The primary sources listed various things such as the places being traveled to, what was being traded, who traded what items, etc. Some sources describe other cultures, and they each have their own unique way of looking at worldy issues. Ibn Battua, for example, desribed the Sudan culture, from his devout Muslim perspective. Al Masaudi also describes the Zanj location and the people. Pedro de Cieza described the Incas, Diego Duran descibed the Aztecs, both are from a Spanish pespective. Some of the documents, were more informational/technical, like Pegalotti compiling together the facts about what you need when traveling. Others just describe their life and events, like Marco Polo and Equiano.
According to Equiano's primary source about the Columbian exchange, life as a slave was not worth living. He describes families being seperated as a social effect. Lots of emotiobal trauma was forced on him at a young age, he didn't want to eat after he was kidnapped and when he was on a slave ship. The slave ships were filthy, suffocating, and de-humanizing. All the slaves were depressed, and when they tried to commit suicide by jumping overboard, they were taken back and beaten. The air was unclean, no one wanted to eat, but they were forced, and when they wouldn't eat they were beaten.
Marco Polo decsribes the different places when traveing on the Silk Roads. He mentions Mongol raids, Islamic and Turkish provinces, and evil desert spirits that led people away. He describes the Buddhists as music loving, pleasure seeking folk. He also mentions that if a man is away and leaves his friend with his wife, they can sleep together, vice versa. Marco, offcourse calls them idolatrous. There are also evil desert spirits that make people see mirages, to prevent this they put bells on their animals and mark where they are. He mentions that when crossing the desert, one goes a day and a night before you find water again. Francesco Pegalotti, a banking agent in Florence,Italy, compliled information from various sources into a guide for merchants called The Practice of Commerce.The book is set up in way where it's almost like intrsuctions. First, find and grab a good person fluent in Turkish, Arabic, or Persian (dragoman). Next, take two servants who know the Cummian language, and a women (optional). Then when going from Tana to Gittarenan take 25 days worth of flour and salt. Stock up on more flour, salt, meat, and fish (because deserts are tough). The road is safe from theivary and harm, if you have sufficient supplies. You may ride horses or donkeys. If you die, your belongings go to the the government of the land, unless a family member or an intimate friend is with you. In China, they take silver coins and exchange them for paper money to buy silks and other goods. Pegalotti's compilation was insightful because it was specific about almost everything about this route.
According to Pedro de cieza, the Incas would raid and unraid places they conquered. The Incas rarely traded with outsiders, they attempted to unify their empire by keeping local cheifdoms, giving supplies to cities, and they made everyone learn one language that was used in their capital city of Cuzco. Provinces sometimes fought with eachother, and the capital wouldn't intefere. The provinces also had storehouses of supllies normally used for wars, giving to the needy, and in years of abundance the supplies were given back. According to Diego Duran, the Aztecs conquered people then collected their tributes and they sacrificed prisioners of war to their god. In Aztec society, soldiers, priests, and merchants were the most powerful classes. Merchants traded slaves, captives, jewelry, weapons, and other miscellaneous supplies. No one ever traded outside the martket place because it was against the law and dishonoarble to the market god. Both empires rarely interacted with eachother.
In al Masudi's writings, he talks about a land in central/eastern Africa near the Indian Ocean Trade called Zenji. From his point of view, the place is inhabited by Muslims and idol worshippers. He also supports that central Africa is warm with fertile soil. The Zanji/Abyssinian people use oxen like horses and they use iron as currency. A few tribes are cannibals, but most hunt elepahnts for their meat and tusks. Their diets consisted of bannanas (spread by Austronesians), meat, honey, and millet as their staple crop. Both China and India buy their tusks from this land descibed, because the ivory can make statues and palequins.
Ibn Battua describes the Trans-Saharan Trading area and is surprised by the Sudan peoples' interpretation of his Islamic faith. Women don't wear clothing or veils and can have male friends. A man's heirs are only the sons of his sisters. It's a custom when the sultan adresses you to take off your clothes and put dust on your head, as a sign of good manners. Eveyone wears white on Friday, for their prayer. Some Sudan people beat their children if they don't memorize the Quran by heart. Their whole country is secured from theives (good for any trader).
From the appearance of the five statues in Andrea, it can show that the Mediterranean trade spread many things, including artistic styles. The statue Vibia Sabina shows a Hellenistic style by the texture of the robes, and the way the statue holds herself, represents feminie Roman atttributes such as grace, modesty, seriousness, and simplism. A parthian Noblewoman statue in a southwest asian dress exprsses the Parthian blend of Greco Roman and south west Asian art styles because of her solem disposition. The Buddhist lotus flowers also reveal syncretrism because some believe that the lotud flower style was origionally in the Mediterranean area. The useage of halos in the statue also suggest cultural intergration because halos were used in later Medieval European art. The way all the buddha statues hold their hands up is very stern and elegant, furthermore showing a little bid of a Greco-Roman influence.