Reflection #3: Ch.7, 8 & 10

Ch.7 

In this chapter  I liked learning about the sand and sea trading routes, and the silk road. The Sand and Sea Roads were trading routes. The Sand Road went from Africa to the Mediterranean Sea, and the some of the things they traded were slaves and ivory. The people traveled by camel because they had to travel by desserts and camels don’t need a lot of water. The Sea Road was another trading route that went from Arica to India and China. This road was traveled by sea in big boats. Some of the things traded by the people in this road were Ivory, spice, and minerals. The Silk Road did not only trade goods like silk and gold, but they also spread the Buddhist belief and even helped people convert. The Silk Road went through China and India, and as the people traveled by food, carts, and animals, they spread the Buddhist belief among the people they traveled with and the people they came in contact with.

Ch.8

I have to say that I found the picture of the foot binding on page 372 very disturbing. I can imagine the pain the little girls felt as their foot grew and that makes me feel very sad. I personally think that there was no need for them to do that. 

I also did not like reading about how women had to be subordinate to the men during the song Dynasty. "The boy leads the girl, the girl follows the boy; the duty of husbands to be resolute and wives to be docile begins with this" (Strayer p371). I strongly disagree with this, I come from a culture where till this day, some men in the country I come from  (Mexico) still see and treat women as inferior. This is something I do not tolerate and strongly disagree with. I believe in equality and both men and women should be treated equally. No man is superior than a woman.

Ch.10

In this chapter, the thing that caught my attention was the section about the crusades. I think that they could have done things differently. There was no need to force people to believe in something. How is forcing someone to believe in something (especially religion) considered a true believer. I think that the roman catholic church is paying for the mistakes they did in the past, when they imposed their beliefs onto people. There were a lot of innocent people affected by this and I being a catholic myself feel a bit embarrassed for what the crusades did in the past.