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.