Objects and goods are key drivers of globalization; the fundamental interconnection of people and ideas across borders. While examining the many exhibits and artifacts found in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, one can easily spot objects that spurred on global ideas and served as pieces of interconnection between cultures. Two individual objects stand out: a 17th century boxwood tobacco pipe, depicting the Ottoman and European wars, and an English sugar box from 1655 that highlights the nurturing qualities of the respective commodity. As we saw from examining commodities in Sacred Gifts and Profane Pleasures and Equiano’s life and journey throughout the Atlantic World, commodity trade can make its way around the world through not only heightened …show more content…
demand, but also war and conquests. Both the tobacco pipe and the sugar box highlight 17th century globalization, and are consequently drivers of global ideas, values and trends. The 17th century boxwood tobacco pipe highlights the reach and universal popularity of tobacco, which was produced and grown in the Americas.
The piece itself is long and carved out of a dark, brown wood. On the bowl of the pipe, a fierce battle between European and Ottoman soldiers is fought. The depiction is vividly carved into the wood, as soldiers are fighting on horseback all around the bowl. The bowl is connected to the rest of the pipe by a dragon’s mouth. On the thin tube connected to the mouthpiece are soldiers that have been tied up, captured and defeated by the Ottomans. The pipe depicts the victory of the Ottomans over the Hungarian Kingdom in 1662 by showing the dragon eating the conquered soldiers, and therefore is a display of Turkish nationalism. Tobacco originated in the Americas and was introduced to Turkey through trade with the Spanish. This boxwood pipe reflects the world-wide popularity of tobacco and pipe-smoking in the 17th century. The reason that this piece is interesting is because it highlights globalization on two levels: it illuminates the interaction between Ottomans and Europeans, through war in the 17th century, and it also shows the trade of the Ottomans with the Spanish for New Word tobacco products. From this pipe, one sees the global reach tobacco commodities had, as the 17th century pipe-smoking trend reached all the way to the Ottoman Empire. Also, one sees the importance wars, and conflicts in general, have for globalization as they …show more content…
cause the international travel that allows commodities to be traded. The boxwood tobacco pipe is an important piece of history that highlights 17th century globalization, universal values and trends. The sugar box, also from the 17th century, is a crucial piece of history as it demonstrates the high demand for not only sugar as a commodity, but also luxury goods. The specific sugar box in the Museum of Fine Arts was owned in England between 1655 and 1722. During this time period, sweetness and silver were purchased at great human and economic costs. Slaves harvested sugar cane in the West Indies and extracted silver ore from mines in South America. The silver the box was made out of embodied the elaborate trade network that held the Atlantic World together. The wealthy spent considerable sums to buy imported sugar and silver and commissioned elaborate vessels to hold the commodities. In this sense, the silver used to produce the sugar box was itself a globalizing force, as it provided a cause for trade and the shipment of goods across borders. Trends became global through the shipment of sugar and silver throughout the Atlantic World, connecting people and ideas. Sugar, at the time, was said to nourish the body, generate and cleanse the blood, and make people prolific. Through this, there was heightened European demand for the commodity. The silver box itself is very intricately designed with ornaments and a woven ring on the top. It is easy to tell that the market for this product was high-class European society. The ornaments allude to marriage and fertility, making it perfectly suited to house a substance thought to spur on love and reproduction. The box itself is a high-society item, as it is very aesthetically appealing with a rounded design filled with minor detailed carvings. Many of the detailed carvings are in the shape of flower pedals, which adds to the fertility symbol mentioned above. The increased sugar demand in the 17th century spurred on production in the Caribbean and the shipment of goods back to Europe; thereby being a globalizing force for ideas and values. The increasing interconnection of people through trends, values and ideas during the 17th century was catalyzed by the trade of commodities in the Atlantic World.
The boxwood tobacco pipe and the 17th century English sugar box are both important aspects of globalization. The tobacco pipe highlighted the reach of the tobacco smoking trend, and the connection between the Spanish and the Ottoman Empire. The battle depicted on the pipe is a physical representation of interconnection between the Ottomans and the Europeans. From Equiano, we see that conflict has a globalizing aspect as people encounter and trade with other cultures in the midst of battle. The sugar box became an appealing item throughout Europe not only because it served to house sugar, but because of its intricate, silver-based design. This catalyzed globalization in the Atlantic World, as wealthy Europeans commissioned the shipment of these items back to Europe. In turn, this connected the Americas with the Europeans, and illuminated the need for high-class products. Both of the objects found in the Museum of Fine Arts have globalizing aspects as they spurred on trade, highlighted overarching trends and demonstrated global
values.
Some of the items included porcelain and silk, which is more of a want than a need. Charles D’Avenant also mentions that along with receiving luxury good, Europeans were only sending silver and gold back to Asia, which would become buried and never returned. The global flow of silver’s influence on trade between European nations can be seen in D’Avenant’s account of the English being “supplanted in the spice- trade by the Dutch”, in his reference to importing from the East Indies commodities that can then be sold elsewhere across Europe, in his disappointment that gold and silver gets buried permanently in Asia. To the people of Europe, Asian silks and dyed cloth is pleasing to everyone and useful to wear at home. That meant that it should not be recommended to quit the trade between Europe and China because it benefited both countries. In his essay, Xu Dunqiu Ming wrote about how before, buyers would give vegetables and animals in order to purchase a product from a merchant (Doc. 4). But, silver allowed trading and bartering to be simpler because instead of having to trade item for other goods and services, a person can just give a certain amount of silver coins. The historical context of this essay
Europe’s monopolization of the silver trade did not provide the continent with as much wealth as it had hoped, yet it still was the backbone of many european economies. The desperation of Europe to hold on to said industry led the nations involved to change their tactics from not only gaining wealth from Asia, but extracting it too. One of the main contributors to this shift in the pattern of the silver trade was Spain, as it monopolized the industry until the 17th century. The purpose of document 2 was to show others in the silver business that Spain was a strong and dominant force over the silver industry and perhaps to discourage chinese sale of goods in order to protect spanish domestic production. Spain did so by creating artwork that showcased Spanish technological advancement (doc 2) and by increasing the flow of information about Chinese affairs in the colonies to the Spanish crown (doc 4). Both of these tactics send a message to others in the silver business - Spain is best equipped to run the silver industry and any funny business will be reported to the crown. This set a precedent of unity and centrality, one of the most threatening features a civilization can possess. If a nation is unified, it can conquer others and protect itself. Circa 500 B.C.E., The Persian empire also utilized the flow of information to protect its
This book is complete with some facts, unfounded assumptions, explores Native American gifts to the World and gives that information credence that really happened yet was covered up and even lied about by Euro-centric historians who have never given the Indians credit for any great cultural achievement. From silver and money capitalism to piracy, slavery and the birth of corporations, the food revolution, agricultural technology, the culinary revolution, drugs, architecture and urban planning, our debt to the indigenous peoples of America is tremendous. With indigenous populations, mining the gold and silver made capitalism possible. Working in the mines and mints and in the plantations with the African slaves, they started the industrial revolution that then spread to Europe and around the world. They supplied the cotton, rubber, dyes, and related chemicals that fed this new system of production.
Timothy Brook discusses in his book the aspects of world trade during the 17th century and how through the process of globalization, how regions became as interconnected as we know of today. Most people tend to have this conceptualized idea of what globalization is as well as its process. Throughout my educational career, globalization has always been portrayed as big businesses working together providing different goods and services worldwide. In other words, globalization simply involves big, fortune 500-esque companies and has no involvement from anyone else. In the text, however, Brook gives a different interpretation and does so by examining six different paintings by Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer. Instead of focusing primarily on the obvious aspects of each painting, Brook draws the readers’ attention to a variety of intricate details and provides insight for all of them. This helps support his belief that globalization can be traced back to the events of the 17th century and had contributions from several individuals.
Nunn, Nathan, and Nancy Qian. "The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas." Journal of Economic Perspectives. Yale University, 2010. Web. 12 Oct. 2013. .
Smith, Susan. Rethinking the fur trade: cultures of exchange in an Atlantic world. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009.
Bentley, J., & Ziegler, H. (2008). Trade and encounters a global perspective on the past. (4th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 182-401). New York: McGraw-Hill.
However, the artefacts brought to England from Benin in 1897 were an anomaly. The craftsmanship and sophistication were such that some were reminiscent of the beautiful figures in the Hofkiche, Innsbruck 1502-1563 (plate 3.1.12. Visited...
The development and prosperity of 17th century expansion created a system that accumulated a vast amount of wealth at the expense of others. During the 17th century many nations started to participate in long distance trades, which introduced a great deal of new possibilities, exciting forms of transcultural exchange, and unprecedented circulation of goods and ideas. In Vermeer’s Hat, by Timothy Brook he explores the origins of world trade in the 17th century through the painting of Johannes Vermeer. By analyzing Vermeer’s painting, Brook illustrates the world of 17th century global trade and examines the phenomena of globalization. For instance, Brook states that, “The seventeenth century was not so much an era of first contacts as an age
The colonial enterprise, particularly the European imperialist projects in the east, has forever changed concepts of identity, otherness, and power in both the Occident and the Orient. Both sides were indisputably and irrevocably altered; however, the effect upon native cultures (the colonized) was far greater than the effect on the imperial cultures (the colonizers). European colonizers were able to cherry-pick the greatest parts of “new” culture—their art, their music, their architecture, or their cuisine—and adopt or adapt it to modern imperial life. In many ways, the cultural practices and artifacts of a newly colonized civilization were treated like the natural resources (oil, silk, spice) the Europeans were there to gather: they mattered only in their usefulness to the empire. Unlike their imperial counterparts, however, the native peoples had no choice which customs and practices to adopt, and which to discard. The sheer military might and nature of the colonial enterprise demanded that the colonized completely adapt to the social and cultural norms of the empire. In essence, then, the colonized were forced to lead a life of double consciousness, wherein they participated in customs and practices and obeyed laws and regulations in which they did ...
Smoking Smoking is an addicting habit on the rise worldwide. Smoking across the globe has many different forms from cigarettes and cigars to pipes and shisha’s. There are many different reasons for smoking whether it is for medicinal reasons or recreational use. Smoking has been around for a very long time and in this essay I will discuss the origins of smoking, the serious health risks, economical burdens, the addicting materials as well smoking among teenagers. Despite efforts from governments and organizations to bring awareness to people across the globe of the serious dangers and implications of smoking, the number of smokers worldwide generally remains on the rise. Brief History Of Smoking Smoking in one form dates back to as early as 5000 BC. It was used in shamanistic rituals to allow the users to achieve a state of trance and connect with the spirit world. Cannabis smoking quickly spread through Africa and the Middle East almost 3000 years ago. Smoking was sighted in England as far back as 1556 and then spread to France in 1560. Tobacco was then brought into Africa by French traders in the early 1600’s. Tobacco at that time was chewed or smoked. Around that time many religious leaders banned smoking and considered it immoral and even blasphemous. The first machine made to produce cigarettes was made by James Bonsack in 1881 after the civil war. The negative effects of smoking were brought to public attention in 1929 by the paper published linking cancer and smoking. During the Great Depression and in Nazi Germany, Hitler viewed smoking as unnecessary and a waste of money and also that woman who smoked as unsuitable to be mothers and wives. After the Second World War, anti-smoking groups lost popularity and smoking increas...
The questionable influence and dominance of western culture is at the forefront of a new form of seemingly ephemeral diplomatic history that is termed ‘new internationalism’. Internationalism itself is not really a new concept, and is basically a system based on equality for all people and cultures on a global scale. In the global art world ‘new internationalism’ is an active topic and was the focus of a 1994 INIVA Symposium entitled, A New International Symposium. The topics discussed included: Recording the International; Art, History and the Modern Museum; Beyond Diversity and Difference; Curatorship and International Exhibitions.1 During his lecture at the symposium, sculptor, essayist and poet Jimmie Durham puts forth the idea that, “…Europeans seem to think that, as art is their invention, effective art is within a developed vocabulary and accent…”2 This kind of statement emphasizes the enormous task of disuniting ‘actual’ art history from that recorded under the influence of western culture, and it demonstrates the long-standing influence of imperial thinking.
Some say that globalization began back in the days of slavery as Africans were taken and transported from their homes to different parts of the world. During the globe-trotting times of early sailors, contrasting ideas and ways of life were shared with people of variant cultures. This led to mutual respect for others around the globe. Things such as spices, potatoes, and coffee were considered high commodities and contributed greatly to the early globalization era. For instance, spices such a...
Finally, the third theme is globalization. Globalization describes how people, companies, and governments interact and integrate on a global level. Thanks to technological advancements made to communication, sharing ideas and values across the world has become easier and more efficient. One of the chief reasons for Jean Paul Getty’s immense success and wealth lies in globalization. A known polyglot and travel enthusiast, Getty extended his love for travel into business; in 1949, Getty invested heavily in an area near Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to find oil four years later, propelling him to unimaginable wealth. His collaboration with Ibn Saud, the first monarch and founder of Saudi Arabia, factored in greatly for his success, as had it not been for the globalization to allow such a business partnership, it would have been infeasible to construct the Getty Villa without the capital acquired from Getty’s relationship with Saud. Furthermore, without his and his architects’ knowledge of art history abroad, the Getty Villa’s conception would have been more improbable. Stephen Garrett, one of the leading architects for the Getty Villa project, remarked that not many know of the Villa of the Papyri. However, with information’s increasing accessibility due to globalization, structures such as the Getty Villa can be constructed for public enjoyment. Globalization is a crucial theme to discuss in world history, for it will determine the course of the upcoming centuries’ history. It is the result of millennia’s worth of human interaction, from the Silk Road to the feuding empires across the world. In this course, human interaction above all determines world
The researchers used Fredric Jameson’s cultural philosophical analysis as the framework of this study. The concepts of pastiche and cultural logic of late capitalism were utilized to evaluate the authenticity and reproducibility of the artifacts, identify the communication characteristics of the artifacts, determine how do the artifacts communicate the culture of the Cordilleras, and evaluate the consumption patterns in terms of authenticity, reproduction, utility, and deception.