Undertanding the Middle Ages as Global

Here are two great resources to help students understand the similarities and differences in the Middle Ages in different parts of the world,  including the Americas. 

One called the Global Middle Ages includes twenty projects from around the world. Two projects from Asia include the discovery of a Tang shipwreck, which takes you to an exhibit at the Singapore Museum, and a Story Map follows the early thirteenth-century travels of Yelu Chucai and Wugusun Zhongduan, who travel from north China to Central Asia after the Mongol empire's first conquests under Chinggis Khan. 

Another project looks at the connection between East Africa, Asia, and Mediterranean Europe and includes an interview with Chapurukha Kusimba, an Archaeology Journal Article on Early Swahili Towns and a 3D Reconstruction of the Songo Mnara site, which is a UNESCO site.

The story of global ivory in the premodern period is another fascinating project that includes a number of short pdf stories about ivory.

Another site looks at interesting women during the Middle Ages. Students will learn about Bharima from Bangladesh, an untouchable and a prostitute who eventually adopted Tantric Buddhism. The Royal Dancer of Gao demonstrates that while states like Ghana adopted Islam, they held on to many of their own indigenous beliefs. And in Tibet, women from the Hrug family contributed to the founding of Buddhist monasteries.

These three stories show the importance of religion and that women sometimes played an important role in its development.

Thanks to AP World teacher, Catherine Brown, for sharing the website. She included some discussion questions based on the two sites. 

1. What are the benefits for medievalists of learning about what was going on in the Americas at the same time? 
2. What are the drawbacks of bringing the Americas under the "medieval" umbrella? Consider the existing archaeological periodizations of the Americas as well as the effects on Native peoples today
3. What does historical reconstruction art offer that more traditional academic output might not? What compromises must an artist make that a historian writing an article or book might not have to think about or might not accept? 
4. How are medieval women and historical women of color represented in art you've been exposed to, whether in public art, pop culture or textbooks? 
5. Looking through the stories on this website, did anything surprise you about the options women had open to them or the roles women could play in their societies?