This Sgra-snyan is a guitar-like instrument made in Tibet from between the 14th and 16th centuries. The instrument is currently in possession of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Bibliography 

Bentley, Jerry H. Old World Encounters : Cross-Cultural Contacts And Exchanges In Pre-Modern Times / Jerry H. Bentley. n.p.: New York : Oxford University Press, 1993., 1993. Lafayette Library Catalog. Web. 28 Mar. 2015.

Liu, Xinru, and Lynda Shaffer. Connections Across Eurasia : Transportation, Communication, And Cultural Exchange On The Silk Roads / Xinru Liu, Lynda Norene Shaffer. n.p.: Boston : McGraw-Hill, c2007., 2007. Lafayette Library Catalog. Web. 28 Mar. 2015.

Ten Grotenhuis, Elizabeth. Along The Silk Road / Elizabeth Ten Grotenhuis, Editor. n.p.: Washington, D.C. : Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; Seattle : University of Washington Press, c2002., 2002. Lafayette Library Catalog. Web. 28 Mar. 2015.

Africa as a Living Laboratory

For this shelfie assignment I set out to find a book having to do with colonization. The first item I searched was “colonization”, however, the results I yielded were too broad. To make my search terms more specific, I added “eighteenth century”. Again, I did not find any books that I fancied, and instead of searching “eighteenth century colonization” I searched “colonization + Africa”. I decided on Africa because we spent an extensive amount of time covering the scramble for Africa in addition to reading Abina and the Important Men. The first three results yielded after using these search terms were basic histories recounting the scramble for Africa, but the fourth was unique. The book I found is called Africa as a Living Laboratory: Empire, Development, and the Problem of Scientific Knowledge 1870-1950 written by Helen Tilley. Flanking this book on the shelf were several other works investigating science’s role in history, but none dealt with the colonization of Africa. In her study, Tilley explores the tricky relationship between imperialism and the role of scientific proficiency. When flipping through the book, I found that Tilley uses an abundance of maps, tables, and charts to advance her investigation and make it more accessible to the average reader. In all, I think this would be a great resource to use when researching colonization for it is unique in that it combines the role of science with imperialism as well as challenges the existing belief of the role of science in the colonization of Africa.

Tilley, Helen. Africa as a Living Laboratory: Empire, Development, and the Problem of Scientific Knowledge, 1870-1950. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2011. Print.

Early Modern Things: Objects and Their Histories, 1500-1800

Findlen, Paula. Early Modern Things: Objects and Their Histories, 1500-1800. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2013. Print.

In my search I found Early Modern Things: Objects and Their Histories, 1500-1800. To find this book I searched for results using keywords “empires”, “religion”, and “early modern”. This search yielded me way to many results, so I proceeded to add “difference” to my search on the terms that difference has been one of the most common themes that we have examined thus far. After this search, I was immediately drawn to this book. Comparable to the 100 objects, this book discusses early modern life through material culture. Early Modern Things, is a collection of 17 essays, which explore what we can learn about the early modern world by studying its objects and their meanings. Another emphasis of the book is investigating how these things and their significance changed over time as well as from culture to culture. An object can be viewed differently at different points in its’ existence and this book discusses how this can change the object’s purpose, and significance. In comparison to the 100 objects, this book is much more broad in its analysis of things. For example, one section of the book studies the effect and meaning behind furniture in Georgian England, as opposed to examining one individual object. Overall, I think this book fits in well with out investigation of material culture in the early modern world.