Mongol Empire/Global Connections Test1. (1) Ethnocentrism looks at one's own culture and places it above other cultures, constantly comparing it to other cultures “below”. In today's America, many people look at conflict areas of the globe such as the Middle East and wonder why their system cannot maintain a stable democracy. This idea of ​​constantly comparing other cultures to your own and expecting them to be similar or follow suit is a problem in reading historical documents and understanding history as a whole. Nomadic invaders such as the Mongols were described as hideous savage peoples in the written accounts of sedentary peoples. This is not to be taken literally because reports tend to be distorted more often than not. When examining ethnocentrism, one must always remember that few, if any, cultures behave as extremely irrationally as they may seem. For example, when referring to today's views of the Middle East, one must remember that the system of Islamic laws and customs has endured for centuries and would not have survived as long if they were truly as irrational as they might seem. Referring to the example of the Mongols, the people attacked were obviously biased and the Mongols would not have ruled for so long if they were cruel, savage and irrational monsters. Ethnocentrism is extremely difficult to avoid and is evident in many documents, such as Columbus's description of Native Americans (in comparison to “civilized” Europeans), and should be treated carefully. To understand all aspects of a story you need to look at what is written with deference and understanding.2. (6) During the Yuan Dynasty, the years of Confucian rule were overturned by the Mongol rulers. For...... half of the paper......ents. They were highly mobile people, capable of picking up and leaving with their belongings. They valued their livestock in the steppes, as evidenced by their dietary customs of mainly animal products, and their priorities in horses (the drink is offered to the spirits of nature in the four directions and to the horse before being consumed by man) and the courage of warriors. On horseback, using technologies such as saddles and stirrups, they could ride for days swaddled in the saddle, living on their dried meat and drinking horse blood. These lifestyle traits made them warriors par excellence, combined with their highly fearsome warfare tactics. These methods, however, fell short later, when sedentary societies adopted gunpowder technology and nomads no longer posed a threat. On my honor, I neither gave nor received unauthorized aid