Spread of Religion

The striking similarity apparent when comparing the spread of Christianity to the spread of Judaism is the sort of commercialism and differing sects / branches which emerge as the religions become more widespread.

For example, the more radical, roudy traditions and rituals of original Jews were considerably toned down to make the religion appealing to those participating in more conservative belief systems - and to relieve some of the harsh persecution subjected to Jews. In the same way, participation in Egyptian, Episocopalian and other conservative sects of Christianity shot up rapidly as these branches were considered to be less extreme / invasive than their Roman Catholic counterparts.

As such, it is apparent that as religions spread to wider areas, numerous sects emerge which make religions more attractive to a wider, more conservative population.

After all, as George Bush has eloquently put it,

"Information is moving -- you know, nightly news is one way, of course, but it's also moving through the blogosphere and through the Internets."

Cultural Interactions

In Ancient times as well as today, cultural interactions remain a primary source of idea diffusion and artistic / technological development which directly benefit society in multiple ways.

In Peter Stearns's "Egypt and the Middle East..." for example, the Greeks lack of originality in their perceived "breakthroughs" is thoroughly documented and explained. Through frequent and consistent contact with Middle Eastern and Egyptian societies, in other words, cultural elements were slowly adopted by the Greeks to create, in part, the Grecco-Roman culture that predominates our society today. Clearly, then, most societies lack total originality in their accomplishments, and instead, owe many of their achievements to developments or adaptations of those belonging to other societies.

As is the famous saying, "Chew before you swallow - " George Dubbya

What is Syncretism?

As studied in our latest classes, syncretism is literally the blending of multiple ideas to create unique / new religions, languages, and elements of culture in general.

Specifically, we looked at how Buddhism underwent syncretism in various countries / regions in the world, including China, Japan, Korea and Southweast Asia. In Korea, for example, we learned that Buddhism gained traction economically through trade, and was shaped primarily around the traditional beliefs of native Koreans. In Japan, we learned that Buddhism was also spread through merchant / trade-based contacts with Central Asians, although we noted that Japan had infinitly more religious elements (namely shrines, statues and pagodas) than its pennisula-situated counterpart.

Thus, it became clear to us the importance of syncretism in all elements of world history, as epitomized in the famous quote,

“Don't worry about the horse being blind, just load the wagon”

- John Madden

The Epic First Post (Thursday, November 15)

Yesterday in class, we were told to reflect on one AP World Theme over the course of our first quarter, and I chose to do the Development and Interaction of Cultures.

In the first quarter, when we covered the time period of 8000-600 BCE, a great majority of the unit was centered on the development of world religions, offering a greater extention of the material covered in Global 9. Specifically, we analyzed the gender roles of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Hinduism in great depth; and we looked at many documents (both primary and secondary sources) which covered many aspects of Hindu, Buddhist and Confucian life.

Outside of religion, we also viewed different elements of technology and the spread of such technology in many different world regions; specifically the way writing systems impacted the future of the world.

Over all, it has been a wonderful first quarter, and I look forward to the next unit, which I will continue to blog on.

-Nick