Afroeurasia Cultural Changes

In the sixteenth century, there were several ways political and economic changes affected patterns of cultural life in different parts of Afroeurasia. Many larger regions began to spread more extensively. In the Ming dynasty, the rapid growth of city populations and a surge in economic change helped. Influences with new people and different products from abroad, brought a new way of life for this dynasty. During this time, Wang Yangming was a public official and a military officer. Wang's ideals differed in the fact that he preached individual creativity, education for the poor and respect for women's intellectual abilities. This caused conflict in many ways, amongst neo-confucian officials that believed in male authority and strict

hierarchy.
Islam was a religion that spread faster and to more people than Christianity, Buddhism or any other faith. Sunni Muslims and Shia' typically had a mutual respect for each other. However, disagreements with religious beliefs caused political changes and they began to fight over territory. In Europe, Buddhism and Islam were loosely integrated. Christian churches on the other hand, were the ones who supervised many things. A crisis affected almost everyone, when church leaders in the Roman Catholic Church argued over worship and belief. Like Yangming of the Ming dynasty, Martin Luther conflicted many of his critics beliefs. Luther exposed the “sale of indulgences” as a common practice of the church to accept donations with the promise of special prayers for the person, friend or family.
This act of defiance caused many enemies for Luther, however, German princes saw political and economic gain by sympathizing with Luther. The German princes gained an opportunity to help oppose Charles V by aiding Luther with published materials, so that the princes could regain most of their wealth. Culturally, protestant areas multiplied and Roman Catholic areas lost control over Christian practices and power. Although protestants and roman catholic beliefs differed in many ways, culturally they believed in that males and females were equal, but that females should remain quiet.
In Europe, different religious groups began to torture and occasionally murder each other, due to disagreeing with the way they perceived Christianity. Spain created special courts, also known as the “Holy Inquisition.” This gave them power to remove Muslims, Jews and Protestants. The only exception, is Jewish and Muslims would not be killed, if they accepted social “inferiority.” In the 16th century, Protestants and Catholics would try, torture and execute some members of society, who were accused of witchcraft. Unfortunately, culturally during this time, women and weaker individuals were victims of this pastime ritual by those with stronger political power and wealth. An example of such practices in modern day movies, was the movie called The Crucible. Many individuals, including women, were accused of witchcraft and executed during the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts.
Political powers and wealth did create changes in various parts of Afroeurasia in some shape or form.

The stronger the ruler, aristocrat, business leader or Church organization,

determined what direction culturally life changed. Due to these changes, over time dialogues and accents of different languages diminished, causing “language death.” After a given type of language would disperse into a region, cultural ideas and behaviors would change. There wouldn't be a detachment between language and cultural behavior. Instead, life changed for people around Afroeurasia and old cultures began to change or die out completely.

In our modern society, comparisons can be made to the cultural patterns found in Afroeurasia. Immigration of individuals from neighboring countries to the United States has and continues to change the culture of modern society. English was the primary language in the United States as well as Christianity as the predominant religion. Currently, Spanish is a significant secondary language used within the United States.

Immigrants from other countries have similar and different beliefs. As with the Ming dynasty, protestant and catholic beliefs, many immigrants still believe that the male is the authority in a family. Occasionally, these differences or changes in culture cause conflicts amongst it's current society of

people.
I believe a conflicting organization that has capitalized on changing our modern society is ISIS. This organization is not only immigrating to the United States, but to various regions around the world. Similar to trends in religion, language and culture in the sixteenth century, ISIS has been creating conflict around the world to gain political, religious, economic power. ISIS believes in the correctness of their own belief system and will torture or even execute anyone who disagrees. ISIS believes that women are slaves and do not deserve respect. They believe in infiltrating until they take over many territories and will use whatever force is necessary. So in many ways we can compare the issues of the sixteenth century to our modern society.