Polynesian Navigation and Migration

Week One Discussion Topic 1 – Venus Figurines 
Discussion Prompts:
After reading Chapter 1 and the material at the websites, and viewing the videos, please make a 250-word initial post that answers the following questions about the primary sources:
How do the presenters analyze the figurines (which are primary sources for historians)? What do they emphasize? On what do they base their interpretations? What do you think?
 
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Topic 1 Required Reading
Kevin Reilly, The Human Journey, Chapter 1
Website: Venus Figurines: Definition, Characteristics, Interpretation – http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/prehistoric/venus-figurines.htm
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Week Two Discussion 1 Topic 1 – Law Code of Hammurabi
Discussion Prompts:
After reading Chapter 2 and the material at the websites, and viewing the videos, please make a 250-word initial post that answers the following discussion prompt about the primary source:
You can see from the web readings and the video that there is disagreement about the purpose, nature, and fairness of Hammurabi’s Code, a primary source created at the time of Hammurabi. There are 282 “laws” in the Code. Scan the whole Code at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/hammurabi-the-code-of-hammurabi and then read 28 “laws” (10%) carefully before answering the discussion prompts: How is the Code organized? Why do you think some laws are first? What do the laws tell you about the nature of early urban life? What seem to be major concerns? Do the laws seem just? Why or why not?
 
 
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Topic 1 Required Reading
Kevin Reilly, The Human Journey, Chapter 2
Primary Source:
Website: Hammurabi, The Code of Hammurabi [-2250] (scroll about half way down the page past the transliteration to the English translation) http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/hammurabi-the-code-of-hammurabi
 
Website: Law Code of Hammurabi, King of Babylon – http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/law-code-hammurabi-king-babylon
Website: Code of Hammurabi: Ancient Babylonian Laws – http://www.livescience.com/39393-code-of-hammurabi.html
Website: 8 Things You May Not Know about Hammurabi’s Code – http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/8-things-you-may-not-know-about-hammurabis-code
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Week Three Discussion 1 Topic 1 – Silk Roads
Primary Sources:
Website: The Journey of Faxian to India (ca. 400 CE) – http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/faxian.html
Website: The Travels of Marco Polo (ca. 1300 CE) – read Chapter 1 through Chapter 18) – https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Travels_of_Marco_Polo/Preface/Chapter_1

Discussion Prompts:
After reading Chapter 4 and the material at the websites, and viewing the videos, please make a 250-word initial post that answers the following questions about the primary sources:
Faxian and Marco Polo lived 900 years apart, near the beginning and end of the Silk Road. What values do their narratives promote? What similarities and differences do you see in their narratives? How are those similarities and differences related to the kinds of journeys they undertook, the purposes of their journeys, and the times in which they composed their travel narratives?
 
 
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Topic 1 Required Reading
Kevin Reilly, The Human Journey, Chapter 4
Website: Silk Road – http://asiasociety.org/education/silk-road
Website: Silk Road History – http://www.thesilkroadchina.com/fact-v11-the-silk-road-history.html
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Week Four Discussion Topic 3 – Polynesian Navigation and Migration
Primary Sources:
Website: Traditional Marshallese Stick Chart Navigation – http://marshall.csu.edu.au/Marshalls/html/essays/es-tmc-2.html
Website: Polynesian Stick Charts – http://thenonist.com/index.php/thenonist/permalink/stick_charts

Discussion Prompts:
After reading Chapter 6 and the material at the websites, and viewing the videos, please make a 250-word initial post that answers the following questions about the primary sources:
Before the modern era, most Pacific Islanders navigated the Pacific by forming mental maps of their natural environment, particularly the stars and other celestial bodies, ocean swells, prevailing winds, and by observing the flight of migratory and land-based birds and island-influenced cloud cover. Many developed sophisticated memory aids like stick charts, a form of ocean and island map, what geographers today call hydrographic maps. Maps are cultural constructs and come in all forms. Maps are usually defined as two-dimensional (often printed or drawn) representations of three-dimensional space. The stick charts are made from coconut palms or pandanus reed and cowrie shells. The charts were not taken as actual maps on voyages. They were left on shore. What can the shape, construction, and layout of these stick charts tell you about the culture that produced them as well as its view of its environment? In what ways are stick charts maps? In what ways are they not?
Be sure to go beyond the technical analysis given below the stick chart images by incorporating information from the other websites and the textbook reading.

 
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Topic 3 Required Reading
Kevin Reilly, The Human Journey, Chapter 6
Website: Wayfinders – http://www.pbs.org/wayfinders/polynesian.html