Prologue-
From Cosmic history to human history
- · Big History is the history of everything from the big bang to the human experience.
The History of the Universe
- · Cosmic history can be summarized using the analogy of a year-long calendar. This is called the cosmic calendar.
The History of the Planet
- · The Earth is the only planet that is suitable for sustaining life (that we know of)
- · Life evolved from single-celled organisms, to multicellular organisms, to higher organisms
- · Life cycles between proliferation and die-offs of various species
- · Humans, in a very brief time, have become the most influential species on the planet
The History of Humans in a Single Paragraph:
- · Three major phases of human history
1.
Paleolithic Era
2.
Agricultural Revolution
3.
Industrial Revolution
Why World History?
- · Global History attempts to focus on the broad patterns in human history, spanning many cultures. (not just western civilizations)
Change, Comparison, Connection: the three C’s of World
History
- · Historical events gain significance when viewed through a larger context.
- · Change- Focus is on “big picture” changes
- · Comparison- Identifying similarities and differences in the experiences of the world’s people
- · Connection- Interaction between cultures and their consequences.
Intro to Part ONE: First Things First
Turning points in Early World History
The Emergence of Humankind
- · Out of 20-30 difference species of hominids, Homo Sapiens outcompeted everyone.
The Globalization of Humankind
- · Homosapiens moved out of Africa and eventually moved to cover the rest of the continents
The Revolution of Farming and Herding
- · The agricultural revolution was the single most significant and enduring transformation in the human condition.
The Turning Point of Civilization
- · The most prominent communities to come out of the Agricultural Revolution were civilizations.
·
What can we learn from paleo/neolithic people?
o
What were their values?
§
Were they the same or different?
§
Could we take back some of those values?
·
Societal values were based on structures back
then.
o
Food! How did they prepare it, produce it, and
what were the evolutionary effect on our bones?
o
Diseases! (Caused by food. Helped by vaccines and sterile environment)
o
Learning/ Struggles
o
Communication/ Education
o
Communities “Who leads?”
o
Concepts of death/ mortality/ afterlife?
o
Family units- Bands of people
o
Egalitarian- everyone’s way of pitching in is
equally valued.
·
What was paleolithic life like?
o
Women gathered, men hunted, both men and women
took multiple lovers; identifying the father of children was unimportant
because all of the men took care of all of the children as if they were their own. Taking care of the group as a whole was more
important than recognizing monogomy.
This is representative of their egalitarian
o
How do we know?
|
Evidence
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Strengths
|
Weaknesses
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Nisa’s Story
|
·
Nisa gives us a detailed first-hand account of
what life looks like for a gatherer-hunter society.
·
The !-Kung people are a living model of a
lifestyle that is essentially lost to the modern world.
|
·
This is the telling of one person’s
experience, which has a limited scope.
·
Nisa lived during the modern time period in a
society that we cannot fully rely on analogies from modern cultures
·
cultural contamination occurs through
association with modern civilaztion and colonization.
·
All societies change over time and we cannot
prove that gatherer-hunters always structured their society in this way
|
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Cave Paintings
|
·
Actual physical remnants of Paleolithic era
|
·
Without a written language, we can only
speculate about the meanings of these images.
|
·
Development of Agriculture was the most
significant thing that happened to us as a species.
o
Happened sponateously and globally about 12,000
years ago
o
Facilitated by the end of the ice age
o
Caused an increase in population
o
Depletion of resources may have contributed
o
Diffusion of ideas prompted by migration of
people
·
Significance of Agriculture:
o
Stable Reliable Diet
o
Refining of Skills
o
Trade and Communication
o
Politics (cities and states)
o
The concept of personal property (mine vs. ours)
o
The beginning of inequality
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