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Common Errors in English Usage and More Reading About the World: A Reader for the Study of World Civilizations

Lecture 27: Sub-Saharan Africa

(Duiker 210-222)

Questions about Duiker: *What were the various relationships between Kush and Egypt? *What was the name of an ancient capital of Kush? *Where is Saba, and what relationship did it have with Axum? *What were the main exports and imports of Axum? *To what religion did the Axumite rulers convert in the fourth century CE? *What traditional African religious beliefs conflicted with Islam?

Lecture topics:
Geography
Barriers to travel, trade
Neolithic Sudanic Cultures
Changing climate in the Sarhara
The Nok culture
Zimbabwe
Architectural achievements
Traditional agriculture
Ancient origins
Techniques in dry areas
Early Ethiopian Civilizations
Kush
Relations with Egypt
Architecture
Aksum
Architecture
Ethiopian Christianity

Supplementary materials:

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Lecture 32a: Japanese Culture

(Duiker 301-306; Brians 195-198, 204-209)

Questions about Duiker: *What have been the main influences of China upon Japan? *In what ways did ancient Japan differ from China? How did Japanese nature painting differ from Chinese nature painting? What do the seventeen rocks in the Ryoanji Temple garden represent?

Questions about the Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon: Which is the only season about which she has something negative to say? *What aspects of life in the women’s apartments does she enjoy? *What qualities make a bad lover?

Questions about Japanese Poetry: *Select two examples of images from nature being used in these poems to convey feelings and explain them. How does Ono no Komachi use the symbol of cherry blossoms? What sorts of feelings seem to be associated with autumn in Japanese poetry? *How do Prince Otsu and Lady Ishikawa use the same imagery to express contrasting ideas? What does the tangled seaweed remind the poet of in Hitomaro’s poems? Why in his last poem does he say “I loved her like the leaves?” In what way was she like the leaves? Why can’t he feed the child? *Why does he go off into the hills? What theme unites all of Lady Kasa’s poems?

Lecture topics:

  • Buddhist art
  • Architecture
  • Art
    • Pottery
    • Sculpture
    • Painting
  • Literature
    • The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon
    • Lady Murasaki: The Tale of Genji
    • Japanese poetry

Supplementary materials:

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Reading About the World, Vol. 2

reader_cover_2Reading About the World, Volume 2, edited by Paul Brians, Mary Gallwey, Douglas Hughes, Azfar Hussain, Richard Law, Michael Myers Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan Swan.

This anthology prints short selections sharply focussed on major topics of interest to beginning students of World Civilizations. It combines traditional historical sources with literary and philosophical selections.

 

 

 

By clicking on the hotlinks below you can access samples from Reading About the World, Volume 2. The third edition was published by Harcourt Brace Custom Publishing, 1999.

 

Additional selections not included in the printed version of the reader are marked with an asterisk (*).

Africa 1500-1750

*Selections marked are supplementary readings omitted from the 2nd edition of Reading About the World.

Reading About the World, Volume 1

Reading About the World is now out of print. You can search for used copies using the following information:Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 1, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-567425-0 or Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 2, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-512826-4.

Try Chambal:
http://www.chambal.com/csin/9780155674257/ (vol. 1)
http://www.chambal.com/csin/9780155128262/ (vol. 2)

For all other queries, write Paul Brians at paulbrians@gmail.

General Education home page

Richard Hooker’s World Civilizations reader

Washington State University home page

paulbrians@gmail.com

Reading About the World, Vol. I

reader_cover_1Reading About the World, Volume 1, edited by Paul Brians, Mary Gallwey, Douglas Hughes, Azfar Hussain, Richard Law, Michael Myers Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan Swan.

This anthology prints short selections sharply focussed on major topics of interest to beginning students of World Civilizations. It combines traditional historical sources with literary and philosophical selections.

 

 

 

By clicking on the hotlinks below you can access samples from Reading About the World, Volume 1. The third edition was published in 1999 by Harcourt Brace Custom Publishing.

 

  • Mesopotamia
  • Enuma Elish: The Babylonian Creation Epic
  • The Epic of Gilgamesh: The Flood Story
  • Three fragments describing evil spirits
  • Sumer-Akkadian Hymn to Ishtar
  • Hymn to the Moon God, Nanna
  • The Code of Hammurabi, extracts
  • Sumerian Proverbs
  • Babylonian Proverbs
  • Egypt
  • Hymn to Sekhmet-Bast
  • Hymn to Osiris
  • Three Love Poems from the New Kingdom
  • Dialogue of a Man With His Soul
  • In Praise of Learned Scribes
  • Hymn to the Aton of Akhnaton
  • Japanese Poetry: from the Manyoshu and other early collections
    • Imayo from the Heike Monogatari
    • Various Japanese Poetry 
    • Lady Horikawa: Will he always love me?
    • Kakinomoto Hitomaro: In the sea of ivy clothed Iwami
    • Kakinomoto Hitomaro: I loved her like the leaves
    • Lady Kasa: Six Tanka written for Otomo Yakamochi
  • The Islamic World
  • The Qur’an
  • Sa’di: Story from the Gulistan
  • Sufi Verse: Hafiz, Rumi
  • Nizami: Layla and Majnun
  • Ibn Hazm al-Andalusi: The Dove’s Necklace
  • Wallada: To Ibn Zaidun
  • Firdausi: The Struggle Between Esfandiyar and Goshtasp
  • Usamah Ibn-Mundqidh: The Character and Customs of the Franks
  • The European Middle Ages
  • Hildegard of Bingen: Hymn to the Virgin
  • Tommaso di Celano: Dies irae, dies illa*
  • Stabat mater dolorosa
  • The Wife’s Lament
  • The Will of Wulfgyth
  • Anna Comnena: The Alexiad
  • Omittamus Studia from Carmina Burana
  • La Comtessa de Dia: Estat ai en greu cossirier
  • Provençal Dawn Song
  • Dante Alighieri: The Inferno: Canto 3
  • St. Thomas Aquinas: On Moral Principles & On Faith and Reason
  • The Black Death: From The Chronicle ofJean de Venette
  • Subsaharan Africa
  • Bamba Suso: The Epic of Sunjata
  • Ibn Battuta: Travels in Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Pre-Columbian America
  • The Popol Vuh: The Mayan Creation Story
  • Aztec Birth Rituals for Boys and Girls
  • Aztec Poetry
  • Christopher Columbus: Letter to the King concerning his first voyage

*Selections marked are supplementary readings omitted from the 2nd edition of Reading About the World.

Reading About the World, Volume 2

Reading About the World is now out of print. You can search for used copies using the following information:Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 1, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-567425-0 or Paul Brians, et al. Reading About the World, Vol. 2, 3rd edition, Harcourt Brace College Publishing: ISBN 0-15-512826-4.

Try Chambal:
http://www.chambal.com/csin/9780155674257/ (vol. 1)
http://www.chambal.com/csin/9780155128262/ (vol. 2)

All other queries should be directed to Paul Brians at paulbrians@gmail.com.

This is an excerpt from Reading About the World, Volume 1, edited by Paul Brians, Mary Gallwey, Douglas Hughes, Azfar Hussain, Richard Law, Michael Myers Michael Neville, Roger Schlesinger, Alice Spitzer, and Susan Swan and published by Harcourt Brace Custom Books.

General Education home page

Washington State University home page

paulbrians@gmail.com