Ch. 8, 9, & 10 Blog

Ch. 8, 9,  & 10 Blog

The Classical Era:  The Spread of Civilization, Commerce, and Culture

The spread of civilization was propelled by interaction through trade networks such as the Sea Roads of the Indian Ocean, Silk roads linking pastoral and agricultural peoples across Eurasia, and the Sand Roads which linked interior West Africa with the peoples of the Saharan.  In the America’s there is evidence that the distant civilizations of North and South America engaged in commerce.  I was amazed to discover that items native to Mesoamerica were found in Chaco Canyon.  I have studied Chaco Canyon before but had not learned of the findings of macaw feathers and shells from Mesoamerica at Chaco Canyon.  This is a great distance these items would have had to travel by foot through much desert terrain.  It demonstrates the long distance commercial relationships of these distant civilizations.  

It is so interesting to me that one of the largest land animals of South America at the time, the llama, never made it to North America.  Although my experience and exposure to the llama is minimal, I understand domesticated llama’s could be good pack animals and provide good wool for making blankets and textiles.  I thought the diffusion of the llama would have matched that of maize corn, which originated in Mesoamerica and reached all the way to southwestern and eastern North America and much of South America.  Yet the dense tropical forest of Mesoamerica and the narrow Panama isthmus would have made it difficult to drag an Andes native animal such as the llama all the way to North America. 

Another surprise to me was in learning how different the Buddhist monasteries were along the Silk Roads juxtaposed to the traditional monasteries which shunned materialism.  Foreign merchant communities introduced Buddhism to northern China in the first century B.C.E.  The Buddhist monasteries along the Silk Road became wealthy as they were often built by Buddhist merchants.  The traditional begging bowl of the monks, were no longer utilized and became more of a symbol.  This doesn’t even sound like Buddhism to me.  Strayer also states, “Sculptures and murals in the monasteries depicted musicians and acrobats, women applying makeup, and even drinking parties” (223).  These luxuries do not align with Buddha’s teachings of three marks of existence: impermanence, suffering, and egolessness.  But this displays how religions and cultures were adapted and changed once introduced into another region.  In this instance the Buddhist monasteries were providing “culturally familiar places of rest and resupply for merchants making the long and arduous trek across Central Asia” (pg. 223).

It is also interesting how China adapted Buddhism into their civilization.  Buddhist monastic life conflicted with the Confucian tradition of family values.  The Confucian and very Chinese social homogenous order contradicted Buddhist “concern for individual salvation”  (pg. 263).  So what was China’s solution to this very individualistic and popular religion entering their civilization?  China filtered and translated the religion to adapt to their traditions and culture.  By changing the Indian concept of morality and translating it to “filial submission and obedience” (pg. 263), the Chinese could recognize these notions and abide by them.  And in the historical tradition of gender inequality (please excuse the sarcasm), China adapted the Buddhist ideal of a husband supporting his wife translating it to “husband controls wife” (pg. 264).  The diffusion, borrowing, and filtering of culture by way of commerce throughout the Classical Era is fascinating.