major inspiration in my life. So if I don't sound as cheerful as I usually am, then that's the reason why.
So what better way to cheer me up than to talk about unequal societies and slavery? Yes, what a sad coincidence that we're talking about inequality on a day where I'm not feeling the best mentally.
Anyway, this will be talking about the entirety of Chapter Five.
Intro to Chapter Five
The caste system is ingrained into Hinduism. Because of its religious value, even to this day, the caste system remains in full force. It's even on dating websites, as marrying someone of another caste is taboo in Indian society.
But in many other aspects of modern day society, the world is changing rapidly. Slavery is now looked down upon throughout most of the world. Emperors are much less common in the world. Even the fact that I'm a woman in college would have been mind blowing 200 years ago!
Even then, we still suffer from some of the same issues we've faced for thousands of years, such as sexism, poverty, and inequality in general. It shows how some issues take a long time to solve, and it's very rare for a person to significantly speed up the process.
Society and the State in China
It's time to talk about China again!
So China has been an empire for a long time. The emperor and state officials have ruled the land for centuries, but what was one of the ways they elected officials? Educating them!
Yes, China had schools for the potential officials in 124 B.C.E. It was open to all males, but it tended to favor the wealthy. Still, it was possible for a commoner to become an elected official, which, in my opinion, is one of the most progressive things I've heard of for the time period.
Still, peasants were treated poorly in society. Everything was against them, including nature and the landlords. Why else would you expect the peasants to revolt numerous times?
Poor merchants, though. They were oppressed so much by the Chinese government. Still, it wasn't uncommon in China to become a wealthy merchant, and some officials even liked the merchants. I wonder how they could get so rich with the law against them...
Class and Caste in India
India is starting to get mentioned a lot, too. Not that I'm complaining; India tends to get neglected in the history books for some reason.
No one knows where the caste system exactly came from. It has survived for over two dozen centuries, so at the very least, it's an ancient practice that still goes on today.
The caste system is in this order: Brahmin (priests and teachers), Kshatriya (warriors and rulers), Vaisya (farmers, merchants, and artisans) and the Sudra (just labor work). There's also the class below the Sudra, known as the "Untouchables," but the book states that they are not associated with the caste system.
It's impossible to be in a higher class in your lifetime. When you're born into a class, you're in that class for your entire life. You can only progress within your caste and hope that your next lifetime, you go onto a higher caste.
Basically, you know your role in life at birth. It brings up the philosophical question Brave New World brings up: would people be truly happy if they knew their role in life since birth, even if that means never progressing further and inequality? That is a question different cultures would answer differently.
Slavery: The Case of the Roman Empire
If there's one subject that you would never bring up at a party, it's slavery. It's an uncomfortable subject for both sides, but I think it's important to talk about it and it's history.
Slavery is an ancient practice, started around the Paleolithic era. However, when civilizations became a thing, the practice of slavery grew tremendously. However, although slavery existed in Eastern civilizations, it was more widespread in Western civilizations.
Rome and Greece loved slavery, so much that Aristotle claimed that people were "slaves by nature." Also, around the time Jesus Christ lived, roughly 83% of citizens were slaves. Even good people owned two or three slaves. It's shocking to hear this information.
However, there are a couple things that made Roman slavery a bit less worse than the atrocities of American slavery. Roman slavery didn't depend on race; although some groups of people were thought to be "slaves by nature," they weren't writing on tablets explaining how their race was superior. Also, slave owners were expected to give slaves the necessities of life.
Even then, slaves were abused in multiple ways and were not viewed highly. Also, it's slavery. Why would I support treating human beings like cattle?
Comparing Patriarchies
Sexism has existed for a long time. Let's not deny that fact. But sometimes, ancient societies are less sexist than we think.
China was not that kind of society most of the time. When Confucian texts state the inferior position of wives, you know society isn't exactly equal. Even at birth, there is a ritual for baby girls to show their place in society.
It did get better, though. By the Tang Dynasty, women were portrayed as being able to handle business and traditionally "male" activities. Also, there was Empress Wu, who was a woman. However, by the Song Dynasty, it wasn't as progressive. Maybe I'll learn more about it when I read more of the book...
In Athens and Sparta, in terms of gender roles, Sparta wins. In Athens, despite their democracy, women weren't allowed to participate in law independently. In some cases, they weren't even allowed some of the government privileges men had. Women were also expected to stay inside the house and reproduce, without learning how to read and write.
Sparta, on the other hand, not only trained their men intensively, but also their women. The men were sent to military training at age seven, leaving the women at home. However, in order for them to produce warrior sons, they had to train their bodies in intense ways. Running, wrestling, throwing javelins, driving chariots... women training could be intense! And since the men were away, women ruled the house in ways Athenian women could never dream of.
So moral of the story; if you want a more equal society, make it a militaristic society where boys go off to war at age seven and women do intense training to improve their wombs. Then again, the book claims it's still a patriarchy, and it's homophobic...
Today, I'm not exactly feeling the best today. One of my favorite video game companies, AlphaDream, filed for bankruptcy, and they've been a major inspiration in my life. So if I don't sound as cheerful as I usually am, then that's the reason why.
So what better way to cheer me up than to talk about unequal societies and slavery? Yes, what a sad coincidence that we're talking about inequality on a day where I'm not feeling the best mentally.
Anyway, this will be talking about the entirety of Chapter Five.
Intro to Chapter Five
The caste system is ingrained into Hinduism. Because of its religious value, even to this day, the caste system remains in full force. It's even on dating websites, as marrying someone of another caste is taboo in Indian society.
But in many other aspects of modern day society, the world is changing rapidly. Slavery is now looked down upon throughout most of the world. Emperors are much less common in the world. Even the fact that I'm a woman in college would have been mind blowing 200 years ago!
Even then, we still suffer from some of the same issues we've faced for thousands of years, such as sexism, poverty, and inequality in general. It shows how some issues take a long time to solve, and it's very rare for a person to significantly speed up the process.
Society and the State in China
It's time to talk about China again!
So China has been an empire for a long time. The emperor and state officials have ruled the land for centuries, but what was one of the ways they elected officials? Educating them!
Yes, China had schools for the potential officials in 124 B.C.E. It was open to all males, but it tended to favor the wealthy. Still, it was possible for a commoner to become an elected official, which, in my opinion, is one of the most progressive things I've heard of for the time period.
Still, peasants were treated poorly in society. Everything was against them, including nature and the landlords. Why else would you expect the peasants to revolt numerous times?
Poor merchants, though. They were oppressed so much by the Chinese government. Still, it wasn't uncommon in China to become a wealthy merchant, and some officials even liked the merchants. I wonder how they could get so rich with the law against them...
Class and Caste in India
India is starting to get mentioned a lot, too. Not that I'm complaining; India tends to get neglected in the history books for some reason.
No one knows where the caste system exactly came from. It has survived for over two dozen centuries, so at the very least, it's an ancient practice that still goes on today.
The caste system is in this order: Brahmin (priests and teachers), Kshatriya (warriors and rulers), Vaisya (farmers, merchants, and artisans) and the Sudra (just labor work). There's also the class below the Sudra, known as the "Untouchables," but the book states that they are not associated with the caste system.
It's impossible to be in a higher class in your lifetime. When you're born into a class, you're in that class for your entire life. You can only progress within your caste and hope that your next lifetime, you go onto a higher caste.
Basically, you know your role in life at birth. It brings up the philosophical question Brave New World brings up: would people be truly happy if they knew their role in life since birth, even if that means never progressing further and inequality? That is a question different cultures would answer differently.
Slavery: The Case of the Roman Empire
If there's one subject that you would never bring up at a party, it's slavery. It's an uncomfortable subject for both sides, but I think it's important to talk about it and it's history.
Slavery is an ancient practice, started around the Paleolithic era. However, when civilizations became a thing, the practice of slavery grew tremendously. However, although slavery existed in Eastern civilizations, it was more widespread in Western civilizations.
Rome and Greece loved slavery, so much that Aristotle claimed that people were "slaves by nature." Also, around the time Jesus Christ lived, roughly 83% of citizens were slaves. Even good people owned two or three slaves. It's shocking to hear this information.
However, there are a couple things that made Roman slavery a bit less worse than the atrocities of American slavery. Roman slavery didn't depend on race; although some groups of people were thought to be "slaves by nature," they weren't writing on tablets explaining how their race was superior. Also, slave owners were expected to give slaves the necessities of life.
Even then, slaves were abused in multiple ways and were not viewed highly. Also, it's slavery. Why would I support treating human beings like cattle?
Comparing Patriarchies
Sexism has existed for a long time. Let's not deny that fact. But sometimes, ancient societies are less sexist than we think.
China was not that kind of society most of the time. When Confucian texts state the inferior position of wives, you know society isn't exactly equal. Even at birth, there is a ritual for baby girls to show their place in society.
It did get better, though. By the Tang Dynasty, women were portrayed as being able to handle business and traditionally "male" activities. Also, there was Empress Wu, who was a woman. However, by the Song Dynasty, it wasn't as progressive. Maybe I'll learn more about it when I read more of the book...
In Athens and Sparta, in terms of gender roles, Sparta wins. In Athens, despite their democracy, women weren't allowed to participate in law independently. In some cases, they weren't even allowed some of the government privileges men had. Women were also expected to stay inside the house and reproduce, without learning how to read and write.
Sparta, on the other hand, not only trained their men intensively, but also their women. The men were sent to military training at age seven, leaving the women at home. However, in order for them to produce warrior sons, they had to train their bodies in intense ways. Running, wrestling, throwing javelins, driving chariots... women training could be intense! And since the men were away, women ruled the house in ways Athenian women could never dream of.
So moral of the story; if you want a more equal society, make it a militaristic society where boys go off to war at age seven and women do intense training to improve their wombs. Then again, the book claims it's still a patriarchy, and it's homophobic...
Monday, September 30, 2019
Madison Rambles #7: Now We're Talking About Religion
Hello, everyone!
Last time, I got a bit political and gave some advice to Andrew Yang. Today, we're going to talk about another topic that shouldn't be mentioned in the workplace: religion.
Since it's religion, I'll try to talk about it as objectively as possible. It's a very personal subject for many people, but some of the beauty of history comes from religion and how the teachings of religious leaders still lives on today.
Today, I'll talk about the entirety of Chapter 4 and a Close Reading, Serving is Different from Helping and Fixing.
The Beginning of Chapter 4
No matter how hard rulers try, religion can never be completely eliminated. Judaism is a great example of this, but the book also states that Confucianism had deal with its attempted replacement, the Communist Party. This failed greatly, as Confucianism and its teachings still survives to this day.
And that's not a bad thing at all. It's admirable how some religions have attempted to be eliminated, but have survived those efforts. As the Jewish saying goes, "They tried to kill us, we survived, let's eat."
And let's not forget how religion attempts to answer the seemingly impossible answers, such as, "What is the meaning of life?" and "What happens after we die?" So religion is also philosophical, not just a list of rules on how to behave.
This chapter focuses on how religion has shaped the human race, in some good ways... and a few bad ways.
China and the Search for Order
This book talks a lot about China, and that's because China, for most of history, has been powerful. So why wouldn't the book talk about the beliefs of China?
Legalism is the belief created from the era of the warring states. Legalists thought that most people were "stupid and shortsighted" and could not function correctly without having high rewards and harsh punishments. They would be the people who support the death penalty and a strong government. As you can tell by the book's description, this belief was mostly discredited and replaced with Confucianism.
Confucianism is all about the classes doing their part to create a functioning society. This meant that it focused on class inequality, but at the same time, focused on respect between superiors and inferiors. Confucius's teachings are still used widely in China today (otherwise, why would I create an entire blog post on Confucius's teachings?).
Finally, there's Daoism (or Taoism), which focuses on getting away from society and just enjoying nature. Surprisingly, despite Confucianism and Daoism being "opposites" of each other, they complement each other in modern Chinese society. It's just like the yin and the yang; opposites can work together.
Cultural Traditions of Classical India
You know Hinduism? Do you remember how in school, when they taught about the different religions, how they taught about the multiple gods of Hinduism?
What if I told you Hinduism isn't a single religion?
That's right, the term "Hinduism" was invented by Westerners to merge the several Indian cultures into one "recognizable" system. Sure, they shared the Vedas, but to call them one religion would be like saying that Native Americans shared a religion.
Still, they did believe in a common thing, and that's karma. With karma, if you did good deeds in your lifetime, you would be higher up the caste system in your next life. The higher up the caste system, the higher chance you would achieve moksha, or the end of rebirth.
But there was one religion that came out of Hinduism, and that's Buddhism. While Buddhism isn't as popular in India as you would think, it did spread to other cultures due to its lack of inequality.
And if the book accidentally makes you belief Buddhism isn't a world religion anymore, it's still popular. Japan is one of the countries where Buddhist traditions are still popular.
Toward Monotheism: The Search for God in the Middle East
This part talks about Zoroastrianism and Judaism, and after reading this part, I thought that out of the two, Judaism survived. This is wrong; Zoroastrianism still exists to this day.
Zoroastrianism is the religion of good and evil, Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu, respectively. They would fight constantly until the final day, where a savior would help Ahura Mazda win. It's basically Judgement Day from there; the good people go to Paradise, while the bad people are punished eternally.
Sounds familiar? That's because Judaism borrowed some ideas from Zoroastrianism to create the concepts of Heaven and Hell, God and Satan, and the Messiah.
Later, Judaism would live on to help create two other religions: Christianity and Islam. That's why if you're Christian, you would recognize some stories from the Torah, and if you're Jewish, you would recognize some stories from the Bible.
That's why when they mentioned the story of Adam and Eve, I immediately recognized it.
The Cultural Tradition of Classical Greece: The Search for a Rational Order
So Greece is amazing. They were able to predict eclipses and advanced scientific concepts before we even knew what a microscope was.
I mean, they predicted atoms! How could they do that? And Socrates questioning his students learning made them question themselves... and that's what scientists do! Sure, they believed in the four humors, but the scientific and mathematical contributions Greece gave are valuable today.
... also, Greece believed in gods. That's how it ties into the chapter. If you want to read Greek mythology, I highly recommend it, because many people enjoy it for a reason.
The Birth of Christianity... with Buddhist Comparisons
I'm going to be talking about Christianity more here, because this post is getting long, but Christianity eventually spread everywhere.
Like Buddhism, one appealing thing about Christianity was its freedom. Early Christianity did not care about gender or slave status; Jesus Christ always welcomed you. This may have contributed to the conversion and spread of Christianity, and why it's so popular today.
I live in a Catholic family, and I can say some of early Christianity doesn't apply today, such as modern Catholicism not allowing women to become priests. Still, there is still a sense of freedom and leniency with Catholicism at least, so the appeal of freedom is still relevant today.
Also, I found it funny how the Romans called Christians "atheists." Now, atheists and Christians fight with each other, so calling Christians "atheists" is like calling Democrats "Republicans."
Serving is Different From Helping and Fixing
This section is not in the book, but is in a blog post online. Basically, "helping" implies inequality, while "serving" implies a more mutual status. Also, there is no "I helped you, so you help me" in serving. It's just giving the person what they need.
Also, it's really sad that the author had to state that "fixing" someone is wrong. How many people think that the phrase "I'm going to fix you" is okay to say?! Where I come from, if you go up to a person and say that, people will think you're rude. And say that about an autistic person, well, let's just say people might not want to hang out with you anymore.
Last time, I got a bit political and gave some advice to Andrew Yang. Today, we're going to talk about another topic that shouldn't be mentioned in the workplace: religion.
Since it's religion, I'll try to talk about it as objectively as possible. It's a very personal subject for many people, but some of the beauty of history comes from religion and how the teachings of religious leaders still lives on today.
Today, I'll talk about the entirety of Chapter 4 and a Close Reading, Serving is Different from Helping and Fixing.
The Beginning of Chapter 4
No matter how hard rulers try, religion can never be completely eliminated. Judaism is a great example of this, but the book also states that Confucianism had deal with its attempted replacement, the Communist Party. This failed greatly, as Confucianism and its teachings still survives to this day.
And that's not a bad thing at all. It's admirable how some religions have attempted to be eliminated, but have survived those efforts. As the Jewish saying goes, "They tried to kill us, we survived, let's eat."
And let's not forget how religion attempts to answer the seemingly impossible answers, such as, "What is the meaning of life?" and "What happens after we die?" So religion is also philosophical, not just a list of rules on how to behave.
This chapter focuses on how religion has shaped the human race, in some good ways... and a few bad ways.
China and the Search for Order
This book talks a lot about China, and that's because China, for most of history, has been powerful. So why wouldn't the book talk about the beliefs of China?
Legalism is the belief created from the era of the warring states. Legalists thought that most people were "stupid and shortsighted" and could not function correctly without having high rewards and harsh punishments. They would be the people who support the death penalty and a strong government. As you can tell by the book's description, this belief was mostly discredited and replaced with Confucianism.
Confucianism is all about the classes doing their part to create a functioning society. This meant that it focused on class inequality, but at the same time, focused on respect between superiors and inferiors. Confucius's teachings are still used widely in China today (otherwise, why would I create an entire blog post on Confucius's teachings?).
Finally, there's Daoism (or Taoism), which focuses on getting away from society and just enjoying nature. Surprisingly, despite Confucianism and Daoism being "opposites" of each other, they complement each other in modern Chinese society. It's just like the yin and the yang; opposites can work together.
Cultural Traditions of Classical India
You know Hinduism? Do you remember how in school, when they taught about the different religions, how they taught about the multiple gods of Hinduism?
What if I told you Hinduism isn't a single religion?
That's right, the term "Hinduism" was invented by Westerners to merge the several Indian cultures into one "recognizable" system. Sure, they shared the Vedas, but to call them one religion would be like saying that Native Americans shared a religion.
Still, they did believe in a common thing, and that's karma. With karma, if you did good deeds in your lifetime, you would be higher up the caste system in your next life. The higher up the caste system, the higher chance you would achieve moksha, or the end of rebirth.
But there was one religion that came out of Hinduism, and that's Buddhism. While Buddhism isn't as popular in India as you would think, it did spread to other cultures due to its lack of inequality.
And if the book accidentally makes you belief Buddhism isn't a world religion anymore, it's still popular. Japan is one of the countries where Buddhist traditions are still popular.
Toward Monotheism: The Search for God in the Middle East
This part talks about Zoroastrianism and Judaism, and after reading this part, I thought that out of the two, Judaism survived. This is wrong; Zoroastrianism still exists to this day.
Zoroastrianism is the religion of good and evil, Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu, respectively. They would fight constantly until the final day, where a savior would help Ahura Mazda win. It's basically Judgement Day from there; the good people go to Paradise, while the bad people are punished eternally.
Sounds familiar? That's because Judaism borrowed some ideas from Zoroastrianism to create the concepts of Heaven and Hell, God and Satan, and the Messiah.
Later, Judaism would live on to help create two other religions: Christianity and Islam. That's why if you're Christian, you would recognize some stories from the Torah, and if you're Jewish, you would recognize some stories from the Bible.
That's why when they mentioned the story of Adam and Eve, I immediately recognized it.
The Cultural Tradition of Classical Greece: The Search for a Rational Order
So Greece is amazing. They were able to predict eclipses and advanced scientific concepts before we even knew what a microscope was.
I mean, they predicted atoms! How could they do that? And Socrates questioning his students learning made them question themselves... and that's what scientists do! Sure, they believed in the four humors, but the scientific and mathematical contributions Greece gave are valuable today.
... also, Greece believed in gods. That's how it ties into the chapter. If you want to read Greek mythology, I highly recommend it, because many people enjoy it for a reason.
The Birth of Christianity... with Buddhist Comparisons
I'm going to be talking about Christianity more here, because this post is getting long, but Christianity eventually spread everywhere.
Like Buddhism, one appealing thing about Christianity was its freedom. Early Christianity did not care about gender or slave status; Jesus Christ always welcomed you. This may have contributed to the conversion and spread of Christianity, and why it's so popular today.
I live in a Catholic family, and I can say some of early Christianity doesn't apply today, such as modern Catholicism not allowing women to become priests. Still, there is still a sense of freedom and leniency with Catholicism at least, so the appeal of freedom is still relevant today.
Also, I found it funny how the Romans called Christians "atheists." Now, atheists and Christians fight with each other, so calling Christians "atheists" is like calling Democrats "Republicans."
Serving is Different From Helping and Fixing
This section is not in the book, but is in a blog post online. Basically, "helping" implies inequality, while "serving" implies a more mutual status. Also, there is no "I helped you, so you help me" in serving. It's just giving the person what they need.
Also, it's really sad that the author had to state that "fixing" someone is wrong. How many people think that the phrase "I'm going to fix you" is okay to say?! Where I come from, if you go up to a person and say that, people will think you're rude. And say that about an autistic person, well, let's just say people might not want to hang out with you anymore.
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Madison Rambles #6: We're Actually Getting Into Politics Now
Hello everyone!
Remember my foreshadowing about how I would answer a question from the book? Well, the teacher changed that, so now I'm selecting two Confucius quotes I would tell a presidential candidate. So that means we're getting into politics! Sorry for anyone who doesn't like modern day politics.
I'm selecting these quotes for my 2020 Election pick, Andrew Yang. He probably won't win, but I really want a president who knows technology.
So here are my Confucius quotes for Yang:
XV.20: "What the superior man seeks, is in himself. What the mean man seeks, is in others."
This quote says that good people tries to improve themselves, while bad people put down others to make themselves look better. It's the difference between good self-esteem and arrogance.
I chose this quote because some candidates think that ranting on Donald Trump is the best way to win the election. This is flawed because, when he gets out of office and they reverse his bad policies... now what? What's their main goal besides beating Donald Trump? It gets even more terrible when you realize that if the impeachment process causes Trump to get kicked out of office, they have to mainly rely on their own policies to make themselves good candidates.
And that's what Andrew Yang needs: to be himself. Instead of proving that he's the savior against the already-falling Trump Administration, he needs to prove that he is a good person and president. Because ultimately, people will remember what the president did themselves, not who they beat (except for Hillary Clinton and Al Gore, but they're the exception).
XIV.29 "The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions."
Politicians like to talk about their policies, but not actually show how they can do it. Why else to people call politicians liars?
Andrew Yang needs to say a detailed plan on how he can improve America. He especially should explain how he would gain money for the "Freedom Dividend," because there are over 200 million people in America (that's $200 billion every month). If he can show how America can support the plan, and how it can improve with the plan, he will be on the path to winning the election.
Also, he should be "modest in his speech." He shouldn't brag about how great he is, because then the Democrats would think he's another Donald Trump. If he wants to win the election, he should remain humble.
Remember my foreshadowing about how I would answer a question from the book? Well, the teacher changed that, so now I'm selecting two Confucius quotes I would tell a presidential candidate. So that means we're getting into politics! Sorry for anyone who doesn't like modern day politics.
I'm selecting these quotes for my 2020 Election pick, Andrew Yang. He probably won't win, but I really want a president who knows technology.
So here are my Confucius quotes for Yang:
XV.20: "What the superior man seeks, is in himself. What the mean man seeks, is in others."
This quote says that good people tries to improve themselves, while bad people put down others to make themselves look better. It's the difference between good self-esteem and arrogance.
I chose this quote because some candidates think that ranting on Donald Trump is the best way to win the election. This is flawed because, when he gets out of office and they reverse his bad policies... now what? What's their main goal besides beating Donald Trump? It gets even more terrible when you realize that if the impeachment process causes Trump to get kicked out of office, they have to mainly rely on their own policies to make themselves good candidates.
And that's what Andrew Yang needs: to be himself. Instead of proving that he's the savior against the already-falling Trump Administration, he needs to prove that he is a good person and president. Because ultimately, people will remember what the president did themselves, not who they beat (except for Hillary Clinton and Al Gore, but they're the exception).
XIV.29 "The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions."
Politicians like to talk about their policies, but not actually show how they can do it. Why else to people call politicians liars?
Andrew Yang needs to say a detailed plan on how he can improve America. He especially should explain how he would gain money for the "Freedom Dividend," because there are over 200 million people in America (that's $200 billion every month). If he can show how America can support the plan, and how it can improve with the plan, he will be on the path to winning the election.
Also, he should be "modest in his speech." He shouldn't brag about how great he is, because then the Democrats would think he's another Donald Trump. If he wants to win the election, he should remain humble.
Monday, September 23, 2019
Madison Rambles #5: The Empire Strikes Back
Hello everyone!
Human society has been progressing rapidly, hasn't it? Well, as we talked about earlier, there was a time when humanity was very slow and didn't make many scientific advancements. That was the Paleolithic Era. But now, with the rise of empires, China, Rome, and other empires have created numerous inventions and conquered many pieces of land. It's Chapter Three of humanity's story of world domination.
Today, we'll talk about Intro to Part Two and the entirety of Chapter 3.
Intro to Part Two
Previously, the book has been talking about thousands of years of human history in one chapter, but that is no more. In the era of empires, rapid technological advancements have become a thing, especially in China, Rome, and India.
This is also the era of conquering, especially for Rome. Did you know that Rome would salt the soil of civilizations so that their crops wouldn't grow? I wish I could say that's the worst they've done, but I would be wrong.
In terms of major change, compared to the previous eras, there isn't one major change that defines the era. It's mainly "the same thing, but better." Still, not all was good in the era of civilizations; plagues started becoming a big deal, mainly because everyone lived in the same place. Since germ theory of disease didn't exist back then, you can imagine how much people died from reasons we would typically avoid today.
On the bright side, Japan is now a civilization during this time period. They got their writing system from China.だから、 漢字を覚えることがむずかしいです。(Because of that, learning Japanese kanji is hard)
The Beginning of Chapter Three
It would be an understatement to say that the United States of America is a successful country. But like all other empires, the United States has to lose its superpower status someday. Some might even argue that might be within this century, and they bring up the comparison to the Roman Empire.
I will argue this: not all empires have fallen like Rome. China, for example, is theorized to become a superpower again, despite being an ancient civilization. However, America has some of its roots in Rome, and is going through some of the similar mistakes as Rome, so it's not unlikely that one day, America will lose the power that it once had (some may argue that it already has lost some of its power).
But before empires fall, people admire and fear its power. Empires are impressive. Not only do they maintain many acres of land, but they are also home to many cultures and identities. Sure, there was discrimination, but for the time, many nationalities coming together to form one empire was a new concept. What an impressive human feat, over two millennia before America.
Empires and Civilizations in Collision: The Persians and the Greeks
There were once two prominent civilizations in Eurasia: Persia and Greece. Persia was united and powerful, and Greece was small and divided. So it was no surprise that Greece ultimately won.
"Wait, Greece?!" Yes, Greece's battles against Persia are true underdog stories. The first time they collided, Greece won against all odds. Then Persia fought again... and lost.
Then, Alexander the Great dominated them at age twenty-four, and Persia is now no more. That's pretty impressive for a twenty-four year old. The last time I heard of a twenty-four year old accomplish something amazing for their age, it was Toby Fox creating Undertale. And that's nothing compared to single handedly dominating Persia (sorry, Toby Fox).
What was interesting was that the book claims that Persian and Greek values gave birth to Eastern and Western government values, respectively. And my response to that is, "Wait, Persia was established before China?"
Comparing Empires: Roman and Chinese
The Roman government changed a lot, and the Chinese government stayed consistent. Both have their respective victories and downfalls, but one ultimately had the bigger downfall.
The most famous Roman government is their republican government (no, not like the Republican Party). Only the wealthy ruled, and two consuls got suggestions from the Senate. Also, even poor people could impact legislation and shape public policy.
Does that sound familiar? If so, welcome to the United States of America! Our government was based on a fallen empire, and we're going through the same mistakes as them! I mean, the president already got more power overtime; the Great Depression needed a powerful president to solve it (what, did you think I was going to mention Trump? I'm a college student, not a journalist!).
While China lacked freedom of speech, it somehow survives to this day. Rome, on the other hand, did not survive to this day. Well, there is still a Rome today; it's the capital of Italy!
So moral of the story, don't always assume Europe was powerful in history. China did what Rome couldn't; stay a united empire.
Intermittent Empire: The Case of India
After the Indus Valley civilizations fell, Indian Empires formed.
The Mauryan Empire, for example, had a large army with 9,000 elephants. That may sound surprising, but guns didn't exist back then. Elephants are notoriously hard to kill without a gun, and can trample people with their size. It's actually intelligent to have elephants in the army, similar to how people used horses in warfare.
While they thrived in subjects such as art and mathematics, they did not thrive in government. India could not keep a stable, united government. Despite this, they made progression in many areas.
Also, India is now one united country, so eventually, the day would come. However, as of now, I don't know when (outside of their independence from Britain in 1947). Maybe someday, the book will teach me.
Human society has been progressing rapidly, hasn't it? Well, as we talked about earlier, there was a time when humanity was very slow and didn't make many scientific advancements. That was the Paleolithic Era. But now, with the rise of empires, China, Rome, and other empires have created numerous inventions and conquered many pieces of land. It's Chapter Three of humanity's story of world domination.
Today, we'll talk about Intro to Part Two and the entirety of Chapter 3.
Intro to Part Two
Previously, the book has been talking about thousands of years of human history in one chapter, but that is no more. In the era of empires, rapid technological advancements have become a thing, especially in China, Rome, and India.
This is also the era of conquering, especially for Rome. Did you know that Rome would salt the soil of civilizations so that their crops wouldn't grow? I wish I could say that's the worst they've done, but I would be wrong.
In terms of major change, compared to the previous eras, there isn't one major change that defines the era. It's mainly "the same thing, but better." Still, not all was good in the era of civilizations; plagues started becoming a big deal, mainly because everyone lived in the same place. Since germ theory of disease didn't exist back then, you can imagine how much people died from reasons we would typically avoid today.
On the bright side, Japan is now a civilization during this time period. They got their writing system from China.だから、 漢字を覚えることがむずかしいです。(Because of that, learning Japanese kanji is hard)
The Beginning of Chapter Three
It would be an understatement to say that the United States of America is a successful country. But like all other empires, the United States has to lose its superpower status someday. Some might even argue that might be within this century, and they bring up the comparison to the Roman Empire.
I will argue this: not all empires have fallen like Rome. China, for example, is theorized to become a superpower again, despite being an ancient civilization. However, America has some of its roots in Rome, and is going through some of the similar mistakes as Rome, so it's not unlikely that one day, America will lose the power that it once had (some may argue that it already has lost some of its power).
But before empires fall, people admire and fear its power. Empires are impressive. Not only do they maintain many acres of land, but they are also home to many cultures and identities. Sure, there was discrimination, but for the time, many nationalities coming together to form one empire was a new concept. What an impressive human feat, over two millennia before America.
Empires and Civilizations in Collision: The Persians and the Greeks
There were once two prominent civilizations in Eurasia: Persia and Greece. Persia was united and powerful, and Greece was small and divided. So it was no surprise that Greece ultimately won.
"Wait, Greece?!" Yes, Greece's battles against Persia are true underdog stories. The first time they collided, Greece won against all odds. Then Persia fought again... and lost.
Then, Alexander the Great dominated them at age twenty-four, and Persia is now no more. That's pretty impressive for a twenty-four year old. The last time I heard of a twenty-four year old accomplish something amazing for their age, it was Toby Fox creating Undertale. And that's nothing compared to single handedly dominating Persia (sorry, Toby Fox).
What was interesting was that the book claims that Persian and Greek values gave birth to Eastern and Western government values, respectively. And my response to that is, "Wait, Persia was established before China?"
Comparing Empires: Roman and Chinese
The Roman government changed a lot, and the Chinese government stayed consistent. Both have their respective victories and downfalls, but one ultimately had the bigger downfall.
The most famous Roman government is their republican government (no, not like the Republican Party). Only the wealthy ruled, and two consuls got suggestions from the Senate. Also, even poor people could impact legislation and shape public policy.
Does that sound familiar? If so, welcome to the United States of America! Our government was based on a fallen empire, and we're going through the same mistakes as them! I mean, the president already got more power overtime; the Great Depression needed a powerful president to solve it (what, did you think I was going to mention Trump? I'm a college student, not a journalist!).
While China lacked freedom of speech, it somehow survives to this day. Rome, on the other hand, did not survive to this day. Well, there is still a Rome today; it's the capital of Italy!
So moral of the story, don't always assume Europe was powerful in history. China did what Rome couldn't; stay a united empire.
Intermittent Empire: The Case of India
After the Indus Valley civilizations fell, Indian Empires formed.
The Mauryan Empire, for example, had a large army with 9,000 elephants. That may sound surprising, but guns didn't exist back then. Elephants are notoriously hard to kill without a gun, and can trample people with their size. It's actually intelligent to have elephants in the army, similar to how people used horses in warfare.
While they thrived in subjects such as art and mathematics, they did not thrive in government. India could not keep a stable, united government. Despite this, they made progression in many areas.
Also, India is now one united country, so eventually, the day would come. However, as of now, I don't know when (outside of their independence from Britain in 1947). Maybe someday, the book will teach me.
Saturday, September 21, 2019
Madison Rambles #4: The Indus Valley Mystery
Hello everyone!
This time, I'll be doing something a little bit different: I'll answer a question from the book! Because of this, this blog will be shorter than the other blogs.
There were four questions to choose from, but this was the most interesting:
What additional kinds of archeological discoveries would be helpful in furthering our understanding of Indus Valley civilizations?
After some thinking, here are my answers:
A Rosetta Stone: No, not that overpriced program that's supposed to be immersion in a box. I'm talking about Indus Valley stone tablets translated to other languages. If archeologists found even just one of these, it would be the Holy Grail of Indus Valley research. Imagine what we could learn about law and their government from a multilanguage tablet...
Other Civilizations Writing About the Indus Valley: How do we know about ancient Scottish tribes? Because the Romans wrote down their encounters with them. Archeologists would be glad to find Mesopotamia or Egypt talking about the Indus Valley. Sure, we have to take their word with a grain of salt at times, but it's better than nothing.
Blueprints: This is stretching a little, but it would be cool to know how they were so consistent with their building techniques. They had to have wrote it down to get it so perfectly, right? Although that's speculative, it would help to further our understanding of the Indus Valley civilizations.
Bones and Other Body Parts: After some Googling, DNA takes over one million years to be illegible. Considering the Indus Valley civilizations went away only a few thousand years ago, scientists still have time to gather the DNA. Not only that, but as Egypt showed, graves can show a lot about a culture and their values. What I'm saying is that dead bodies and where they're placed can say a lot about a culture.
So in conclusion, archeologists need to find bones and stones if they want to know more about the Indus Valley.
Next time, I'll talk about the beginning of Chapter 3, where it talks about empires. Will I be talking about the famous and intimidating Roman Empire...?
See you next time!
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This time, I'll be doing something a little bit different: I'll answer a question from the book! Because of this, this blog will be shorter than the other blogs.
There were four questions to choose from, but this was the most interesting:
What additional kinds of archeological discoveries would be helpful in furthering our understanding of Indus Valley civilizations?
After some thinking, here are my answers:
A Rosetta Stone: No, not that overpriced program that's supposed to be immersion in a box. I'm talking about Indus Valley stone tablets translated to other languages. If archeologists found even just one of these, it would be the Holy Grail of Indus Valley research. Imagine what we could learn about law and their government from a multilanguage tablet...
Other Civilizations Writing About the Indus Valley: How do we know about ancient Scottish tribes? Because the Romans wrote down their encounters with them. Archeologists would be glad to find Mesopotamia or Egypt talking about the Indus Valley. Sure, we have to take their word with a grain of salt at times, but it's better than nothing.
Blueprints: This is stretching a little, but it would be cool to know how they were so consistent with their building techniques. They had to have wrote it down to get it so perfectly, right? Although that's speculative, it would help to further our understanding of the Indus Valley civilizations.
Bones and Other Body Parts: After some Googling, DNA takes over one million years to be illegible. Considering the Indus Valley civilizations went away only a few thousand years ago, scientists still have time to gather the DNA. Not only that, but as Egypt showed, graves can show a lot about a culture and their values. What I'm saying is that dead bodies and where they're placed can say a lot about a culture.
So in conclusion, archeologists need to find bones and stones if they want to know more about the Indus Valley.
Next time, I'll talk about the beginning of Chapter 3, where it talks about empires. Will I be talking about the famous and intimidating Roman Empire...?
See you next time!
Thursday, September 19, 2019
Madison Rambles #3: When Humans Formed Civilizations
Hello everyone!
I haven't posted in a while, so here's my blog post topic for this week: civilizations! More specifically, it's the first civilizations, such as Mesopotamia, China, and Egypt.
This time, I will be going over all of Chapter 2. So if you're looking for the section of the book I'll be talking about today, it shouldn't be hard to find.
Something New: The Emergence of Civilization
Civilizations started separately from each other. From the Middle-Eastern Mesopotamia to the Asian China, it's a miracle humanity has even thought of the concept of civilizations like this. Some even survive to this day!
Writing also became a thing. So if you're reading this blogpost, you're using an invention that civilization invented. I'm very thankful for this invention, since my writing is better than my speaking ability and I'm an English major.
Also, close to Peru, archeologists discovered Caral, a new member of the First Civilizations Club. It had no writing, defensive walls, or pottery, but at least it had some nice art. Still, historians have numerous questions about Caral, and it's a mystery if any of them will be answered.
Of course, when talking about ancient civilizations, China should always come up. It's arguably one of the most successful civilizations of all time, and is known for being ahead of the world until Britain caught up a couple centuries ago. Still, they not only had monarchs rule over land millenia before Britain, but they also wrote on oracle bones. Modern Chinese (and other languages that use Chinese characters, such as Japanese) looks very different than the oracle bone writing, but it's still impressive that an ancient writing system is still in use today.
Now, how did civilizations start? Nobody knows for sure. Everyone has their own theories, but in the end, we may never know. It adds to the mysteriousness of it.
The Erosion of Equality
When civilization happened, inequality happened.
Classism starts in this time period. While there were wealthy people that benefited from the economy, there were also the commoners that were treated less favorably.
In fact, slavery existed at the time. It wasn't because of race, and the children of slaves could become free, but it's still slavery. Women were also captured during war and became slaves. They worked in weaving enterprises. After reading about the working conditions of American women in the textile industry during the 1800's and early 1900's, I feel very uncomfortable at the thought of women slaves forcing to weave during ancient times. Imagine the working conditions...
Lastly, sexism became a major thing during this time period. They stayed in the house to take care of and produce babies. Also, the laws were very much against them. It's scary how much of this was true until recently, and even in some places, this is still the case.
The Rise of State
States start to become a thing. Not states, as in US states, but city states. They didn't have Internet or telephones back then, so they had to manage large pieces of land this way.
Instead of talking about how leaders used religion and violence to rule, I'll instead talk about scribes, because they're the underrated heroes of history. They wrote down things that historians can use to learn about history! Also, it had practical purposes, such as writing down taxes, but scribes held a power that no one else had. Sometimes, writing was very threatening to rulers, who tried to censor it if they found it threatening. That shows the power the scribes had.
Oh, and it should come as no surprise that kings were treated the best. They even got beautiful burial grounds!
Comparing Mesopotamia and Egypt
They're related because they're some of the first civilizations. Look, instead of going over the similarities and differences between two ancient civilizations schools teach to death, I'm going to just say the most notable things about this section.
For example, Mesopotamia wrote down possibly the oldest story known to man, The Epic of Gilgamesh. It's an epic poem about a possible Neanderthal who turns into a human. Apparently, it's similar to modern-day romance movies, where the man finds a beautiful woman and stops hanging out with his "guy friends." They did the romance movie cliches before movies ever existed.
A funny thing about Mesopotamia was that they didn't know how to take care of the soil. They destroyed the environment and were most likely surprised that the soil was destroyed, too. They had to grow barley to make up for their destruction. Meanwhile, Egypt worked with the environment and didn't face the salt problem. Those ranchers in the Amazon Rainforest need to take notes on ancient Egypt.
And lastly, let's talk about the tale of the tale of Paneb, the Egyptian troublemaker. He's a legendary criminal that apparently committed major crimes and scared the high officials. I don't know how much of this is true, but it's almost as fascinating as reading about gangsters. I don't support his actions in the slightest, but his extreme actions is probably why his story included in the textbook.
I haven't posted in a while, so here's my blog post topic for this week: civilizations! More specifically, it's the first civilizations, such as Mesopotamia, China, and Egypt.
This time, I will be going over all of Chapter 2. So if you're looking for the section of the book I'll be talking about today, it shouldn't be hard to find.
Something New: The Emergence of Civilization
Civilizations started separately from each other. From the Middle-Eastern Mesopotamia to the Asian China, it's a miracle humanity has even thought of the concept of civilizations like this. Some even survive to this day!
Writing also became a thing. So if you're reading this blogpost, you're using an invention that civilization invented. I'm very thankful for this invention, since my writing is better than my speaking ability and I'm an English major.
Also, close to Peru, archeologists discovered Caral, a new member of the First Civilizations Club. It had no writing, defensive walls, or pottery, but at least it had some nice art. Still, historians have numerous questions about Caral, and it's a mystery if any of them will be answered.
Of course, when talking about ancient civilizations, China should always come up. It's arguably one of the most successful civilizations of all time, and is known for being ahead of the world until Britain caught up a couple centuries ago. Still, they not only had monarchs rule over land millenia before Britain, but they also wrote on oracle bones. Modern Chinese (and other languages that use Chinese characters, such as Japanese) looks very different than the oracle bone writing, but it's still impressive that an ancient writing system is still in use today.
Now, how did civilizations start? Nobody knows for sure. Everyone has their own theories, but in the end, we may never know. It adds to the mysteriousness of it.
The Erosion of Equality
When civilization happened, inequality happened.
Classism starts in this time period. While there were wealthy people that benefited from the economy, there were also the commoners that were treated less favorably.
In fact, slavery existed at the time. It wasn't because of race, and the children of slaves could become free, but it's still slavery. Women were also captured during war and became slaves. They worked in weaving enterprises. After reading about the working conditions of American women in the textile industry during the 1800's and early 1900's, I feel very uncomfortable at the thought of women slaves forcing to weave during ancient times. Imagine the working conditions...
Lastly, sexism became a major thing during this time period. They stayed in the house to take care of and produce babies. Also, the laws were very much against them. It's scary how much of this was true until recently, and even in some places, this is still the case.
The Rise of State
States start to become a thing. Not states, as in US states, but city states. They didn't have Internet or telephones back then, so they had to manage large pieces of land this way.
Instead of talking about how leaders used religion and violence to rule, I'll instead talk about scribes, because they're the underrated heroes of history. They wrote down things that historians can use to learn about history! Also, it had practical purposes, such as writing down taxes, but scribes held a power that no one else had. Sometimes, writing was very threatening to rulers, who tried to censor it if they found it threatening. That shows the power the scribes had.
Oh, and it should come as no surprise that kings were treated the best. They even got beautiful burial grounds!
Comparing Mesopotamia and Egypt
They're related because they're some of the first civilizations. Look, instead of going over the similarities and differences between two ancient civilizations schools teach to death, I'm going to just say the most notable things about this section.
For example, Mesopotamia wrote down possibly the oldest story known to man, The Epic of Gilgamesh. It's an epic poem about a possible Neanderthal who turns into a human. Apparently, it's similar to modern-day romance movies, where the man finds a beautiful woman and stops hanging out with his "guy friends." They did the romance movie cliches before movies ever existed.
A funny thing about Mesopotamia was that they didn't know how to take care of the soil. They destroyed the environment and were most likely surprised that the soil was destroyed, too. They had to grow barley to make up for their destruction. Meanwhile, Egypt worked with the environment and didn't face the salt problem. Those ranchers in the Amazon Rainforest need to take notes on ancient Egypt.
And lastly, let's talk about the tale of the tale of Paneb, the Egyptian troublemaker. He's a legendary criminal that apparently committed major crimes and scared the high officials. I don't know how much of this is true, but it's almost as fascinating as reading about gangsters. I don't support his actions in the slightest, but his extreme actions is probably why his story included in the textbook.
Monday, September 2, 2019
Madison Rambles #2: When Farming Takes Over
Hello, everyone!
Welcome to the second blog post. It's been a lot of hard work keeping up with college work, but I'm always excited to talk about the readings.
We have a very familiar topic today, and that's farming. More specifically, it's society after agriculture was discovered by humanity. Agriculture has changed society for the better, but also slightly for the worse, and that's what the readings have talked about today.
If you're following along, the sections I'll be talking about today are Breakthroughs to Agriculture, The Globalization of Agriculture, and Social Variation in the Age of Agriculture.
Breakthroughs to Agriculture
Humans used to be primarily gatherers and hunters until they discovered how to take advantage of animals and plants. That's when humans started domesticating a variety of animals and plants for mainly farm work.
When reading, some readers might be confused when they read the small amount of animals that were domesticated back then, since exotic pets exist. However, domestication is not the same as taming; domestication is selective breeding to make animals and plants benefit humans. It takes generations of breeding to domesticate, not a few months of training a wild animal. Here's an example of the domestication process.
Anyway, the rise of agriculture coincided with natural global warming roughly 10,000 years ago, which may mean that humans farmed to adapt to the environment. Ironically, farming is also part of the reason global warming exists today, but the global warming back then was completely natural. It was the end of the Ice Age, and the woolly mammoths were dying out, so how about domesticating other large animals for food instead?
Oh, and farming is different in different parts of the world. North America wasn't planting kola nuts, and Africa wasn't planting domesticated teosinte (that's corn, by the way). This book knows not to generalize the world and its crops, and I'm happy it didn't.
The Globalization of Agriculture
Gatherer-hunters (that's the order the book says) and farmers used to live together in harmony, before most people saw gathering food as "ancient" and "uncivilized." Don't get me wrong; gathering and hunting is still a pastime for plenty of people today (such as mushroom gathering and hunting for sport). However, most people see it as just that: a pastime. Only a few do it today as a lifestyle.
A very sad example of this is Ishi, the man who was the last of his gatherer-hunter group, the Yahi. Unfortunately, Americans flooded California and massacred most of the Yahi community, and eventually, Ishi was the last of his people. After educating people about his culture for five years at a museum, he passed away from tuberculosis. This was the dark side of farming: driving non-farming cultures to extinction.
On the plus side, the human population increased exponentially! It took humanity 5,000 years to go from 6 million to 250 million people, an amazing achievement for any species. And this is despite the numerous diseases that spread because of farming. Many of those diseases would either have vaccines today (rabies, chicken pox, measles) or even be eradicated as of 2019 (smallpox). So humanity has solved some of the problems farming has brought us.
Finally, farming has brought us the one thing humanity just can't give up: alcohol. Yes, thank agriculture for the drink that may make the night better, but makes tomorrow worse. Hilariously, in roughly 1046 B.C.E, a Chinese ruler tried to ban wine, but was unsuccessful in his attempts. That sounds strangely familiar...
Social Variation in the Age of Agriculture
Farming helped people survive in environments they couldn't before. This is because humans could rely on animals to help them. They didn't have to eat mainly plants to survive in the desert anymore, because someone walked over to that society to sell meat or milk. This most likely contributed to the development of towns in the desert, or in very cold climates (like what the Clovis people did, but without having to worry about the woolly mammoth going extinct).
Then, there are the agricultural village societies that relied more on farming than a government. Women were more equal in some of these societies, and the closest thing they had to a government was the elders telling the youngsters what to do. It seems kind of like anarchy for us today, even when democracies are considered, but they were mostly civil. I wonder why that's the case...?
Finally, there are the chiefdoms, or the society that is the most like ours today. Chiefdoms still exist today, but they are not the same as kings or presidents. Instead, they are led by chiefs that relied on the people to trust them, usually without force. It's similar to how religious figures can have a group of people listen to them without having to resort to violence or the police.
All of those eventually evolved into what we have today: modern society. And it all started from people learning how to selectively breed species and put seeds into the ground to make it grow.
Welcome to the second blog post. It's been a lot of hard work keeping up with college work, but I'm always excited to talk about the readings.
We have a very familiar topic today, and that's farming. More specifically, it's society after agriculture was discovered by humanity. Agriculture has changed society for the better, but also slightly for the worse, and that's what the readings have talked about today.
If you're following along, the sections I'll be talking about today are Breakthroughs to Agriculture, The Globalization of Agriculture, and Social Variation in the Age of Agriculture.
Breakthroughs to Agriculture
Humans used to be primarily gatherers and hunters until they discovered how to take advantage of animals and plants. That's when humans started domesticating a variety of animals and plants for mainly farm work.
When reading, some readers might be confused when they read the small amount of animals that were domesticated back then, since exotic pets exist. However, domestication is not the same as taming; domestication is selective breeding to make animals and plants benefit humans. It takes generations of breeding to domesticate, not a few months of training a wild animal. Here's an example of the domestication process.
Anyway, the rise of agriculture coincided with natural global warming roughly 10,000 years ago, which may mean that humans farmed to adapt to the environment. Ironically, farming is also part of the reason global warming exists today, but the global warming back then was completely natural. It was the end of the Ice Age, and the woolly mammoths were dying out, so how about domesticating other large animals for food instead?
Oh, and farming is different in different parts of the world. North America wasn't planting kola nuts, and Africa wasn't planting domesticated teosinte (that's corn, by the way). This book knows not to generalize the world and its crops, and I'm happy it didn't.
The Globalization of Agriculture
Gatherer-hunters (that's the order the book says) and farmers used to live together in harmony, before most people saw gathering food as "ancient" and "uncivilized." Don't get me wrong; gathering and hunting is still a pastime for plenty of people today (such as mushroom gathering and hunting for sport). However, most people see it as just that: a pastime. Only a few do it today as a lifestyle.
A very sad example of this is Ishi, the man who was the last of his gatherer-hunter group, the Yahi. Unfortunately, Americans flooded California and massacred most of the Yahi community, and eventually, Ishi was the last of his people. After educating people about his culture for five years at a museum, he passed away from tuberculosis. This was the dark side of farming: driving non-farming cultures to extinction.
On the plus side, the human population increased exponentially! It took humanity 5,000 years to go from 6 million to 250 million people, an amazing achievement for any species. And this is despite the numerous diseases that spread because of farming. Many of those diseases would either have vaccines today (rabies, chicken pox, measles) or even be eradicated as of 2019 (smallpox). So humanity has solved some of the problems farming has brought us.
Finally, farming has brought us the one thing humanity just can't give up: alcohol. Yes, thank agriculture for the drink that may make the night better, but makes tomorrow worse. Hilariously, in roughly 1046 B.C.E, a Chinese ruler tried to ban wine, but was unsuccessful in his attempts. That sounds strangely familiar...
Social Variation in the Age of Agriculture
Farming helped people survive in environments they couldn't before. This is because humans could rely on animals to help them. They didn't have to eat mainly plants to survive in the desert anymore, because someone walked over to that society to sell meat or milk. This most likely contributed to the development of towns in the desert, or in very cold climates (like what the Clovis people did, but without having to worry about the woolly mammoth going extinct).
Then, there are the agricultural village societies that relied more on farming than a government. Women were more equal in some of these societies, and the closest thing they had to a government was the elders telling the youngsters what to do. It seems kind of like anarchy for us today, even when democracies are considered, but they were mostly civil. I wonder why that's the case...?
Finally, there are the chiefdoms, or the society that is the most like ours today. Chiefdoms still exist today, but they are not the same as kings or presidents. Instead, they are led by chiefs that relied on the people to trust them, usually without force. It's similar to how religious figures can have a group of people listen to them without having to resort to violence or the police.
All of those eventually evolved into what we have today: modern society. And it all started from people learning how to selectively breed species and put seeds into the ground to make it grow.
Saturday, August 31, 2019
Madison Rambles #1: The Beginning of Humanity
Hello, everyone! Welcome to my new blog, where I ramble about history for longer than the average history student!
If anyone outside my school sees this blog, then let me explain that I made this blog for school. I will talk about the readings from a book called "Ways of the World: A Brief Global History" (the third edition, more specifically) and try to make it as engaging as possible. In each post, I'll list the sections of the book that will be talked about today, so you can follow along, and then give my thoughts on each reading.
Now then, let's talk about the beginning of humanity, according to scientists.
Prologue: From Cosmic History to Human History
... okay, to be honest, when I was reading last night, I thought I had read the Prologue. I had not, so right before I typed this, I read the entirety of it. And I regret not reading it last night, because it's really good.
This chapter starts from the very beginning, when the Big Bang happened and the stars formed, and goes up to present-day world history debates. That might sound a bit random out of context, but let me explain what I mean.
History books are biased. Okay, that's obvious, but back then, history books were more biased.
For example, European countries were known for going to "unknown" civilizations and introducing their culture and diseases to the native people. American history has taught about that for decades. What they haven't taught for decades is the fact that China also went to other countries and introduced their culture to the native people. That's why other languages also have Chinese characters.
This bias became more troublesome when the world wars hit, so other countries decided to teach about world history instead, and that's why we have more inclusive books.
After reading a few more sections of the book, this seems like the most inclusive and in-depth history book ever, especially in regards to the Patheolithic Era. I'm very impressed. Then again, this is an over 900-page doorstopper, so it would be very concerning if it wasn't that.
In short, this is a book about all of human history, not just European history. This includes the Big Bang, the Patheolithic Era, Asian history, and much, much more.
Turning Points In Early World History (Intro to Part One)
As Homo sapiens, we are the only species of the genus Homo left in the world. That's mostly because we can live in almost any climate and in almost every continent (except for Antarctica).
The section talks about how amazing humanity is, from migrating everywhere to using other species to our benefit to starting an Industrial Revolution. And no other species has done all of this before!
Though, after reading this section, I wonder what life would be like if other hominid species existed today. Would we be able to communicate with them? Would they learn in the same schools as us? Would they ever achieve personhood? We may never know the answers to these questions, but I really want to know!
Oh, and if anyone reads this section and thinks Homo sapiens are the only non-extinct species to use and make tools, here's one of the several counterarguments to that point:
Chapter 1 (Out of Africa & The Ways We Were)
Homo sapiens are a relatively recent species that started in Africa roughly 200,000 years ago. I always knew humans first started in Africa, but 200,000 years ago? We took over the world very quickly!
And yet, history books tend to ignore this amazing fact because humans couldn't write back then. This means that modern-day humans think of their ancestors as "uncivilized" until Mesopotamia started creating civilizations, despite some ancient humans migrating with boats, unlike other species.
So imagine my reaction to learning about actual ancient human culture and their inventions.
They created cave paintings, pottery, clay sculptures, and rock art. They had their own religion and burial grounds (even for dogs!). They even had their own rules in society that were more advanced than I thought. They were people, just not in the modern day.
It's also pretty impressive how humans survived a massive volcanic eruption, even when their numbers went down to 10,000. It shows how human extinction is about as easy as trying to make E. Coli go extinct. Hopefully, that isn't disproved in the future by global warming.
Speaking of global warming, the section mentioned the Ice Age. The Clovis people have tried to hunt mammoths and bison, since they provide enough for weeks. Nowadays, bison species are near-threatened at best, and the woolly mammoth, well, we all know what happened to them. Mysteriously, around the same time the woolly mammoth became extinct, the Clovis people stopped appearing in fossil records. Experts disagree on why both went extinct, but I believe the Clovis people hunted woolly mammoths to extinction, so due to a lack of food, they also went extinct. Considering humans are sadly good at killing off other species, I wouldn't be surprised if I was correct.
If anyone outside my school sees this blog, then let me explain that I made this blog for school. I will talk about the readings from a book called "Ways of the World: A Brief Global History" (the third edition, more specifically) and try to make it as engaging as possible. In each post, I'll list the sections of the book that will be talked about today, so you can follow along, and then give my thoughts on each reading.
Now then, let's talk about the beginning of humanity, according to scientists.
Prologue: From Cosmic History to Human History
... okay, to be honest, when I was reading last night, I thought I had read the Prologue. I had not, so right before I typed this, I read the entirety of it. And I regret not reading it last night, because it's really good.
This chapter starts from the very beginning, when the Big Bang happened and the stars formed, and goes up to present-day world history debates. That might sound a bit random out of context, but let me explain what I mean.
History books are biased. Okay, that's obvious, but back then, history books were more biased.
For example, European countries were known for going to "unknown" civilizations and introducing their culture and diseases to the native people. American history has taught about that for decades. What they haven't taught for decades is the fact that China also went to other countries and introduced their culture to the native people. That's why other languages also have Chinese characters.
This bias became more troublesome when the world wars hit, so other countries decided to teach about world history instead, and that's why we have more inclusive books.
After reading a few more sections of the book, this seems like the most inclusive and in-depth history book ever, especially in regards to the Patheolithic Era. I'm very impressed. Then again, this is an over 900-page doorstopper, so it would be very concerning if it wasn't that.
In short, this is a book about all of human history, not just European history. This includes the Big Bang, the Patheolithic Era, Asian history, and much, much more.
Turning Points In Early World History (Intro to Part One)
As Homo sapiens, we are the only species of the genus Homo left in the world. That's mostly because we can live in almost any climate and in almost every continent (except for Antarctica).
The section talks about how amazing humanity is, from migrating everywhere to using other species to our benefit to starting an Industrial Revolution. And no other species has done all of this before!
Though, after reading this section, I wonder what life would be like if other hominid species existed today. Would we be able to communicate with them? Would they learn in the same schools as us? Would they ever achieve personhood? We may never know the answers to these questions, but I really want to know!
Oh, and if anyone reads this section and thinks Homo sapiens are the only non-extinct species to use and make tools, here's one of the several counterarguments to that point:
Chapter 1 (Out of Africa & The Ways We Were)
Homo sapiens are a relatively recent species that started in Africa roughly 200,000 years ago. I always knew humans first started in Africa, but 200,000 years ago? We took over the world very quickly!
And yet, history books tend to ignore this amazing fact because humans couldn't write back then. This means that modern-day humans think of their ancestors as "uncivilized" until Mesopotamia started creating civilizations, despite some ancient humans migrating with boats, unlike other species.
So imagine my reaction to learning about actual ancient human culture and their inventions.
They created cave paintings, pottery, clay sculptures, and rock art. They had their own religion and burial grounds (even for dogs!). They even had their own rules in society that were more advanced than I thought. They were people, just not in the modern day.
It's also pretty impressive how humans survived a massive volcanic eruption, even when their numbers went down to 10,000. It shows how human extinction is about as easy as trying to make E. Coli go extinct. Hopefully, that isn't disproved in the future by global warming.
Speaking of global warming, the section mentioned the Ice Age. The Clovis people have tried to hunt mammoths and bison, since they provide enough for weeks. Nowadays, bison species are near-threatened at best, and the woolly mammoth, well, we all know what happened to them. Mysteriously, around the same time the woolly mammoth became extinct, the Clovis people stopped appearing in fossil records. Experts disagree on why both went extinct, but I believe the Clovis people hunted woolly mammoths to extinction, so due to a lack of food, they also went extinct. Considering humans are sadly good at killing off other species, I wouldn't be surprised if I was correct.
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