Chapter Eight: Commerce and Culture

Trade was an important form of becoming cosmopolitan. It was crucial to have canal for trade. The Silk Road mainly consisted of the trade of silk. To be cosmopolitan was to have influences from different cultures. Other than good that were traded, beliefs and traditions and rituals were all adopted with n the interaction of different cultures. I think we sometimes forget that we are so multi diverse that we forget that in other arts of the world they are so black and white about things. I know we have advanced so much throughout this time period (500-1500) but it’s just so crazy to think that we are so fortunate to embrace different cultures and ideas that another times we would have been in prison or killed for questioning the way things were set up. Some of the negative consequences of the trade road were diseases that were caught or passed along the way. We all connected at one point and depended heavily when it came to trading. I thought it was curious that one on the eldest and successful and longest indigenous group to ever exist the Mayan dismissed the Andean civilization. For that reason they dismissed ever having the llama, potato or the writing system contribute to Mesoamerican culture. I am half Guatemalan and it was very interesting to read how The Mayan culture managed to do well with out very little connection with other parts of the world. They established their own way of writing, rituals and land-based trade within their region.