LINKS: SW ASIA ~ AFRICA ~ MAPPING OF TIME AND SPACE ~ SOUTH ASIA ~ EAST ASIA

The webis a wonderful resource for enhancing your understanding of many topics in this course. Just as with the rest of the historical record, be wary of your sources, and conscious of their motives for posting their own versions of history, but do not be afraid to search outside of these links and feel free to contact me if you need some guidance.

TRADITIONS AND ENCOUNTERS

Our primary textbook Traditions and Encounters has a fabulous website complete with chapter outlines, amazing interactive maps, and links to other great articles and supplemental information on the areas of world history you find most compelling. I suggest visiting here often.

HUMAN BEGINNINGS

Interactive Maps
Track the Global Spread of Hominids and Homo Sapiens

Bushes and Ladders
In class we discussed Stephen Jay Gould's theory that changed the way we think about the process of evolution. His original article can be found in his book Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History first published in 1977 and reissued in 1992. Since then the theory has been revised and expanded upon.

The web has many critical summaries of the theory and articles written by Gould you can find with a simple keyword search. Here is a taste of one of many of his articles found on the web, The Evolution of Life on Earth by Stephen Jay Gould: "Sigmund Freud often remarked that great revolutions in the history of science have but one common, and ironic, feature: they knock human arrogance off one pedestal after another of our previous conviction about our own self-importance....Why should humans appear at the end of all sequences? Our order of primates is ancient among mammals, and many other successful lineages arose later than we did."

Evolutionary Controversy
Almost daily the way we view the path of evolutionary history and politics evolves with new discoveries. Here are some of the most controversial and recent but a broad search on the subject in any news or current events pages will yield thousands of articles. What really happened to Neanderthals? Did our species mate with other now-extinct human species? What is the new Ethiopian find and how does it fit in with bushes and ladders as we know it? Does the skull found recently in Georgia prove that we did not require a big brain to migrate out of Africa? Were Native Americas the first species to populate the Americas or did they possibly have early transatlantic or transpacific guests? Did the infamous Lucy have a contemporary species that didn't survive?

The Smithsonian also keeps relatively up to date with the most recent developments on their site if you want to keep up on all the latest news but the Institute of Human Origins has the most comprehensive reference site including an interactive glossary of terms and trends.

Modern Day Hunter-Gatherer Societies
Websites about the !Kung San, Mbuti, Yanomami, Kayapo and the many other modern hunter-gatherer groups abound. A classic book on the subject is the The Forest People by Colin Turnbull. To hear a bit of the Forest People's (remember, used to be called Pygmies) music, click here.

SW ASIA (Middle East)

Modern Maps
Again, maps are abundant on the web but the University of Texas at Austin has a great collection.

Ancient Maps
Interactive Map of the Mesopotamian Empires 1800-600 BCE

Gilgamesh and the Flood
Even if you don't believe that the Biblical Flood story was borrowed from the Gilgamesh Epic, it is still fun to read some of these early folktales about a famous Mesopotamian leader.

Semitic Origin of Cain and Abel and Adam and Eve?
A web search on the subject will bring up much more evidence for the THEORY I proposed about the possible folk origins of some stories in the bible. I also have several papers on the subject I can get for you if you ask me and suggest you check out Ishmael by Daniel Quinn (especially Chapter 9 but the whole book is worth a read, you may remember its film debut Instinct with Cuba Gooding Jr, a TERRIBLE adaptation of the book)..

AFRICA

Modern Maps
Check out the University of Texas at Austin or this interactive version from infoplease.

Ancient Maps
Interactive Map of the Mesopotamian Empires (including Egypt) 1800-600 BCE

Map of Ancient Kemet.

Map of Ancient Nubia.

Interactive Map of Sub-Saharan Africa 800-1500 BCE

Another fun interactive map of Ancient Egyptian Architecture that allows you to click on a city and see its most famous monument.

Ancient Africa Sites
There are thousands of excellent Ancient Africa sites. For those with from an Afro-Centric perspective, search for key Afro-Centric scholars like Molefi Asante, Maulana Karenga, and Cheik Anta Diop (the archaeologist of the group). There are many articles available by Cheik Anta Diop which use archaeological evidence to show how the civilizations of Kemet and Nubia were the first.

A great Ancient Africa site.

A great Nubian culture and history site.

Listen to recordings of folktales told by traditional Griot, African storytellers.

MAPPING OF TIME AND SPACE

"Cartographers construct the world, they do not reproduce it. Places are where they are, but maps represent them where the mapmakers want them (or need them, or think them) to be. Every map, then, has an author, a subject and a theme (or themes). No map is a neutral document. All reflect efforts of one kind or another to impose oneself (or one's culture) on physical space. A map is an interpretation that needs, in turn, to be interpreted." Maps, Myths, and Multiple Realities, Richard Smith.

Great book on cartography for more information.

Lots of links to various maps

Some Mappaemundi Examples (Maps from the Middle Ages 1200-1500 CE)

Animated World Maps from 1500

SOUTH ASIA (India)

Modern Maps
Check out the University of Texas at Austin.

Ancient Maps
The Mauryan and Gupta empires, 321 B.C.E.-550 C.E.

Ancient South Asia
A great site about Harrapan Society.

Read this for an interesting perspective on the "myth of the Aryan invasion": did the Aryans really conquer wandering nomads or was there already a thriving civilization in place?

Vedas and Upanishads
A great site for all the religious works of South Asia. Read some sacred hymns from the Rig Veda. More on the Vedas and Upanishads here. A well laid out excerpt and analaysis of one of the Upanishads. Here is a nice summary of the vedas.

Arthashastra Law Book
The Arthashastra law book from c. 250 BCE. Read for policies on virgins and kings and other exciting social laws.

The Mahabharata and the Ramayana
A great site for all the religious works of South Asia. Here is a nice short summary of these holy works. Short summary of the Mahabharata. Legend of the Ramayana.

Caste System
A recent Human Rights Watch report about treatment of the Untouchables in modern India.

Jainism
Two good sites on Jainism. The first provides excerpts from holy writings and summaries of beliefs. The second has a wonderful smattering of various articles and primary sources about Jainist beliefs.

Buddhism
For a great entrance into Buddhism, check out Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, a quick but valuable read. For an interesting discussion about the Buddha and his significance see this article.

Hinduism

There are tons of sites on the net about Hinduism like this one, just search by that keyword. Brief summary of Hinduism. Current hot topics in hinduism. A great site for all the religious works of South Asia.

EAST ASIA (China)

Modern Maps
East Asia

Ancient Maps
The Song Dynasty 960-1279 CE
China Under the Quin Dynasty 221-207 BCE

Ancient East Asia
For more detailed information on lots of topics, visit the Ancient China On-Line Index. Some pretty cool archaeological artifacts with descriptions of their location and significance including the Tomb of the First Emperor.

Silk was also such and important aspect of life in Ancient East Asia. See how to raise your own silk worms.

Chinese Writing (Oracle Bones, Bamboo, and Bronze)

Confucius
The Analects on-line

Lao Tze
The complete TaoDeChing! Two good quick introductions to the faith from the comparative viewpoint of our own culture are the Tao of Pooh and the Te of Piglet.

Legalism
Read these two excerpts (one, two) from Han Feizi, a Legalist theorist and compare to those of Taoism and Confucism.

Qin Kingdom
This guy is seriously infamous worldwide for his book burning policies and the giant underground army buried to protect him.

Early History of Korea
Here's a nice summary.