Readings for September 22nd

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Trip Start Sep 19, 2009 Trip End Ongoing

  Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Sunday, September 20, 2009

What struck me most about the first three chapters of Wood was why it would ever cross anyone's mind to cross the Taklamakan in the first place.  Further, the notion of crossing it with the equipment and resources available to medieval travellers is even more unnerving.  I suppose it is demonstrative of the powerful lure of potential wealth generated by the trade routes that developed along the oases.  Also intriguing was how carefully the trade monopoly was protected, in so far as keeping silk production solely under Chinese control for hundreds of years.

I have made my way through the first three parts of Hopkirk, and I am overwhelmed by the audacity of early Western archaeologists who did not seem to question their right to remove ancient artifacts (or at least this is not mentioned by Hopkirk).  It was all too typical of Western expansion to assume sovereingty over what they came across and infer that peoples they encountered were somehow lesser or endowed with less autonomy.

 Interestingly, Hopkirk points out the ancient Chinese had a similar "deeply rooted sense of superiorty" towards foreigners.  I can't help but wonder how early western explorers and ancient Chinese autocrats managed to do business with one another, considering how each group was convinced of its own superiority.  And why then the lure of exotic imports, if one's native wares were assumed to be superior?



Here is a video of processing silk worm coccoons. I was blown away by the text's description of how complicated it was to make silk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXh-Mpti4dc

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