chapter 9

The world we know today as the "middle-east" has a one group of people who believe in one religion, but view that one religion in two different ways. The people who who believe in Islam are called Muslim. People who are Muslim either are Shia or Sunni, their differences in Islam have grown further and further apart. The Sunni Muslims believe "the  caliphs were rightful political and military leaders, selected by the Islamic community." the Shia Muslims believe "leadership in the Islamic world should derive from the line of Ali and his son Husayn, blood relatives of Muhammad". It seems very childish for people to have different beliefs based on who should have power. Caliphs are the people who say things about the religion for people to believe in, they are monarchs in their empire. Today this religion turned out to be a huge mistake and its unfortunate that children of believers are born into the religion and it is practiced from such an early age that it becomes ingrained in them; when a person from the opposition of the religion speaks, it creates arguments and it has now led to many many wars.

#9

China may have experienced a period in time where it can be similar to a renaissance, however, it wasn't. China experienced a reform, and some good ideas and inventions came out of it. It is completely different than the renaissance Europe experienced and cannot be compared. In a system such as china, there were inventions born during their so called renaissance period and are great inventions that are still used even to this day. The Renaissance in Europe, for its time, extraordinarily exceeded expectations ranging from its philosophers and seminal thinkers, to its sculptors and artists. Europe has a lot to show for its work during its time. China had seminal thinkers, but didn't show anything outstanding besides a couple of its inventions. Since china never had a period of time considered today as a renaissance, then how could there even be a comparison?

Africa, the birth place of human kind, has had civilizations that have been neglected of being taught in the American education system that I have grown up in. It is now that I have been fortunate enough to learn about some of these civilizations. The hub of these civilizations were sustained by rivers which made trade a valuable revenue source as well as the sustainability that trees could provide. A city in Africa derived from a civilization called Nubia, was called Meroe. Meroe flourished between 300 B.C.E and 100 C.E. it was governed by a monarch, which consisted of prodominantly woman. The power given to woman during this time on earth makes this civilization very unique in terms of gender equality; however, it isn't unique in the fact that there is inequality through a hierarchy system of government. Meroe was located along the Nile River, and used Egypt as a trading partner, but they fought on numerous occasions and at one point, well for nearly a century, Meroe,the Nubian based civilization over threw  Egypt. Meroe was a city where people practiced economic specialties; "producing merchants, weavers, potters, and masons, as well as servants, laborers, and slaves"; while the surrounding "rural areas were populated by peoples who practiced some combination of herding and farming and paid tribute to the ruler". Meroe even though was strong and successful, had declined due to the lack of one very incumbent resource, trees; the trees were used for "wood to make charcoal for smelting iron".while this City was declining, another one was merging not so for away from each other, called Axum. Axum had very similar cultural traditions and it seems to have been differentiated from Meroe by its improvement of agricultural farming system. Axum was the civilization that taxed the people it traded with, allowing for additional wealth which would then benefit the civilization as a whole; this helped it become very successful in that area of reason. The Axum people had large monumental buildings and a huge cemetary for cherishing its people who have passed away. They adopted christianity as their religion, which later deteriorated due to the teachings of islam and there, islam became its new religion. This civilization is a well established one, leaving a mark as one that is going to be remember by people of the Ethiopia for a long time. There were many other civilizations in Africa, some that were small and not ruled by a centralized hierarchical system of government, similar to the indus valley civilization, which doesn't show any remnants of that in their society. These African civilizations weren't too different from others, at the same period of time, around the world. However there was a mass influx of differentials of different societies at the time, located around eurasia, due to the massive population which it housed, but in terms of areas with a similar population size as Africa, they were similar.

Blog #5

In the Intro of part II in the WW text, we see what has changed from the human races first and second waves of civilizations to its third. The answer is, not much, but at least it has changed in a progressive way. We can see how rise and fall of empires have influenced the population rate and how the overall population has managed to increase from the end of the ancient era and beginning of classical era. Chapter 3 covers the many systems of government in ancient and classical eras that effected each civilization. We learn about the development of empires and those from different regions of the earth. The western and eastern civilization and or empires' relations to each other and how they grew distinctively different and similar was insightfully covered. Chapter 3 takes the way of each empire into detail regarding political, religious, economical, geographical, and social aspects that determined its faith.

document question blog post 4

What philosophy of life comes across in the Gilgamesh story?


The Gilgamesh story is one that exemplifies the uncertainty and characteristics that one might feel who is living in the time that it was first written. People who read the story connect with it because it displays a character who wants to live forever, but can't, so he tries to give justification to ultimately be strong and live a meaningful life. It also tells readers that there is something to live for and just like how Gilgamesh went on a journey to find the answers he was looking for, the reader needs to act like a Gilgamesh and find the answers that he or she is searching for. People are expected to face challenges, but you fight through the challenges in order to find what you are looking for; this is what Gilgamesh exemplifies. The story of Gilgamesh can tell people a lot about what to do with their life.

BLOG SPOT 3

The first civilizations, or also known to scholars as state-organized societies, complex societies, or urban-based societies have come and gone and come and gone. The more well known complex societies that we hear and learn most frequently about are the Egyptian and Mesopotamian societies. These are good references to contrasting the first civilizations on earth. Many people do not understand the origin of the common social norms in todays society, but they all begin when the existence of the first civilizations came to be. to get a sense of why there is gender inequality, we must date back to these early times and see why and how the people of this era might have dealt with the gender equality practices that can be referenced to todays. Gender inequality came about in when the first civilizations such as Mesopotamia came to be and it is believed to of been because a man had the ability to perform certain tasks that woman weren't able to perform as affectively and vise versa. Since the man typically showed more physical strength, the man was regarded as a protector of woman and therefore seen to have more power. Because of these slight differences, the freedom of a woman was very restrained. In Egypt however, the rights of woman were much like of men. Just like men, woman were able to own land, own slaves, choose who to get married to, choose if they want a divorce, lease land, and other privileged freedoms that weren't allowed in other early civilizations at the time. Terms didn't come around until the age of war, when soldiers were held captive, it was then that they had slaves. Slaves became more common and people became slaves if they were criminals, again captured soldiers, and woman or men from another city. Almost every civilization stayed alive because their agricultural system. Geography played a huge role in maintaining existence, and that is due to the coming and going of these ancient civilizations. The agriculture of some cities had irrigation systems that worked for a certain period of time until it got to a point where the land wasn't capable of performing its purpose, it resulted in changing the crop, for example, from wheat to barley, the change didn't hold up as well as it did when wheat was around, and it lead to starvation of livestock and the people. In Egypt, the rulers at the time, were seen as gods in the form of a human and people believed in these heirs because they thought they were maintaining the flow of the nile river and its consistency to flood at specific time. There was a time when the flooding of the river happened at an unexpected time and so the people became reluctant to believing in the ruler and they soon had less power. The rulers power became so weak that other people who performed tasks in the hierarchy status were believed to have more power over their own ruler. The first civilizations create a huge influence over the way civilizations are carried out in present times. People now, can learn a lot from these early complex societies.

Prologue WW BLOG 2, BUT SUPPOSED TO BE BLOG 1 (PROLOGUE)

In the Prologue of Ways Of The World, we learn the importance and uniqueness of looking at history before western civilization. The way of understanding that there was a lot of history before the western settlement of the United States of America has indulged readers in understanding how vast of a history the universe has worked to allow things to be how they are today. It is very fascinating to learn how so much has happened in time before earth was even around, there were events and living beings on other planets as far as people are concerned, just because of the vastness of the universe, so much has happened and the amount of things going on around the universe are inconceivable for most, but understandable for few. After reading this prologue, it became clear that humans aren't only apart of things that go on inside of the earth, but everything in the universe is with us as a family. We, the people of earth, don't know all of our family members( the rest of the universe' living and material objects) but, we know that they are there, all moving at their own pace. It does bring question for many people as to why humans are here? well,  that is an easy question to answer, and its because humans are here with everything else thats in the universe, and it is just a privilege that we are able to learn, view, and understand other aspects of things that aren't related to solely hunting and gathering food. We, the humans inhabiting earth, as we know, are very privileged for being able to conceive things around us and absorb the art of natural phenomena that exists among the universe.