BLOG 1: Chapter 1 - Ways of the World + Reading Home
Chapter 1
Read, take notes and write a reflection;
"Human being successfully adapted to a wide variety of environment without benefit of deliberate farming or animal husbandry. Instead, our early ancestor wrested a livelihood by gathering wild foods such as berries, nuts, roots, and grain; by scavenging dead animals; by hunting live animals; and by fishing." pg. 11
"Then, around 12,000 years ago, an enormous transformation began to unfold as a few human societies - in Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas alike - started to practice the deliberate cultivation of plants and the domestication of animals." pg. 12
"Some historians identify "real history" with writing and so dismiss the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras as largely unknowable because their people did not write" pg. 12
"Our grasp of the human past is incomplete - massive so - if we choose to disregard the Paleolithic and Neolithic erase" pg. 12
OUT OF AFRICA: FIRST MIGRATIONS
"Around 200,000 to 250,00 years ago, in the grasslands of eastern and Southern Africa, Homo sapiens first emerged, following in the footsteps of many other hominid or human-like species before it" pg. 12
"Africa, almost certainly, was the place where the "human revolution" occurred, where "culture", defined as learned or invented ways of living, became more important then biology in shaping behavior" pg. 13
"Then, sometime between 100,000 and 60,000 years ago, human being began their long trek out of Africa and into Eurasia, Australia, the Americas, and, much later, the island of the Pacific (see Map 1.1)" pg. 14
INTO EURASIA
"There they altered they hunting habits, focusing on reindeer and horses, and developed new technologies such as spear throwers and perhaps the bow and arrow as well as many different kinds of stone tools." pg. 14
"They also left a record of their world in hundreds of caves paintings, depicting bulls, horses, and other animals, brilliantly portrayed in colors of red, yellow, brown and black." pg. 14
"Farther east, archeologist have uncovered still other remarkable Paleolithic adaptations to Ice Age conditions." pg. 14
INTO AUSTRALIA
"Perhaps 60,000 years ago, came from Indonesia and involved another first in human affairs - the use of boats." pg. 15
"Scholars estimate the population of Australia at about 300,000 in 1788." pg. 15
THE FIRST HUMAN SOCIETIES
"Some scholars speculate that this grown was dramatically interrupted around 70,000 years ago by a enormous volcanic eruption on the island of Sumatra in present-day Indonesia, resulting in a cooler and direr global climate and causing human numbers to drop to some 10,000 or less" pg. 20
"Relationships between women and men usually were far more equal than in later societies" pg. 21
"More generally, recent studies have found that in Paleolithic societies some 15 percent of deaths occurred through violence at the hands of other people, a rate far higher than in later civilizations, where violence was largely monopolized by the state." pg. 22
ECONOMY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
"They noted that gathering and hunting people frequency worked fewer hours to meet their material needs than did people in agricultural or industrial societies and so had more leisure time." pg. 22
THE REALM OF THE SPIRIT
"Some Paleolithic societies were apparently monotheistic; other saw several levels of supernatural beings, including a creator deity, various territorial spirits, and the spirits of dead ancestors; still others believed in an impersonal; force suffused throughout the natural order that could be accessed by shamans during a trance dance." pg. 23
SETTLING DOWN: THE GREAT TRANSITION
"Paleolithic cultures occurred over time as people moved into new environments, as populations grew, as climates altered, and as different human groups interacted with one another." pg. 24
"Occurred as the last Ice Age came to an end between 16,000 and 10,000 years ago. What followed was a general global warming." pg. 24
"Plants and Animals that had struggled in the Ice Age climate now flourished and increased their range, providing a much richer and more diverse environment for many human societies." pg. 25
"Thes societies were becoming both larger and more complex, and it was less possible to simply move away if trouble struck" pg. 25
"Because some people were more energetic, more talented, or luckier than others, the thin edge of inequality gradually began to wear away the egalitarians, of the Paleolithic communities." pg. 25
"Studies of more recent gathering and hunting societies, which were able to settle permanently in particular resource-rich areas, show marked differences from their more nomadic counterparts." pg. 25
BREAKTHROUGHS THE AGRICULTURE
"Men and women were not simply using what they found in the nature but actively changing nature as well. They were consciously "directing" the process of evolution." pg. 27
"A further revolutionary aspect of the agricultural age is summed up in the term "intensification." It means getting more for less, in this case more food and resources - far more - from a much smaller area of land than was possible with a gathering and hunting technology." pg. 28
COMMON PATTERNS
"By about 11,000 years ago, the Ice Age was over, and climatic conditions similar to those of our own time generally prevailed." pg. 28
"This was but the latest of some twenty-five periods of glaciation and warming that have occurred over the past several millions years of the earth's history and that are caused by minor periodic changes in the earth's orbit around the sun. The end of the last Ice Age, however, coincided with the migration of Homo sapiens across the planet and created new conditions that made the agriculture more possible in some areas, even as rising sea levels inundated other regions." pg. 29
"Over their long history, gathering and hunting peoples had already developed a deep knowledge of the natural world and, in some cases, the ability to manage it actively. They had learned to make use of a large number of plant and to hunt and eat both small and large animals, creating what archeologists doll a "broad-spectrum diet"" pg. 29
"Evidence for increasing human numbers around the world during this period of global warming has persuaded some scholars that agriculture was a response to the need for additional food, perhaps even a "food crisis""pg. 29
"This disappearance of many large mammals, growing populations, newly settled ways of life, and fluctuations in the process of global warming - all of these represented pressures or incentives to increase food production and thus to minimize the risks of life in a new era." pg. 32
VARIATIONS
"What triggered the transition to agriculture remains a much debated question. Some have argued that a cold and dry spell between 11,000 and 9500 B.C.E, a very rapid but temporary interruption in the general process of global warming, was the stimulus for the transition to farming." pg. 32
THE CULTURE OF AGRICULTURE
"The greater productivity of agriculture was able to support much larger numbers." pg. 38
"Human selection modified the genetic composition go numerous plants and animals." pg. 38
"Agriculture also imposed constraints on human communities." pg. 40
AGRICULTURAL VILLAGE SOCIETIES
""Both men and women", concluded one scholar, "could carry out a series of roles and enjoy a range of position, from making tools to grinding grain and baking to heading a household." pg. 43
"Some societies practiced patrilineal descent and required a women to live in the household of her husband." pg. 44
"These variations in practice suggest that gender roles were likely determined more by cultural preference than by any biological need for a sexual division of labor and power." pg. 44
CHIEFDOMS
"In which inherited positions of power and privilege introduced a more distinct element of inequality, but unlike later kings, chiefs could seldom use force to compel the obedience of their subjects." pg. 45
"But if agriculture provided humankind with the power to dominate nature, it also, increasingly, enabled some people to dominate others." pg. 46
THE USES OF THE PALEOLITHIC
"Paleolithic era resonates still in the twenty-first century, reminding us us of our kinship with these distant people and the significance of that kinship to finding our own way in a very different world". pg. 47
SUMMARIZE/PERSONAL OPINION
After reading the Chapter 1, about Africa, agriculture, homo sapiens and the immigration. I found everything very interesting. There was some parts that I found difficult to understand but I understood most of it. The fact that there is a lot of details, it shows how important we came from. Also the use of the map was very helpful to understand better where did humans move from and to where as well as the agriculture. To summarize, I learned a lot of things that I didn't know before but because of the History book, I was able to have a better understanding of the history of everything.
Read, take notes and write a reflection;
First people; First Farmers - Most of History in a Single Chapter
"Human being successfully adapted to a wide variety of environment without benefit of deliberate farming or animal husbandry. Instead, our early ancestor wrested a livelihood by gathering wild foods such as berries, nuts, roots, and grain; by scavenging dead animals; by hunting live animals; and by fishing." pg. 11
"Then, around 12,000 years ago, an enormous transformation began to unfold as a few human societies - in Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas alike - started to practice the deliberate cultivation of plants and the domestication of animals." pg. 12
"Some historians identify "real history" with writing and so dismiss the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras as largely unknowable because their people did not write" pg. 12
"Our grasp of the human past is incomplete - massive so - if we choose to disregard the Paleolithic and Neolithic erase" pg. 12
OUT OF AFRICA: FIRST MIGRATIONS
"Around 200,000 to 250,00 years ago, in the grasslands of eastern and Southern Africa, Homo sapiens first emerged, following in the footsteps of many other hominid or human-like species before it" pg. 12
"Africa, almost certainly, was the place where the "human revolution" occurred, where "culture", defined as learned or invented ways of living, became more important then biology in shaping behavior" pg. 13
"Then, sometime between 100,000 and 60,000 years ago, human being began their long trek out of Africa and into Eurasia, Australia, the Americas, and, much later, the island of the Pacific (see Map 1.1)" pg. 14
INTO EURASIA
"There they altered they hunting habits, focusing on reindeer and horses, and developed new technologies such as spear throwers and perhaps the bow and arrow as well as many different kinds of stone tools." pg. 14
"They also left a record of their world in hundreds of caves paintings, depicting bulls, horses, and other animals, brilliantly portrayed in colors of red, yellow, brown and black." pg. 14
"Farther east, archeologist have uncovered still other remarkable Paleolithic adaptations to Ice Age conditions." pg. 14
INTO AUSTRALIA
"Perhaps 60,000 years ago, came from Indonesia and involved another first in human affairs - the use of boats." pg. 15
"Scholars estimate the population of Australia at about 300,000 in 1788." pg. 15
THE FIRST HUMAN SOCIETIES
"Some scholars speculate that this grown was dramatically interrupted around 70,000 years ago by a enormous volcanic eruption on the island of Sumatra in present-day Indonesia, resulting in a cooler and direr global climate and causing human numbers to drop to some 10,000 or less" pg. 20
"Relationships between women and men usually were far more equal than in later societies" pg. 21
"More generally, recent studies have found that in Paleolithic societies some 15 percent of deaths occurred through violence at the hands of other people, a rate far higher than in later civilizations, where violence was largely monopolized by the state." pg. 22
ECONOMY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
"They noted that gathering and hunting people frequency worked fewer hours to meet their material needs than did people in agricultural or industrial societies and so had more leisure time." pg. 22
THE REALM OF THE SPIRIT
"Some Paleolithic societies were apparently monotheistic; other saw several levels of supernatural beings, including a creator deity, various territorial spirits, and the spirits of dead ancestors; still others believed in an impersonal; force suffused throughout the natural order that could be accessed by shamans during a trance dance." pg. 23
SETTLING DOWN: THE GREAT TRANSITION
"Paleolithic cultures occurred over time as people moved into new environments, as populations grew, as climates altered, and as different human groups interacted with one another." pg. 24
"Occurred as the last Ice Age came to an end between 16,000 and 10,000 years ago. What followed was a general global warming." pg. 24
"Plants and Animals that had struggled in the Ice Age climate now flourished and increased their range, providing a much richer and more diverse environment for many human societies." pg. 25
"Thes societies were becoming both larger and more complex, and it was less possible to simply move away if trouble struck" pg. 25
"Because some people were more energetic, more talented, or luckier than others, the thin edge of inequality gradually began to wear away the egalitarians, of the Paleolithic communities." pg. 25
"Studies of more recent gathering and hunting societies, which were able to settle permanently in particular resource-rich areas, show marked differences from their more nomadic counterparts." pg. 25
BREAKTHROUGHS THE AGRICULTURE
"Men and women were not simply using what they found in the nature but actively changing nature as well. They were consciously "directing" the process of evolution." pg. 27
"A further revolutionary aspect of the agricultural age is summed up in the term "intensification." It means getting more for less, in this case more food and resources - far more - from a much smaller area of land than was possible with a gathering and hunting technology." pg. 28
COMMON PATTERNS
"By about 11,000 years ago, the Ice Age was over, and climatic conditions similar to those of our own time generally prevailed." pg. 28
"This was but the latest of some twenty-five periods of glaciation and warming that have occurred over the past several millions years of the earth's history and that are caused by minor periodic changes in the earth's orbit around the sun. The end of the last Ice Age, however, coincided with the migration of Homo sapiens across the planet and created new conditions that made the agriculture more possible in some areas, even as rising sea levels inundated other regions." pg. 29
"Over their long history, gathering and hunting peoples had already developed a deep knowledge of the natural world and, in some cases, the ability to manage it actively. They had learned to make use of a large number of plant and to hunt and eat both small and large animals, creating what archeologists doll a "broad-spectrum diet"" pg. 29
"Evidence for increasing human numbers around the world during this period of global warming has persuaded some scholars that agriculture was a response to the need for additional food, perhaps even a "food crisis""pg. 29
"This disappearance of many large mammals, growing populations, newly settled ways of life, and fluctuations in the process of global warming - all of these represented pressures or incentives to increase food production and thus to minimize the risks of life in a new era." pg. 32
VARIATIONS
"What triggered the transition to agriculture remains a much debated question. Some have argued that a cold and dry spell between 11,000 and 9500 B.C.E, a very rapid but temporary interruption in the general process of global warming, was the stimulus for the transition to farming." pg. 32
THE CULTURE OF AGRICULTURE
"The greater productivity of agriculture was able to support much larger numbers." pg. 38
"Human selection modified the genetic composition go numerous plants and animals." pg. 38
"Agriculture also imposed constraints on human communities." pg. 40
AGRICULTURAL VILLAGE SOCIETIES
""Both men and women", concluded one scholar, "could carry out a series of roles and enjoy a range of position, from making tools to grinding grain and baking to heading a household." pg. 43
"Some societies practiced patrilineal descent and required a women to live in the household of her husband." pg. 44
"These variations in practice suggest that gender roles were likely determined more by cultural preference than by any biological need for a sexual division of labor and power." pg. 44
CHIEFDOMS
"In which inherited positions of power and privilege introduced a more distinct element of inequality, but unlike later kings, chiefs could seldom use force to compel the obedience of their subjects." pg. 45
"But if agriculture provided humankind with the power to dominate nature, it also, increasingly, enabled some people to dominate others." pg. 46
THE USES OF THE PALEOLITHIC
"Paleolithic era resonates still in the twenty-first century, reminding us us of our kinship with these distant people and the significance of that kinship to finding our own way in a very different world". pg. 47
SUMMARIZE/PERSONAL OPINION
After reading the Chapter 1, about Africa, agriculture, homo sapiens and the immigration. I found everything very interesting. There was some parts that I found difficult to understand but I understood most of it. The fact that there is a lot of details, it shows how important we came from. Also the use of the map was very helpful to understand better where did humans move from and to where as well as the agriculture. To summarize, I learned a lot of things that I didn't know before but because of the History book, I was able to have a better understanding of the history of everything.
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