Chapter 8

China and the World:

Together Again: The Reemergence of a Unified China

• Collapse of Han Dynasty
• Incursion of northern nomads - dressed, married, learned
• Greater acceptance of Daoism and Buddhism
• Environmental transformations
• Liu Zongyuan
• China regaining their unity under the Sui Dynasty
• Canal system - linked northern and southern china economically
• Golden age
• Arts, Literature, Landscape painting, Ceramics
• Tang and Song dynasty - six major ministries
• Personnel, finance, rites, army, justice, and public works
• Males and females separate in domain life
• Steppe nomads - less restricted
• Women showed as weak
• Breaking bones - foot binding

China and the Northern Nomads: A Chinese World Order in the Making

• Sharp contrast to rude cultures and artistic achievements
• Tribute system
• Gifts granted
• Favorable exchanges
• Cultural influence across an ecological frontier
• Peaceful trade, military conflict, political negotiation, economic extortion

Coping with China: Comparing Korea, Vietnam, and Japan

• Korea and China
• Vietnam and China
• Japan and China - most discussed

China and the Eurasian World Economy

• Third-wave era
• Paper making
• Handwritten calligraphy 
• Technology was transferred
• China being economic beneficiary

China and Buddhism

• Adoption of Marxism
• Making buddhism chinese
• Individual salvation and enlightenment
• Losing state support
• Purity
• Confiscating lands, money, metals

Chapter 9 and 10

Chapter 9

The Birth of New Religion

• Nomadic Arabs (Bedouins)
• Lived in independent clans and tribes
• Valued bravery, group loyalty, hospitality
• Praised gods, ancestors, and nature spirits
• Muhammad - trader that traveled, overwhelming religious experience
• Islam community rapidly extended its reach throughout Arabia
• Growing numbers of people converting
• Arabian Peninsula

The Making of an Arab Empire

• Arabs migrating beyond their homelands
• Divided by differences of culture, class, politics, gender, and religious understanding
• Spreading to Spain and India
• Believers' movement
• Social conversion - movement from one religiously defined social community to another
• Not an easy process
• Persia - 80% made the transition to a muslim religious identity
• Companions of prophet - first four caliphs
• Controversial question about the relationship between men and women
• "Men have authority of women"
• Negative views on women

Islam and Cultural Encounter: A Four-Way Comparison

• The case of India
• The case of Anatolia
• The case of West Africa
• The case of Spain

The World of Islam as a New Civilization

• Abbasid Dynasty declined
• Ulama - International elite
• External threats and internal conflicts towards Islamic Community
• Exchange of goods, technology, food products, and ideas
• Ecological change
• House of Wisdom

Chapter 10

Christian Contraction in Asia and Africa

• Asian Christianity
• African Christianity

Byzantine Christendom: Building on the Roman Past

• Contraction of Christian faith and societies
• No clear starting point
• Housing Egypt, Greece, Syria, and Anatolia
• Political authority remained tight
• Eastern Orthodox Christianity having a pervasive influence
• Military known as Greek Fire
• Religion reflected the region's cultural diversity

Western Christendom: Rebuilding in the Wake of Roman Collapse

• Reciprocal ties between superior and subordinate
• The birth of christianity in leaders - Buddha
• High Middle Ages
• Holy Roman Empire - Germans
• Economic and Technological changes in China - Silk Production
• Religious opportunities for women - operating outside of monastic life
• Expansion in European Civilization

The West in Comparative Perspective

• Politics
• Reason and Faith - emerging

Introduction to Part 3 and Chapter 7

Introduction to Part 3 (307)

• Discusses Ghana, Mali, and Songhai
• Long-distance trade that was represented by West African civilization
• Ukraine in Western Russia
• Japan, Korea, and Vietnam influenced from China
• Other civilizations: Indonesian island, Angkor kingdom

Other Facts:

1. Islam was the large and widely influenced
2. Collapse of Maya Civilization
3. Mexica and Aztec people creating a powerful state
4. Western Europe collapse
5. Change in human societies - Ideas, goods, and diseases
6. Interaction between societies
7. Nomadic and pastoral peoples
8. Technology rising - making cotton, food crops

Chapter 7 (315)

• Introduction of a story that relates to interactions, trade, and technology
• Trading was used for medical purposes, religious ceremonies, and unsanitary cities
• Creating "political life"

Silk Roads (Growth):

1. Eurasian
2. Steppes - Hides, furs, livestock, wool, and amber
3. Exchanging for agriculture products
4. Silk Roads grew when merchants and travelers were secured
5. Technology - yokes, saddles, and stirrups

Goods, Culture, and Diseases:

1. Not having to walk - using camel caravans as a way for traveling
2. Labor work from Elite Chinese men/women
3. China included bamboo into their silk (products)
4. China producing silk, paper, porcelain, lacquer-ware
5. Conversion to buddhism
6. Diseases affecting Roman Empire and Han Dynasty
7. Black Death
8. Sea Roads
9. Sand Roads - Gold, Salt

Chapter 6

Commonalities and Variations

• Human Popularity was unevenly divided into three giant continents
• Eurasia, Africa, and Americas
• Animals that were apart of the era: Llama's, alpacas, wild sheep, goats, chickens, horses, and camels
• Iron tools and weapons were important during this era

Civilizations of Africa

1. Warm Temperatures
2. Hosting separate societies
3. Geographical Concept

Meroe: Continuing a Nile Valley Civilization

• Governed by all-powerful/sacred Monarch
• Women had equal power as men
• Practiced herding and farming
• Declined: need wood to make charcoal for the iron tools

Axum: The Making of a Christian Kingdom

• Made nutritious grain
• High demand in pearls, textiles, and pepper
• Taxes helped society grow
• Christianity remained dominant

Alternatives to Civilization: North America

1. Gather hunters helped environments grow
2. Becoming unique societies - how they interact and build their environments

Society and Religion

Chapter 5

Society and Inequality in Eurasia/North Africa (217):

• French, Russian, and Chinese
• Three revolutions challenged and destroyed ancient monarchies and class hierarchies
• Abolitionist Movement - attacked slavery
• Women's Movement - relationship between the sexes
• Divided class lines

Society and the State in China (218):

1. Find administrators loyal to the central state rather than to their own families and regions
2. Han Dynasty - established in 200 BCE
3. Rulers required each province to send men of promise to the capital
4. Tang Dynasty - making bureaucracy meant being entered into high privileges
5. Lower class still learned how to be sophisticated and was taught about manners

LANDLORDS:

• Quin Dynasty - unified china in 210 BCE
• Land was owned my small farmers (peasants)
• Didn't have to pay taxes - raising the taxes for peasants
• Create own military forces
• Collapse od Wang Man's reforms and his assassination in 23 CE

PEASANTS:

• Small households
• Famines, floods, droughts, hail, and pests can occur at anytime which made in difficult for the peasants to live
• Yellow Turban Rebellion - "Great Place" golden age of equality

MERCHANTS:

• Unproductive
• Unfair with products
• Could not wear silk clothing, ride horses, or carry arms
• Wealthy - later on in the section

Introduction to Part 2 and Chapter 3

Introduction to Part 2 (109):

• Human community increasingly spread across the planet, encompassing more people and larger territories
• First Civilizations "breaking down" - Technological and economic
• Consequential changes: destroyed city Carthage in North Africa
• Hierarchies were not familiar with change and challenge
• Thematic Fashion - Eurasian/North African Civilization
• Human Journey - remarkable achievements, continuing power

Chapter 3:

EMPIRES AND CIVILIZATIONS IN COLLISION: THE PERSIANS AND THE GREEKS

1. Mediterranean world - Persian Empire and Greek Civilizations emerged, long interactions and clashes
2. Established political system, cultural values, and ways to organize their societies

THE PERSIAN EMPIRE

1. Largest, impressive
2. Kings = Monarchs; willing to take down religious regions and officials
3. Effective Admin called Satraps
4. "Eyes and ears of kings"
5. Egypt and Babylon, Persian Kings took care to uphold local religious colts (121)

THE GREEKS

1. Huge, centralized 
2. Divided by steep mountains and valleys (123)
3. In greek civilizations, wealthy and well-born men has the rights of full citizenship
4. Women, slaves, and foreigners took up the other portion of population
5. Sparta - famous for extreme of military discipline (125)

COMPARING EMPIRES: ROMAN AND CHINESE

1. Both emphasized territorial expansion
2. China - Confucianism identified principles necessary for political and social order, emphasized the emperor's divine majesty (links to heaven)
3. Rome -Bureaucracy was less complex, greater emphasis on law codes
4. Rome - Used colonies to foster unity and integration throughout the empire
5. Chine was revived - Confucianism lasted forever

Documents: Life and Afterlife in Mesopotamia and Egypt

In Search of Eternal Life:

• Gilgamesh - becoming civilized
• Civilization - The transformation of when the beast started to become human

Beast:

1. Wilderness
2. Silence
3. Shaggy (facial hair, long)
4. No settled living
5. Ate grass, including the animals
6. Friends = animals
7. Relied on water (only liquid)

Human:

1. Oils (Moisturizing)
2. Bread (Alternative made from the grass)
3. Friends = other humans
4. Beer (Alternative drink instead of water)
5. Protect humans
6. Weapons
7. Challenge each other 

Law and Justice in Ancient Mesopotamia (95-97):

• On Crime, Punishment, and Justice
• On the Economy
• On Class and Slavery
• On Men and Women - Different rules, unfair

The Afterlife of a Pharaoh:

• You have to be great to others in order to go to "Afterlife"
• Surrounding yourself with happiness
• God taking your hand to heaven

A New Basis for Egyptian Immorality/The Occupations of Old Egypt:

• Improving writing was a key factor
• Communication
• Practices

Defining Civilization:What features of civilization, described in Chapter 2, do the documents illustrate?

- The meaning of civilized to the Mesopotamians meant transforming from being a beast to a human. In the story of Gilgamesh, they discovered different changes of how people lived and what they've become. One example, people starting eat differently. Instead of relying on grass and drinking water, they've expanded their knowledge by making other food/drinks by using the sources that they already have.

- There's still segregation between men and women (treated differently, unfair)

- Different religions, but people still believe in afterlife

- Communication is important. We still use the "tool" of writing and speak to each other

First Civilizations

The Emergence of Civilization:

• Small "breakthroughs" to a new way of life
• Larger communities formed - Some expanded their population while others collapsed

Introducing the First Civilization:

• "Cradle" - Located in present day Iraq
• Earliest written language

Norte Chico (63):

1. Monumental architecture was found
2. One of the smaller cities
3. "Rich fishing" such as anchovies and sardines

Indus Valley (66):

1. No palaces, temples, graving, kings, or warrior classes
2. Irrigation: Salt lowered crop yields
3. Wood was frequently used for fuel

China (67):

1. Oracle bones predicted the future
2. The "occasional goods" were found in China

The Question of Origins:

• If the water system was efficient and provided for everyone, it can continuously provide for the civilization which helps them grow
• Irrigation = Water System
• Irrigation allows the workers to know what water system they'll need + the amount of water that'll need to be provided

An Urban Revolution/Erosion of Equality (71):

• Different groups put into categories

1. Junior/Senior Scribes
2. Temple Scribes
3. Royal Scribes
4. Others

• No one grew their food because they were being supported by farmers

Hierarchies of Class/Gender (71-73):

• First civilization transferred from a wealthy status to normal
• The bottom of the hierarchies were slaves
• No "division" or segregation between sex
• Women played masculine roles - ruling, being a priest

Patriarchy in Practice (74-75):

• Laws between male and female were unequal
• Women were divided in two categories - Fifteenth and Eleventh Century
• "Those under the protection and control of one man, were required to be veiled when outside the home, whereas non respectable women, such as slaves and prostitutes, were forbidden to wear veils and were subject to severe punishment if they presumed to cover their hands." (75)

Agriculture

Breakthroughs to Agriculture:
The beginning of the section was a brief description of the meaning of Agriculture and how it was created. Agriculture taught the home sapiens how to provide for themselves. It was a form of lifestyle because they also learned about their population growth, where to settle their villages, diseases that were found in animals they hunted, civilization, literature, and basic writing skills. The main source that helped people survive was hunting for animals. This was also known as "Domestication". Domestication benefited the humans health wise, but made mammals become extinct with the excessive amount of hunting.

Globalization of Agriculture:
Agriculture also helped groups communicate with one another by exchanging their products. It was difficult at first because not everyone spoke the same language. Eventually they realized that certain areas in the world speak similarly which made it easier for trading and made them want to migrate more.

Agriculture Village, Pastoral Societies, and Chiefdoms:
Agriculture Village -

• Socially and gender equally
• Rely on animals and plants for foods

Pastoral Societies -

• Rely on plants
• Raising livestock

Chiefdoms -

• Selected seniors from families
• Hierarchical political organization

Nissa's Story

Nissa had five different sections on what she experienced throughout her lifetime. The first section that she discussed was what her life was like before she entered adult hood. Nissa went in depth about how she survived - health wise. She owned nothing because she lived in the bush, and not the village. She relied a lot on her father for food because providing that supply was the male role during that time period. She told stories of when her father would bring home food and how it would excite her since her family did not own much. She also shared her dislike of stingy people that she was surrounded by. Later in the section, Nissa shares her first marriage/loss and what it felt like. At first, she wasn't for her marriage, but eventually learned how to love her husband. She became extremely attached to all of her husbands, but losing them was never easy for her. She felt hopeless because she did not know who would care for her children which gave her the reason to search for new love continuously. I honestly feel like she becomes selfish in this section because she's using the men for their abilities. There's no true love that's given back to the men she falls for. She only wants them for their food, money, and of course sex. Her excuse was that woman shouldn't wait around doing nothing because if her husband doesn't provide what she wants, she's left with him because she didn't explore for someone else.

What do you think of Nissa's account as a description of what Paleolithic peoples might have been like?

I feel like the Paleolithic era is no different to how society is like today. People still experience the same situations that Nissa gone through during her lifetime. The only thing that changed from back then to now is that men don't have the role of providing. Today, both genders share that role. There are a lot of cases now of women being single and having to provide for themselves including their family. They can't expect different men to help provide for them in order to live. Women can't just "sit around" anymore because things such as money, food, love, and education won't be handed to them. Especially in this era because everyone works hard for what they earn.

Out of Africa to the Ends of the Earth: First Migrations

In the beginning of the chapter, the book discusses the start of homo sapiens. The main question that was focused on this section was how did the activity show in Africa. They gave us examples such as weapons/tools they used and the bones from creatures that were hunted. Continuing their journey, the human's also discovered places such as Eurasia, Australia, and the Islands of the Pacific. In Eurasia, their supplies were advanced because of the climate. Archeologist found paintings and stones left in caves. They also found other supplies such as baskets and pottery. The archeologist believed that majority of the human's that lived in the caves were woman based on the supplies that were left. They also predicted that the paintings that were in the cave were to show the women's roles based on the figurine's body. Personally, I felt that the ending of the Eurasia section was the start of the stereotypical role for women. They portray them as someone who stays home to cook and clean while men hunt since they're "stronger".

WW Prologue

The WW Prologue was based on the events that happened in the universe. There was list given in the book showing a timeline of the cosmic calendar. Still to this day, the cosmic calendar is a controversial topic. People questioned if these events occurred because of religious or philosophical reasons. The prologue also goes in depth of the history behind our planet and the human species.

First Blog

Yay, I'm done!