This will be my last blog of the semester, perhaps the last blog of the year...maybe even the last blog ever, but it has been fun. I am a bit disappointed that there wasn't any discussions going on at all with any of my blogs between students but I will keep my blog up for a year for others to look back to it and use it as a reference if they wanted. I hope everyone had a good and fulfilling semester. It is always sad to say goodbye, so I will just say I will see you later. Even if things were kind of rough this semester, my classes were great and my teachers were even better. I will miss everybody and I hope for the best for all. I normally get emotional at the end of every semester and this one is no exception. I am truly going to miss the good and the bad I have had at NDNU.
The next history course will focus on three more later centuries, between the years 1450 and 1750. The reason why most students seem to take the second World History class first may be because these years that they study are more recent and may be easier to relate to, rather than learning about the earlier years that deals a lot with theories more than it deals with concrete evidence.
These next few chapters will deal with the voyages that the Europeans to took across the ocean, and how goods and ideas were not only traded between neighboring countries as we spoke about in this course, but between distant countries, like the Americas. These later chapters are going to deal with the globalization of the world and how it all began. One of these great ideas that were exchanged accorss the ocean was the Christianity religion.
Part four also deals with not only trade and development between Europe and America but also struggles within the Asian and African continents. The rise of the Ottoman Empire is another topic that will be expressed in the newer chapters and how it took control of most of Eurasia. There is also the Scientific Revolution in Europe made a lot of changes in the way people viewed the world and their life. After the recovery of the Black Death the world's population more than doubled.
Much will be covered in the next history class. It will be much like this pasted history class, were we will look at Europe, China, Asia and African. We will be studying about the kings that will rule Europe, the new dynasties in China, and how cultures, and people will change and adapt to the changes around them and increase in development. We draw close to our current age that we are in now. These ages are called, by Stryer, the Early Modern Era and the Late Agrarian Era.
Many interesting topics will be covered in the second part of the World History course, many of which are actually quite interesting and perhaps easier to be able to follow along with. The class may even have a different mood since these newer topics aren't as challenging to read about as it may have been in this first part of World History. While reading this intro chapter, I feel that I may not actually have a hard time learning about most of this, mainly because I remember learning about a lot of it and most of it can be intriguing to dive deeper into, much deeper than you would in middle school.
Well that's it for me. As I look through my blogs that I have posted throughout the semester, I come to realize that I have actually typed a lot! Some of my posts are extremely large in length and I actually don't remember typing that much. I guess I type just like how I talk, and not realize how much I have said...but anyways, it has been fun, and I hope all will have a great Winter Vacation. This is my final goodnight, I hope everyone grows and becomes stronger as they face newer challenges that are just waiting over the Horizon. Farewell to all.
Thank you Professor Andrews for being our teacher for World History. I have said it once, and I will say it again, we couldn't have had a better teacher teach us history, a subject that can be incredibly boring. Allowing students to express themselves and give our thoughts makes a super effective way to learn. I thank you for this opportunity. Have a good Christmas Holiday!
by Andrew Murillo
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Chapter 12
The way the chapter catches the reader's attention is by talking about Columbus and challenging the fact that Columbus is celebrated and perhaps he should not because in the writer's eyes he was not who you may have thought he was because of the way he treated the cultures who were in the Americas before he had arrived. To be honest, in my elementary class, we did in fact talk about these topics and how the first European travelers came to America and completely took over and threw out the Indian settlers. This may have not been the most positive that our forefather have done, and no, they were not perfects, but come on! This is how the developing world worked. What ruler before this time did not take over a land without showing a sight of brutality or force? I believe it is the values we have now is what causes people to attack our historic heroes when they have been honored for years and years. There will always be someone who will get bored with the way things are and just cause a big deal like the quote found in the beginning in the book. As mentioned in class, we would not be here if this did not have happened and I can almost guarantee that if it was Columbus, it would had been someone else who may have been even more brutal and merciless.
Moving on, it is interesting that even during the fifteenth century there were still hunting and gathering societies that existed. These hunter gathering societies resided in Australia, Siberia, and Africa. This becoming interesting because in most of Eurasia the hunting gathering days are just about over and most civilizations have moved to agriculture. Since the Australians had been on a distant island, they eventually developed ways to fish, and ways to travel by water, like canoes, which sounds very familiar to one of the routes we just wrote a paper on.
Many of these distant cultures had their own ways of living. Some of which chose not to communicate with others, and others still made trade with other neighboring groups. Trade enabled them to exchange goods and ideas, and created more development among even the less advanced societies.
Other things that was going on during this century was the increase of maritime travel. Many regions was taking advantage of the new technologies of travel by sea. China had practiced this until 1433 were they then considered the extra travel a waste of resources.
Populations in most regions began to increase, most notably in Europe. Religions continued to be exchanged throughout the world, and some of the Chinese population began to migrated and settle in neighboring territories such as Taiwan and Japan.
by Andrew Murillo
Moving on, it is interesting that even during the fifteenth century there were still hunting and gathering societies that existed. These hunter gathering societies resided in Australia, Siberia, and Africa. This becoming interesting because in most of Eurasia the hunting gathering days are just about over and most civilizations have moved to agriculture. Since the Australians had been on a distant island, they eventually developed ways to fish, and ways to travel by water, like canoes, which sounds very familiar to one of the routes we just wrote a paper on.
Many of these distant cultures had their own ways of living. Some of which chose not to communicate with others, and others still made trade with other neighboring groups. Trade enabled them to exchange goods and ideas, and created more development among even the less advanced societies.
Other things that was going on during this century was the increase of maritime travel. Many regions was taking advantage of the new technologies of travel by sea. China had practiced this until 1433 were they then considered the extra travel a waste of resources.
Populations in most regions began to increase, most notably in Europe. Religions continued to be exchanged throughout the world, and some of the Chinese population began to migrated and settle in neighboring territories such as Taiwan and Japan.
by Andrew Murillo
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Chapter 11 Documents
There are hardly any documents on the Mongol Empire because they didn't have their own written language. The only found documents we have gives us a little bit of idea of how the Mongol culture may have been. These documents tell us about one relationship that the Mongol people did practice, which was known as anda. Anda was a close relationship between two men, and we learn a little about this practice from one of the major literary Mongol work, The Secret History of the Mongols. One quote found in the book says that when two men become anda their lives become one and they will always look out for one another. This friendship is close in resemblance to marriage in a religious manner. The Catholic religion considered a married couple one body, bound by their love and promises to one another. Anda is similar except it is between two men. The two men will even sleep together under the same blanket and grant one another gifts that have special personal value.
The first documents also touch base with the views of a newly proclaimed Khan, and his stresses and struggles. The documents show proof of great pride in the position and that the leader strives to do their best. After committing two mistakes, he is constantly putting himself down, feeling that he could had avoided them from happening. Another interesting thing found in the documents is the fact that Ogodei Khan is affected by others opinions of him.
The next document we get to look at is a letter from Chinggis Khan to a Chinese Daoist master named Changchun. These documents show the thoughts and the values of the emperor of the Mongols. He is stated to always be in the front of his army, to eat the same food, and wears the same basic clothes, he does not like change, and values those with great skills and considers them his close brothers. The people he rules over he considers his children, which is pretty nice to have a ruler who thinks that of the people he looks over. He sends a letter to this Daoist because he is looking for someone who is worthy to work close with him. He had heard of Changchun and was hoping he would join him by journeying a long journey to Chinggis Khan. According to the intro before the document, Changchun eventually does journey from China to Chinggis Khan and doesn't return back to china until almost a year later.
The Next Documents show us the Russian views of the Mongols. They actually use several different names to describe Mongols. First they call them Tartars, which are foreigners with countless numbers. Their countless numbers is compared to locusts. They came to Russian demanding one-tenth of everything, but the Russian obvious refuse to do so without a fight. So in effect they are later described as godless because of the complete brutality and destruction they cause on the Russian people. They burn down their houses and churches. They kill men, women, children, priests, nuns, everyone, all in different and various ways. The Mongols are seen as horrible, heartless people who think of nothing of themselves and taking everything for themselves.
The last document explains how the Chinese people thought negatively of the Mongols but others thought positively because the Mongols actually may have improved some China's way of governing. Many people feared the Mongols but the Mongols promised to protect the hard working people and told them not to keep their doors shut during the day. So in some ways the Mongols would favors to those who they found useful.
In my opinion, it sounds like the Mongol empire and ruler was pretty self centered. He took whatever he wanted however he wanted to take it, even if it meant killing many, and he only would benefit those who he personally found useful (oh wait this last part sounds familiar...). I really do believe that this group of people who brutal and they were brought up to be this way, were strength and power was their greatest value. This maybe why Chinggis Khan needed Changchun because of his lack of values, such as education and truth. Because of their existence, adjacent regions had a reason to fear for their lives because at any day the Mongol army could come and complete destroy them. They destroyed the peace and the only way to avoid this was to join them. I'm sure if more documents survived that describe other countries thoughts of the Mongols, they would say similar things that the Russians had written.
by Andrew Murillo
The first documents also touch base with the views of a newly proclaimed Khan, and his stresses and struggles. The documents show proof of great pride in the position and that the leader strives to do their best. After committing two mistakes, he is constantly putting himself down, feeling that he could had avoided them from happening. Another interesting thing found in the documents is the fact that Ogodei Khan is affected by others opinions of him.
The next document we get to look at is a letter from Chinggis Khan to a Chinese Daoist master named Changchun. These documents show the thoughts and the values of the emperor of the Mongols. He is stated to always be in the front of his army, to eat the same food, and wears the same basic clothes, he does not like change, and values those with great skills and considers them his close brothers. The people he rules over he considers his children, which is pretty nice to have a ruler who thinks that of the people he looks over. He sends a letter to this Daoist because he is looking for someone who is worthy to work close with him. He had heard of Changchun and was hoping he would join him by journeying a long journey to Chinggis Khan. According to the intro before the document, Changchun eventually does journey from China to Chinggis Khan and doesn't return back to china until almost a year later.
The Next Documents show us the Russian views of the Mongols. They actually use several different names to describe Mongols. First they call them Tartars, which are foreigners with countless numbers. Their countless numbers is compared to locusts. They came to Russian demanding one-tenth of everything, but the Russian obvious refuse to do so without a fight. So in effect they are later described as godless because of the complete brutality and destruction they cause on the Russian people. They burn down their houses and churches. They kill men, women, children, priests, nuns, everyone, all in different and various ways. The Mongols are seen as horrible, heartless people who think of nothing of themselves and taking everything for themselves.
The last document explains how the Chinese people thought negatively of the Mongols but others thought positively because the Mongols actually may have improved some China's way of governing. Many people feared the Mongols but the Mongols promised to protect the hard working people and told them not to keep their doors shut during the day. So in some ways the Mongols would favors to those who they found useful.
In my opinion, it sounds like the Mongol empire and ruler was pretty self centered. He took whatever he wanted however he wanted to take it, even if it meant killing many, and he only would benefit those who he personally found useful (oh wait this last part sounds familiar...). I really do believe that this group of people who brutal and they were brought up to be this way, were strength and power was their greatest value. This maybe why Chinggis Khan needed Changchun because of his lack of values, such as education and truth. Because of their existence, adjacent regions had a reason to fear for their lives because at any day the Mongol army could come and complete destroy them. They destroyed the peace and the only way to avoid this was to join them. I'm sure if more documents survived that describe other countries thoughts of the Mongols, they would say similar things that the Russians had written.
by Andrew Murillo
Friday, November 15, 2013
Chapter 9 Documents
Here are the questions posted by our professor about what we should be thinking about as we read the Chapter 9 Documents:
1.) Students can think about how they would feel if they were to follow the Qur'an.
2.) Students can think about what jihad means to them.
3.) Students can think about what impression they get of Islam and Muhammad and how do these impressions compare to feelings they get when
they see religious paintings of Jesus or Buddha.
The Qur'an, from I remember learning, can only be truly understood if it is read in proper Arabic.In my previous history and culture class, my teacher had asked if any of the students had read it, and some said they read an English translation and he explained that it doesn't quite mean the same unless it is read in Arabic. He had shown us similar examples of this with how the bible is translated as well. He was a very mean and unfair teacher, but I hate to admit, I learned a lot of useless information from the class that will only help me if I take another similar class, and it has come in handy since then...so I guess it isn't as useless as I think it is.
I don't know a who lot about the Qur'an or about the Islamic religion but the Chapter 9 Documents gives me a bit of insight on what is means to follow the Islamic religion. It seems like it can easily be combined with other religions that follow God. The Islamic religion seems to honor Mary and Jesus, which I did not know, and since I don't know enough about it, one can only wonder why it is separate from christian religions. The values and ideas that the religion has is very similar to the ones the Catholic religion has. It teaches respect in many ways we should show our respect.
I am not sure if my religion completely agrees with jihad. I am not sure if violence is okay most cases unless it is for defense. It sounds like the way to punish those who disagree would be kind of against what God wants. To slay the necks of those who oppose the truth does not seem like the rightful way to get others to want to follow, also the trauma you would cause because of it. This may be one of the things that separates the religions, but for the most part, since I don't enough about the religion, it seems to agree with some Catholic values. I wouldn't all of a sudden join this religion because of its similarities since I am hearty devoted to my own religion but they seem to compliment one another.
Muhammad's words are quiet interesting as well since they speak of values, and really good ones. One thing I do feel is some of the things he says are kind of intense. While Jesus also told the bitter truth, Muhammad goes about how to live a good religious life but certain things he says are kind of strange, such as you are unable to look at a woman.
I guess another things that would be different to my religion is the fact that they gave God a name and they call him by that name. The Catholic religion has also given God a "name", well not an actually name, but some people would call him by the foreign word for father, or big papa. However, I believe it is disrespectful to call God by his name, or given name, because you don't call your own father by his first name, and since God created everyone, it wouldn't be proper to call him by his first name as well, but to call him Father, or God, or Lord.It is actually believed that God's name can not be pronounced by human tongues so when Moses asks what he should refer to him as, God's response is "I Am".
The way Muhammad speaks, is in a similar way that Jesus has spoke. I am not too sure how Buddha had spoke, and actually I am not sure if there are many things that show how Buddha spoke or the words that he used. Most things I read about Buddha dealt with what he did, and how people interpret what he represented.
Another thing that set the religions apart are that the Muslims put more emphasis on law which is very strange. Jesus actually had shown the worthlessness of most laws and explained how God's ten commandments should be valued more than another other law. Another strange thing is this religion is okay with adultery, which is against one of the ten commandments, Now that I have read this far, I see what really separates the two now. It is okay for a man to merry four wives! That is pretty ridiculous and contradictory to the ten commandment, and if Muslims believe in Jesus this shouldn't exist at all. Well with the exception of this, which was most likely not meant to be, most other values are pretty valid.
In conclusion, the Muslim religion has many great values, but of course I don't know the entire religion, but there is definitely a lot of good similarities between this religion and the Catholic religion. Also there are some things I greatly disagree with but that deals with the law side of it, and Mohammad may have not wanted it to be the way it is. Well anyways it is always good to learn about the different religions so that way you can understand the different cultures and be able to relate or communicate. Interesting documents as well.
Goodnight.
by Andrew Murillo
Monday, November 11, 2013
Chapter 10
I am quite pleased with Chapter 10: The Worlds of Christendom because it dealt a lot with Christianity and its expansion. This chapter talks a lot about how the Christian religion expanded and how it was divided into many different denomination.
The Christian religion was quite popular in Africa and Asia, and over time spread throughout the country. Also, interesting enough, a majority of Europe's population was Christian during the time, making it the leading Christian area. Today, when I think of Europe I think of the many different other religions that may be dominant in the area, and I hardly think of Christianity as being one except for in places like Italy, and maybe Germany. I think of the Muslims, the Buddhists, and the many other different Eastern philosophies that we study about today.
During the very early centuries, around the 8th century, Christianity was spread in many ways. After the death of Mohammad the Christian religion began to die down until several wars look place that once again cause another spike in the Christian religion. In some of my previous history classes I remember learning about many different rises and falls of the Christian religion. Basically due to some emperors being against and some enforcing it, the religion's population would continue to bounce. Followers would worship and continue to spread the word in secret, regardless of the risk because they knew in their hearts that nothing can compare to the suffering that Jesus had went through.
by Andrew Murillo
The Christian religion was quite popular in Africa and Asia, and over time spread throughout the country. Also, interesting enough, a majority of Europe's population was Christian during the time, making it the leading Christian area. Today, when I think of Europe I think of the many different other religions that may be dominant in the area, and I hardly think of Christianity as being one except for in places like Italy, and maybe Germany. I think of the Muslims, the Buddhists, and the many other different Eastern philosophies that we study about today.
During the very early centuries, around the 8th century, Christianity was spread in many ways. After the death of Mohammad the Christian religion began to die down until several wars look place that once again cause another spike in the Christian religion. In some of my previous history classes I remember learning about many different rises and falls of the Christian religion. Basically due to some emperors being against and some enforcing it, the religion's population would continue to bounce. Followers would worship and continue to spread the word in secret, regardless of the risk because they knew in their hearts that nothing can compare to the suffering that Jesus had went through.
by Andrew Murillo
Friday, November 8, 2013
Was unable to read Chapter 8 here is why...
Hello Miss Andrews...
I was unable to read Chapter 8 because I have two exams this Friday but that is not the reason I was unable to get to the reading because normally I can balance and budget my time...
I was unable to because I have a ground-breaking math test tomorrow, but instead of our teacher leaving us time to study, she gave a 47 problem assignemnt (plus a, b, c, etc so more than 47 problems) that has nothing to do with what is on the test tomorrow. I had sent an email to the teacher asking to postpone the due date since that is just not fair to me or any of her students but I got no response so I did the homework...
It took me 6 and half hours plus I need to balance study time for my exams as well.
So please forgive me if I am unable to participate in any class discussions as I normally like to engage in.
As you can see it is 5:40 AM when I was typing this since I have been doing all this since the afternoon, and finally finished all my work plus studied as much as I could fit in between.
I am cranky.
Thank you
Andrew Murillo
I was unable to read Chapter 8 because I have two exams this Friday but that is not the reason I was unable to get to the reading because normally I can balance and budget my time...
I was unable to because I have a ground-breaking math test tomorrow, but instead of our teacher leaving us time to study, she gave a 47 problem assignemnt (plus a, b, c, etc so more than 47 problems) that has nothing to do with what is on the test tomorrow. I had sent an email to the teacher asking to postpone the due date since that is just not fair to me or any of her students but I got no response so I did the homework...
It took me 6 and half hours plus I need to balance study time for my exams as well.
So please forgive me if I am unable to participate in any class discussions as I normally like to engage in.
As you can see it is 5:40 AM when I was typing this since I have been doing all this since the afternoon, and finally finished all my work plus studied as much as I could fit in between.
I am cranky.
Thank you
Andrew Murillo
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Chapter 7 Documents
In this blog I am going to try to answer the questions that was posted by our teacher. I may not get to all of them for each of the documents but I will use them as a template for this blog.
Here they are:
The first document is written by Huili, who wrote about Xuanzang. Xuanzang traveled to seek out answers and tried to stop the division of Buddhism. One place that was important to him that he visited was the famous Bodhi tree where Buddha (supposedly) reached enlightenment. the documents speaks about other monks he had met and how dedicated they are to their studies and practice. What we can take from this is how virtuous and innocent these people are. They have a strong sense of righteousness do work extremely hard to reach their goal of enlightenment and try to completely get rid of all of their bad karma.
Marco Polo traveled by sea since the the age of seventeen with his father. I am not too sure why they traveled, it may be because they enjoyed travel or it may be because of trade. I personally think they traveled to explore the distant lands because they were able to and nothing was going to stop them. This document is rather long and go on talking about make things that Marco Polo had witnessed on his journey.
Ibn Battuta was an Arab scholar who traveled as a pilgrim. The reason why he traveled was so he could learn about other religious ideas, cultural ways, and to learn more about the world. In his writing he speaks about his interesting journey from place to place and speaks with excellent descriptions. You can truly tell he was well educated and made plenty of friends, and met plenty of different people along his way.
by Andrew Murillo
Here they are:
1. In the documents of the men; what motivated them to travel so far?
2. What similarities or differences did they see compared to their own and the ones they visited?
3. What can we take from these documents about the men (travelers) who wrote them?
4. Looking at the visual sources what can you identify that was most prominent during the Silk Road Trading?
The first document is written by Huili, who wrote about Xuanzang. Xuanzang traveled to seek out answers and tried to stop the division of Buddhism. One place that was important to him that he visited was the famous Bodhi tree where Buddha (supposedly) reached enlightenment. the documents speaks about other monks he had met and how dedicated they are to their studies and practice. What we can take from this is how virtuous and innocent these people are. They have a strong sense of righteousness do work extremely hard to reach their goal of enlightenment and try to completely get rid of all of their bad karma.
Marco Polo traveled by sea since the the age of seventeen with his father. I am not too sure why they traveled, it may be because they enjoyed travel or it may be because of trade. I personally think they traveled to explore the distant lands because they were able to and nothing was going to stop them. This document is rather long and go on talking about make things that Marco Polo had witnessed on his journey.
Ibn Battuta was an Arab scholar who traveled as a pilgrim. The reason why he traveled was so he could learn about other religious ideas, cultural ways, and to learn more about the world. In his writing he speaks about his interesting journey from place to place and speaks with excellent descriptions. You can truly tell he was well educated and made plenty of friends, and met plenty of different people along his way.
by Andrew Murillo
Monday, November 4, 2013
Chapter 7 Commerce and Culture
The chapter begins by talking about a man who is buying an iPod for his son's graduation and he explains how quickly it gets to his house. This is a great way to start the chapter in my opinion because it gives the reader something to relate to that will tie into the chapter. It certainly caught my attention.
This chapter deals a lot with trade and it's importance that it had through out all of Eurasia. Trade has always been an interesting topic to me and is still done today. It may not be as important but now these day you can trade video games at your local gaming store. You can also trade your valuables with friends. In the past trade was done through routes and much more needed goods were traded for other valuable goods. Unlike today, trade was extremely necessary, and it wasn't done as quickly as it can be done today. Silk contained a huge role in trade. Gold was a powerful value and even slaves were traded.
Trade was through several different routes. Sand roads were used, but also during this era, sea routes were used as well. This allowed trade to happen between continents and islands which played a helpful role for the isolated islands, which now they weren't so isolated form the world anymore.
Trade didn't only take the form of psychical objects but the trade of ideas and philosophy were traded as well. This caused a great spread of Buddhism throughout Eurasia. Also diseases were traded as well which led to the black death. Back in middle school my 7th grade history teacher spent a lot of time talking about the black death. It must had really interesting her, but it really interested us, as a class as well. It was thought to be the end of the world during that time since no one could find a cure. The spread of this disease was massive and scary. I remember watching several documentaries on this catastrophe, and we even looked at many painting that distributed an artist's point of view of the time.Talking about the black death, or the plague, had to have been my most favorite history class moment, even though my teacher was super mean at the time, this topic made the class tolerable because it would actually put her in a good mood.
by Andrew Murillo
This chapter deals a lot with trade and it's importance that it had through out all of Eurasia. Trade has always been an interesting topic to me and is still done today. It may not be as important but now these day you can trade video games at your local gaming store. You can also trade your valuables with friends. In the past trade was done through routes and much more needed goods were traded for other valuable goods. Unlike today, trade was extremely necessary, and it wasn't done as quickly as it can be done today. Silk contained a huge role in trade. Gold was a powerful value and even slaves were traded.
Trade was through several different routes. Sand roads were used, but also during this era, sea routes were used as well. This allowed trade to happen between continents and islands which played a helpful role for the isolated islands, which now they weren't so isolated form the world anymore.
Trade didn't only take the form of psychical objects but the trade of ideas and philosophy were traded as well. This caused a great spread of Buddhism throughout Eurasia. Also diseases were traded as well which led to the black death. Back in middle school my 7th grade history teacher spent a lot of time talking about the black death. It must had really interesting her, but it really interested us, as a class as well. It was thought to be the end of the world during that time since no one could find a cure. The spread of this disease was massive and scary. I remember watching several documentaries on this catastrophe, and we even looked at many painting that distributed an artist's point of view of the time.Talking about the black death, or the plague, had to have been my most favorite history class moment, even though my teacher was super mean at the time, this topic made the class tolerable because it would actually put her in a good mood.
by Andrew Murillo
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Chapter 6 Documents
I had a little bit of a hard time focusing on these documents because they don't seem as interesting to me as the previous documents have been. They seem to be a bit different than the other documents we looked at but this could be because it is harder for me to relate to them in anyway. Apparently these documents are more based off of Axum, which I know idea what or where that is, and it seems to be one of the only places in Africa that seem to have valid documents that we can learn from.
The first documents seems to be a descriptions of different locations that a caption may have journeyed through. He seems to give descriptions of locations and land marks and different places he may have visited, I guess this may come off as boring to be because it is more like someone's personal journal of places they have been, but really has nothing too interesting to say, which can only be interesting to those who can relate to it or want to read it, or even know the person personally. However, these documents do contain a great amount of importance, which can be very intriguing to historians because it talks about cultural topics such as clothing, animals that are killed, governors, literature, all sorts of information that may be useful.
The next set of documents talks about the achievements of Axum and all that it had taken over. It sounds like it was a pretty powerful empire. It had even taken some of Egypt's territory, if I understand properly. It is puzzling to me that I have never heard of such a successful empire, but this could be one of the regions that you don't learn much about in grade school because of the lack of documents that exists about them.
The third documents was a bit more interesting for me. It was about a story of two children who studied together and when their ship attacked before it left port, they were the only two who were spared. They were taken to the king and worked for him until his death. They later were set free and one returned to his parents while the other preached the word of God. It was a nice little story and something a bit different compared to earlier documents. I am not too such how much relevance this story has on the chapter but I suppose it explains the spread of Christianity in this particular culture, and that it was so widespread that stories like this began to spawn because of it.
This written last document shows proof of the value of gold and how people used it to trade. When I give it thought, it seems that gold has always been valuable and may always will. Even today gold is still pretty valuable and worth a lot of money, but what is it that makes it worth so much? Is it because of it's beauty or is it because we made it valuable with no true reason? It isn't much of a resource (who ever would make a house completely out of gold? maybe decorate it but I don't it would be stable enough to completely make it out of gold from the ground up). It maybe that gold is always worth something because there are people in the world who are willing to pay a lot for it. It is now used for jewelry and for glamor and that may be why is it so valuable.
by Andrew Murillo
The first documents seems to be a descriptions of different locations that a caption may have journeyed through. He seems to give descriptions of locations and land marks and different places he may have visited, I guess this may come off as boring to be because it is more like someone's personal journal of places they have been, but really has nothing too interesting to say, which can only be interesting to those who can relate to it or want to read it, or even know the person personally. However, these documents do contain a great amount of importance, which can be very intriguing to historians because it talks about cultural topics such as clothing, animals that are killed, governors, literature, all sorts of information that may be useful.
The next set of documents talks about the achievements of Axum and all that it had taken over. It sounds like it was a pretty powerful empire. It had even taken some of Egypt's territory, if I understand properly. It is puzzling to me that I have never heard of such a successful empire, but this could be one of the regions that you don't learn much about in grade school because of the lack of documents that exists about them.
The third documents was a bit more interesting for me. It was about a story of two children who studied together and when their ship attacked before it left port, they were the only two who were spared. They were taken to the king and worked for him until his death. They later were set free and one returned to his parents while the other preached the word of God. It was a nice little story and something a bit different compared to earlier documents. I am not too such how much relevance this story has on the chapter but I suppose it explains the spread of Christianity in this particular culture, and that it was so widespread that stories like this began to spawn because of it.
This written last document shows proof of the value of gold and how people used it to trade. When I give it thought, it seems that gold has always been valuable and may always will. Even today gold is still pretty valuable and worth a lot of money, but what is it that makes it worth so much? Is it because of it's beauty or is it because we made it valuable with no true reason? It isn't much of a resource (who ever would make a house completely out of gold? maybe decorate it but I don't it would be stable enough to completely make it out of gold from the ground up). It maybe that gold is always worth something because there are people in the world who are willing to pay a lot for it. It is now used for jewelry and for glamor and that may be why is it so valuable.
by Andrew Murillo
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
My Apology
Hello this blog is a different kind of blog this time and it doesn't reflect on any assignment or readings for class. I know this is kind of long but I urge you to please, if you begin reading, please read it from beginning to end so that my point is clear, I would greatly appreciate it and your time.
I have noticed how I have shown a sense of bitterness in some of my blogs and it may be my crankiness taking a big affect on me. I did mention how I guess the things that are taught in class can be pointless but I shouldn't had said that. The topics brought up in class are actually quite interesting and are relative with modern discovery. It gives us something interesting to bring up as discussions or to begin small talk. With that being said, I must admit that this is my favorite history class I have ever taken to date and we have one of the greatest and caring history teachers we can ever ask for. I have come to notice that I am getting out of hand with my blogs and may be expressing too much and perhaps some of it I don't really mean.
The only excuse I can give for my outside class behavior could be from certain things I have been dealing with while living in the dorms. I admit, I have not had the best experience living in the dorms, but please note this isn't my first time far from family and living on my own. There are several situations that I am stuck facing that I feel are ridiculous and unnecessary and could be definitely avoided if the proper measures are taken, and if this school was to actually follow its proper procedure that it blindly does not this can all be a much better experience for, and I can give many examples of this.
Please take accept my apology and I promise I will be more accepting for now on. Things could had been far worse. Really I think my critical behavior may be coming from the fact that I can say almost anything I wanted and just behind my words (writing) since I don't have to say them in person or answer for them; however, that is were I am being unfair and taking way too much advantage. The blogs are actually an excellent way for us to express ourselves, and I have actually grown to like them very much, compared to when class first began I was nervous about this new way of doing things.
Well thank you for talking the time to read my blog, I hope I made a difference or at least made sense to whoever is reading this.
Andrew Murillo
I have noticed how I have shown a sense of bitterness in some of my blogs and it may be my crankiness taking a big affect on me. I did mention how I guess the things that are taught in class can be pointless but I shouldn't had said that. The topics brought up in class are actually quite interesting and are relative with modern discovery. It gives us something interesting to bring up as discussions or to begin small talk. With that being said, I must admit that this is my favorite history class I have ever taken to date and we have one of the greatest and caring history teachers we can ever ask for. I have come to notice that I am getting out of hand with my blogs and may be expressing too much and perhaps some of it I don't really mean.
The only excuse I can give for my outside class behavior could be from certain things I have been dealing with while living in the dorms. I admit, I have not had the best experience living in the dorms, but please note this isn't my first time far from family and living on my own. There are several situations that I am stuck facing that I feel are ridiculous and unnecessary and could be definitely avoided if the proper measures are taken, and if this school was to actually follow its proper procedure that it blindly does not this can all be a much better experience for, and I can give many examples of this.
Please take accept my apology and I promise I will be more accepting for now on. Things could had been far worse. Really I think my critical behavior may be coming from the fact that I can say almost anything I wanted and just behind my words (writing) since I don't have to say them in person or answer for them; however, that is were I am being unfair and taking way too much advantage. The blogs are actually an excellent way for us to express ourselves, and I have actually grown to like them very much, compared to when class first began I was nervous about this new way of doing things.
Well thank you for talking the time to read my blog, I hope I made a difference or at least made sense to whoever is reading this.
Andrew Murillo
PreHistory Packet and Personal Reflection
Here is a quick blog touching up on a couple things I found in that large packet about the earliest people to ever travel by sea.
Ordinarily it was believed that the earliest people to ever travel by sea took place around 10,000 years ago. The reason why people never believed it was earlier than that was because during the ice age when most things were frozen, people would travel on glaciers or large ice caps before it melted. These ice caps were everywhere during the time of the ice age, and where it is impossible to travel by foot now, was possible then. Now, archaeologists how found more and more evidence that it is possible that people may have traveled by sea even earlier than we predicted. When they did this they came across small Islands, and later traveled even farther to reach the Americas. There is in fact different possible dates of when the earliest peoples may have traveled to find new lands. These dates go as early as 50,000 years ago when people would start to travel across the Pacific ocean. The packet gives estimations of the different possible times that these early travelers may have reached several distant islands, such as Japan around 25,000 years ago. It also states how these discoveries were found, by finding really old DNA and old human fossils.
Now, a lot of this can be interesting and exciting, but what purpose or affect does this have on our own lives? I actually had a talk with several family members during some of my recent trips back home over the months, talking about new things I have learned and talking about what I have been studying in classes. It has been brought up recently and quiet often "why should it matter?" This question has been more common when it came to talking about the earliest days, why does it matter? What affect does it have on us because we can't ever truly know what happened during that time but just predict it. As a future engineer there is actually no purpose or use of this to me. I give the people who make these discoveries credit but I can guarantee that in a couple years there will be a new guy saying something completely different, contradicting everything we finally started to follow. This same thing is very similar to when I took Earth Science. There is so many theories and contradictions' who knows what is the truth. My teacher kept stressing that the polar poles are going to flip and our magnetic field is going to disappear and that we are all going to burn to death and die of radiation poisoning. But hey! we are still here and as far as I know, if there is a such thing as a magnetic field, it is still there protecting us. This goes hand in hand with my first blog when I talked about the many MANY different theories of the beginnings of everything. I am sure if I was still at the community college they would be teaching me completely different things about history just like how the history book we are reading and the New Testament class I am taking don't agree with each other.
by Andrew Murillo
Ordinarily it was believed that the earliest people to ever travel by sea took place around 10,000 years ago. The reason why people never believed it was earlier than that was because during the ice age when most things were frozen, people would travel on glaciers or large ice caps before it melted. These ice caps were everywhere during the time of the ice age, and where it is impossible to travel by foot now, was possible then. Now, archaeologists how found more and more evidence that it is possible that people may have traveled by sea even earlier than we predicted. When they did this they came across small Islands, and later traveled even farther to reach the Americas. There is in fact different possible dates of when the earliest peoples may have traveled to find new lands. These dates go as early as 50,000 years ago when people would start to travel across the Pacific ocean. The packet gives estimations of the different possible times that these early travelers may have reached several distant islands, such as Japan around 25,000 years ago. It also states how these discoveries were found, by finding really old DNA and old human fossils.
Now, a lot of this can be interesting and exciting, but what purpose or affect does this have on our own lives? I actually had a talk with several family members during some of my recent trips back home over the months, talking about new things I have learned and talking about what I have been studying in classes. It has been brought up recently and quiet often "why should it matter?" This question has been more common when it came to talking about the earliest days, why does it matter? What affect does it have on us because we can't ever truly know what happened during that time but just predict it. As a future engineer there is actually no purpose or use of this to me. I give the people who make these discoveries credit but I can guarantee that in a couple years there will be a new guy saying something completely different, contradicting everything we finally started to follow. This same thing is very similar to when I took Earth Science. There is so many theories and contradictions' who knows what is the truth. My teacher kept stressing that the polar poles are going to flip and our magnetic field is going to disappear and that we are all going to burn to death and die of radiation poisoning. But hey! we are still here and as far as I know, if there is a such thing as a magnetic field, it is still there protecting us. This goes hand in hand with my first blog when I talked about the many MANY different theories of the beginnings of everything. I am sure if I was still at the community college they would be teaching me completely different things about history just like how the history book we are reading and the New Testament class I am taking don't agree with each other.
by Andrew Murillo
Monday, October 21, 2013
Chapter 5: Women
Chapter 5 was an interesting chapter for me because we are looking into documents that show evidence of how women during the first century were viewed and how they viewed life. It also explains the duties of a woman with her family and outside their family life. What makes this interesting is the fact that we don't hear very much about women, or their roles in society. These documents were actually written by a woman so we can get a clear idea how a woman during the first century may have viewed life.
According to the book, it is hard to get a complete clear idea of a woman's perspective during the first century because there are a small amount of sources and a lot of the sources that are taken about women are written by men. The reason to this is because women normally didn't write because it wasn't a common value as it is today. The documents we do have about women are written by elite women and therefore we are unsure of how life may have been viewed for women who were bellow this class.
Ban Zhao was what the book considers an elite woman. She wrote several documents about her views and thoughts. They are extremely interesting to read, and if this is a direct translation, she was quite a good written when expressing her thoughts and views. Reading her documents made me feel pretty bad because a lot of the time she is putting herself down as a woman and she seemed to have had a lot of pressure. Her perspective of her life and of herself are pretty negative. She seems to accept the fact that (according to their ear's society) she is lower than a man and that she is not as smart, not as productive, and weak. She talks about her role of passing on the fact that women are weak to her daughters.
In her first documents she is writing of how a woman she act, and how she should view herself. She is giving lessons for other woman because she felt as if she had failed with her other daughters. It is believed that if the woman was to stray from her role, than the ancestors may frown upon her and her family. It is considered to be a disappointment to not follow strict tradition. A husband is to control his wife, and she is to respect him, and serve him.
Reading these documents must be hard for a girl to read, especially in today's world. A woman was viewed very differently, and what was considered a proper woman was very different as well. I am a boy and it is even hard for me to see how unfair it was to be a woman. I may not agree with the way woman view themselves today, but what is shown in this document is not how a woman should be viewed or have to act. Woman should be respected and do deserve a much bigger place than they were given during this era. After all, it was up to the women to populate the world. Life must had been very harsh to be a woman during the first centuries.
by Andrew Murillo
According to the book, it is hard to get a complete clear idea of a woman's perspective during the first century because there are a small amount of sources and a lot of the sources that are taken about women are written by men. The reason to this is because women normally didn't write because it wasn't a common value as it is today. The documents we do have about women are written by elite women and therefore we are unsure of how life may have been viewed for women who were bellow this class.
Ban Zhao was what the book considers an elite woman. She wrote several documents about her views and thoughts. They are extremely interesting to read, and if this is a direct translation, she was quite a good written when expressing her thoughts and views. Reading her documents made me feel pretty bad because a lot of the time she is putting herself down as a woman and she seemed to have had a lot of pressure. Her perspective of her life and of herself are pretty negative. She seems to accept the fact that (according to their ear's society) she is lower than a man and that she is not as smart, not as productive, and weak. She talks about her role of passing on the fact that women are weak to her daughters.
In her first documents she is writing of how a woman she act, and how she should view herself. She is giving lessons for other woman because she felt as if she had failed with her other daughters. It is believed that if the woman was to stray from her role, than the ancestors may frown upon her and her family. It is considered to be a disappointment to not follow strict tradition. A husband is to control his wife, and she is to respect him, and serve him.
Reading these documents must be hard for a girl to read, especially in today's world. A woman was viewed very differently, and what was considered a proper woman was very different as well. I am a boy and it is even hard for me to see how unfair it was to be a woman. I may not agree with the way woman view themselves today, but what is shown in this document is not how a woman should be viewed or have to act. Woman should be respected and do deserve a much bigger place than they were given during this era. After all, it was up to the women to populate the world. Life must had been very harsh to be a woman during the first centuries.
by Andrew Murillo
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Chapter 4 Documents
I thought that after reading about Confucius and learning a bit more of him in class, I would be able to understand more of what he had taught, but this doesn't seem to be the case for me in the documents. I have almost no idea what the heck is going on. I am not sure if that is because I have a cold or if it is because it isn't really written in a modern way. I have a small grasp of what may be meant in the documents and I am going to give my best try to try to explain what it means to me.
The beginning is talking about government and basically this is what I am getting out of it. If you are to rule over many, but must have a good understanding in economy, business, sincerity, and you must love your people. Other passages also talk about what he believes is the proper way a child should behave. That child must study, and practice respect and then practice that respect in public. I have absolutely no idea what he referring to when says north polar star but it could be about the heavens or perhaps saying a strong government shines brightly and all the smaller governments will follow by its great influence. I am lost when the Analects talks about submitting, so lets skip that one, when he answers the question about how to have a emperor's people be faithful in him, he answers by saying to be fair and honest with the people and teach them to be virtuous and righteous. So other quotes that are written sometimes feel like common sense such as those who are virtuous will have no wickedness. My response to that is: isn't that the point? these are all a couple that are listened in the documents found in chapter 4. I could keep going on looking at more of them, but that would take all night and there is still more of the chapter to go through.
A quick conclusion on the documents that are devoted to Confucius is I personally feel that since it is from the distant past, and lot of it when it is translated comes off as gibberish. I have a hard time understanding what is being say, and why it is said, and for what point. The possible reason why I feel this way may be because a lot of it deals with the common curtsies that we value today. These are natural things that we may not give a second thought about, but the ancient past was a very different world and many people may have not had these values during their time.
One thing that caught my attention with the Hindu reading was the fact that the diety at one point had said to break away from attachments and then you will become a free man. This belief is actually used in many philosophies and religions. Freeing yourself from all attachments, in some beliefs, believe that you will become free and will be well rewarded in the afterlife.
The Apology, written by Plato, is the words of Socrates, who never wrote any of his teachings. The word apology during the ancient days didn't mean that the person was asking for forgiveness, but in fact the person was saying that they are right. It is in fact the exact opposite of what he understand an apology means today.
by Andrew Murillo
The beginning is talking about government and basically this is what I am getting out of it. If you are to rule over many, but must have a good understanding in economy, business, sincerity, and you must love your people. Other passages also talk about what he believes is the proper way a child should behave. That child must study, and practice respect and then practice that respect in public. I have absolutely no idea what he referring to when says north polar star but it could be about the heavens or perhaps saying a strong government shines brightly and all the smaller governments will follow by its great influence. I am lost when the Analects talks about submitting, so lets skip that one, when he answers the question about how to have a emperor's people be faithful in him, he answers by saying to be fair and honest with the people and teach them to be virtuous and righteous. So other quotes that are written sometimes feel like common sense such as those who are virtuous will have no wickedness. My response to that is: isn't that the point? these are all a couple that are listened in the documents found in chapter 4. I could keep going on looking at more of them, but that would take all night and there is still more of the chapter to go through.
A quick conclusion on the documents that are devoted to Confucius is I personally feel that since it is from the distant past, and lot of it when it is translated comes off as gibberish. I have a hard time understanding what is being say, and why it is said, and for what point. The possible reason why I feel this way may be because a lot of it deals with the common curtsies that we value today. These are natural things that we may not give a second thought about, but the ancient past was a very different world and many people may have not had these values during their time.
One thing that caught my attention with the Hindu reading was the fact that the diety at one point had said to break away from attachments and then you will become a free man. This belief is actually used in many philosophies and religions. Freeing yourself from all attachments, in some beliefs, believe that you will become free and will be well rewarded in the afterlife.
The Apology, written by Plato, is the words of Socrates, who never wrote any of his teachings. The word apology during the ancient days didn't mean that the person was asking for forgiveness, but in fact the person was saying that they are right. It is in fact the exact opposite of what he understand an apology means today.
by Andrew Murillo
Monday, October 7, 2013
Chapter 4 second part
After Chapter 4 talks about Confucius and his words, and what he has achieved, the chapter goes on talking about the origins of many other religions. The ones I will talk about is when it brings up Buddhism and Christianity. This wont be a very long post since I have already posted another short blog prior to this.
The interesting thing is the first sentence says how neither Jesus or the Buddha had any intention of founding a new religion. I know for sure that this is vaguely true about Buddha, though he still expects people to follow his way and believe he becomes supernatural (sound contradicting to me). I remember learning when I took a eastern philosophy class that Buddha didn't intend to create a religion but in fact a philosophy, or a way of life; however, I only partly ever believed this was his true intentions. As far as Jesus goes, it is true he may have not wanted to create a new religion, but in fact he never did. I am actually in a New Testament class right now and this isn't exactly true.
If it is further broken down, Jesus actually asked his disciples when he was resurrected to spread the word to the ends of the earth. So that was his intent. If you call it another religion, well that's a matter of opinion because his words were directed to Jews and non-Jews, basically whoever was willing to listen. Christianity is actually said to have come even before his time because Moses actually, and several other prophets in the Bible, predicted of Jesus' coming. Which is evidence that Christianity (which if the roots are taken apart it meant belief in Christ) was actually started far long before his point. Also Jesus never said he had Divine status in those exact words but he did say he was the Son of God, Son of Man, the Messiah, and many other ways of explaining his status. I guess him healing people and sending out demon (which even the demons knew who he was) wasn't a big enough hint for the authors since I guess just anyone can do that these days with the touch of a finger or a call from our tongues.
So I feel that sometimes this History book can be a bit misleading or has another way of delivering the material, such as my arrangement in my first blog about the beginnings of the world. The rest said about Saint Paul sounds about right but it almost seems as if the person who wrote this history book was more concerned with the second half of the books of acts than the actual gospels found in the new testament (Mark, Matthew, & Luck) which would basically contradict some of the chapter's claims.
by Andrew Murillo
I am sorry if my blogs have been harsh, but I feel that not all sources these days are not as valued as I may have remembered them to be since no matter where you look you will always find something saying the complete opposite. Since this is a (supposedly) Catholic school, I take the Catholic approach. After all, I am Catholic and that is why I choose to come to this school.
The interesting thing is the first sentence says how neither Jesus or the Buddha had any intention of founding a new religion. I know for sure that this is vaguely true about Buddha, though he still expects people to follow his way and believe he becomes supernatural (sound contradicting to me). I remember learning when I took a eastern philosophy class that Buddha didn't intend to create a religion but in fact a philosophy, or a way of life; however, I only partly ever believed this was his true intentions. As far as Jesus goes, it is true he may have not wanted to create a new religion, but in fact he never did. I am actually in a New Testament class right now and this isn't exactly true.
If it is further broken down, Jesus actually asked his disciples when he was resurrected to spread the word to the ends of the earth. So that was his intent. If you call it another religion, well that's a matter of opinion because his words were directed to Jews and non-Jews, basically whoever was willing to listen. Christianity is actually said to have come even before his time because Moses actually, and several other prophets in the Bible, predicted of Jesus' coming. Which is evidence that Christianity (which if the roots are taken apart it meant belief in Christ) was actually started far long before his point. Also Jesus never said he had Divine status in those exact words but he did say he was the Son of God, Son of Man, the Messiah, and many other ways of explaining his status. I guess him healing people and sending out demon (which even the demons knew who he was) wasn't a big enough hint for the authors since I guess just anyone can do that these days with the touch of a finger or a call from our tongues.
So I feel that sometimes this History book can be a bit misleading or has another way of delivering the material, such as my arrangement in my first blog about the beginnings of the world. The rest said about Saint Paul sounds about right but it almost seems as if the person who wrote this history book was more concerned with the second half of the books of acts than the actual gospels found in the new testament (Mark, Matthew, & Luck) which would basically contradict some of the chapter's claims.
by Andrew Murillo
I am sorry if my blogs have been harsh, but I feel that not all sources these days are not as valued as I may have remembered them to be since no matter where you look you will always find something saying the complete opposite. Since this is a (supposedly) Catholic school, I take the Catholic approach. After all, I am Catholic and that is why I choose to come to this school.
Chapter 4: Confucius
After reading a bit of chapter 4 I now have a better idea of who Confucius is than I thought I did from before. This chapter allowed me to understand how little I know of his true purpose and why he wrote like he did.
Thanks to taking in the reading from this chapter I have learned to appreciate Confucius and bit more. He believed that his writings and lessons could make a difference with the way the Chinese government ruled over their people. He wanted to do this with what he considered as "Superior". He felt that this influence would in fact change the way people interacted with each other and respect between a father and son would be stronger.
He understood that the world was filled with ranks, or as he stated it "unequal relationships". He believed that his teaching would bring harmony between these relationship if the higher ranks would treat the lower ranks in specific ways. If the higher ranks were to show greater concern for the lower ranks, then the lower ranks would show more respect for the higher ranks.
Confucius was also a very educated man, who studied in pretty much everything you could think of during his time. He used his knowledge for the better good of the people. His words are still practiced today and is used for success and inspiration. He has done a lot for the Chinese culture and I now have great respect for who he is, what he represented, and for what he has done.
by Andrew Murillo
Thanks to taking in the reading from this chapter I have learned to appreciate Confucius and bit more. He believed that his writings and lessons could make a difference with the way the Chinese government ruled over their people. He wanted to do this with what he considered as "Superior". He felt that this influence would in fact change the way people interacted with each other and respect between a father and son would be stronger.
He understood that the world was filled with ranks, or as he stated it "unequal relationships". He believed that his teaching would bring harmony between these relationship if the higher ranks would treat the lower ranks in specific ways. If the higher ranks were to show greater concern for the lower ranks, then the lower ranks would show more respect for the higher ranks.
Confucius was also a very educated man, who studied in pretty much everything you could think of during his time. He used his knowledge for the better good of the people. His words are still practiced today and is used for success and inspiration. He has done a lot for the Chinese culture and I now have great respect for who he is, what he represented, and for what he has done.
by Andrew Murillo
Friday, October 4, 2013
The Superior Man (the Late Night Response)
Hello all...I am not sure if anyone actually reads my work but I decided since I am ill and can not sleep, that what better can I spend my night than posting an extra blog for history.
While reading the selected points that was taken out of the The Superior Man can you automatically tell that Confucius was a kind of philosopher. Not all of it makes sense to me but some of it does. Like many philosophers, they normally wrote words to live by. They also wrote about how to live a wise life or even wrote things that made people stop and give it another thought. These points that are posted seem a lot to do with righteousness or what Confucius considers the way to live a righteous life. If you were to follow these laws, you would be a "Superior Man", which may mean that this philosophy may have been more directed towards men, since Confucianism is a major Easter Philosophy.
Even though philosophies are meant to convey a positive nature, I feel that a lot of these, ah sayings?, written points are a single man's oppinion. Not following these laws shouldn't make you unrighteous since no one can be perfect, but also following all these laws doesn't make you righteous either. Let's take an example: "The superior man undergoes three changes. Looked at from a distance, he appears stern; when approached, he is mild; when he is heard to speak, his language is firm and decided." This passage just seems to put a lot of pressure on a person to have to follow, but in no way does it define righteousness, maybe only in his eyes it does. This passage just seems to be someone's simple guideline of how to act outside the house. Also we must consider another person's view of this. Maybe someone who tries to follow this point may come off as arrogant or negative. Imagine everyone talking acting like that!
Here is one that makes me laugh: "What the superior man seeks, is in himself. What the mean man seeks, is in others."That must mean Confucius found a lot of people mean, most notingly his Teachers. Seeking something in someone isn't always a bad thing, but it can mean you are encouraging someone. Maybe you trust that they can do a good just and so you seek that in someone's work. I enjoy watching Chess Blitz competitions, and when I watch my favorite competitor, I expect him to give it his best of his abilities, just as a mother wants their children to succeed or do their best in their activities. This doesn't make them mean people. I am guessing Confucius had a bad history of people expecting too much out of him or pushing him too hard so now he is taking out all of his grief with this biased passage.
I don't mean to attack this philosopher at all, in fact I am sure he was far wise than I am and most people who live in our (rather lacking) generation. A lot of what he has to say I greatly agree should be followed, such as his points on respecting the heavens and what is high and above us. What my point is, is that not following these guidelines does not make a person more righteous than another. It is simply one man's interpretation of it. He is neither a prophet or a great divine but just another person, just like me and you. Just like everyone has their own definitions of justice or love, this passage is just an example of a man's view of what makes a person righteous.
by Andrew Murillo
While reading the selected points that was taken out of the The Superior Man can you automatically tell that Confucius was a kind of philosopher. Not all of it makes sense to me but some of it does. Like many philosophers, they normally wrote words to live by. They also wrote about how to live a wise life or even wrote things that made people stop and give it another thought. These points that are posted seem a lot to do with righteousness or what Confucius considers the way to live a righteous life. If you were to follow these laws, you would be a "Superior Man", which may mean that this philosophy may have been more directed towards men, since Confucianism is a major Easter Philosophy.
Even though philosophies are meant to convey a positive nature, I feel that a lot of these, ah sayings?, written points are a single man's oppinion. Not following these laws shouldn't make you unrighteous since no one can be perfect, but also following all these laws doesn't make you righteous either. Let's take an example: "The superior man undergoes three changes. Looked at from a distance, he appears stern; when approached, he is mild; when he is heard to speak, his language is firm and decided." This passage just seems to put a lot of pressure on a person to have to follow, but in no way does it define righteousness, maybe only in his eyes it does. This passage just seems to be someone's simple guideline of how to act outside the house. Also we must consider another person's view of this. Maybe someone who tries to follow this point may come off as arrogant or negative. Imagine everyone talking acting like that!
Here is one that makes me laugh: "What the superior man seeks, is in himself. What the mean man seeks, is in others."That must mean Confucius found a lot of people mean, most notingly his Teachers. Seeking something in someone isn't always a bad thing, but it can mean you are encouraging someone. Maybe you trust that they can do a good just and so you seek that in someone's work. I enjoy watching Chess Blitz competitions, and when I watch my favorite competitor, I expect him to give it his best of his abilities, just as a mother wants their children to succeed or do their best in their activities. This doesn't make them mean people. I am guessing Confucius had a bad history of people expecting too much out of him or pushing him too hard so now he is taking out all of his grief with this biased passage.
I don't mean to attack this philosopher at all, in fact I am sure he was far wise than I am and most people who live in our (rather lacking) generation. A lot of what he has to say I greatly agree should be followed, such as his points on respecting the heavens and what is high and above us. What my point is, is that not following these guidelines does not make a person more righteous than another. It is simply one man's interpretation of it. He is neither a prophet or a great divine but just another person, just like me and you. Just like everyone has their own definitions of justice or love, this passage is just an example of a man's view of what makes a person righteous.
by Andrew Murillo
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Chapter 3 Documents and Guided Response
Hello again. It's time for another big blog. I am sorry that I am posting this so late, I have been busy with many things such as shopping and studying for other classes (life in the dorms, maybe I will post a video like I did at the community college: just look up "Life of a Chaffey College student" on YouTube"). the first civilizations are interesting in their own respect but I never really had much of a personal interest in them. Greece and China both have great and exciting histories with all their wars, control, and ideas, and even though I have learned about this in my past classes, it never really appealed too much to me. It could be because of hearing about it so many times but wars and conquering has always been boring to me when it was taught in school. I think others would agree with me when I say it's really nothing when compared to live stories that come from someone who actually witnessed the events. Of course no one could possibly have lived long enough to tell any of these stories but still, I always had trouble really being intrigued in this time in history. So please forgive me if this blog isn't as detailed and full as it normally is, I may have been having trouble concentrating on the reading. Maybe if we were to look more deeply into Greek mythology I would be more interested.
The Greece, Roman, and Chinese empires during the ancient had shaped up the way governments behave today. This is shown through the Chapter 3 Documents.
The first document is written by a man named Pericles and how he views Athens' form of government. He calls Athens' government a democracy and I actually remember learning this may have been one of the earliest forms of democracy and that the United States may have modeled after it. The way Pericles describes Athens' makes it sound almost perfect and completely equal. From this document, Athens seems to have been to source of many ideas, they seemed to have the strongest army, they respected their neighbors. They were aware of poverty and tried their best to address the situation. This kind of empire sounds nearly perfect but it is only the view of one man. As it is mentioned earlier, Athens is later defeated in battle and so that may be a small clue that this document may have been written by a higher class with a large bias towards the government that he lives in and respects.
The next document is written by Aelius Aristides who seems like a well educated person. Aristides traveled into Rome and praised the achievements of the Roman empire. He writes about Rome's great size, and this is definitely valid since the Roman empire did conquer a lot, and loved to fight. They were an extremely aggressive civilization and I am sure if they really could, they would had conquered the entire world. For most of the document, Aristides admires Rome's enormous size. Rome is seen as a competitive empire, were the strongest are in control. I am sure rule over this empire is very controlled and may not be the best place for me to live. Towards the end of the document, Aristides claims how Rome is a combination of all constitutions, and depending on who you ask, they would give you a different answer to what kind of government governs over them.
The next document was written by Han Fei, who felt that strength came from a strong law and to those who follow it. This document definitely shows the values of the ancient civilization, especially since this is written from someone who lived in the Chinese civilization, unlike the last document.
The Indian Empire was once filled with violence but later takes a turn in another direction. Laws are laid out so that the violence is not to be repeated and that forgiveness should be valued. The documents repetitively speaks about the Beloved-of-the-Gods. The documents also talk about care for not only humans, but also the practice of caring for animals. The author of the documents, Ashoka, also writes about respect for mother and father. What had caused Ashoka to write all of this is from one of his past battles. It was so brutal that it traumatized him and had caused him to change completely and follow Buddhism. This, in effect, caused him to follow and set a more peaceful empire that doesn't focus on violence, fear and death, but on respecting life and all that it has to offer.
These documents are contain a pretty interesting views of how several of the ancient cultures were ran. It gives us an idea of how things may had been during their time, but it is only one account from each empire. While reading them I can definitely sense a bias in some of them. The empire that may be the one I would consider living in would most likely be the Indian Empire after Ashoka had completely changed his values and ways of life. This empire seems to be the most fitting, especially since the documents is coming straight from its own ruler and it seems to be the most peaceful. Buddhism is a a peaceful philosophy and it is about ending suffering, so if the Emperor follows that, it must had been an excellent place to settle in.
By Andrew Murillo
The Greece, Roman, and Chinese empires during the ancient had shaped up the way governments behave today. This is shown through the Chapter 3 Documents.
The first document is written by a man named Pericles and how he views Athens' form of government. He calls Athens' government a democracy and I actually remember learning this may have been one of the earliest forms of democracy and that the United States may have modeled after it. The way Pericles describes Athens' makes it sound almost perfect and completely equal. From this document, Athens seems to have been to source of many ideas, they seemed to have the strongest army, they respected their neighbors. They were aware of poverty and tried their best to address the situation. This kind of empire sounds nearly perfect but it is only the view of one man. As it is mentioned earlier, Athens is later defeated in battle and so that may be a small clue that this document may have been written by a higher class with a large bias towards the government that he lives in and respects.
The next document is written by Aelius Aristides who seems like a well educated person. Aristides traveled into Rome and praised the achievements of the Roman empire. He writes about Rome's great size, and this is definitely valid since the Roman empire did conquer a lot, and loved to fight. They were an extremely aggressive civilization and I am sure if they really could, they would had conquered the entire world. For most of the document, Aristides admires Rome's enormous size. Rome is seen as a competitive empire, were the strongest are in control. I am sure rule over this empire is very controlled and may not be the best place for me to live. Towards the end of the document, Aristides claims how Rome is a combination of all constitutions, and depending on who you ask, they would give you a different answer to what kind of government governs over them.
The next document was written by Han Fei, who felt that strength came from a strong law and to those who follow it. This document definitely shows the values of the ancient civilization, especially since this is written from someone who lived in the Chinese civilization, unlike the last document.
The Indian Empire was once filled with violence but later takes a turn in another direction. Laws are laid out so that the violence is not to be repeated and that forgiveness should be valued. The documents repetitively speaks about the Beloved-of-the-Gods. The documents also talk about care for not only humans, but also the practice of caring for animals. The author of the documents, Ashoka, also writes about respect for mother and father. What had caused Ashoka to write all of this is from one of his past battles. It was so brutal that it traumatized him and had caused him to change completely and follow Buddhism. This, in effect, caused him to follow and set a more peaceful empire that doesn't focus on violence, fear and death, but on respecting life and all that it has to offer.
These documents are contain a pretty interesting views of how several of the ancient cultures were ran. It gives us an idea of how things may had been during their time, but it is only one account from each empire. While reading them I can definitely sense a bias in some of them. The empire that may be the one I would consider living in would most likely be the Indian Empire after Ashoka had completely changed his values and ways of life. This empire seems to be the most fitting, especially since the documents is coming straight from its own ruler and it seems to be the most peaceful. Buddhism is a a peaceful philosophy and it is about ending suffering, so if the Emperor follows that, it must had been an excellent place to settle in.
By Andrew Murillo
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Chapter 2 Documents
Right from the very beginning we read of how important writing was for the ancient civilizations and and how it was a "central feature". Of course writing from the past gave us insight on how things may have been during the earliest days and perhaps what values the ancient people had and to also give us an idea of what they may gave been thinking.
One of the oldest writings ever found is the Epic of Gilgamesh. It is a rather lengthy story of a ruler and his many quests. I once had to read bits of it back at the community college, and even though I have forgotten a good amount of it, I remember it being quite interesting, especially coming from the earliest story tellers of all time. The part I greatly remember has to do when Gilgamesh loses his best friend, Enkidu, who goes along with him on his journeys. The gods try to kill Enkidu, which for a while he is able to avoid his unfortunate...eh future...but is eventually killed and Gilgamesh is devastated. Being completely new to death, he begins to realize the limitations to mortality which, in effect, begins to realize that he too is neither invincible. This leads him to finding eternal life which at the end of the story learns that it can not be granted to mortals and that someday he will die too.
While reading the little exert of the Epic of Gilgamesh I was kind of confused during a couple of parts because I didn't have a clue about what they were talking about. But for the most part it went over similar parts that I remembered learning about from my previous history class.
The Law Code of Hammurabi is a very interesting code that I am also familiar with from my previous class. It is a list of over a hundred laws that was created for the Mesopotamian culture. A quick glimpse at the code can quickly give you a feeling of how things may have been been in their culture. I actually enjoyed learning about this law system because it not only gave me a bit of insight on our past culture's values but it also explained how judgement was passed upon those who violated the code.
I am actually quite happy that our law system isn't identical to this code because depending on your personal status, the code can be easier on you or harsher on you. I feel that the code is actually unfair at time, especially since children don't have much of any say with this code. The Ways of the World stats the second code first under the category of On crime, Punishment, and Justice, and already it speaks of a way to tell if someone being accusing by another is guilty or not, but in a illogical way. You have to jump into a river, and if you survive then the accuser gets a large penalty against them self. Perhaps because of this law people didn't accuse each other very often. According to law number 5, a judge can also be penalized for making bad judgements.
Other portions of the code address slavery, mean and women, and the economy. Looking through these selected law gives a great idea of the values of the Mesopotamian culture and how they saw men, women, rich, poor, and slaves. A lot of it deals with "getting even." If you take something from one person, they will take back, legally. Or if you hurt someone, they can hurt you right back. However, the code also seems to address on if someone was to take something from another for a long time, they can keep it. In law number 30, if someone went out to war with no one to watch their possessions and someone else takes it for three years, they can keep it. The law also has laws against laziness as well. There are also portions of the Code that address divorce for a man and a woman or what penalties they must pay if they were to cheat on each other, or to leave each other. All of this shows many of things people shouldn't do keep the well-being of the people. The punishments are so great in some of the laws, showing what meant the most to the Mesopotamian people and also what they didn't want others to do or violate.
The final portion of the Chapter 2 documents go over Egypt and their values over life, death, and eternal life. I am sure I speak for most people when I say that ancient Egypt has to be one of the most interesting cultures to ever study about. There is so much history on them and a lot of it was very fascinating and created a lot of mythologies and stories that we still talk about today. The next set of documents show different spells and passages that the Egyptians would practice to help their journey to eternal life.
Andrew Murillo
One of the oldest writings ever found is the Epic of Gilgamesh. It is a rather lengthy story of a ruler and his many quests. I once had to read bits of it back at the community college, and even though I have forgotten a good amount of it, I remember it being quite interesting, especially coming from the earliest story tellers of all time. The part I greatly remember has to do when Gilgamesh loses his best friend, Enkidu, who goes along with him on his journeys. The gods try to kill Enkidu, which for a while he is able to avoid his unfortunate...eh future...but is eventually killed and Gilgamesh is devastated. Being completely new to death, he begins to realize the limitations to mortality which, in effect, begins to realize that he too is neither invincible. This leads him to finding eternal life which at the end of the story learns that it can not be granted to mortals and that someday he will die too.
While reading the little exert of the Epic of Gilgamesh I was kind of confused during a couple of parts because I didn't have a clue about what they were talking about. But for the most part it went over similar parts that I remembered learning about from my previous history class.
The Law Code of Hammurabi is a very interesting code that I am also familiar with from my previous class. It is a list of over a hundred laws that was created for the Mesopotamian culture. A quick glimpse at the code can quickly give you a feeling of how things may have been been in their culture. I actually enjoyed learning about this law system because it not only gave me a bit of insight on our past culture's values but it also explained how judgement was passed upon those who violated the code.
I am actually quite happy that our law system isn't identical to this code because depending on your personal status, the code can be easier on you or harsher on you. I feel that the code is actually unfair at time, especially since children don't have much of any say with this code. The Ways of the World stats the second code first under the category of On crime, Punishment, and Justice, and already it speaks of a way to tell if someone being accusing by another is guilty or not, but in a illogical way. You have to jump into a river, and if you survive then the accuser gets a large penalty against them self. Perhaps because of this law people didn't accuse each other very often. According to law number 5, a judge can also be penalized for making bad judgements.
Other portions of the code address slavery, mean and women, and the economy. Looking through these selected law gives a great idea of the values of the Mesopotamian culture and how they saw men, women, rich, poor, and slaves. A lot of it deals with "getting even." If you take something from one person, they will take back, legally. Or if you hurt someone, they can hurt you right back. However, the code also seems to address on if someone was to take something from another for a long time, they can keep it. In law number 30, if someone went out to war with no one to watch their possessions and someone else takes it for three years, they can keep it. The law also has laws against laziness as well. There are also portions of the Code that address divorce for a man and a woman or what penalties they must pay if they were to cheat on each other, or to leave each other. All of this shows many of things people shouldn't do keep the well-being of the people. The punishments are so great in some of the laws, showing what meant the most to the Mesopotamian people and also what they didn't want others to do or violate.
The final portion of the Chapter 2 documents go over Egypt and their values over life, death, and eternal life. I am sure I speak for most people when I say that ancient Egypt has to be one of the most interesting cultures to ever study about. There is so much history on them and a lot of it was very fascinating and created a lot of mythologies and stories that we still talk about today. The next set of documents show different spells and passages that the Egyptians would practice to help their journey to eternal life.
Andrew Murillo
Friday, September 20, 2013
Chapter 2 First Civilizations
Hello Everyone! It's time for another Blog and it feels like it has been a while.
For some reason the beginnings and ends have always been the most interested to me. I have always been quite astounded of how things came to be or how things got to how they are now. In tonight's reading, the Ways of the World goes over the first civilizations that began it all.
At the very beginning of the chapter we get a little insight on how today people want to escape civilization, but the chapter primarily speaks about what started civilization. I kind of felt that this little section may have been interesting to bring up, but however it was really feels pointless. People will always complain, but a world outside civilization is not an easy one.
It is interesting how the creation of writing really had a big part in the creation of civilization. Written documents is extremely valued in today's society. If something is not in writing, it is not considered valid. Agreements, stories, lessons, expressions are all put down in writing. It plays a large role in our world and created a large role on the first civilizations.
Most of the first civilizations seems to have been created around the Europe and Asia areas which is no surprise because that's where the last chapter left us off at. Also the civilizations that existed in the desert areas had little rainfall so they had to rely greatly on the rivers that crossed their regions.
I am not sure if this is commonly known but what was a surprise to me is that the first civilizations didn't start 100s of years ago but it is believed and through a lot of evidence that the first civilizations began around 3500 to 3000 BC! That actually doesn't really feel so long ago especially since we already have about over 2000 years of written history, and double what we already have, civilization feels like it isn't such an old thing.
One thing I haven't touched up on in this blog is that this era was known as the Agricultural revolution. Which I always found it quite surprising that it took thousands upon thousands of years for groups of people to figure out how to grew their own plants and gardens. I personally believe that it is possible that people before this era did know how to grew their own plants, it just wasn't as wide of a practice. Let me explain my theory. If you think about it, there was definitely rainfall even in the distant past. So this should had caused plants to grew later which brought fruit. Unless the early people completely ate every seed in the fruits, they may have just thrown their waste on the ground. Over time the seed would get berried into the ground and when rain came, there began to grow a plant into that same spot. Sooner or later I am sure some people would had notice that there is some kind of occurrence or at least catch onto some kind of pattern.
Anyways, as we may have guessed, with the up-rise of agriculture came greed. People could grow as much as they wanted and perhaps not all people were fair. Also, since growing takes work, I am sure there was thieves so these people had to protect their food, and store it. From these steps came a chain of events, such as laws, someone to keep these laws in order, and so came the beginning of a new culture and kind of government. This lead to the first civilizations that we come to study today.
I can keep going on about this chapter, since it is a relatively long chapter, but that perhaps I can leave the rest in another blog. I want to cap up this blog by talking about the world Civilization. It is in the title of the chapter, but what is civilization? This is a question that can actually take up an entire blog as the main topic. The entire chapter talks about the first civilizations and how it all began, but briefly at the end talks about its definition. Today it can be seen as a completely different kind of definition such as meaning what is up to date or what matches up with today's standards.I personally say it means a person or culture of people who can communicate, get along, understand each other, and live together. The opposite of this would be uncivilized. Of course, people fighting amongst each other may not be considered civilized. Now, other ways I have heard people describe the word is by saying it is when people are up with today's dastards, or on par with today's society. So basically if you don't keep up with the latest trends or what is going on in the world today you are uncivilized. I personally, disagree with this view of it. First off I would be then uncivilized because I don't care about having the latest things or keeping up with pop culture or having to follow the newest trends or even having to do things in a new way, I am very true to keeping things the same way I was raised, or how I always put it, old fashioned. This doesn't make me uncivilized, maybe boring to some people, but I still my life normally like anyone else, I just don't have all this extra stuff. Well, no matter how you look at it, this word may just be a word or opinion.
Andrew Murillo
For some reason the beginnings and ends have always been the most interested to me. I have always been quite astounded of how things came to be or how things got to how they are now. In tonight's reading, the Ways of the World goes over the first civilizations that began it all.
At the very beginning of the chapter we get a little insight on how today people want to escape civilization, but the chapter primarily speaks about what started civilization. I kind of felt that this little section may have been interesting to bring up, but however it was really feels pointless. People will always complain, but a world outside civilization is not an easy one.
It is interesting how the creation of writing really had a big part in the creation of civilization. Written documents is extremely valued in today's society. If something is not in writing, it is not considered valid. Agreements, stories, lessons, expressions are all put down in writing. It plays a large role in our world and created a large role on the first civilizations.
Most of the first civilizations seems to have been created around the Europe and Asia areas which is no surprise because that's where the last chapter left us off at. Also the civilizations that existed in the desert areas had little rainfall so they had to rely greatly on the rivers that crossed their regions.
I am not sure if this is commonly known but what was a surprise to me is that the first civilizations didn't start 100s of years ago but it is believed and through a lot of evidence that the first civilizations began around 3500 to 3000 BC! That actually doesn't really feel so long ago especially since we already have about over 2000 years of written history, and double what we already have, civilization feels like it isn't such an old thing.
One thing I haven't touched up on in this blog is that this era was known as the Agricultural revolution. Which I always found it quite surprising that it took thousands upon thousands of years for groups of people to figure out how to grew their own plants and gardens. I personally believe that it is possible that people before this era did know how to grew their own plants, it just wasn't as wide of a practice. Let me explain my theory. If you think about it, there was definitely rainfall even in the distant past. So this should had caused plants to grew later which brought fruit. Unless the early people completely ate every seed in the fruits, they may have just thrown their waste on the ground. Over time the seed would get berried into the ground and when rain came, there began to grow a plant into that same spot. Sooner or later I am sure some people would had notice that there is some kind of occurrence or at least catch onto some kind of pattern.
Anyways, as we may have guessed, with the up-rise of agriculture came greed. People could grow as much as they wanted and perhaps not all people were fair. Also, since growing takes work, I am sure there was thieves so these people had to protect their food, and store it. From these steps came a chain of events, such as laws, someone to keep these laws in order, and so came the beginning of a new culture and kind of government. This lead to the first civilizations that we come to study today.
I can keep going on about this chapter, since it is a relatively long chapter, but that perhaps I can leave the rest in another blog. I want to cap up this blog by talking about the world Civilization. It is in the title of the chapter, but what is civilization? This is a question that can actually take up an entire blog as the main topic. The entire chapter talks about the first civilizations and how it all began, but briefly at the end talks about its definition. Today it can be seen as a completely different kind of definition such as meaning what is up to date or what matches up with today's standards.I personally say it means a person or culture of people who can communicate, get along, understand each other, and live together. The opposite of this would be uncivilized. Of course, people fighting amongst each other may not be considered civilized. Now, other ways I have heard people describe the word is by saying it is when people are up with today's dastards, or on par with today's society. So basically if you don't keep up with the latest trends or what is going on in the world today you are uncivilized. I personally, disagree with this view of it. First off I would be then uncivilized because I don't care about having the latest things or keeping up with pop culture or having to follow the newest trends or even having to do things in a new way, I am very true to keeping things the same way I was raised, or how I always put it, old fashioned. This doesn't make me uncivilized, maybe boring to some people, but I still my life normally like anyone else, I just don't have all this extra stuff. Well, no matter how you look at it, this word may just be a word or opinion.
Andrew Murillo
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Looking futher. For anyone in class who may need help with the assignment
This blog is created mainly to add more to what I posted for Monday and to recap what was talked about on Monday and what I took notes on. I am also creating this blog to help guide others who may need help or guidance. This blog should help open your mind to the assignment.
After a class discussion, and by looking at other student blogs I have came up with a more detailed and stronger response/stance to the question: "Did the Paleolithic people more egalitarian than modern societies? The answer is without a doubt, Yes! but keep in mind, I am not saying they were completely equal. As I had posted in a comment, no matter what, there will always be people who have more skills in one thing than other or excel better than others. Not everyone shares the same talents and some people are just born to be good at certain activities. This is all true and can bring up a good argument but this does NOT answer the question.
Of course even the Paleolithic people had things that were not always equal. The men would hunt and the women would gather. Normally it wasn't the opposite way around. Also not everyone could heal. It is also implied that the women would fallow the men, as seen in Nisa's story when she said that one of her husbands would want her every night and she would just give in, or she was unsure about it him for several years but she still stayed with him. Also it seems that the women did not have a say on who they get to marry first. More evidence on this is found in Nisa's story. Again, this is all true, but even so it still does not answer the question.
The question is: are the Paleolithic people MORE egalitarian than modern societies? Of course they were. As stated in my earlier blog, either gender may divorce (same with our society though). Gods could be in either the form of a male or female, while today when we speak of God, God is normally described by saying "he" or "him" or "his" like "created in his image". Wives and husbands were able to share themselves with other "lovers". When it came to wealth, the people who lived in the bush are said to have nothing at all. When talking about power, either male or female can heal or be healed in the same way (by doing drugs, silly culture...oh wait...).
This is all significant stuff, but it only comes from one source. This source is through one woman's story, and it may just be describing only her life, while others may live their lives differently. Also this story is a large assumption. Life during the Paleolithic days may have been nothing like this. These are all ideas to consider.
Andrew Murillo
After a class discussion, and by looking at other student blogs I have came up with a more detailed and stronger response/stance to the question: "Did the Paleolithic people more egalitarian than modern societies? The answer is without a doubt, Yes! but keep in mind, I am not saying they were completely equal. As I had posted in a comment, no matter what, there will always be people who have more skills in one thing than other or excel better than others. Not everyone shares the same talents and some people are just born to be good at certain activities. This is all true and can bring up a good argument but this does NOT answer the question.
Of course even the Paleolithic people had things that were not always equal. The men would hunt and the women would gather. Normally it wasn't the opposite way around. Also not everyone could heal. It is also implied that the women would fallow the men, as seen in Nisa's story when she said that one of her husbands would want her every night and she would just give in, or she was unsure about it him for several years but she still stayed with him. Also it seems that the women did not have a say on who they get to marry first. More evidence on this is found in Nisa's story. Again, this is all true, but even so it still does not answer the question.
The question is: are the Paleolithic people MORE egalitarian than modern societies? Of course they were. As stated in my earlier blog, either gender may divorce (same with our society though). Gods could be in either the form of a male or female, while today when we speak of God, God is normally described by saying "he" or "him" or "his" like "created in his image". Wives and husbands were able to share themselves with other "lovers". When it came to wealth, the people who lived in the bush are said to have nothing at all. When talking about power, either male or female can heal or be healed in the same way (by doing drugs, silly culture...oh wait...).
This is all significant stuff, but it only comes from one source. This source is through one woman's story, and it may just be describing only her life, while others may live their lives differently. Also this story is a large assumption. Life during the Paleolithic days may have been nothing like this. These are all ideas to consider.
Andrew Murillo
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