Reflection # 3

This week’s readings were interesting but in particular Chapter 10 caught my attention the most. I was interested in the division of the Christian faith. I had never really thought about the division between East and West and how their beliefs were so similar yet so far off from one another. Could this be where we as humans began to change the meaning of religion? I’m remembering when I took a religion class here at NDNU and am remembering all the types of religion out there and also the ones that weren’t mentioned in that class. Seems like there are so many so called “man made” religions out there. How could it be that there are so many types of “Christian” faiths? The division between East and West came down to even the type of clothing that the religious people wore. I’m still amazed by that and all other things that divided the church. They seem like non-sense to me right now but only they knew what they were doing thousands of years ago.

Another thing that caught my attention in this chapter was the similarities between China in the 1300’s and now. Technological speaking they were number 1 back then and I can say it is still the same today. The fact that was most interesting was their population figures. Even back then they had an enormous population. I still wonder how they could house so many people.

Women’s jobs are the next interesting thing about chapter 10. The author names a number of jobs that women did between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries but one caught my attention and bothered me a little. He mentions all sorts of fields and his sentence with “and, of course, prostitution” which really bothered me. He makes it seem like a commodity for a woman to be in the prostitution field. I don’t know if it’s just me being too sensitive or if indeed this is offensive to other women reading that sentence. Why didn’t men prostitute themselves?! I assume they were too busy trying to take over the little work that women did have. Women never seem to get a break – it’s like if women dominated a profession there would come a man trying to take over. Would love to hear what everyone thinks about this subject. In terms of prostitution among women and men taking over professions that women were in.