Leo Africanus 2

In this section, I am once again struck by the huge differences in the way people treated time back then compared to now, in modern society. In this section, Hasan's grandmother died and that instigated a full 30 day mourning period. In this case, they took the pace of time much slower and took an entire month to grieve. Other times though, they increase the pace of time, putting pressure on Hasan to grow up faster than is fair. He is passed around from person to person to person, and has his childhood severely curtailed. This example is an instance where time is sped up for the characters.

I find it so interesting to see the differences between the society we live in now compared to the societies in the book, especially when it comes to the way time is treated. I feel like in some cases, like the funerals and/or grieving periods, and even something as specific as the caravan rides...people pay much more attention to the events and value time more. But in some culture aspects, children are expected to mature at an unfair rate, causing the children to miss out on their blissful time of childhood. I think its very interesting to see the dichotomy and how things back then are so different from the hustle bustle lifestyle we lead now.