Zhane's blog

I started this course with a discussion on Herodotus and the purpose of travel. It is only fitting, therefore, for me to end this course with an enlightened view on the purpose of travel. Through the readings of the course, I have come to the conclusion that the original purpose of travel is to our endless quest for knowledge. Herodotus states that his goal was “so that neither what has come to be from man in time might become faded nor that great and wondrous deeds, those shown forth by Greeks and those by barbarians, might be without their glory; and together with all this, also through what cause they warred with each other”. Yet, in his writings, which reflect his travels, he records the oddities of different cultures, while observing and journaling encounters with different species.

The drive for knowledge is again reflected in “The Travels of Marco Polo”. When Marco Polo arrives to the court of Kublai Khan, the Khan requests that in order to enlighten himself in the cultures of the world, the Polos would travel and “make a request to his Holiness that he would send to him a hundred men of learning, thoroughly acquainted with the principles of Christian religion”.  In this case, the Khan doesn’t himself travel but nonetheless, in his drive for knowledge, he sends Polo to bring him representatives of the Christian religion.

As we look towards the latter readings, different purposes for travelling arise. Ibn Battuta travels for religion, Christopher Columbus travels for power and gold but it remains that the original purpose of travel is for knowledge.

Naturally, it would be quite hard for one to prove this through simply four readings and much less in 500 words or less. We have, as a culture, so exhausted travelling within our world that no longer do we travel purely for the reason of knowledge; we travel for education, pleasure, escape, relaxation and business. To observe the original purpose of travel in modern times, we must look toward what has been unexplored; what is unknown to us.
Space travel is perhaps the last form of travel that humankind has not yet exhausted. As it is still an unknown sphere for us humans, the purposes of space travel reflect the original purposes of travel; knowledge. We fly to outer space not for leisure, (debatably) business, or escape; we travel for the same reason Herodotus travelled. Not to record every oddity we see, but to expand our knowledge and conquer what is unknown.
 
 

Miranda’s innocence, as exhibited when she first sees Ferdinand and again when she sees the rest of the shipwreck crew is probably the greatest attraction and the original purpose of travelling. For what do we travel for, but to discover the oddities of a different culture, a different world? Of course, the evolution of travel brought about impurities to the purpose of travel, travelling for business, travelling for leisure, but observing the peculiarities and differences of other cultures remains, though debatably, the greatest draw of travelling.

Of course, Miranda was not travelling in this example but the image Shakespeare paints is very similar to any traveller, or native, discovering or seeing different peoples the first time. When Miranda first sees Prospero, she asks “What is’t? A spirit? Lord, how it looks about! Believe me, sir, it carries a brave form. But ‘tis a spirit… I might call him a thing divine, for nothing natural I ever saw so noble” (Act 1, scene 2). She sees Prospero and figures he must be some sort of divine creature, being raised on a remote island, she does not know of other human forms. Very much like when the natives first saw Christopher Columbus and figured they must be some sort of otherworldly creatures, Miranda exhibits the same awe in this scene as one setting eyes for the first time on a new sight.
The crew, being scattered around on the island also brings about one more thought, the most remote places on this planet. In Prospero’s case, he lives on a remote island but is able to survive through his magic and servants but imagine the life on a remote island.
The top ten most remote places on this planet (from toptenz.net):
10. Easter Island
9. La Rin Conada (also the highest city in the world)
8. McMurdo Antarctica (home to 1200 people most of whom are scientists)
7. Cape York Peninsula (home to 12,000 people most of which are aboriginals) – it is so inaccessible that many parts of Cape York has only been surveyed by helicopters
6. Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland (They make their living eating and hunting polar bears and whales)
5. Kerguelen Islands (There is no airstrip, to get there you must take a boat ride for 6 days)
4. Pitcairn Island (roughly 50 residents, all of whom are descendants of the HMS Bounty crewmembers) - pictured above
3. Alert, Nunavut, Canada (population 5)
2. Motuo County, China (the only part of China that does not have one road, and the fact that you have to climb over the Himalayas to reach to it) There have been attempts to make roads to lead to Motuo, but constant avalanches and landslides have destroyed any attempts
1. Tristan de Cunha (population 271 people, nearest land to the island is South Africa, 1,700 miles away)
 

The most enjoyable part of reading about Cabeza de Vaca is his eventual profession as a spirit healer. Though obviously not a spiritual healer, Cabeza adopted this new identity for multiple reasons; among them personal safety and livelihood.

Altering ones identity or taking on a whole new one is often advantageous when travelling. Despite the fun of creating a fictitious person the advantage of such an act is not in the skill of the traveller’s deception but in the fact that the locals know nothing of the traveller.

Take for my example, my black partner in my real estate brokerage (let us call him AP). To us Americans, there is no resemblance between AP and Tiger Woods except for their race. When we went to China, we were approached by a minimum of 100 people asking for autographs and pictures. For the first 5 or so persons, AP would have me explain that he was not Tiger Woods and simply because he was black does not mean that he is Woods or related to Woods in anyway.

After the fifth person, for simplicity, we just nodded, handed out autographs and took pictures. The best part of taking on the identity of Tiger Woods came during the night; no entry fees into clubs, VIP treatment throughout and free drinks all night. Initially, AP adopted this identity for simplicity, simply nodding and signing fake autographs is much easier than explaining to every person pointing and asking that he was not Woods. Apart from the more juvenile and selfish reason to take a different identity, there is very little difference in the actions AP and de Vaca took to enhance their travels. They both relied on a new identity to enhance their travels. Changing ones identity while traveling can be extremely rewarding as shown in both cases while somewhat exciting.

** if truly interested in seeing what my partner/friend looks like and comparing him to tiger woods, you can go to the following website: www.bpvance.com (his initials are AP) 

Religion seems to be omnipresent in anybody’s travels. Whether we travel for education to learn the culture of another religion, (i.e. Kublai Khan or even us going to the Sistine Chapel) or we travel for religious respect (i.e. Ibn Battuta’s religious pilgrimage), there is no doubt that religion is practically unavoidable in our travels.  
This omnipresence in religion was evident even in the travels of Vaca. The travels, however, brought on a different aspect of religion.

Rather than being the purpose of travel, religion, in the case of Vaca, was an aid to help protect and motivate the traveler. Take for example when Vaca was captured by the Indians:
“When I was afflicted in this way, my only comfort and consolation was to think about the suffering of our redeemer Jesus Christ and the blood he shed for me, and to consider how much greater was the torment he suffered from the thorns than what I was suffering at that time.”
Religion in this instance protects Vaca mentally to accept the hardships he was put through while providing him “comfort and consolation”. Throughout the recounting of his travels, Vaca continually thanks God for the mercy and the kindness of the protection, and food he brings to Vaca.

Later on in the journey, religion becomes somewhat a means of survival and a way of life. When Castillo somehow relieved an Indian of his pain, the Indians believed that they had some sort of supernatural healing powers. When word has gotten out of Vaca and his men’s “healing powers” the Indians would send all their sick and dying to the white men for their healing powers, offering gifts of bows and arrows to repay healing act performed by Vaca and his men. Vaca continually attributes these healings as acts of God and thanks God for both healing the sick persons while protecting them by giving them such responsibilities. Vaca introduced the Christian religion to the Indians while becoming a person of veneration.

Religion is essential to all travels whether it be for the purposes of education, power or responsibility. Even in a loosely populated land, Vaca was able to bring Christianity to North America, where it protected him during his time of captivity and allowed him to survive (though some sort of divine help by God).

One of the greatest shocks to me this year was that Marco Polo did not bring noodles to Italy. When I found out Columbus was an evil slave driver, I no longer trust secondary school education; therefore, for this week’s second write up, I decided to bust some of the lies we learned while growing up.

Probably the best one:
Newton never did anything with an apple falling. Apparently, the story about the apple was mentioned in passing about 60 years after Newton came up with the idea:
"Whilst he was musing in a garden it came into his thought that the power of gravity (which brought an apple from the tree to the ground) was not limited to a certain distance from the earth but that this power must extend much further."
The second one:
Van Gogh cutoff his own ear and sent it to a girl as a symbol of love. The only part of this story that was true is where he sent his ear to someone. The true story apparently, was that he lost his ear when fighting against Paul Gauguin.
The third one:
Ben Franklin flew a kite in a lightning storm and discovered electricity when he got electrocuted. This was not possible as, if he got electrocuted he would have died.
And the last one (I purposely took out a couple of the lesser known ones)
George Washington, when he was 12 years old, cut his dad’s cherry tree and, when asked by his father if little George cut the tree, George said that he couldn’t lie and that he did in fact cut the tree.
This is the most genius lie of the above four. This was a lie fabricated by a book seller, Mason Weems in the 1800. He wrote a book titled “Life of George Washington; with Curious Anecdotes, Equally honorable to himself and Exemplary to his young countrymen”. With further research it is now revealed that Weems probably made up this tale to sell more books.

Columbus is a natural salesman. Promoting an impossible voyage while receiving funding and the support from the royal court is very much like an entrepreneur pitching to a group of venture capitalists. Unlike many previous travellers we have studied, Columbus travelled primarily for wealth; in his search for an alternate route to Asia, Columbus would claim all undiscovered lands for the court, he would receive 10% of all profits generated from those lands and a noble title: the admiral of the ocean seas.

The first step for many entrepreneurs is finding and solving a consumer problem that could be mass marketed. With the eastern trade route being unsafe, Spain was looking for a different route to Asia’s extremely lucrative spice market.

The second step, and perhaps the most difficult for any modern day entrepreneur is to receive funding and approval for a project. Luckily for Columbus, he received the funding relatively easily but was denied backing by the royal court. In modern times, to remedy this, you tweak your project, and pitch to the same VC’s if they care to listen, or pitch to different VC’s which Columbus did until eventually, he received approval.

The next step for an entrepreneur is the execution and the attempt to achieve the goals of the investors; primarily to first, find a route to Asia and secondly, to bring a return on the investor’s backing. As North America caused Columbus to fail miserably in finding a route directly to Asia, much like a failed entrepreneur, Columbus returned to the investors looking for further funding and justifying the initial loss of investment with (perhaps) false confidence. “Columbus’s principal illusion, that he had made the voyage to Asia, was fostered by his need to provide rapid successes or victories in order to get renewed backing for his explorations”. Without any simple way to validate Columbus’ claims, even the most outrageous claims would often go unquestioned. Like a modern investor pouring money into lulu lemon stock, they began to throw good money to salvage a poor investment, which, it must be noted, that Columbus was able to cover up with the promise of gold mines, plentiful herbs and a new route for a very profitable slave trade.

Though mainly credited to be the first European to “discover” America, Christopher Columbus, to my knowledge, is probably one of earliest examples of a modern day entrepreneur.
 

What is the most important difference in Marco Polo’s adventure and Ibn Battuta’s travels? Their itineraries were no doubt, different, but the most significant difference between the two travel stories is the accuracy in the recounting of what each traveller saw. While Ibn Battuta described all the monuments he visited vividly and accurately, Marco Polo seemed to have thrown in some elaborate lies while maintaining certain truths. Naturally, as Ibn Battuta’s original purpose of travel was for religious reasons, Ibn Battuta’s subject matter differed slightly from Polo’s. The resulting differences in fame and recognition are drastic.

Let us first look at the scoreboard. Marco Polo, without knowing it, discovered Pasta. There is a widely played child’s game named after Marco Polo. Also named after Marco Polo: a species of sheep, a Canadian boat, the Venice airport, the frequent flyer program of Cathay Pacific airlines, a video game, a couple movies and television series, a hotel group, a couple hundred restaurants and perhaps most ridiculously, a fleet of New York based yachts.

Now let us look at Battuta’s scoreboard: a mall, a Bollywood film named Ishqiya, a Hindi nursery rhyme, a mall in Dubai and a gate/hotel in Dubai.

Though impressive, Battuta’s legacy is far outclassed and outshined by Marco Polo’s list. The secret to Polo’s success? Lies, deception and elaborate stories which teach us all a very important lesson. If you wish to be famous in your writings, extravagant, untrue stories will fare far better than the truth.

Ibn Battuta is primarily known nowadays for his travels throughout Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. Recording his travels through his autobiographical “Travels in Asia and Africa”, Ibn Battuta is known as, perhaps, the most widely traveled person of his time. Throughout his travels, Battuta hits many landmarks of his time, for example the lighthouse at Alexandria and the Hagia Sophia. What is most interesting about his documentation of such monuments is his rhetoric in describing the buildings. He no longer writes as a mere traveller; his descriptions of buildings match the rhetoric, complexity and detail of an art historian.

Take for example, his description of the Aya Sufiya (or the Hagia Sophia). “Built by Asaph, the son of Berechiah, who was Solomon’s cousin, it is one of the greatest churches of the Greeks, and is encircled by a wall that it looks as if it were a town. It has thirteen gates and a sacred enclosure which is about a mile long and closed by a gate.” Battuta provides a brief history of the Sophia itself before going into the specifications of the building; “the gate is covered with plaques of silver and gold and its two rings are of pure gold”. Battuta crafts sentences as if he were an art historian himself; “the gate of the church there are porticoes where the keepers sit who sweep its paths”. His attention to detail and his attention to the architecture provide non-refutable evidence for his presence at his destinations.

The best example of his recordings in an art historian sense is probably his description of the Umayyad Mosque. First providing a brief history of the mosque (while taking a cheap shot at Christians), Battuta describes the mosque accurately while paying close attention to detail.

Whereas a regular traveller would have said there are four doors, one for each direction; Battuta goes to finding out the names of the doors and recording the significance of each door. “The eastern door, called the Jayrun door, is the largest of the doors of the mosque. It also has a large passage, leading out to a large and extensive colonnade which is entered through a quintuple gateway between six columns” Battuta uses language here, that isn’t terribly complicated but would not be considered terms a regular person without a basic understanding of architecture would understand. “In the middle of the passage there is a large round marble basin, surrounded by a pavilion supported on marble columns but lacking a roof.” His attention to the architecture of the building not only reflects his intimacy with the building but a familiarity to the subject matter matched only by art historians. The manner in which a traveller records his journey often provides us with a better understanding of the traveller himself. In the case of Battuta, we can understand him to be not only a traveller but a well versed art historian as well.

Whenever Marco Polo is talked about in elementary schools, the subject matter is not typically Polo serving Kublai Khan or even that he traveled throughout Asia. Instead, what is often repeated is the idea that Marco Polo discovered pasta and introduced it to Italy.

As we study Marco Polo, I feel it necessary to debunk any myths related to pasta and provide as accurate an account of pasta as possible with the thanks of Wikipedia.
There is no doubt that the Chinese first invented noodles. The date is questionable but it can be ball-parked at about 2000BC. The only thing Marco Polo was responsible for as far as pasta goes is his description of lasagna in the travels. He uses the term “lagana” which is Latin for a thin sheet of dough. Obviously, if the Latin word existed for the food Marco Polo was writing about, then it can be assumed that pasta or lasagna at least, was already introduced. According to the National Macaroni Manufacturers Association, pasta was introduced by the Arabs in the late 7th century; 600 years before Marco Polo was around.
The only question left to ask then is where the myth of Marco Polo’s role in the discovery of Pasta originated in. Naturally, we can blame America for the source of confusion. This myth was published in the “Macaroni Journal” which was a journal published by the food industries of America. Their goal was to popularize pasta in America. They created the elaborate lie and started the journal entry with “legend has it”.

Take a look at this Pasta shop’s account of Pasta’s history: http://www.pastazola.com/whypasta.html
 “Legend has it that Marco Polo introduced pasta to Italy in the 13th century after returning from the Far East. Indeed, the Chinese were making noodles as early as 3000 B.C. The first industrial pasta factory in America was built in Brooklyn. Clearly, pasta has been a healthy meal choice for centuries across many cultures. Zola’s in good company—and so are you!”
Maybe America is already too accustomed to their myths.

In The Travels of Marco Polo, Marco Polo recounts many instances of the dominance of Christianity; whether they are true or false. These stories show his obvious bias towards Christianity and, perhaps, his goal to appease a Christian audience.
 
Take for example, the introduction of Christianity to the Great Khan. According to Polo’s story, simply after brief communication between the Great Khan and the two Polo brothers, the Great Khan, seeing the sense and impressive nature of the Christian religion, decided to ‘make a request to his Holiness that he would send to him a hundred men of learning, thoroughly acquainted with the principles of Christian religion, as well as the seven arts, and qualified to prove to the learned of his dominions by just and fair argument, that the faith professed by Christians is superior to, and, and founded upon more evident truth than any other; that the gods of the Tartars and the idols worshipped in their houses were only evil spirits and that they and the people of the East in general were under an error in reverencing them as divinities” (7, Marco Polo). It would seem farfetched to suggest that the Great Khan, upon basic conversation, can derive that Christianity is the most accurate religion and the religion that should be practiced. It would be more believable that the Great Khan felt curious and wanted to expose himself to the wonders and differences in the world.
 
Another example of somewhat dubious accounts of Christian exaltation is Polo’s story of the mountain that “rose out of its place and moved” due to the prayers of the Christian populous. Though I was not personally observing this supernatural act, I can quite comfortably say that mountains jumping are quite irregular and most probably did not happen; however, in the case of Marco Polo’s travels, this godly act resulted in the eventual conversion of Saracens; “even the Calif caused himself to be baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy ghost, Amen, and became a Christian, but in secret”.
 
No glorification of a religion is complete, however, without the bashing of another. Perhaps the most visible example of bashing would be the religion of the Mahometans. “The Mahometan inhabitants are treacherous and unprincipled. According to their doctrine, whatever is stolen or plundered from others of a different faith, is properly taken, and the theft is no crime”. Polo eventually carries on to ridicule Islamic faith while continually looking favorably upon Christianity for what seems to be, the remainder of the text.

The purpose of travel is probably the most important factor of travel apart from the actual experiences during ones’ travels. Having an ultimate goal allows for a traveler to, after he has completed his travels, reflect and see if he has completed the goals he has outlined for himself. In the case of Herodotus, he states:
This is the showing forth of the inquiry of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, so that neither what has come to be from man in time might become faded nor that great and wondrous deeds, those shown forth by Greeks and those by barbarians, might be without their glory; and together with all this, also through what cause they warred with each other.

Herodotus’ goal, in other words, was to immortalize what he has experienced and the actions of the men; much more noble of a goal than us plastering and taking pictures in front of the Taj Mahal. Though the accuracy of Herodotus’ recordings has been questioned, there is no doubt that his goal of immortalizing everything he has seen and recorded has been achieved.

I recently travelled to India with the main goal of exploiting cheap labor. Between tasting the foods and seeing the sights in northern India and relaxing by the beach in Goa, I realized that my original goal has been ignored in the midst of everything exciting in India. For proper closure after leaving a country, one must have achieved all goals in their travels.

In Herodotus’ account of Egypt, Herodotus describes some of the animals that he encountered in Egypt. To a modern mind, Herodotus’ recordings are not compelling through content but instead, through his manner in recording.

Perhaps one of his most famous passages is his description of the river-horse. Herodotus describes the river horse as a “four-footed, cloven-hoofed like an ox, flat-nosed, with a mane like a horse and showing teeth like tusks, with a tail and voice like a horse and in size as large as the largest ox; and his hide is so exceedingly thick that when it has been dried shafts of javelins are made of it”. What Herodotus describes here is more likely to be the loch ness monster’s ancestor than any animal that has graced the planet with its presence.  

The second animal that would have brought jeers to Herodotus’ account was the phoenix. Though admittedly, he does not blatantly lie about an encounter with this mythical creature, Herodotus does speak extremely matter-of-factly for a creature that he did not see. He states, “in truth, (the phoenix) comes to them very rarely, at intervals of five hundred years”. Without actually seeing the animal, it is very hard to explain truths about an animal to an unknowing audience.

What is important in this passage is his motive for elaborate descriptions and, dare I say, lies. It seems as if everywhere one travels, if exotic and exciting enough, people always question the oddities and peculiarities of different nations. Herodotus could simply be responding to the demands of his audience, waiting to hear the unique animals that can only be viewed in Egypt. It is in the nature of attention seekers to slightly exaggerate any encounters and experiences.

For example, what Herodotus describes as a river horse, is probably a description of a hippopotamus with a couple exaggerations and invented features. In the case of the phoenix, Herodotus does state that he does not believe in the Egyptian explanation of the origin of the phoenix but, “in truth” the bird appears every half a millennium. Both encounters will draw the “oohs and ahs” of an audience waiting to hear the ridiculous variances of nature in Egypt.
 

The Odyssey seems to be home to the most descriptive names, and by name, I do not mean simply a character’s name. Let us look at Odysseus as an example. Every time someone refers to Odysseus and every time he introduces himself, Odysseus is not only “Odysseus”, Odysseus is actually “Resourceful Odysseus, son of Laertes and a child of Zeus”. What is crucial about this is the relationship between a name and its geography.

In other words, though introducing oneself as “Lord Agamemnon, son of Atreus, king of men” is acceptable in ancient Greece, you would be ridiculed in NYU for presenting oneself as Zachary Flynt, son of William Flynt, seller of apartments (I used a real estate agent as an example). This type of elongated name from Ancient Greece is a part of cultural identifier. Much like when we hear someone with the last name of chang, xu or han were not going to picture a white man, when we hear these elongated names, we think ancient Greeks.

Coincidentally, I just returned from a month long trip to India and these extended Greek names are very similar to Indian addresses. In New York City, our addresses are very simple, 21 e 9th street, 25 w 4th street. Assuming this is the fact for New Delhi as well, I landed in Delhi, equipped with my hotel name and what I thought was the hotel address, 1563 Laxmi Narayan Street. The taxi driver yells at me in Hindi claiming it is not the full address. I look at him stupidly and said very slowly, one five six three, laxmi Narayan street, OK? Turns out in India, you have to use “full addresses”, and in my case, the address of my hotel was 1563 Laxmi Naraya Street, Near Imperial Cinema, Behind Ramakrishna Metro Station, Panchkuian Road, Main Bazar Pahar Ganj’ mouthful and inconvenient but regardless, an important cultural distinction that my uncultured self ignored.