CiaraJeanne

Sima Qian’s Views on the Xiongnu I feel like it’s easiest to see the contrast between the writer and his subjects in this document. In a way, the source seems reliable since China lived side by side with the Xiongnu and have known them for years, interacting with them constantly. But on the other hand, there’s some biased involved. Because the Chinese and the Xiongnu lived differently, Sima Qian may have exaggerated certain aspects of the Xiongnu’s “barbarian” nature. In addition, the Chinese and Xiongnu seem to have a strained relationship. They don’t always get along, so Sima Qian may have had ambivalent feelings towards the Xiongnu that could subconsciously appear in his writing. Which aspects of Xiongnu culture would likely appear most different or distasteful to Sima Qian? One aspect of culture that would appear different to Qian would be the Xiongnu’s lack of any walled settlements. In contrast, China seems to be a bit territorial, to the point where they would buil...

WH Ch 3: The chapter brought up some questions for me. The chapter compared China with the Roman civilization and discussed the reasons why it lasted a lot longer: national identity through language, culture, intermarriage, etc. I’m wondering if this conformity for unity is actually good for the country. It is helpful to have a more centralized government, but isn’t lack of diversity a bit sad? A loss of culture is a part of someone’s identity taken away. And this conformity could hinder China too. We’ve already seen a bit of this actually in the past. For example, the ideas of Confucius were highly regarded pre-1900s. They were used as content for the civil service exam so only those with a good understanding of Confucian’ political and ethical values were able to obtain a level of authority within the country. This focus on only one person’s ideas helped unify the ideals of rulers, but they were using the same 4 books and 5 classics to govern for the longest time. Since there wa...

WH Blog #4: The Indus Valley Civilization *Assignment: Pick a question from the documents section and answer it.* Using art as evidence: What can we learn about Indus Valley civilization from these visual sources? How does our level of understanding of this civilization differ from that of Egypt and Mesopotamia, where plentiful written records are available? There’s not a lot we can say about the Indus Valley Civilization through these pieces of work. Reading archeologists’ hypotheses about what the works could mean was fun. But a lot of these speculations aren’t backed up with evidence. Art is difficult to interpret. Each person will pay attention to different parts of the dancing girl or the statues from Mohenjo Daro. They will project their own meaning onto them. We don’t know if the “dancing girl” is even dancing. Furthermore, we only see a part of this old civilization. It’s difficult to piece together a picture of what life back then looked like without all the puzzle p...

Blog # 3: Chapter 2 This chapter discussed how civilizations emerged, how inequalities emerged, the functions of states in the ancient world, and the similarities and differences between Mesopotamia and Egypt. I understood the hierarchies for the most part. Inequality due to accumulation of resources makes sense to me. What I didn’t understand was the gender inequality back then. Although there were many reasons provided for why many societies developed patriarchal, I still don’t completely understand why it happened. Why would they not give equal value to women? It is true that men had biological advantages at this time because strength was needed for plow-based agriculture and for war, but women provide babies...they provide life and support so I don’t see why that wasn’t held up to equal standard. Everyone had an equal role in my opinion. The book says that some scholars suggest men “assumed responsibility for the higher order of culture” (Streyer 74). But to maintain a cultu...

World History Blog #2: Intelligence, Privilege, and Morality What caught my eye in this part of the chapter were the common patterns in all of the emerging communities during the neolithic period. Although the people lived in vastly different environments, many of them were still able to develop in similar ways. Nearly all of them were transitioning towards agriculture and domestication of animals, and nearly all of them were making technological innovations to support that way of living. Their intelligence really astounds me. They really know how to use their resources and that’s something that’s very important in any age. A knowledge of the world around us is important in order to gain advantages for things we want. In many cartoons and movies, people from this era could be depicted as idiotic. But really, they were so smart. It was sad to see that while some areas lucked out like the fertile crescent, other areas were not as lucky. I see this as the start of inequality. Whil...