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Introduction

Welcome to Sculpting Humanity! I’ll be using this as a space to voice my understanding of topics covered in my East Asian Humanities course in the Fall of 2021. This is my first blog so this will be a journey in many ways. 

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Ethics in Archaeology

This week while learning about the Silk Road, I ended up obsessively pondering ethics (or lack thereof) in archeology. I attempted to research further, to dig myself out of this negative thought spiral but at this point I doubt I'll be able to walk through a museum without questioning if all of the artifacts on display were obtained nefariously. I guess the best way to explain how I got to this point is to start where I began, the Silk Road.  The Silk Road was made up of numerous trade routes that enabled the flow of goods and ideas between the Middle East, Asia, and Europe from 130 BCE and 1453 CE. Among the many outposts that existed along these routes was Dunhuang, China, which would become a hub for Buddhism along the Silk Road with 15 monasteries by the 10th century. This wasn't unusual since many religions spread along the trade routes but what made this stop exceptional were the caves that Buddhists carved out to serve as places of worship. Dunhuang (Mogao) Caves The inc...
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Superior Man versus the Superior Person

The Period of Warring States was a turbulent time in China's history. As feudal lords fought for power, a large number of philosophies emerged to make sense of life in trying times. Among the most notable of these burgeoning schools of thought were Confucianism and Daoism which, along with Buddhism, would become known as The Three Teachings in ancient China.  Confucius handing a baby Guatama Buddha to the elderly Laozi,  Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=858723 Confucianism and Daoism were both born from the idea that a healthy, thriving society needs to be in harmony with the natural order (for Confucianism that was the natural order of society and human relationships, for Daoism that was the natural order of man's relationship with nature). The two schools also agreed that this ideal required specific kinds of people to see it through. "Like the Confucianists, the Daoists believed that the solution depended on the fashioning of a "new pe...
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Perspective and Learning about the Indus Valley Civilization

Perspective is a funny thing. Consider a scenario where you have two sources of historical information covering the same topic. What information do they have in common? What information does one source choose to omit or condense that the other source focuses on? Why would there be significant differences between sources? This is what ran through my mind as I discovered more about the incredible Indus Valley Civilization using two main sources: chapter one of  Awakening: An Introduction to the History of Eastern Thought  by Patrick S. Bresnan and the video  Indus: The Unvoiced Civilization.  In this post I’ll briefly compare and contrast how Bresnan and  Indus  explored the Indus Valley people and consider why the two sources would vary. The achievements of the Indus Valley Civilization are astounding. Both Bresnan and Indus outlined the sophisticated and complex structures of the cities built by the Indus Valley people. These cities were built using a gri...
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