The Spread

Blog Entry #5

Based on the readings, it seems Zoroastrian ideas were incredibly influential on many other traditions. Their influence extended onto Hinduism and Judaism, yet Zoroastrianism is today rarely seen as a major religion.

What I found surprising from the reading was that some of the largest Zoroastrian populations are situated in North America. It seems its fate as a reilgion lies with its diasporic population. Zoroastrianism started in Central Asia, around present-day Persia, and migrated east towards India, with strong populations in the present-day provinces of Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Zoroastrianism features a dualistic world view, where reality is divided up into two separate spheres, one as the "light" sphere and the other as the "dark" sphere. During the Indo-Aryan period, roughly around the time of the Vedic period in Hinduism, migrations of Aryan people, some identifying as Zoroastrian, came the Indian subcontinent. Rather than an invasion, as some Indo-Aryan theories suggest, this period featured a veritable osmosis of people, ideas and cultures. It was roughly at this time that the Vedic scriptures were recorded. Hindu knowledge went from mainly oral mediums, where information was passed through spoken word, to recorded canons of existential thought. Some similarities became present at this time between Zoroastrianism and Hinduism, inlcuding thoughts towards purity and pollution of the body (female menstruation being one of the polluters).

As mentioned in a previous blog entry, the inter-influence of cultures in Asia was evident. For those into old-school Bollywood, newer styles of Indian Kathak dance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathak were heavily influenced by Persian styles under the Mughal court. For your audio/visual pleasure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJOkkUOU7UQ

Blog Entry # 4

The term 'religion' is so complex its hard to even begin to define it. Through my studies in the topic of religion, the term seems to mean anything from a set of rituals, to doctrinal beliefs to solid social cohesion centered around specific factors.

In another religion class I am taking about gender in Asian traditions, one of the first concepts put into focus was the term religion itself. Its linguistic roots tie it to the idea of comparing different ideas with Christianity. These ideas that were compared were rituals and cosmic worldviews. Although these studies sought to compare and differentiate, they were never quite free from bias. A scholar of early religious study may seek to legitimize their own beliefs and practices by undermining the cosmic legitimacy of other traditions he/she may study.

As mentioned in class, the study of religion in the context of this course serves to unpack religion as a phenomenon, rather than a streamlined, catergorised set of rituals and doctrines. This would include how and why certain religious doctrines were accepted and reinforced in certain periods of time as well as different cultural climates.

BLog Entry 3

In a course I am taking this semester on south Asian history, it seems there had been much cultural and religious syncretism within the subcontinent through the ages. However, the professor stresses that the groups who merged together during certain periods were not completely homogeneous groups or clans, each section is the product of many cultural, social and religious influences from every frontier. Through our journey through the Silk Road and its people, it is easy to see my professors point; among the many populations along the Silk Road, it seems they all had influenced one and other in different ways. One example looked at this week were the Sogdians, an important Aryan group within commerce and trade along the Silk Road. Chinese texts express the Sogdians as sharp in matters of business, they in turn became administrators in China. They left evidence of their presence in present-day northern Pakistan, but the most important Sogdian documents are 5 letters recovered in 1907 by Aurel Stein. Two of the letters concern trade among the writers, while in the other letters, the writers express differing anxieties, including a woman whose husband had abandoned her. While we can see through the letters regarding trade that commerce was important to the Sogdians, is it fair to conclude that any of the other anxieties expressed were also shared by the greater population? To base that notion on a handful of letters seems wrong.

Blog Entry 2

Skimming through the Han Hanshu, I am glad I decided to go with reading the textbook first. While there is a veritable scroll-load of information here, it doesn't really pique my interest the way Wood's reading did. While some sections on specific regions get into details of the rulers' dealing and specific events among officials, other sections get nothing more than a brief inventory of their trade-able goods (as seen in the text, women sometimes fell under this category). The accounts show approval of the Kingdom of Da Qin (the Roman Empire), claiming that the people are "tall and honest" with consistent rates for trade.

Blog Entry 1

For the early European travellers, the attraction to the East was rooted in the trade of its material goods such as silks, spices and precious stones. These foreign, exotic objects travelled long ways along the Silk Road to catch the eye of the West. Centuries later, the Church would take interest in the Silk Road and its abundance of religious practices and philosophies, sending missionaries to account the diverse traditions. Naturally, much of these accounts would come from a highly subjective, often fetishizing point of view.

Although very different today, it seems as though the fetishization of the East is still present. Popular culture associates less mystery surrounding the East, but we have come to expect deep knowledge and wisdom, relief from constipation http://www.drhonow.com/skin1/images/new/abtrimer.jpg , not to mention the latest fat-burning techniques http://www.iamnotobese.com/loose-stomach-fat.php from the East. Despite our heavily globalized world, how much of the present-day Western pop cultured perceptions of the East are implicitly based on these old, Euro-centric accounts of the Silk Road?