Chapter 5

As the civilizations started to settle, they were able to create different cultural traditions. Thinkers started to arise, questioning the human and spiritual side of things. As mentioned in the book WW, I believe that people have a capacity to improve; and as a teacher I support Confucius’ ideas of emphasizing in education because it is the key to moral improvement. I didn’t like how Ban Zhao twisted the ideas about education for girls, and how women were inferior compared to men. He also said that if girls had to study it was because they could “learn to be better prepared to serve their husbands” (WW – page 130). Religion became a very important part of their cultural traditions even though there were some religions that started as movements questioning the way of living. Each society adopted these different forms of religions and adapted to them according to their own way of seeing and doing things. That is why (I believe) religions have been distorted. But on the positive side, religion was this new tradition that helped societies in unity and togetherness and gave women a chance to be part of these new rituals.

Chapter 10

It hard to define what Christianity is now, and even harder to define what it was before because as Christianity was expanding, it took different shapes and forms having as a result different branches within the same Christianity religion. For me Christianity is not a religion, is a personal relationship with God. Christianity is a religious conviction based on faith. It is hard to try to understand Christianity within human reason “Christianity provided a measure of cultural commonality” (WW pg 269) something that everyone can identify with.

Chapter 9

China, China, China. I was not surprised to read that China was “the most urbanized country in the world” (WW page 244) It seems that China was always ahead of the game. Papermaking was one of the biggest contributions of China to the world. What I don’t understand is why it took so long for paper to get to Spain, France, Germany and England.

China had power but still was not able to keep Korea, Vietnam or Japan under its domain. But instead China was able to influence these countries with their culture, religion and ways of seeing and doing things. Korea, Vietnam and Japan chose to adopt and modify some of these Chinese ways and opted to keep their own individuality and identity. They were smart enough to adapt things according to their own needs. That’s why now a days these Asian countries are so different but similar at the same time.

Chapter 8

I see commerce as another way of expansion. Humans are curious by nature. I can see that the curiosity to see more and explore other places is a human necessity, and this could be how the long trade was incorporated in empires/civilizations. These civilizations found ways to get to other places; they traveled by sea and across the dessert to not only exchange goods. They were able to trade culture, religions, language and diseases (on the bad side). Small cities were able to stay in the loop on what was happening in the big cities. The most popular goods they traded were silk and I wonder if the trade of silk was one of the first steps in introducing “fashion” into society. It’s amazing how this delicate fabric was used to differentiate power among the elites.

But what is intriguing for me is how traders were able to communicate and understand each other, what took traders so long to get to the Americas if a trading phenomenon was in place, and why the Andes and the Mesoamerica did not trade with each other.

Chapter 7

It is interesting to learn how these big empires played and important role in our society, but I find more fascinating to learn how these other small empires/cities also played and important role in history. It seems that these other empires/cities were more exclusive, and they were not interested in expanding, but to take care of their own. For these societies bigger did not mean better or more power. Their way of seeing life was very different. For example, they were not influenced by a specific religion, their gods, because they thought that divine power came from nature. I noticed that there are some traditions or customs from the Andean civilization that are still used in these modern times in Peru, and that is the usage of the “shamans”. One thing that I regret is not been able to explore and visit more of the different Andean civilizations that are mentioned in the book WW.

Chapter 6

Hierarchies were a big part of these empires, and even though there were some rulers that tried to close the gaps between the higher and lower classes, it was impossible to do. Unfortunately the separation of the higher class and the lower class in the economic aspect caused a lot of discrimination among the lower class society pushing people (mainly poor) to survive by becoming robbers or bandits. But hierarchies were not just based on the economy, but also based on the birth order and social groups. But what bothered me the most was that women were always considered as lower ranked in society. Women had to be under the submission of their fathers, or husbands or sons, and were commonly kidnapped and used as slaves. In most cases women were secluded and the freedom or equality given to them was very structured and with limitations.

Slavery was seen in China as “status symbol” (WW pg. 166). The Greeks thought it was a good thing to have slaves. Even poor people had slaves. I don’t understand what the purpose of having slaves was. I wonder how these slaves were treated. In India being a slave was more of a punishment to criminals, which I find more understandable.

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

          It seems that in the classical era civilizations were able to settle, and improve what they already had, and build up on it. These different empires let cultural diversity be part of their societies.

Greeks wanted to keep the unity within their surroundings and created the Olympics, which I find to be contradictory because it seems that the Olympics would only create more rivalry. In the Greek empire, cultural diversity was included as part of their society and at the same time they struggled with discrimination, same as with our actual society. Religion was spread in the Roman empire first among lower class, and I believe this happen, because with all the changes happening the lower class were the ones suffering the most and started to look for a divine power to help them through all the suffering. Language was also improved; Latin was the root for Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and Romanian – no wonder how as a Spanish speaker I am able to understand most of these languages.