HIS 122
Spring 2014
Dr. Hutton
NVC
Weekly Assignment #7
Due: Thurs., 4/17
Read pages Chaps. 8 and 10, pp. 299-318 and 396-401 (2nd ed.: pp. 342-362 and 454-459) in
Tignor & answer these questions:
1. Why was central Asia crucial to growing interconnectedness among cultures?
2. Who were the Sogdians? What was their religion? What did they trade?
3. What was the universal message of Buddhism? Who carried it? Where did it spread to?
4. How did religion unify India under the Gupta period?
5. What were the two schools of Buddhism? How did they differ in beliefs?
6. How did conservative Brahmans refashion their religion to appeal to rural people?
7. How did the Hindu trinity attract personal devotion?
8. How did the Laws of Manu provide a unified culture and ordered society for Hindus?
9. What did the Laws of Manu emphasize? Why did they build a community of believers?
10. How did the ideas of Hindus and Buddhists mix and help create a widespread Indic cultural
unity?
11. What groups gained influence in China after the fall of the Han dynasty? What was the
difference between “barbarians” and Chinese? What were the similarities?
12. What practices did Buddhist missionaries use to convert people in China? Why did the partbarbarian northern states promote Buddhism?
13. What technologies spread with Bantu-speaking peoples? Where did they spread?
14. How did Teotihuacán spread its influence?
15. How were the Maya states organized?
16. What was the basis of the Mayan economy?
17. What was the Popol Vuh? How did the Maya use texts like the original Popol Vuh?
18. What were the other Maya achievements?
19. How did the Chimú Empire organize its agriculture and trade?
20. What was the economic base of Tiahuanaco?
21. What role did the city of Tula play in Toltec culture?
22. Where was Cahokia? What factors made it an entrepôt (trade city)?