Religion has always fascinated me. This is because of the differences between them. I guess in life we all have different beliefs and we learn from our families what to believe. For me I am a Christian, but I don't push my beliefs onto another person. From the history of Christianity it appears I'm unusual because they started out pushing and still continue til this day. This explains why people shy away when they hear you are a christian. Our world has gone through a lot of major changes and i believe religion has put down the rules to live by weather you are a christian or some other religion. We have to have social rule, religion keeps us in line. We all fear death at some point, and because of this we need to hang onto the possibility of life after death. I will always believe in god, but i have now chosen to just believe in god and not religion. This is because there is a lot of hypocrisy out there. People now have a chose as to how they believe spiritually, it is through religion that we live out our lives without hurting another person. We do this with the promise of life after death. According to our book it has been a long hard road for religion, we have fought each other for centuries and continue to do so even til this day. You would think we would have an open mind enough to realize we all believe in our own way but not according to the history. There has to be a place we could all agree but for some people they want physical proof. We just have to decide what is right in our heart of hearts, and that nobody except god has all the answers.

   It is fascinating to me to read about the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. It seems to me humans have come so far but not without lots of bloodshed along with enslaving a race or a sex. Women didn't seem to have any importance except to feed and care for these men who fought the wars, sailed the ships and ruled the world. This actually has made me appreciate our world today more. Though i still think men are still trying to rule the world with their women behind them.
   When i was in school we thought Columbus was such a great man and now we come to find out he was a horrible man was a not much of a surprise. Why would we put such an importance on him? Was it because he founded America? Actually the Indians were here first, so he really didn't. I also think those Indians came from Mexico and south America during the migration period, because the lands are connected or not far to sail with a boat. I have also always loved the romanticism of the Renaissance period, though there was a lot of politically stuff going on in the world not to mention the recovery of the Plague.The movies now a days make it all seem so perfect. A time men romanced their women and fought wars and came back heroes. While part of this is true it wasn't as perfect as they portrayed. It appalls me at the fight for who is to rule and the enslavement of many people. Power and wealth seem to be on the minds of all the empires. Also how the church seem to encourage the beliefs of society back then. They all tried to get everyone to believe that their religion was the correct one. For this, they had to kill each other is just crazy. It also fascinates me in how much we discovered about ourselves and how we learned to live in such a hard time.

CHINA

   It has been interested in reading about the formation of our cultures as humans. We have really created a lot of social rule along the way. The one thing that was appalling to me though was the practice of binding the feet of a Chinese women in the name of beauty and status. This was painful and what where they thinking?Women have had such a hard time since the beginning of time, and this seems like torture to me.

   This practice started in the "golden age" of the Song dynasty. Chinese women of the Tang dynasty influence, in the north participated in this practice.  Confucian writers highlighted the subordination of women and men to separate them. They felt a boy leads a girl, so a man should lead a women. Men were to be masculine, be able to ride horseback, and have all the values of a warrior. Women were thought to be week,reticence and delicacy. (pg,371,Strayer)

    Foot binding began with the dancers and courtesans in the 10th and 11th centuries. This is were a tight wrapping was placed on a young girls feet to keep her feet small. This also broke her bones, and causing her lots of pain. This practice spread widely among the elite families and later became more wide spread in Chinese society.It was associated with with images of beauty, and eroticism emphasizing small size, frailty, and deference. It served to keep women restricted to the inner quarters.Many mothers would did this to enhance their daughters marriage prospects, and to get attention from their husbands.These women who practiced this binding of the feet became a right to passage and a source of pride of their tiny feet and beautiful slippers. Foot binding also distinguished these  Chinese women from their barbarian counterparts (commoners and peasants). (pg 372,Stayer)

    To me this practice was unnecessary and Chinese women are beautiful without altering their bodies. Not to mention it doesn't look right, how can this possibly be attractive?While, I understand why they did this (from the read), I don't understand why they felt they had to put their young women though this and deforming their feet. Of course, I'm a modern American women who would never consider this for my daughter, she already has beautiful feet nature gave her.