Theme 1: Interaction between humans and the environment.
The image inside the head shows people farming in the Indus River valley. The Indus River valley produced a lot of crops for India, but it was plagued by one issue: deforestation. This leads the external picture. The image shows trees in a desert; deforestation transformed the Indus River valley from a rich, fertile land into a barren desert.
Theme 2: Development of Religion
The external image shows a group of people working together on a community service project. They performed good deeds in order to maintain a good karma. Good karma led to their soul becoming one with Brahman. This is the internal picture; the people are praying because they want to become one with Brahman and end their reincarnation cycle.
Theme 3: Expansion
During the Vedic Age, Aryans clashed with the Dravidians, hence the (crude) drawing of two groups fighting against one another. These battles led to destruction of irrigation systems in the Indus River valley, and crops were destroyed because of this.
Theme 4: Interaction Between Economic Systems
The internal image shows the farming of money; the surplus led to development of cities and specialized labor. Agriculture was important for India's trade too. The external image shows a person travelling down the Indus River in order to claim a spot of land to farm.
Theme 5: Development of Social Structures
Aryans developed a Caste system in India as they expanded. At first, the Caste system was determined by skin color, but it later changed. The external image shows brahmin at the top, followed by kshatriya, then Vaishyas, and finally the shudras. Although brahmin enjoyed a wealthy life while the shudras suffered, each tier of the system was crucial for the society of India. The internal image shows the relationship between different levels of the Caste. The brahmin enjoys the ability of ordering the shudras, and the shudra has to follow the orders.
Hi Hiren,
ReplyDeleteI liked your project, so I decided to post on your blog.
First off, One thing that was very well done was the drawing that represented the Aryans and the Dravidians fighting against each other (the two castles and the barrage of arrows). I also noticed that you provided excellent examples for each theme.
Next, although the poster looked good to me, some things could be improved. For example, it could have been slightly more organized, maybe the internal/external connecting, layout more organized? Anyways, the next thing that could have been improved is some of the descriptions of your images, for example - number 3 could have been more descriptive.
One similarity that really struck out was the similarities in theme 4 between India and Latin America (what I was assigned). In Latin America, agriculture was extremely important to the development of societies (as it was in many other regions of the world). Your description of your image mentioned the farming of money. In Latin America, Agriculture helped the growth of society and trade, for example, Cacao beans were used as a form of currency.
One difference I noted was that the growth of religion in India. In India, religion was strongly influential - and your picture showed people working on a community service project for karma. In Latin America, (since the time frame for the project was 8000 B.C.E. - 600 B.C.E.) religion was just getting into its early stages. For example, the Olmec commoners would gather around ceremonial centers to watch priests perform rituals (not the bloodshed, that was after 600 B.C.E.) - however their motives were unknown.
My question to you is: Do you think the caste system is justified?
Hey Hiren,
ReplyDeleteI thought that the graphics used inside the head were very effective in portraying their meaning. The ones that pertain to agriculture are the better ones. I also really liked how your 'crude' drawings look, they are neat and very appealing making the whole composition of the head work. So good job on that.
Some stuff I liked less. It could have benefited with some sort of arrows or lines leading from the internal image to the external on to give it that uniform feeling. I also feel like you should have stuck to just using pictures or drawings because the mixture of both is not the greatest.
One major similarity that struck me was the existence of the social structures. The Olmec society due to its authoritarian nature created distinct classes of people the elite and the commoners and laborers, where the elites, such as a king could have the commoners do a number of tasks, such as sculpting their image into a rock. The Aryans in India also had distinct social structures similar to the Olmec’s, though this was known as a caste system. On top the Brahmins, then the Kshatriyas, then Vaishyas and finally the Shudras. The Brahmins (the elites in this case) in India had the liberty to order around the Shudras (the commoners/laborers in this case), they were to obey these commands since they were of a lower caste. .
A major difference if you will is about the importance of religion. Religion seems to have had a bigger role in India and in forming the society do the ideas of karma and samsara (good deeds, good life).The Olmec’s on the other hands had some sort of ceremonial centers, where they observed certain rituals that are currently unknown or rather unclear in nature.
I end my comment with a question, now this may seem rhetorical but exactly how important was agriculture in India?
Hello Hiren, before I say anything, I just want to say that I like how your poster exceeds the expectations. You did a phenomenal job in illustrating the different aspects of early civilizations in the region of India, especially with number five, where you so clearly showed the class distinctions between various classes in the Aryan society. In addition I also found that you typing out the key instead of hand writing it, made your poster much neater, overall. Whereas I believe writing it out might have taken up more space and made it less legible. Although you have done very well in putting together your poster, I do see a few flaws that could have been improved on. The images on your poster would have made a more appealing view if they were organized in a better way and also I thought you could have improved on how you showed which image represented which theme and which exterior images were related to which internal images. I thought navigation was harder than it had to be, with your poster. Besides these two minor issues, I overall, loved how you made your poster. Of course, I did not choose to write about your poster just because it was beautiful. I choose your poster because I found some interesting similarities and differences between the early Indian civilizations you have illustrated on your poster, and the Latin American civilizations I illustrated on my poster. One of the biggest thing I found similar was the development of agriculture and its effects. I was clearly able to relate my work and yours to see just how similarly the development of agriculture had lead to large complex societies consisting of cities with very similar social classes. I feel that the cast system in the Aryan civilization was highly similar to that of the Olmec civilization, where there was a ruler at the top, followed by priests, artisans, and commoners versus the Aryan's brahmans, kshatriya, vaishyas, and shudras. On the other hand, there was also a difference I noticed, between the Indian societies and Latin American societies. Latin American societies did no develop irrigation systems since water was always abundant in that region whereas in India the weather was not always suited for growing crops. Latin American societies also did not have any domestic animals like your Indian societies did, therefore the wheel was not invented in Latin America like how it was in India. In conclusion, Hiren, you have done a fantastic job and in my opinion, you have met and exceeded the expectations as far as informative content goes. I must ask though, why did you choose to print out pictures for the majority of your poster instead of drawing the images yourself?
ReplyDelete