I was initially placed in the Heart group, which was a sound placement considering that my main passion is music and art in general. \u00a0I would have enjoyed studying musical instruments on the silk roads, but decided otherwise.\u00a0 The study of plants and their relationships with human society (mainly agriculture and religion) fascinates me deeply.\u00a0 I think that plants are beautiful and incredibly complex.\u00a0 Plants are, on the surface, quite alien to us, yet they\u2019ve become chemically intertwined with human physiology.\u00a0 In order to pursue this interest in an academic setting for the first time, I switched to Team Earth.\u00a0 We initially brainstormed ideas of agriculture, irrigation, oasis cities, and the cultural significance of different herbs and crops.\u00a0 After some deliberation, we focused in on the Taklamakan Desert.\u00a0 Oasis cities were a key aspect of the trade routes that ran along the northern and southern borders of the desert; they allowed merchants to only traverse the desert in the small increments between towns.\u00a0 Those cities had to develop technology to control their environment in order to grow food and maintain the agrarian lifestyle.\u00a0 Of course, only certain crops were able to grow in the harsh environment that accompanies even the fringes of a desert.\u00a0 We plan on researching the diffusion of technological innovations such as irrigation systems and growing methods, the specific crops that were used, and perhaps the spread of different seeds or plants along the silk roads.
\nOur group has not yet decided on a specific place or time yet.\u00a0 We have the region and subject down, but there are so many options within each.\u00a0 Eric mentioned Samarkand, and Kashgar is a possibility as well.\u00a0 I suppose the time period will be limited by the amount of information we can find.\u00a0 Ideally, we would research different developments over a longer time period, but it may be too difficult.\u00a0 I think that narrowing our focus will be really hard, and will require a good deal of broad, preliminary research.
\nMy individual focus will be on the specific plants used by humans in oasis cities.\u00a0 Whether a plant\u2019s native, where it came from, its nutritional components, it\u2019s prevalence in agriculture, etc.\u00a0 Beyond that, we don\u2019t quite have assigned technical roles, it\u2019s difficult to decide that this early in the project.\u00a0 I like to write, I like to research when I enjoy the subject.\u00a0 I\u2019m pretty good with technology.
\nThat ties into my main anxiety in this project, which really just boils down to time passing us by.\u00a0 It\u2019s easy for me to say now that we can start narrowing things down once we really start researching, but weeks can fly by so easily.\u00a0 The only answer to that fear is to be proactive.\u00a0 I\u2019m working on it.\u00a0 Within discerning our subject of research, my fear is a lack of information about agriculture and of historical documentation in this region.\u00a0 Solving my first problem will solve this one, because once I dive into the sources I found I will know where the information is.\u00a0 I have high expectations for this compilation of knowledge that we are about to create, I\u2019m excited to see where it takes us.\u00a0 It is also exciting that on the trip to China we will travel along the Taklamakan desert and I will finally see what was once only a distant reality during months of research.\u00a0 The sheer amount of information that I will have to dig through this semester overwhelms me, and currently I\u2019m not sure where to start, but I can\u2019t wait to learn it all.
\nI\u2019d say my work to date is mediocre.\u00a0 I\u2019ve done enough to get by so far, but I haven\u2019t yet thrown myself into the work.\u00a0 I hope that I can deeply dedicate myself to this project whilst battling through my other classes.\u00a0 I found a lot of sources for our project proposal, but I haven\u2019t had time to delve into them yet.\u00a0 I think our group will work well together, we all seem to be on the same page and we have all contributed what we\u2019ve needed to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was initially placed in the Heart group, which was a sound placement considering that my main passion is music and art in general. \u00a0I would have enjoyed studying musical instruments on the silk roads, but decided otherwise.\u00a0 The study of plants and their relationships with human society (mainly agriculture and religion) fascinates me deeply.\u00a0 … Continue reading First Blog Post: Team Earth and Plants in the Oasis Cities<\/span>