Chapter Fifteen: Cultural Transformations

"Ways of the World"

Chapter Fifteen: Cultural Transformations

Religious and Science

1450-1750

The first half of this chapter thus far I saw immediately an under representation of the African culture/religion. While it is obvious and made relevant in the beginning of the chapter that the Europeans where pressing there religious views of Christianity upon everyone they conquered, there is only a short paragraph (page 34) on the Afro-Asian religious practices. Since only the first half of the chapter was assigned for reading I will not go as far to say that the entire chapter under represents the spirituality, rich, and essentially foreign religious practice people such has the Haitians, Cubans, Brazilians, and West Africans practiced; however this far in the reading I would have to say that is the case. The thing with history for me, personally, is that there is always going to be a group under represented in textbooks or even lectures. It is at times unfortunate in retrospect to see how even today Eurocentric ideas and history are still the go to and spotlight of almost everything. Am I saying that as a culture and society we didn't grow from there "encounter", if you will, in the Americas? Of course not. I just find it interesting to see how history is portrayed in instances where the focus is on Europeans or the British. The first piece of the chapter only briefly talks about how African religious ideas and practices took form in their own versions of Christianity even though they were being suppressed to comply completely with European Christianity globalization. But the sections fails to elaborate on how those ideas and practice were nonetheless integrated and applicable today.