I haven't taken any form of World History since Freshman year of high school..and that was a Western Civilization class. I have never even heard of the Paleolithic and Neolithic Eras!! And the Paleolithic Era represents 95% of the total time humans have been around but only 12% of the humans on this planet. The Paleolithic and Neolithic Eras are such an important part of human history its hard for me to believe some text/history books don't even include these time periods.
I thought it was interesting that there were originally 20-30 different types of hominid species and Homo-Sapiens are the only ones to survive. The facts given in the prologue of the Part 1 just amaze me! There were approximately 10,000 individuals in the world 100,000 years ago and now there are people just about everywhere!! It's hard for me wrap my head around the fact that humans have come so far with technology, agriculture, tools, etc...
The book mentioned the first human societies and how it believed that they lived in egalitarian societies. They didn't have kings, chiefs and other significant leaders so they were thought to have lived free of tyranny and oppression. I don't know if I 100% agree that this would be possible. Although I do believe men and women could have been equal in the fact they both had to take on different roles...it is hard for me to understand how whole communities could have lived equally. The text mentioned an Aboriginal tribe that had competition amongst men which would result in combat and bloody battles. I think this type of thing happened very frequently in tribes. I think it is human nature to be somewhat competitive and to have some need of being better than others. While living in an egalitarian society free of oppression and tyranny sounds amazing I just think it is too good to be true.
I also found it interesting how the end of the Ice Age changed the climate so much that it enabled tribes/clans/people create settlements and pretty functioning communities. The agricultural globalization was definitely a turning point/major transformation for human kind. The beginning of agricultural globalization began in the Fertile Crescent. It lasted about 10,000 years and brought the spread of plants, animals, seeds, technology, tools across the world.
This Agricultural Revolution had some positive and negative effects on human kind. The increase in agriculture brought on an increase in population. With the new knowledge many societies were obtaining they were able to develop crop rotations were able to use animals for more than just their hide and meat-they learned to milk animals also. However, because of the close proximity humans lived to the animals their exposure to diseases increased. Not only did they contract more diseases but the diseases became epidemics and sometimes wiped entire communities out.
I find it amazing how all of these different civilizations came from different parts, had different experiences, different land, different climate and different obstacles but were still able to overcome and set the path for humans today..hundreds of thousands years later!
