Blog #2 - Ch 1-3

My blog is an attempt to highlight all the pertinent points in these chapters so that it will later help me study for the quiz.

History is about the three C's. 1. Comparisons, 2. Changes over time, and 3. Connections or Inter-connections.

We begin with Part One, the beginnings in history. The end of the ice age and the emergence of humankind. The Paleolithic Revolution which means the "Old Stone Age", the Neolithic which means Agriculture, and the Turning point of Civilizations.

The Paleolithic Revolution:

Neanderthals & Modern Humans. Neanderthals lived in the ice age, had bigger barrel chests, their brains were bigger and their musculature. The had to deal with cold and the Mega fauna and they needed the extra strength to kill there meals by having to thrust spears from a short distance into their prey. This was a hunting and gathering group.

From an relative view 95% of human existence was existed by the hunter and gathers.

The Chumash and the San tribes carried the lifestyle of hunters and gatherers well into the modern era. They never evolved into the more civilized agricultural era.

This kind of community were more nomadic. They moved around and didn't settle. The either moved with the animals or the plants. No real form of writing. They worked fewer hours and had more time for leisure. Men were the hunters and women were the gatherers and the maker of tools. men and women were equal and there was not much of a hierarchy. Life expectancy was low, 35 on average. They set fires to encourage growth of plants. Australia ended up with the proliferation of fire-resistant eucalyptus trees as a result of these fires. The Flores men in Indonesia were a smaller version of neanderthals. Little evidence of of a spiritual or religious dimension but some findings in paintings and carvings suggest a ceremonial spirit.

The transition to the Agriculture Revolution coincided with the melting of the ice age and global warming.

The Agriculture (Neolithic) Revolution:

These people settled in one place, gave way for bigger civilization because this way of farming was able to feed and sustain greater amounts of people. This was the era of domesticating both plants and animals. This era also began more of an inequality between them and between men and women. There was more organization. This is where the pyramids were built. mud bricks were made for building homes and pyramids instead of using stone. These communities made pottery. It also brought cities, states, empires, civilizations, writing and literature. Some of the negatives brought with this era was animal-borne diseases, natural disasters, Environmental decay or overuse, and warfare. Transformed corn from one inch to six inches, also known as teosinte and Maize. Sheep gave way to wool, cows gave way to milk, and chickens gave way to laying more eggs. Pastoral Societies relied far more on domesticated animals then agriculture. Tomuls = canue makers. Catalhoyuk = Southern Turkey. This era occured separately and independently in many widely scattered parts of the world: the fertile Crescent of Southwest Asia, serveral places in sub-Saharan Africa, China, new Guinea, Mesoamerica, the Andes, and eastern North America and it roughly took place at the same time. Only the llama/alpaca existed in the western hemishere. With farming it involved more hard work so less leisure time. Living close to animals subjected humans to diseases, like smallpox, flu, measles, chicken pox, malaria, tuberculosis, rabies... which living in tight communities gave way to the first epidemics. Natural disasters could left societies volunerable to famine in case of crop failure, drought or other catastrophes. The working of gold, copper, bronze, and iron became part of jewelry, tools, and weapons. The invention of looms for weaving. No pastoral societies emerged in the Americas. Agricultural societies included the Banpo and Jericho.

Civilizations: Cities, States, and Unequal Societies

The three biggest civilzations from the same time frame was Egypt/Nubia settling around the Nile River Valley, The Sumer, in southern Mesopotamia (presence day IRAQ), settling around the Euphrates and Tigris River valleys, and Norte Chico near the Andes mountains in the central coast of Peru. Three other civilization also important are the Olmecs, in current day Veracruz, Mexico; the Indus Valley civilizations, the Saraswatia river valley which is now Pakistan; and the Chinese Shang Dynasty. These civilizations gave way to more hierarhies of gender and Patriarchy, which is a male dominated society. With the exception of Egypt. There was more communication put to writing and accounting. Kings and leaders. The specialties of crafts. The Egyptians had a more organized and consistant existence with predictiable flooding to renew their farmland, where the Sumer area had a much harder time and it usually flooded thier farmland at the wrong times.

1. Cities lay at the heart of civilizations because they played important roles as centers of adminstration, culture, and commerce.

2. Writings came the invention of record keeping

3. Epic Gilgamesh -> civilization in Sumer

Haitawana was the first person to put her name to her work/writings.

Note: Info comes from The Ways of the World, A brief Global History textbook by Robert W. Strayer, website, http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/strayer1e/default.asp?