Week One Blog

Hi All! 

World history is definitely a subject that has been avoided by many and I too struggle with reading the content of it. Although I do find history interesting and world history as to how everything has transformed. Chapter One: First Peoples; First Farmers has a lot of history in depth in one chapter. Hunters and gathers were the peoples that were food collectors. Stones were used as their main source of tools and they were labeled "Paleolithic" people. The Paleolithic Era is defined with the rise of the major development, Homo sapiens, as early as 250,000 years ago in Africa. The first migrations out of Africa began 100,000-60,000 years ago, humans began their journey out of Africa and into Eurasia, Australia, the Americans and many years later into the island of the Pacific. 

The first human societies was interesting how the Europeans found a society where physical competition was between men, expressing in one-on-one combat and bloody battles (page 21). In the society of southern Africa, women were usually the gatherers for plant products and the men were the hunters for meat. Relationships between a man and woman were far more equal later on. I think this part still relates into some cultures till this day, where the women are the caregivers and the men are the bread makers. The Global Spread of Agriculture and Pastoralism map on page 28 I found very interesting. Showing what items were originated from and spread amongst the world. It shows the similar patterns of the trade market that we still have today. 

In Chapter Two: First Civilizations was the representation of a new type of human society, that was created by the huge productivity of agriculture. Different economic functions, wealth status, and working skills had all divided the civilizations in maiking them less equal and much more maltreatment in the Paleolithic communities, and agricultural villages (page 62).