Week 1 Reflection
When I signed up for this class I really did not know what to expect. I was relieved to find out that although we are going to be learning a lot of information in a short period of time, I am not going to have to memorize every date there is. I love history, but it has always been hard for me to recall specific dates. I have taken four history classes in junior college and enjoyed each one of them. I am really looking forward to learning more about the 5 different major eras of Homo-sapiens that we briefly discussed in last weeks lecture.
Chapter 1 focused on how Homo sapiens populated the planet. I found it fascinating that Homo sapiens all started out in Africa and from there migrated throughout Europe, Australia, the Americas, and the Pacific. It was hard for me to picture the world as it was in the past. The book talked about how there was pieces of land (countries) that had once been connected and that different parts were frozen over by ice so people were able to migrate to different parts of the world. Seeing the world as it is today separated by massive bodies of water, I do not see how people made it without the technology we have today. It was interesting how man kind has been able to adapt and survive in a variety of environments. 95 percent of the time that we have inhabited this planet, we have survived by gathering wild foods, scavenging, hunting, and fishing. As we had discussed in class and reiterated by the book, our ancestors were known as “gathering and hunting,” peoples not “hunters and gatherers.”
Chapter 2 goes into a discussion of the first farmers and the revolution of agriculture. This period was when we shifted from “gathering and hunting” to domesticating aspects of nature for the benefit of human kind. Instead of hunting, we tamed and started selectively breeding sheep, cows, and chickens to be better than the ones that they would have caught in the wild. This entire chapter was so interesting to see how over time many things have changed. Today we now use chemicals to alter our food so it lasts longer and machinery to replace people that would have been working in the fields. To see all this change it makes me think, what is going to happen next?
Chapter 3 was about the first civilizations of cities, states, and unequal societies. It discusses the hierarchies of class from upper class, commoners, and at the bottom slaves. Gender roles also came into play during this time. Women took on more motherly roles such as raising children, cleaning, spinning/weaving, and making pots. Men tended to take on the role of being the provider. The part that stood out to me the most in this chapter was the section on writing and accounting. To see the various symbols that were used to stand for animals (that were shown in the chart on page 71) compared to what we use now is completely different. Both written and oral communication has changed over time and it is hard to believe that even with the many different languages that are spoken all over the world today, we are still able to communicate and have the ability to learn different languages.
No comments:
Post a Comment