An Age of Accelerating Connections

The Silk Roads

As human civilizations continued to grow and expand, so did the idea of importing and exporting goods to and from distant lands.  This evolution of trade was the beginnings of what we now call the "global economy" and had significant consequences during the Classical era that have carried over into modern time.  The people of 500-1500 A.D. had greater interaction with others from different types of societies and cultures than had ever been seen.  The outcome of these interactions was sometimes good, sometimes bad, but always meaningful to how humans, and societies, continued to evolve.

Of the many developments the people of this time created to be able to transport their goods across the globe, the trade routes organized during this time were very important.  Three of these trade routes are were the Silk Roads, the Sea Roads, and the Sand Roads.  I am choosing to focus on the Silk Roads at this time because I find it fascinating that so much of human history was altered simply because some wealthy people wanted to wear fancy clothes.

The Silk Roads consisted of a network of exchange routes among the people of Eurasia during the seventh and eighth centuries, and then again in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and is named after one of the highly prized goods that passed along these routes: silk.  The Silk Roads relied on relay trade in which the product being moved is passed through the hands of many people, each at different points along the journey from where it was produced to where it was being delivered.  Since so many people were involved in this type of trade, the Silk Road was more prosperous when a large and powerful state, such as he Byzantine Empire or the Tang Dynasty, offered the merchants and traders protection along their journey.  his benefited both the state and the merchants because the merchants could safely deliver their wares and the state's economy prospered.

Silk was one of the most important goods that traveled these trade networks at this time because it was highly valued and, therefore was one of the few items that could make enough of a profit to compensate the high cost of sending it across Eurasia. Silk was highly coveted by elite and high-ranking people of Eurasia because it was used as a fashion statement and marked their status, as only the wealthy could afford such a product.  Silk was also used as a form of currency among some groups of people.  An interesting fact about the demand for silk was that women in China were in charge of making it for centuries and because of this, Chinese women were now in large contributors to the economy of their household.

As I said, along with the good came the bad.  With the travel of goods such as silk along the Silk Roads, disease traveled along as well.  At this time, each society had a distinct set of diseases that were often found within their own society.  The people of each society had discovered ways of coping with these diseases and had sometime become immune to them.  When traveling along the Silk Roads, people from different areas met, and many were infected with a disease that their own society was not accustomed to dealing with.  This produced outbreaks of disease and death, sometimes killing enough people from a certain area to weaken an entire state, and perhaps be a contributing factor to political collapse.

Along with changing the destinies of empires and dynasties, the Silk Roads actually changed Buddhism.  That's right, wealthy people's demand for fine clothing had the power to change a religion.  The merchants that traveled along the Silk Roads in India often were Buddhist, favoring its universal message to that of Hinduism that had strong ties to the caste system.  As these Buddhist merchants made their way along the Silk Roads and told the people they met through relay trade and spread Buddha's message.  The more wealthy merchants even created monasteries that were used as rest-stops for traveling people.  While people found shelter at these stops along their long journey, they learned of Buddhism and many converted.  Because of the fact that the more wealthy Buddhist merchants were able to meet with so many people, the religion changed from one that rejected the material world to one that embraced prospering from others and receiving, and accepting, gifts.  Buddha himself had never claimed to be a god or divine in any way, but, like a bad game of "telephone", this idea was lost along the Silk Roads.  Buddha was being seen by his new followers as a deity.  The gods of other religions seen along the Silk Roads were being incorporated into the religion as bodhisattvas, or one who could help the people reach enlightenment.

Today it is a given that commerce and trade happen in a global way and that each culture can have a direct impact on another.  One can find the distinctly American notion of fast food at McDonalds locations around the world, and I personally have chanted in Sanskrit to Hindu gods in my yoga classes in Redwood City.  To step back in time and think about how, for most of human history, people had little, if any, contact with others who had different ideas, cultural norms, and religions, one can see how quickly trade changed all of this.  First, trade and commerce connected people living nearby each other, and then connected people all over the world.  This influence that trade creates is still seen in the world today.  And just like in 1500 A.D., some of it is good, some is bad, but all of it is meaningful.

The "Golden Age" of China; Apparently Gold Only Glitters for Men

The Song Dynasty is considered to be the "golden age" of China because during this dynasty, China was wealthier than it had ever been due to a greater industrialization of goods, booming population, and highly commercialized society.  But the Song Dynasty also marks a time of great oppression of women.  With the development of the Silk Roads, women became large contributors to the economy because they were the ones producing the silk, but as the technology in China increased, women were being taking out of their roles as silk producers and were no longer seen as vital to China's economic success.

It is said that the rise of Confucianism had much to do with the subordination of women because of the Confucian idea that women should be subservient to men and that men and women should be kept separate in all aspects of life.  Women were seen to be a distraction to men in their quest for an introspective life.  Women in the Song Dynasty were taught to be docile and delicate

The best example of a method used to keep women meek and obedient was the prominence of foot binding performed in China during this time.  The term foot binding refers to the process of tightly wrapping a young girl's foot, so much so that the foot bones are broken.  This was done because it aligned with the Chinese ideal of female beauty at the time, which is to say small and frail.  It also served to keep women stuck in their homes because walking with bound feet was extremely painful.

The mothers of young girls were usually the one to perform the foot binding on their daughters.  People of today might be repulsed to think that a mother could do this to her own daughter, but we have to think of this in terms of the context of the time.  Mothers would do this "for" their daughters to increase the chance that she find a respectable husband.  The girls themselves saw foot binding as a rite of passage and were excited about the idea of wearing the fancy slippers that came along with small feet, which are ideas written about be women poets of the time.  Foot binding was also a way to distinguish an elite woman from the "barbarians" that did not take part in this practice.

It may seem to us now that the actual "barbarians" were those who supported the practice of foot binding and had their daughters go through this so-called rite of passage before they were old enough to think for themselves.  In actuality, this is just another example of basing a woman's worth on her physical appearance, which is something that still occurs today.  Woman of today often go to drastic measures to have their bodies match the current standard of female beauty.  Today we may not bind our feet, but many do go on extreme diets or exercise in excess to achieve the desired svelte physique, or spend hours (and millions of dollars a year) with makeup and hair products to make ourselves more attractive, and, when this doe not seem to be enough, we have plastic surgery-surgery! on purpose!  The mothers of today are no more innocent than those of the Song Dynasty.  Mothers teach their daughter how to look, and act if they want to find a husband, and often cause their daughters to have a negative self image.  "Do you really think you should  have that piece of cake?"  "You were cursed with my nose/hips/thighs/ect."  Foot binding is just another example of what has been going on for centuries, and what will most likely continue on for centuries to come, just in its own shape and form.