Reflection on my Timeline

When I went to Santa Barbara during the Thanksgiving weekend, it was a rather neat experience because I was not only able to have fun, but I was also able to find someone to interview for my project.  While visiting my friend's family for dinner on Thanksgiving day I was able to sit down with his grandfather and discuss with him his past lifetime experiences.  During my talk with him I was amazed on how much he would open up to me and he told me many things.  From how he came here to America from his birthplace in Mexico, all the way up until his success of now having a wonderful family and great life.  I felt like I was so comfortable talking with him at dinner time that, it was like I was one of his grandsons because he was able to tell me so much about his life and I thought that, that was just so amazing.  Me being from Hawaii we do not really have that many people of the Mexican decent, and for me to actually have a chat with a person who is actually from Mexico was a really cool experience.  After the talk that we had I knew that the story that I was going to write about him was just going to be so special, not only because of the neat detail, but also because of the emotion that you can feel from it.  This experience was just so humbling to me because it made me realize that you can always turn your life around with any situation, you just have to try hard and believe.

The Golden Age of China

China finally started to become a unified place, where everyone started to come together as one, and not be so spread out.  The Chinese's Empire was strong one, that was starting to look real promising, and maybe even great because they were not making the same mistakes that the Romans did.  The dynasty that was formed in China was formed under the Sui Dynasty who's emperors solidified the vast extension of the country's canal system.  China was becoming a very vast country because they had so much land to go over, they were now starting to migrate southward and claim those free lands for themselves.  In the "Golden Age" it was not all that bright for the women involved because the woman had to physically  hurt themselves, in order to keep up with the beauty standards, which were not even their choices.  For example they would have to smash their toes and break their bones in order to fit into a different size of shoe.  This was seen as beauty back in the day by the Chinese, so the women had to do it.  Many women died because of the feet crushing, they were prone to infection and disease which lead to many women casualties. So as you can see the "Golden Age" was not all that golden for the many women that lived during that time in China.

Polynesians and their intelligent ways

The main stereo type for many Polynesians are that they are lazy and just sit around on their island of paradise and relax.  But I bet that many were intrigued by how intelligent and hard working Polynesians actually are and were.  I know for a fact that a lazy and dumb person could not make an efficient and strong double-hulled canoe that would be able to sail for island to island, not to mention that they did it consistently and on purpose.  Not like how many of the discoverers were by finding many of the places they found by sure luck, with no sense of direction.  The Polynesians were able to use the stars and directions of wind in order to find the places that they wanted to go, that just goes to show people how smart they were to integrate astronomy and wind patterns to find the places that they needed to get too.  Polynesians also made some of the most advanced canoes that were way more efficient and used for quick sailing rather than putting together a huge boat.  Even though they made some big double-hulled canoes that would reach up to even 100 feet in length, they were quick for traveling between islands.  They had the intelligence to construct such a huge vessel, yet make it efficient enough for quick travel, and not to mentions that they would travel with great speed.  The great speed also made the canoes very sufficient for battle because their vessels would be way to quick for the huge boats to counter them.  So the next time you hear someone stereo typing old polynesians about being lazy, you could just laugh because you now know the truth about them and how intelligent they actually were.

Oral History

To me it is very interesting and hard to believe how many culture were able to keep such strong traditions from just word of mouth.  I mean no written history, just straight oral history, it so so interesting how people could keep such strong traditions alive by telling stories and passing down these legends and holiday traditions that many cultures still fallow today.  I sometimes wonder if many of the oral history and traditions that we hear about today were done the same way because it is very easy for something to change in oral history.  There is nothing set in stone for us to write down and keep track of, and that being said it is just so crazy how people from countless generations were able to keep traditions alive for so long. Along with oral history comes stories of past wars and survival, which maybe some people were not able to or had the chance to write down the experience at the time.  But some how the tradition of the story was able to be kept alive by the memories of people and the countless generations passing it down as they get older and their kids have kids.  I know for a fact that many people hear many stories of the past and then they start to remember that event, then from then they pass that on to someone else, which starts a sort of ripple effect.  This is mainly how oral history works because it is all done through speech because nothing is ever set down in stone due to the traditions of the story.  But it does make me wonder if maybe the story may have shifted a point in time.

Silk, Sand, and Sea Roads

Roads were used as more than just transportation routes, but even as means of division in Eurasia.  There was three main types of roads for example silk, sea, and sand roads.  Its neat to discover the type of devices that were used to get across the different types of roads.  You can't be using a type of device that you would use to cross a silk road, when trying to go over a sea road because you need different things to go over certain things.  Some devices that they used to travel over these different roads were ships, domesticated animals and carts.  With the help of these different devices people were able to trade and transfer good so much more because the roads would already be mapped out, and with the help of either a device of transportation and or animal, it just made trade so much more easier.  Silk roads would make it easier to get from the far east to Europe.  Sea roads traveled through the Indian Ocean and even among India, Africa, Asia, and even south east Asia.  Lastly sand roads would help people get from the sub Saharan to the Saharan Africa.  Many of these mapped out roads made it ultimately so much easier for everyone to get to different places much quicker and efficiently.

Africa & the Americas

I found it kind of hard to believe that before when people would refer to Africa during the classical era, that they were referring to the land mass instead of the people.  Many of the people back then were not considered African because many of them were spread out throughout the world already.  People would not generalize them from the point which they were from because Africa was just looked at as a part or land or landmass.  Africans were able to expand worldwide so quickly that its amazing how they were able to spread throughout the entire world so quickly and settle in such diverse cultures.  Many Africans were able to migrate to Eurasia and experience that culture, then later adapt to that culture and create their own version of that culture and integrate it with their own.  For example how North Africa was incorporated into the Roman Empire, even though it wasn't a positive time because the Africans that were integrated into the culture were used as slaves.  But even though the concept wasn't positive, it did play a big part in the Roman Empire that we see even today in our text books, because just imagine if they were not used in such a way, things might have been way different.  Wither it be for the better or worst, we will never know because it was just done that way, but this was a very important part to their society.

WW chapter 11

I found it really interesting how the different types of eurasian cultures were able to travel from such far places and start their own traditions.  I especially found it interesting how Islam was able to acquire a serious presence in the united states today.  Islam is such a far distance from the United states, that is just unbelievable how these people were able to come such a great distance and make such a strong presence in a continent so far from their homeland.  Even the new religions that were formed during the time passed has be unreal if you think about it, for example Muhammad Ibn Abdullah was able to start a new religion in the 570-632 era, which is crazy if you think about it because this is a whole religion that we are talking about, with many followers.  For one person to start an entire religion, its just so shocking to even think about that.  When you start to fathom the amount of power and dedication that it take to start a religion, that is just un real to even consider, let alone think about.

Confucius, The Superior Man

I really liked analects xiv 24 and xv 20.  The reason for me liking analect xiv 24 is because it talks about how "the progress of the superior man is upwards; the progress of the mean man is downwards".  Which i interrupted as the superior man is one who always strives for the best in himself and only travels up words and doing good for himself regardless of what other people think or tell him.  The superior man only does good and never puts any other person down.  The mean man is downwards which is kind of saying that if you're rude and mean, that your progress will most likely go downwards.  If you are so concentrated on bringing other people down, then your progress is heading downwards because you are so negative that it just affects you and everyone else, so noting positive can come out of being negative.  Analect xc 20 was also really neat to me because it states "what the superior man seeks, is in himself.  What the mean man seeks, is in other".  This one is kind of pertaining to the last analect because it talks about how the superior man looks to within himself to gain greatness for himself, unlike the mean man who seeks what's in others, which ultimately means that he is jealous and wants what others have.  You should be happy with what you were born with and be happy with what you have.  People have everything within themselves, so why would you need to look to another to gain what you need, you were made that way for a reason.

Herodotus excerpt from the Persian War

While reading the excerpt on the Persian war, it was very interesting and a unique reading to learn about how all of these major wars had such an impact on the societies that we view today.  I mean lets face it, if the Greeks were to actually lose to the persians then our view on modern day societies and government would be completely different because the Persians had a very different view on government, society, and ultimately a whole view on life.  Now days if we really take a look at our civilizations and societies, they are relatively the same as the way that the Greeks set up things, like the city-states and such.  Well as far as the war went it was neat to see and very tenacious and fearless group of Greek soldiers stand up to the so called mighty Persians that were just going around the world concurring everyone.  It was also cool to see the leader of the Greeks King Leonidas stand in the front line with his soldiers and help protect his people and what overall Greece stood for.  That was an example of a great leader, of than the leader of the Persians Xerxes, who only sent his men in at no cost.  Xerxes did not care about his people, only about himself and making his glory and gaining respect for himself.   This was also a great example of two different types of leaders.

WW chapter 4

This was a very interesting chapter for me in a scene that it is very relevant to the societies that we have today.  It was very neat to learn about how different places started their government and societies.  For example the Persians tried to start their society by concurring all of the other societies surrounding them, which was ultimately working out for them, until they finally met the one society that would stand up to them and put a halt to their society expansion.  Different from the Persians, the greeks were more to themselves and developing their own society and civilization because they were more concentrated on building up their people to be strong and good in combat.  The Greeks had to learn to protect themselves, but they did not only mainly focus on that because they also had a well organized form of government.  They were able to organize the place into city-states which are kind of like our states that we have today, so as you can see they were pretty advanced as far as organization and structure goes.  This chapter also talked about how the Romans and Chinese were also great societies that expressed the same incredible intellectual views.  That is why when you read about past societies that they usually talk about all of these main societies as main structures for the future people to grow upon.

Writing and Power

I myself found it very interesting and true that the civilizations that incorporated writing into their systems were pretty much civilized and would be remembered.  Today if you look back on history you see all of these civilizations and how they started to use writing more and more.  We still study these cultures and people today because it is kind of a mystery how they themselves started to use writings.  For example the Mesopotamians, Chinese, and Egyptians were all early civilizations that we can look back on and study because in early times they were smart enough to developed a writing system and leave behind details about how they lived and worked through things.  The packet also talked about how people and gods came to be, from the creation of people and the world.  People have so many beliefs of how the world and people came to be because every culture has different people who believe different things.  Some believe that there is only one divine god who started everything, while others believe that there is/was several.  They believe that we were made to protect and serve the planet earth, while other believe that the god/gods created us to serve and worship them.  From reading all of the different stories it is very hard to believe any of them because they all provide good points, but it is hard to tell who is telling the truth. we just have to just keep on reading on, or maybe just decide for ourself.

The Epic of Gilgamesh

In class when we all were examining and talking about The Epic of Gilgamesh it was very interesting to see how people read and reacted towards the story.  It was really neat how everyone interrupted the beast and how he would act.  Everyones stories were pretty cool as well because every group added their own little flare to the story.  It is hard to believe that people actually acted like that back in the days because it is very possible to think that humans could have been that primitive.  We all know that people weren't always the smartest, so to read the story about how early people were able to tame and convert a primitive being like Enkidu to a normal human like themselves was just fascinating.  I myself wonder how Enkidu really did look and see for myself the ways that he really acted because I think that it would be rather interesting to see a primitive beast turn human.  For me it is just kind of hard to picture in my mind this sort of event taking place.

Chapter 2 first farmers

I found it very interesting by how quickly the early people learned how to improve their crops and technology.  They were able to start domesticating animals to help them with their crops, by harnessing the power of the stronger animals in order to help pull their tools to irrigate the land.  People didn't always think of animals as tools, but after we evolved and adapted, we were then able to use animals and raise them to help us in many ways.  People also started to farm animal and raise them for food instead of just going out and hunting them all of the time, which I thought was very smart of the early people to start doing because it would save them so much time, plus they would just always have access to it if they really needed it.  One thing that really stood out to me was the way that the farmers were able to take corn and transform it from a plant with a single cob of about an inch,  and getting the cob to grow six times the size by 1500.  But the farmers didn't just stop there, they were able to even double the length of that cob later on.  I really likes how people were able to share all of their ideas about agriculture in order to get more efficient ways of obtaining crops.  With everyone just sharing their own information with one another, it was rather interesting to how some people still use some of the same techniques today.  Basically during the early times people were just starting to work with the land and animals because they didn't know any better.  But thanks to everyone helping each other and through trial and error, we were able to survive and improve many of the foods that we grew in the past.

Chapter One: The need for water in ancient societies

This chapter mainly talks about how many early civilizations started out near rivers.  How they were able to control and irrigate the land and control the water of the rivers.  By being able to control the water, it was able to make their lives a whole lot easier because now they could make trenches, aqueducts, and canals to help them move the water to their crops and whatever else they needed.  Water is the base of all life, so by being able to master the way of the river they could being on expanding in life because they were then able to grow crops for food, obtain drinking water, and even use the water for pluming. People in the early civilizations were also able to advance in technology and build machines in order to help them move water from place to place, some examples of their early technology were the shaduf, saqiya, square-pallet chanin pump, and noria just to name a few of their inventions.
     Even in the early time people needed law and rules to keep things in order and thats why they followed certain rules and laws to keep everything in order.  People followed rules from the Code of Hammurabi which was a Babylonian legal code dating from 1750 B.C.E.
      The chapter pretty much just talked about how early civilizations started to flourish and how they started to develop over time.

Im here

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