In the Middle-East part, Abu-Lughod discusses 3 trade routes (northern, southern, and middle) in Asia and how they were working together for the first time in centuries. The Mongols based their economy on taxing trade routes that were under their control and overtaking the oppressed. Because of this constant need to conquer, their economy was unstable to say the least. As a result of the Mongol’s taking over Baghdad, the Persian Gulf trade routes suffered thus proving that external factors can have an effect. Arab merchants were very highly developed in many areas of the trading culture which lead to a new class of whole-sale merchants. Although this new class made quite a bit of money, their downfall was son brought on by the Black Death. This wasn’t the only class that took a hit—all social levels were affected. This in turn caused states to enforce new rules with higher production quotes to maintain productivity. Egypt’s role in the world system was debilitated by its inability to launch its power into other areas.
This part of the book was structured much the same as the first. There was a lot of material covered and all of it factually based. Because of this it was kind of hard to get through. I’ll be honest history isn’t my favorite (or best) subject, so reading this is a struggle for me. The chapter that included the Black Death and how much of an impact it had on virtually all parts of society was the most interesting to me.
I’m taking psych of death and dying along with this social theory course. In one of the first lectures for my psych class, we went over how impacting these infectious diseases were—but back then they couldn’t do anything about it. Their public health systems and practices were so poor compared to what we have now, not to mention the improvements made not only medically with vaccines and antibiotics, but with the standard of living in general. We went over 4 proposed ages: 1. Of pestilence and famine 2. Of receding pandemics 3. Of degenerative and man-made diseases and 4. Of increasing pestilence and infectious diseases. It is said that we are in between ages 3 and 4—meaning the 4th age is merely proposed. Do you think we will regress back to these infectious diseases? There is a lot of talk of the world ending in 2012….
I don't think we could regress back to times of infectious diseases unless we don't ever figure out how to manage our natural resources and we literally use up everything this world has to offer. If that were to happen I can imagine disease spreading like wildfire. However, I feel that will be unlikely because at some point we're going to start making better use of this world or we will all die. Why was the 4th age propose in your class and what did you learn about it?
ReplyDeleteThe question you posed in very interesting. I feel that it is on many peoples minds with current events and the up coming year. I think we must look beyond just infectious diseases because the diseases we used to fear have been controlled, but diseases that develop could have a great impact.
ReplyDelete