As I enter into this learning experience about world history, I am becoming very interested in how us as humans have developed over thousands of years. I also find it most interesting how our history as human beings was discovered and studied. Although no actual historic writings or completely solid evidence exists to back up much of early history, the theories that are current seem to make very much sense. I am also left with many questions in my mind regarding early human life.
Learning about what occurred in the Paleolithic era, which was about 95 percent of the time that humans have been evolving strikes is very intriguing. Most interesting to me is the process of our early ancestors migration. Mentioned in the text, Strayer highlights the movement of human beings out of Africa which is said to be the originating area of humans. I find that these travels are fascinating as early humans were very limited and they were able to expand to much further areas. Especially fascinating was the mention in the first chapter was the first use of boats. It is difficult for me to imagine use of primitive boats and what it was like for those who ventured off into the sea. Even further, I am astounded at how these early people were even able set out to sea and arrive in another land. How did they know that some other land was out there? By what means did they use to navigate?
In the readings, I also found that the presence of a possible spiritual connection seems to have existed among early humans. Strayer mentions that artifacts such as bones, stones and art shows evidence of the presence of early people, however, it suggests little about what the people thought but the evidence of a "rich ceremonial life" certainly existed. Evidence of human ceremony found deep in caves where humans did not live suggests some kind of burial ritual. How did these rituals come about? Was there a spiritual experience known to early humans before religion as we know it?
Another interesting part of the history of early humans was the development of agriculture. The development of tools and other methods to sustain a source of food also clearly shows the development of the human brain and advancement of the human being. In addition to the advancement of the human, the changing climate of the earth also strikes me as being very interesting, which had its direct effect on agriculture. It almost seems like the climactic changes happened in sync with the travel of humans across the planet. The idea that parts of the seas were able to be traveled across due to more ice than water is especially fascinating and incredibly enough, when much of the ice melted as the result of a global warming the seas filled after humans were able to make it to certain areas which otherwise may have been more difficult to access.
In the third chapter of the text discussion of socialization and the "erosion of equality" was striking. As mentioned in an earlier chapter, socialization of the first human societies seemed to be more equal as there was no hierarchy. As described in the third chapter by Strayer humans began to become unequal. By this time there was more technology, more productive economies and greater wealth. When reading about this, it brought to mind how the way we live today certainly stems from these early times. This also makes me think about the origination of prejudice, which may be more commonly related to more modern times. As I read on in this chapter, I clearly see how the development of societies has also lead to the negative attribute of humans to mistreat each other but I also see the positive developments such as language, accounting and societal structure. All of these parts of the human development are facinating to me.
No comments:
Post a Comment