Blog # 10

Journal # 10

The ethics of collecting and preserving cultural property

For this journal, since we had to read 3 different pieces, I decided to put down all the important notes I learned after reading each article. So here is the summary of what I found out when I did (my homework) this week:

·      UNESCO made several decrees about race, starting in 1950 after WWll

·      Back then, the idea behind race held a genetic ideology and the mean of UNESCO was to change the general believe

·      The result was the book of race concept, later it produced a Proposal on the Biological Aspect of Race

·      One of the chief achievements of UNESCO was the General Conference of the Convention Against discrimination in Education

·      Over time, the definition for human being changed and it became a race-less definition, we are all humans regardless of what race we belong to.

·      One just has to look at the close to 10 million dollars spent on the protection and revivification of culturally significant sites in Afghanistan rather than the spending that money on infrastructure projects that will go much further to enrich the lives of the Afghanis

·      The world and Afghanistan is better off now that they are not under the finger of Taliban just as any country is better off who are allowed to freely choose among a variety officials

·      UNESCO’s early activities in the field of culture included, for example, the Nubia Campaign, launched in 1960

·      UNESCO implements its activities through the five programme areas of Education, Natural Sciences, Social and Human Sciences, Culture, and Communication and Information.

·      CAME) began meetings in London which continued between 16 November 1942 to 5 December 1945. On 30 October 1943, the necessity for an international organization was expressed in the Moscow Declaration, agreed upon by China, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and the USSR

Blog # 10

Blog # 9

 The article by Hirstchkind and Mahmood depicts two points: The crucial role the United States had played in creating the miserable conditions under which Afghan women were living; and secondly, a whole set of questionable assumptions, anxieties, and prejudices embedded in the notion of Islamic fundamentalism.

Another important point that was mentioned in the article was the fact that the Feminist Majority made no attempts to join the calls issued by a number of humanitarians Organizations--including the Afghan Women's Mission-to halt the bombing so that food might have been transported to the Afghans before winter set in, which played an imperative role in inequality between men and women.

Attitudes about the proper place of public religious morality in modern Islamic societies, and in particular how such morality is seen to shape and constrain women's behavior. The Taliban in many ways have become a potent symbol of all that liberal public opinion regards as grievously wrong with Islamic societies these days, proof of the intense misogyny long ascribed to Islam, and most emphatically to those movements within Islam referred to as fundamentalist.

That from the rubble left behind by the game of super power politics played out on Afghan bodies and communities, we can only identify the misogynist machinations of the Islamic fundamentalist

testifies to the power this image bears, and the force it exerts on our political imagination.

There was a statement in the article that really shock me and that was: “A Muslim woman can only be one  of two things, either uncovered, and therefore liberated, or veiled, and thus still, to some degree, subordinate”. This says so much about how the society is structured in a patriarchal way that it might seem women have options but deep down they don’t have an option.

Blog # 7

The three scholar pieces, Missiological Reflections on Nestorian Christianity in China during the Tang Dynasty by David Bundy, Daily Life in the Capital by Valerie Hansen, and Golden Peaches of Samarkand by Edward Schafer, although different, they all mention the influence of “others” on the Chinese culture, specifically, on the city of Chang’an in particular, during the Tang period.   

In order to understand each piece, I will break down each article and then draw a common conclusion for all.

The first article, Daily life in the Capital, focuses on the commercial as well as cultural exchanges that occurred in Chang’an, a major city in the Tang dynasty. At first the author explains the layout of the city, and then discuss the 2 major features of the city. This article as opposed to Bundy’s is more personal and gives to the reader a sense of what it was actually like living in Chang’an at the time.

The second article deals with the existence of Nestorian Christians in Tang China. It relied deeply on the teachings of its monks and Nestorian Christian life centered on the monasteries’ activities. The Nestorian Christians in China had accomplished much, however they failed to have a very profound impact in China and not much of a following compared to Buddhism and Manichaeism. The Nestorians left Mesopotamia and travelled East most likely because of being separated by the growing Islamic existence, which sidelined the other pre-existing traditions in the region.

The third article, Golden Peaches of Samarkand focuses on all the foreign contact experienced by the Chinese in the city of Chang’an during the Tang period through mainly commercial trade. The foreign contact ranges from the Tang Chinese’s trade with the Malayan Indians to Persians to the Japanese.  The author of this article mainly details the attitude of the Chinese faced by foreigners entering China, either by land or by sea. 

Blog # 6

Based on Sarah E. Fraser’s essay on “the Artist’s sketches and techniques of copying”, it is a remarkable piece into the pre-modern artistic practices.

The first type of drawing employed that she covers is preparatory sketches which are characterized by their absent anatomical detail and physical form.

The second type utilizes leap, which is a very smart way of duplicating a single image on multiple.

The Third type of drawing is a sketch that was done in preparation for paintings to be completed on silk.

The fourth type was utilized in religious practices and mandalas. The last type utilized was a practice sketch.

Overall, the cave sites at Dunhuang, based on Fraser’s reading, seem to have been a rich artistic community dedicated to the visual maintenance religious themes.

They were so great that Fraser claims that the artists at Dunhuang were commissioned and paid (via food or money) by local rulers and the Imperial army.

I found this reading interesting and mentioned the main points I captured.