The readings for the past few classes have been incredibly useful in my research. It’s been really refreshing and rewarding to have so much material all of a sudden to work with and I’m very excited. One of the biggest challenges I’m facing right now is with The Secret History of the Mongols. I’m incredibly grateful that I was able to find the full text online but skimming through it to find valuable information is proving to be difficult. While the amount of useful primary source information is overwhelming in The Secret History of the Mongols I am having trouble choosing what information is most useful for our story map.
Right now my goal is to find as much information as I can on the time period in which Marco Polo was visiting the mongol court from within The Secret History of the Mongols. In order to make sure our story map is the best it can be I will need to meet with both members of my group as soon as possible so that I can insure the information I am gathering is useful and will improve our story map instead of just being repeated information.
Another Idea I’ve been toying with recently is of adding a fun side bar of information on our page giving some general background on the practices of the Mongols. While I think that our map will do a great job of providing a lot of information, I think it would also be good to provide the readers of the site with some more background info. I was thinking about doing a small paragraph section on the importance of the horse to the Mongol people. I think giving people an option to delve deeper into the culture of the Mongol people and learn about why they were such an effective military would be really useful. I’ve typed up a few drafts of what the paragraph would look like and have gathered what I believe will be all the sources I need for it. I also found a portrait of Genghis Khan that I think will make a good title addition above the paragraph to draw people in.
I’m excited to pitch this idea to my team and seeing if maybe they too would be interested in making an additional info paragraph to help add some density to our page in the end so the readers have lots of options. I’m feeling really good now that I have so many sources to look through and am getting really excited about being able to learn so much. I can’t wait to start the next set of readings as I think they will prove to be very useful as well! So far things are going great !
(Kashi)-ing Up to Kashgar: Picture Perfect
你好,
I hope you’re doing well! (And am mildly proud of myself for finding a Chinese keyboard)
Last week, following her comment on my post, Tierney linked me the instructions to create a Gigapixel StoryMap. The online example was enthralling: focused on a famous Impressionist painting, each slide zoomed in with remarkable detail, even going so far as to comment on an individual brushstroke. Our group was very excited for the possibilities. We proposed that we could zoom in on each individual dish and ingredient in the meal, and then provide information on point from there. While this sounded great in theory, Tierney brought up an important point I hadn’t considered. In order to get such a high quality zoom on the map, we would need an incredibly high resolution photograph. This outed our idea of simply scanning a sketch of a meal we fabricated, taking a picture of a pre-existing meal, or photoshopping one together. We also proposed going ahead and generating our points on the map and placing a background later and shifting points around, but Tierney informed us that the site doesn’t function in that manner. However Tierney stated that she may have misunderstood our project ambitions, and will continue searching for other sites and applications.
In Friday’s class, she introduced us to GIPHY and hipster ipsum, both valuable resources to spice and mock up our website while it’s in the developmental stage.
In addition to these new applications, Eric provided valuable clarification about the final product. We need an amount of points vastly smaller than we had anticipated, which makes it much easier to formulate a cohesive map.
Up until this class, and perhaps even after, I think everyone in our class was anxious about the expectations for the map. This being a new course, we had no model to base our own projects of off. But I know I personally was greatly relieved with hearing the dimensions and specifications for the project. It focuses on quality, not quantity.
In the spirit of the interwebs, here are two parting Gifs to represent my feelings about this project.
Before Friday:
http://lookhuman.com/
Now:
http://iheartcatgifs.tumblr.com/post/12968948480
Thanks for reading!
Regards,
-Delaney
(Kashi)-ing Up to Kashgar: Converging Visions
Hello readers,
I hope you’re well!
I write to you from the comfort of my couch, basking in my first official day of Fall Break. This has provided me some much needed time to reflect on our group’s project and progress.
This Thursday, the Tongue group met to gauge our project and discuss recent research. As Recorder, I drafted notes through the meeting.
We began by solidifying each of our specific areas of research:
-Billie is researching porcelain, the chekish used to stamp naan, and the human body as a tool
Zach helped Billie create a more comprehensive list of ways the hands are used in
cooking. Pleading dumplings (the motion used to close them), kneading dough, pulling
noodles, hand flicks and rotations used with a wok, grating noodles, etc.
-Chris is focusing on kebabs and mutton, cumin, chili, tea, yoghurt marinade and other sauces
-Zach is continuing to research tandyrs and their relation to Indic-Turkic cultural diffusion, and the dichotomy between the use of rice and noodles
-I am looking into lokantas (Turkic cafes) and their Italian origins, fan and t’sai (ying and yang of food), and the 5 elements (wood, water, fire, wind, metal) and their integration into food
Billie suggested looking into the Five Elements, harking back to a project she completed
in high school
In addition to narrowing our research topics, we all set goals for ourselves over break:
-Chris hopes to have a completed timeline for his spices, and will explore StoryMap as host (the account under which the map is created)
-Zach hopes to develop, but not finish, a timeline for the cultural diffusion of earthen ovens and tandoors, and perhaps one on rice and noodles
-Billie hopes to organize, cite, and digitize all of her resource, and maybe play around with Photoshop to see if we could manufacture a picture of a meal
-I hope to cite all of my sources and draft a timeline for lokantas
Jumping off of Billie’s topic, we spent some time researching some really innovative cooking techniques. We gleaned that in the Kashgar region they occasionally roasted animals in mud, barbequed on rocks, covered foods in clay before the rise of using boiling water.
A book that Billie ordered to Guilford for us on Kashgar was sent back to its origin, due to the fact that we didn’t retrieve it in time. Whoops! Luckily we can reorder after break. Other book woes relate to a very informative book we found: “A History of Food Culture in China” by Rongguang Zhao. There are no physical copies in any close vicinity to Guilford, nor can they be ordered, and Guilford doesn’t have access to the PDF copies at other universities. If we find it a very crucial source we’ll contact Rachel, but otherwise we may leave it be.
As for our tandyr-making plans, they’re looking up! Chris succeeded in getting funding from the International Club, and Zach has proposed creating a “Tandyr Club”. After break we also plan to take a group trip to Home Depot to price materials.
Thanks for reading! Bis dann!
Regards,
-Delaney
Group meeting today
At last, it seems like our project is coming together. Our topics are solidifying: our main task now is to narrow down some locations and discuss how we will frame some potentially controversial topics. The language barrier is also a big issue: a lot of potentially useful sources are written in Chinese or other languages.
I’m looking forward to doing some research over fall break. During the semester, I’ve often been worn out by other classes and assignments and don’t feel like delving into Silk Road research, but I think the free time over break is a good research opportunity. My team has decided that we should have the majority of the research done by the end of fall break as well.
I have a few paths of research I’m contemplating. Most of the fashion I’ve found has represented a traditional form of dress, and I’m wondering what kinds of other clothing are worn by the Uygher women, and whether traditional clothing is only used for special occasions, or is the norm for some women. I’m also hoping to find some Uygher fashion designers. I’m interested to know whether these designers are normally men or women, and if they typically design more traditional or other types of clothing. I’m also looking into some research about how Uygher women’s Muslim beliefs play into how they dress.
The Process: 5
Upon reading several websites, blogs and viewing pictures, the common theme is that Kashgar is a pretty killing city. Some blogs described it as a city out of another time, while others noted that while it’s in China, it really isn’t Chinese (Wei). This is mostly because of its traditional markets, mostly farmer population and the predominant language spoken being Uyghur. Despite its traditional aspects, Kashgar and the entire Xinjiang region is encountering modernization. The Chinese government has developed several sections of the old city, often wiping out many of the cultural heritage locations in the process. This is decidedly uncool for the people who live there given that it is their traditional lifestyle that is being decimated, not the Han Chinese. However, the government has stated that this is in the name of progress and that their infrastructure and development will benefit the area in the long run.
Despite these modernization projects, Kashgar maintains its “old city” allure. A big attraction is the Sunday Markets which draw over 100,000 people to the pavilions and open fields. Because nearly 90 percent of Kashgarians are farmers, their income mostly comes from selling excess crops and selling their animals (Wei). A sheep is about the same price as my two-way flight from Raleigh to Beijing ($900) according to some bloggers. However, the Kashgar New Land International Travel Service Company puts the price of a sheep at a mere $230. Either way, sheep are fascinating and are the livelihood of many Kashgar residents today and thousands of years in the past.
More about sheep: A high nose bridge, long ears, and a big tail, makes a good sheep. So next time you’re out at Walmart, keep that in mind. The Kashgar sheep are famous according to the same website, as many inland Chinese like to have their Kashgar mutton and transport it from Xinjiang. Mutton is primarily used in stews and Kebabs but is also the meat of choice among Uyghurs as they must respect the Halal preparation rules.
Sheep are a big deal, but so are camels. The History Department of the University of Washington calls camels “the most important animal for the development of the long-distance overland trade across Asia.” Camels are not only useful for carrying 500 pounds worth of stuff, their milk is used in yogurts as well as to make a drink called shubat. Both camels and sheep were used for clothing purposes as well.
That’s quite enough about livestock for now. Next time we’ll take a look at what the livestock becomes after it has lived its glorious life. Kebabs, clothing and dishes, what can you make from your camel?
Finally, a quote from a human by the name of Alitash, found in Clarissa Wei’s blogpost about Kashgar and its markets, published on Vice.
“Camel milk is good for tuberculosis. Camel meat is the cheapest type of meat. Pregnant women won’t eat camel meat because it’s said to elongate their pregnancy by months.”
A mini meeting and a world of hope
Today Sam and I met for what would soon be the most crucial meeting I have had this year. All of my stress instantly melted away as my beloved teammate told me that he had found some amazing sources that would blow my mind. And he was right. While I am very happy about the direction our project was going in I had only come up with one solid lead when it came to research. That all changed today however when my teammate revealed to me that he had just found the holy grail of resources.
Sam found a wonderful book that as an alternative to Marco Polo presents the stories of four travelers from around the world who wrote about their experiences traveling the silk road and interacting with the mongol court. Not only is this resource good for our project as a whole but it also makes me feel a lot more supported because It contains some very good mongol resources. I am really excited to get to go through this book with Sam and I think it could become one of our most useful resources in our project.
As far as research goes, truthfully it is moving very slowly. Being weighed down with classes I haven’t had a lot of time after completing my other homework to do intense research and so I have not delved nearly as deep as I wanted to at this point in planning. However despite this setback I have a plan and a lot of faith in myself that I will be able to accomplish it. I’m planning this fall break to do some catch up internet research and find some books that I will be able to check out when I get back on campus at the Hege Library.
Ideally I will also be able to lay out an outline for the portion of the project that I will be contributing the most too. I am really excited to see what our project will be like when it all comes together. While I think our team has a lot of research skills I believe that our best work will come when making the actual webpage. I think our group has a lot of creative thinkers who in our meetings have already had a lot of great conversations about our end goal. Because of the success of meetings like this I have been feeling really good recently about the direction that Team Earth is headed in.
The Most Important Cooking Tool
While this is probably extremely basic and obvious, it has taken me this long in my research to come to the realization that the body is a tool of its own in cooking and that there is a history and culture to the body as a tool.
To make noodles, people in Kashgar as well as many other places in China use a very specific technique of stretching, folding and, basically, slapping to thin dough into noodles. This technique is highly unique and the use of the fingers and hands are so integral and specific to the process and end result. How did this technique come to be? I must know! Hopefully more to come on this front.
To make naan and bagels in Kashgar, bakers have to shape the dough in order to get the right shape. Tools such as rolling pins and a chekish might get used, but no tool can replace the hands for certain steps of this process.
Hands molded the pots used, carved wood into certain kinds of utensils, slap naan onto the walls of ovens, knead dough, roll dough into balls, pick vegetables and fruit, pick up bread to dip into tea or dinner. What else? Are other parts of the body important to different steps of cooking or handling of food? What specialized tasks do fingers have in different cooking scenarios? Are feet ever used for kneading dough, making grapes into wine, etc?
I believe this is really where my epiphany came from: I was so focused on tools, utensils and modes/methods of cooking that got created over time that I completely forgot about the one thing that is present in every kind of cooking everywhere: the human body. I am still focused on tools created for cooking, but now I have a whole new avenue of research to go down! This is getting me super jazzed about research (which might also have to do with the time of day -2am- and amount of coffee consumed) and I can’t wait to go through videos, photos, and texts to study how people in Kashgar use their hands, their arms, their feet, and any other part of their body to cook.
Team Earth: Blasting off Again
Alright, Team Earth has a new direction. We are now researching European explorers, their accounts of significant sites on the silk roads, and their interactions with the Mongol Empire. In a recent group meeting we discussed our research roles. Jake’s focus will be on the Mongol Empire side of things, Austin is covering Marco Polo’s journey, possibly with more emphasis on the Western perspective. I have everything in between. Basically, I want to study the lesser known explorers such as Giovanni of Pian de Carpini, William of Rubruck, Friar Odoric, and Rabbi Benjamin. My initial goal is to narrow down the similarities in their journeys. For example, find a city that they all went to and compare their analyses of the culture.
I found a fantastic book called Contemporaries of Marco Polo. It was published in 1928, and it was last checked out from the Guilford College Library in 1981. The book contains primary accounts of the four explorers I mentioned above, edited by Manuel Komroff, who also provides an informative introduction.
I also found a book called the Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation. It is about Carpini’s accounts but also a map of the first depiction of the Americas, not sure yet how they’re related but hopefully I’ll learn about Carpini a bit.
Rolling forward
Towards a More Regular Heartbeat
For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been so occupied with our first map test, thesis work, and other assignments that I allowed myself to put blogging and research, with their indefinite deadlines and relatively low pressure, on the back burner for a while. As I mentioned in my initial blog post, time management isn’t a major strength of mine, and I have some work to do before I’ll be able to develop a consistent blogging schedule. That said, I regret going for so long without so much as a single post, so I’ll use this one to explain a bit of what I’ve been doing since my first.
Team Heart has been meeting fairly regularly, and while we all have busy schedules and a multitude of intellectual endeavors demanding our time, we still manage to get together once or twice a week to discuss research and classwork. We’ve all been wonderfully supportive of each other as we embark on this part-journey, part-experiment of a course. Our research topic has changed a few times as we’ve uncovered new information or come up with new ideas for our narrative. At the moment, each of us is pursuing a different aspect of our central focus, music and religion in the Mongolian steppe (or roundabouts). At our last meeting, we decided it might be best to shift our focus from a study of the past up to the present, and seek instead to examine some practices of music and ritual in the present and trace their origins back to the past. Our exact geographic region, and the path taken by our story map, will become more clear as our research progresses.
My own research topic has also changed somewhat. Previously, I was looking into the use of music in shamanic ritual. While I have found some information on that topic, it’s still relatively scarce. There are two different (but by no means mutually exclusive) directions I’m considering taking my research in. Not too long ago, I recalled that I had heard of throat singing, an interesting vocal technique practiced in multiple regions of Central Asia including Mongolia and Tibet. I plan to do some research on throat singing in the Mongolian steppe and see if it’s involved, or has been involved, in any religious rituals or healing practices.
The second avenue of research I’m considering involves choosing a modern music group and examining different aspects of their performance and instrumentation with the hope of uncovering the roots of each. Although I haven’t begun any scholarly inquiry about the subject just yet, I have heard of at least one Mongolian metal band that employs throat singing and traditional instruments to produce their music. I may be able to examine a few of their songs and determine the cultural influences contributing to their style. For now though, I’m mostly just hoping to survive midterm week. With luck, I’ll have some time over Fall break to catch up on the research I’ve missed over the last couple of weeks.