Erica Garcia
World History
Summer 2013
May 16, 2013
Reading Journal #1
In the book Ways of the World, it
starts off by focusing on the evolutionary line of descent leading to Homo
sapiens. It is said that our primate
relatives first started as far back as 6 million years ago in Africa. Our early
ancestors are known to have migrated to Eurasia, Australia, the Americas and
later to the islands of the pacific. Before migrating and creating history, our
early ancestors were known as “gathering and hunting” people. They were known for gathering berries, nuts,
roots, and grain. They were known to be
amazing hunters, gathering live animals and also for their fishing skills. They were people that did not rely on what
the earth produced but rather they took what nature offered them. Theses people
were known as “Paleolithic” people. They
were labeled as Paleolithic people because they had tools made from stone
rather than metal. According to the
history book, many historians associate what they consider to be real history,
with writing, or something that would document that real significance
happened. Many believed that if there
were no change then there was no history. Even though there are no signs of
documentation, the Paleolithic people did leave many remains that lead many to
discover our early human history. They
left such things as bones, fossilized seeds, engravings, and rock paintings. Even
though the Paleolithic people are known for gathering skills, they deserve our
attention for their great achievements.
The Paleolithic people are the ones that created the initial settlement
of the planet, the beginning of the early questions regarding life and death
and the earliest human societies.
In the
first 150,000-year or so the early humans used Africa as its early foundation
of civilization. In Africa they
discovered new environments such as deserts and forests. In discovering this knew environment it lead
to technological innovations. They
invented stone blades, tools that were made from bones and grindstones. These
new discoveries helped them with gathering food, which marked a new phase in
human food collection.
With new
developments, it leads to early humans desire to expand. From Africa, many migrated to Eurasia,
Australia, the Americas, and much later to the islands of the pacific. During
this migration many encountered the difficult climate conditions from the last
ice age. Because of all the massive
amount of frozen water, it allowed them to create land bridges among the
regions but then later was destroyed once the glaciers melted.
During the
migration to other lands it lead to new discoveries in the regions where the
early humans settled. For insistence in
Eurasia, they discovered new hunting tools; cave paintings, weaving, pottery,
and thicker clothing. In Australia,
which dated around 60,000 years ago, was the first use of boats. It was also where a new outlook of the world
came in to place called dreamtime. Dreamtime was known to be the beginning, whether
it was ancestral beginnings, the creation of nature, discoveries of new land or
how they relate to each other and the animals. Moving to the Americas, they were known for
what they hunted, such as very large mammals and bison. The early humans that settled in the early
Americas were known as Clovis people.
The Clovis people were known to gather food near different types of body
of water (lakes, seas, river, etc.) But about 10,900 years ago they became
extinct just like the large animals they hunted. Experts are still not clear why this happen
but do say it did lead up to a new way of living for the new settlers. Many
years later, in the Pacific islands where development of societies (chiefdoms) and
the realization that much of the species there would become extinct. It was very hard to maintain animal life in
such a new environment with limited resources.
Going into
the second chapter of this book, it began with the Agricultural
Revolution. The Agricultural Revolution
was based on the new development of gathering and hunting food. With this change brought many more soon after,
such as, cities, states, growing populations, animal diseases, civilization, and
writing and much more. This then lead to
domestication, which was the changing in nature in order to benefit
mankind. This meant that plants and
animals that before were able to survive on their own resources were now
dependent humans in order to survive. Another term that came from this
revolution was intensification.
Intensification simply meant getting more for less. It meant that with more food and demands
meant that more people were required to misuse their environment. To summarize the Agricultural Revolution that
unfolded through out different places was based on what was available locally
to them, and like the author said it also was sheer luck.
With a lot
of migration going on and the development of new establishments brought many drawbacks. There was exposure to animal borne disease. Having such diseases killed people because
there were no immunities. They also encountered
a lot of changeling obstacles to maintain their food supply. The Agricultural Revolution led to an increase
of the human population as well. This
revolution had transformed both the route of the human expedition and the
evolution of life on the planet. This
Agriculture Revolution made it possible for humans to continue to grow as a
society and for humans to learn to operate plants and animals for their own
purposes.
Following
the development of the Agricultural Revolution, it introduced The Emergence of
Civilization. The earliest indication of
civilization was around 3500 B.C.E. to 3000 B.C.E. in three places. One was in Middle Eastern Civilization,
Sumerian civilization and rise of Egyptian civilization; these were the first
among many. Civilization was able to
start because of their roots from the agricultural revolution. The people were able to apply agricultural
technology to support large populations.
They were also able to establish because of chiefdoms. The first civilizations were base on highly
productive agriculture economies. They were able to use different form s of
irrigation, terracing, drainage and flood control which allowed them to have a
good handle on the production of their food.
The
emergence of civilization also brought occupational specialization, such as
wealth, status and power. The first civilization established a hierarchy that
was used in different regions. With this
new hierarchy, it brought a class system in to place. The Upper Class, was able to enjoy the finer
things such as getting out of doing physical labor, and was able to have top positions
such as political, military and religious positions. This was considered to be their surplus production,
which was used through many different things such as taxes, required labor and
payment for tribute. All theses things
helped support the upper class. But of
course with Upper Class there must be a lower class. Dating back 2000 B.C.E. the code of
Hammurabi mentions how accepted it was to have slaves. The lower class was
based around the idea of slaves. Men and
women were divided into different type of labor. Females were used in
industrial weaving, while men were used to maintain irrigation canals and to construct
ziggurats. Others were used to be servants in households. The first Civilization slaves were prisoners
of war or crimes and then were sold as workers and on occasion for sacrifice.
The first
Civilization was not just about hierarchy and a class system, but it also
emerged forms of writing. Literacy was
defined as top status and was given a lot of respect for such knowledge. The establishment of civilization gave us art,
reflections on the meaning of life, useful technology and the control of
nature.
In conclusion
to my understanding of the reading, I’m able to take away a new understanding
on how early humans were able to establish such a phenomenal system that would
carry on to the world we live in today. If it weren’t for the early curiosity
of our ancestors we would not be here today.
They were able to use the resources that were available to them, in
order to create civilization. You can
say there was a lot of trial and error; there was a lot of stuff that they had
to figure out in order to stay alive.
Not only for themselves but the future of the human race. This reading has given me a new understanding
for the early humans in away that I was able to understand the value of the
early humans.
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