Ways of the World: Brief Global History
Patricia Cartagena
History:
Instructor: Patricia Andrews
May 18, 2014
In reading the first two chapters of
the book “Ways of the world,” I found it to be very interesting and
educational. Although, reading history has not been one of my forte I find this
book to be historical, biblical, and scientific. Some say our life on earth is
like a journey. The journey begins from the day the earth is created from the
day that we are born or created. Nevertheless, I find this a bit daunting and
yet exciting to explore and learn history in such an exquisite way. Robert W.
Strayer takes us from the day the earth is created to our present, and even perhaps
toward our future.
As time slowly progress we soon emerge in
the making of humankind. According to archeologist and anthropologists believed
that, the lines of our ancestry or descent, which led to Homo sapiens and
chimpanzees, evolved sometime around 5 or 6 million years ago in eastern and
southern Africa. Even though many believe in the theory of evolution, some are
skeptical to believe this theory. In my opinion, I am one who finds this a bit
difficult to believe that humankind was created in the second largest continent
known as Africa. Although there seems to be not enough evidences to show where
we actually came from, I will take each page as a learning mechanism in order
to understand our world history today. According to R.W. Strayer if we were to explore
and share our world with others what better way to learn history by taking
something in common like the “Russian nested dolls in which a series of carved
figures fit inside one another.” “In much the same fashion, all historical
accounts take place within some larger context, as stories within stories unfold.”
(Pg. Iiv, second edition 2013)
In the first two chapter of the book he
slowly unfolds each stage in which humankind existed by going through the three
Cs of World History known as changes, comparison, and connection of each event.
During the evolution human began to go
through constant changes as well as our planet. According to history, hominid
family emerged in eastern and southern Africa, leading too perhaps twenty or
thirty different species that had emerged. All of these species all share
something in common they all walked on two legs known as the bipedalism.
Overtime these species (humankind) began to change such as their brain size increased, they begin to use tools,
learn how to use fire, eventually these early hominid species died out, and only
Homo sapiens survived. How fascinating is that we went from not being able to
speak or write to eventually learning how to use a tool, use fire, eat meat and
many other interesting factors. Initially humankind begins to migrate from Africa
that took place in the Paleolithic era.
The Paleolithic Era where know as
gatherers and hunters which account for over 90 percent of human time on earth.
They slowly developed technology, and slowly carry out meaning through art,
ritual, and perhaps even religion. The Paleolithic era was interesting to learn
because it was era where men and women had equal equality. No one ruled,
everyone worked together as a community. Although technology was simple at the
time, it was enough for them to defend and protect their families. Art is still
yet to be understood because art was either portable or stationary and
according to archeologist, their paintings were limited to interpretation and
understanding. Yet it is interesting to discover such eloquent and
extraordinary description of who they were and most of their art took shape of “The
Willendorf Venus,” which is known for the famous art of females of child
bearing. As for their religion, it is not clear, but in the distant caves and
far from their living space they may have created a ceremonial space. On the
other hand, perhaps the sun may have been one of their greatest virtues as it
has been over the course of history in many regions of the world. As the book
begins to unfold, we begin to see how history starts to develop and how
humankind begins to transform to a more domesticated era known as the Neolithic
era. This era was known as the revolution of farming and herding. I was so
disappointed because animal and plants become more domesticated and human were
no longer gathering or hunting as they use too, and lost those useful skills.
What was known as a surviving tool has now led human beings become more
dependent in domesticating animals and plants. I can compare this in our world
today because as time goes by so does the world of technology (computer era)
for instance has become a reliable and dependent tool in our society today. In
our society, we are starting to diminish the importance of writing in cursive,
adding, counting, and keeping major and important events in our mind, that our
world today has become so dependent on new technology. I am not against
technology, but it is important to remember the various tools, which we learned
throughout history. I feel that it is important for us to instil in our future
generation these various tools because what would happen when we no longer have
electricity, water, or any other surviving tools. Our future generation will be
lost.
As we continue to unfold each of these other
eras, we soon find ourselves migrating into the middle east, into Australia,
the Americas, Pacific, and throughout many region of the world. Just as we rove
so doe’s technology, religion, art, language, human behavior, and most
important society, hierarchies, kinship begin to emerge in Mesopotamia and Egypt.
Inequality gradually diminish, living condition became more elaborated,
agriculture coincided with the various changes of the earth such as the end of
the last Ice Age, global warming cycle, extinction of some large mammals,
warmer weather allowed more wild plants to flourish and made life much easier.
Homo sapiens, was now given the growing power over animals, plants, and to
dominate others.
As we can see throughout our pass
history, there are many similarities in which our world today is presently
confronted with such as global warming, extinction of various creatures and
water supply are just a few of the similarities that I see and we are experiencing. Although our world and
technology continues to evolve, there are still many factors that must be
considered in order for our species to survive in today world.
From 3500 to 586 a new civilizations began
to emerge, and era well known for its history, art, language, science and
religion. A historic fact, which I thought was fascinating to learned was that
the first written peace treaty had occurred during this time. These were
exciting times for mankind. Civilizations were developing and accomplishing
extraordinary achievement. Some society as Mesopotamian, Egyptians, and Norte
Chico civilization, Nubian kingdom of Ta-Seti, the independent Sumerian cities,
old kingdom of Egypt, the era of China civilization, the Babylonia Empire,
there was so many societies developing throughout the world during this period
in history. Cities began to transform, kinship was at the height, and new civilization
was beginning to emerge a topic, which will be discussed at a later time.
R.
W. Strayer (2013) Ways of the World, second edition, A Brief Global History
with Sources
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