Journal Part 4

“Never before in human history had such a large scale and consequential diffusion of plant and animals operated to remake the biological environment on the planet.” (Strayer, 625)

During my reading I found this to be a really profound statement and my interested was sparked throughout the following chapters of part 4. I found this statement interesting and really appreciated the way he held as somewhat of a theme throughout the chapters. I enjoyed the information Strayer provided about the crops and animals that were making their way around the world. I would have never guessed that potatoes are not native to Ireland, but come from the Americas and sugar was not native to Brazil. This may be naïve of me or show my lack of previous knowledge regarding the world history.

I also enjoyed the way Strayer provided a clear mapping of the early modern empires and the people. I never knew where the term “mulatto” came from and I am assuming the vast majority does not as well. The information regarding the Russian empire and how at the time the other empires were crossing the ocean and Russia just expanded around these. The empire is still currently intake the other empires have become their own civilizations.

The trading that was happening during the early modern era was also quite interesting to me. Like the Dutch having the monopoly on the trade of nutmeg, mace and cloves imported from Indonesia and exported to India and Europe for up to seventeen times what they paid. I have learned about the fur trade in the past, but I never really grasped the importance of it and the impact it had globally or even in the America with the Native American and the tools they were able to trade beaver pelts, which also introduce or at least supplied them with alcohol. The slave trade – this had the most profound effect of all the trades and still hard to hear about today because of the injustices done to the human race. The population information provided by Strayer regarding the trade was mind blowing. In the 1600’s Africa population made up about 18% of the populations and by the 1900’s because of the slave trade it represented 6%.

And of course their era of science and enrichment laying the foundation for some of the modern greats that may not have changed history without the knowledge of the people who came before them. I guess that is how history works though!

It has been interesting to move into the modern era and make connections that I didn’t know where there previously. 

Journal 4

Journal 3 - Ch. 6,7,& 10

Silk Road -
No only has the Eurasian landmass provided us with a wealth of culture, agriculture and some of the largest civilizations, but it also gave rise to the most extensive network of exchange among different cultures. The name Silk Road comes from the famous product traded by the diverse group of people linked to these trade routes.
Silk Road was seen to be most prosperous when receiving protection and security for merchants and travelers from large and powerful states.
A monopoly has been held by China on silk production and an increased growing market lead to a demand all across Afro-Eurasian.
It is interesting how we have seen the rise and fall of silk road again, but of our day, using the protection of the internet and bitcoin for currency to unit a world. Unfortunately, the most famous commodity of today's silk road is not silk, but illegal drugs.

Journal 2- Part 2 Study Guide Question

1) What was the significance of the development of agriculture?

Domestication – the taming and changing, of nature for the benefit of mankind.

The end of the last Ice Age allowed warmer, wetter and more stable conditions allowing the flourishing of wild plants, especially cereal grasses

Starts storing food and creating permanent villages, now required to support whole populations, the disappearance of large mammals may have forced agriculture.

Some believe that increase in humans lead to a need to find alternative food source i.e. agriculture.

Tools were developed, digging stick and hoe

It is believed that the transision between nomadic and agricultural society only took 500 years to transition into a ag way of life.

Lead to the development of more tools, shrines, development of villages

Humans had more time to focus on developing new technologies

Lead to access of food and grains and lead to trade

Domestication of animals used for tools and food

2) Discuss the evidence that Paleolithic societies were more egalitarian than later societies. Is this evidence convincing? Why or why not?

Yes, we see evidence in with the Sans people, but cannot confirm that the Paleolithic people behaved the same way. We see examples of this through the sexual freedom of gender within the sans people, insulting the meat – social equality, few possessions material equality, images show women being revered, but we cannot confirm our ideas are what the images actually meant.

3) What did it mean to be civilized to the Mesopotamians who created the Gilgamesh story?

Enkindu

(Beast) strength of the gods, not settled, living in silence, shaggy, hangs with animals, drinks mere water, and is the protector of the animals

(Human) seeks a friend, eats bread (processed grass), drinks beer, lost connection to wildlife, gains understanding, awareness of self, clothed

4) How is an empire different from other forms of political organization? Give examples.

States, political systems that exercise coercive power

Term usually refers to larger more aggressive states, those that conquer and rule, and extract resources from other states and people.

Usually made of a variety of people and cultures under one political system

They were usually very large, creating a presence that made it hard to avoid tax collectors and armies

Despite the violence – they also fostered periods of peace, security, economic and artistic development, commercial exchange, and cultural mixing.

5) Please list the four eras we have discussed so far, along with their date ranges. How much can you recall of the four comparative bullet points that go with each era?

Paleolithic – 250,000 YA

We evolved as homo sapiens

We used basic stone tools

Socially, we formed ourselves into moving band of gather hunters

We migrated out of Africa to different contents

95% of our species time was this era

Neolithic – 17,000 YA

We out completed all other species of the genus homo

We used advanced stone tools for more complex purpose

We farmed ourselves into small settled agriculture communities

All continents except Antarctica populated by human  

Ancient Era – 3,500 BC

H.S competed with one and another for wealth and status of power

Wedeveloped a more sophisticated tech, including writing

Agricultural surpluses => specialist => Civilization + city and state

Interatios of human from different areas, leads to trade

Classical – 500 BC

Modern – 1348 AD

6) Who were the Big 5 seminal thinkers (+1) of the Classical era? What can you say about them in five minutes?

7) Is it possible to have a human society that is orderly but not oppressive? Cite examples that might make you more confident in your answer.

8) Why does Strayer change the term “hunter-gatherer” to the term “gatherer-hunter”? Is this change consistent or inconsistent with the values of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur as outlined in the Hallmarks? Should other scholars who write textbooks on World History adopt this change?

9) Please discuss the accomplishments of the Ancient peoples of the Indus Valley. Why don’t scholars know more about them?

Journal Entry 1

Prologue:

A lot of history has transpired and has been recorded since the last time I took a history class, so reading the first two chapters felt like new information. Not to say, that I didn’t remember bits and pieces, but like the lag of time we saw from the Paleolithic Era to the Neolithic Era, there just hasn’t been a lot of change/educating over the past 15 years when it comes to history for me. I really enjoyed the way our book and our class last week, reviewed the cosmic calendar. Basing the cosmic calendar on a year really helps you grasp the timeline in which the earth formed and the evolution of everything. It is amazing to think we were not formed until December 31^st , in the last hour. The perspective is powerful and one that I had no observed before. We are seconds old, I wonder what comes next.  I love how Strayer refers to “the emergence of life from the chemical soup of the early planet.” (Ivii) I also have really appreciated the environmental concerns in the book and as Strayer says beautifully, “We have recently gained access to the stored solar energy of coal, gas and oil, all of which have been many million years in the making, and have the capacity to deplete these resources in a few thousand years.” (Ivii) Wow, extremely powerful when you look at it that way.

Chapter 1 – 2

It was interesting to review these two chapters, starting with the 23 species of human and seeing the overlap of the homo species was particularly interesting to me. I guess this was a fact, which somewhere I must have been made aware, but never put a lot of thought into it. Species very similar to us learned how to use fire and make stone tools, we learned from these species and like many species we pushed them into extinction. We too, emerged in Africa, where we resided from approximately 150,000 years before beginning to migrate 100,000 YA, known as the Paleolithic Era or “the old Stone age”.  Made up of a period of 250,000 years this period makes up 95% of our species time on this planet and only 12% of the people lived during this time.

Next we moved into the Neolithic Era “New Stone Age”, known also as the Agricultural Revolution, where we saw the first settling down and sewing roots.  This period was much shorter, only about 17,000 YA, but the human population doubled. We see corn being cultivated and huge advancement for human beings made. Even though we are seeing amazing feats like corn going from 1inh to 6 inch when farmed we could not have made these advancements without the work of our gathering and hunting ancestors that went before us. It was their gathering of wild grains and rice and their constructing of micro-blades that lead us into the agriculture revolution.  Although, horticulture varied region to region it was a very simple technology of digging stick or hoe. We saw settlement size increase, shrines being built and the foundation of civilization being laid. I appreciated the statement made by Strayer, “Regarded as a gift from the gods, beer, like bread, was understood in Mesopotamia as something that could turn a savage into a fully human and civilized person.” (39) Being the psych major that I am, this really made me think. We know that stories have been used to explain natural disaster, when the science wasn’t there to explain what happening, but how did we explain mental illness. Because with some mental illness, alcohol will turn a savage into a civilized person. Maybe the mental ill or eccentric if you like, were the shaman and medicine men of ancient time.

In Chapter two we move into discussion about civilization, which only started happening about 3,500 YA beginning of Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Norte Chico civilizations. And, if I am interpreting the text correctly, in Egypt women used to have more right and hold more of a place in society, then they do today. Amazing and sad at the same time.  Strayer writes “Chinese civilization, more than any other, has experienced and impressive cultural continuity from its earliest expression into modern time.” (67) Somehow this make complete sense to me, and you still see the history and the culture being respected and honored today in China.

Mesopotamian society has placed a huge role; we saw the pastoral societies define a religion. The life of Muhammad shows us through the stories and history the society and the role of chiefdom in Mesopotamia.  Of course, we had the Epic of Gilgamesh, to help explain what was happening in the world and it was being explained with the ideas of gods and was quite cynical about the happening of the time.

I also really appreciate, how Strayer has conflict with using the term “civilization” to define and era a change in the way we lived 3,500 YA, because common practice states and is referring to a somewhat superior being and society. As we know, we may have learned new skills through cultural advancements, but we are the same people defined by the term civilization or not. 

References

Strayer, R. W. (2013). Ways off the World. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.

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