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.