HISTORY TIME!

Oh the irony!  Crazy how much we can relate to this article right now.  Boy, does history have a way of repeating itself.  With this global pandemic occurring right now, it surely puts things into perspective.  In my eyes, this article speaks volumes about how important small businesses are, and how the 1% are still being ever so greedy, and getting the tax breaks they think they deserve.  Like the article talks about, the Ugarit and Mycenae, were now being hit with such turmoil after having been hit by a massive plague.  The Ugarit and Mycenae were small kingdoms that thrived off of trade, like olive oil, local grains and artisans.  Now during this time more than ever, we (as small business owners) can relate to this era more than ever.  It is devastating to see such a drastic change can happen to these economies when hit with such traumatic events. It is imperative that we keep small businesses thriving otherwise us as a nation will fail....

2) How do you understand areas of the world, such as Bantu Africa, North America, and Pacific Oceania, that did not generate “civilizations”? Do you see them as “backward,” as moving slowly toward civilization, or as simply different? I would say that do not know as much as we wish we could in order to call something backwards, I would say it's simply different.  For Bantu, it wasn't more of  generating civilization, rather than just a movement of cultures, lifestyles, resources, etc.  To their advantage, Bantu people were mostly farmers, therefore, they were always thinking of new ideas for making tools, making a more productive economy, and allowing a larger amount of people to live in a smaller environment.  With this, it wasn't that what they were moving away from civilization, they just had a different view on life and did things that worked for them. "Even more widespread — in the eastern woodlands of the United States, Central America, the Amazon basin, t...

2) Why do you think slavery was so much more prominent in Greco-Roman civilization than in India or China? In India and China, slavery was more common, and more of a "punishment" for doing something terrible, rather than in Roman times, it was more of a way of life.  Obviously, no matter how you look at it slavery was a horrible livelihood, and no one should have to endure those type of circumstances.  In China, slaves amounted to 1% of the population; in the grand scheme of things that was pretty miniscule.  They were mostly convicted criminals, or children of peasants selling them.  "Chinese slavery, however, was never very widespread and did not become a major source of labor for agriculture or manufacturing, (270)." "In India, as well, people could fall into slavery as criminals, debtors, or prisoners of war and served their masters largely in domestic settings, but religious writings and secular law offered, at least in theory, some protection for slav...

2) Religion is a double-edged sword, both supporting and undermining political authority and social elites.” How would you support both sides of this statement? I feel that when it comes to religion, if you are in favor of the religion, they will support you, and if you are not in belief of that religion, or do something to defy that religion they your life will be made into a living h-e-l-l.. For example, with early Christianity, such as Buddhism, offered a mix of opportunities and restrictions for women.  They were certainly not on the same level as males, and were told to "be subject to your husbands," or that it was "shameful for women to speak in church, (239)."  However, this is something that led to the attraction of this new religion within the Roman Empire.  In support of religion being a double edged sword, Daoism would be an example of being in favor of their religion.  They were firm believers in "withdrawing" into the world of nature and e...

3) Do you think that these second-wave empires hold “lessons” for the present, or are contemporary circumstances sufficiently unique as to render the distant past irrelevant? I am a firm believer in that history repeats itself, and that we must learn from the past in order to prevent horrible things happening in the future.  I believe that these "second-wave" empires hold great power to what we as humans do nowadays.  What held very meaningful to me, for example, was bringing communism to China in the twentieth century.  Chinese leader, Mao Zedong, compared himself to Shihuangdi, and learned from mistakes that were made.  Shihuangdi was the unifier of China, but a brutal founder of the Qin Dynasty.  "Also, the Roman Empire that has provided a template for thinking about political life. Many in Great Britain celebrated their own global empire as a modern version of the Roman Empire. If the British had been “civilized” by Roman rule, then surely Africans and A...

               It was surprising to learn about the Hierarchies of Class.  I found it quite interesting how they would decipher who was more "upper class" than the rest.  "As ingenuity and technology created more productive economies, the greater wealth now available was everywhere piled up rather than spread out. Early signs of this erosion of equality were evident in the more settled and complex gathering and hunting societies and in agricultural chiefdoms, but the advent of urban-based civilizations multiplied and magnified these inequalities many times over, as the more egalitarian values of earlier cultures were everywhere displaced. This transition represents one of the major turning points in the social history of humankind, (71)."  As the First Civilizations took place, it was surprising to hear that even just in the beginning stages of hierarchies, that there was already such a powerful rank to be seen.  Plus, t...

                I was sad to read, more specifically, about, "Ishi, the Last of His People," on the Zooming In section, on page 38.  It was a little heart breaking to read about his story, and how he wound up staggering into a corral of a slaughterhouse.  It was depressing to hear that he looked so emaciated and distraught.  He was the last member of the Yahi tribe, located in Northern California.  The Yahi tribe were "pushed into extinction by the intrusion of more powerful, farming, herding, and "civilized" societies, (38)."   "It was a very old story, played out for over 10,000 years since the Agricultural Revolution placed Paleolithic cultures on the defensive, inexorably eroding their presence on the earth. The tragic story of this individual allows us to put a human face on that enormous and largely unrecorded process, (38)." What made me so sad about this story, was that clearly he was the last of his tr...

        One of the most interesting things I realized early into the first chapter, was that of human migration.  I was in awe of how early humans found routes to different parts of the world, which now we would call Africa, Europe, Spain, France, and Eurasia, etc.  It just amazes me, because back then, they specifically "mapped" out where they would go based on climates and resources.  It may sound a little silly, but I always think to myself, how did they know where they were going?  Clearly they didn't have a handy Apple map app to tell them where to go.  They would base their migration off of finding warmer climates when it became cold, and where they could find better resources such as food, materials for hunting tools, nets, baskets, and pottery.  New technologies would emerge according to the climate that they settled in, that would require more advancements of their technology.  It sounds ridiculous, but just put yourself ...

       Paleolithic  à Neolithic  à Ancient  à Classical  à Modern Paleolithic:   Paleolithic Period , also spelled  Palaeolithic Period,  also called  Old Stone Age , ancient cultural stage, or level, of human development, characterized by the use of rudimentary  chipped stone tools. Neolithic: " Neolithic , also called  New Stone Age , final stage of cultural evolution  or technological development among prehistoric humans. It was characterized by stone  tools  shaped by polishing or grinding, dependence on domesticated  plants or animals, settlement in permanent villages, and the appearance of such crafts as pottery and weaving .   The Neolithic stage of development was attained during the Holocene Epoch  (the last 11,700 years of Earth  history). The starting point of the Neolithic is much debated, with different parts of the world having achieved the Neolithic stage at d...

How far back does the human species go? "While our ancestors have been around for about six million years, the modern form of humans only evolved about 200,000 years ago. Civilization as we know it is only about 6,000 years old, and industrialization started in the earnest only in the 1800s." https://www.universetoday.com/38125/how-long-have-humans-been-on-earth/ Was  Australopithecus  a species of human? Yes. Australopithecus afarensis is one of the longest lived and and best known never heard of it) early human species.  Paleoanthropologists have uncovered remains from more than 300 individuals.   "Similar to chimpanzees,  Au. afarensis  children grew rapidly after birth and reached adulthood earlier than modern humans. This meant  Au. afarensis  had a shorter period of growing up than modern humans have today, leaving them less time for parental guidance and socialization during childhood. Au. afarensis  had both ape...

I'd be lying if I said I've heard of the term "Big History" before.  To me, it means that it examines all of history from the Big Bang (not the show haha), until present times.  It is the broad study of all history.  It has a different type of teaching using a "multidisciplinary" approach and uses different approaches to teaching history from science and humanities.  Nowadays, we learn about history in fragments; you learn about WW2 one week, and maybe about Homosapiens a month later.  I can see why someone would teach Big History the way it is presented, but I also think it would be quite confusing for many people-- they would probably get confused with info overload, and mix things up.  I can't imagine trying to memorize all those dates and events in one Big History lecture, I can barely remember what I ate for breakfast.... https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-is-big-history_b_4661765 https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/what-is-big-histor...

Hi all!  My name is Kelsey Wells, and I have a feeling that I am doing this blog completely wrong.  AH! Anyway, I am writing this from Austin, Texas, where I have lived for the past 3 years.  I moved here from Los Gatos to start a new job at Apple.  I was working at the campus in Cupertino, and kind of felt "stuck" in life, so my boss offered a position to me, but the catch was that it was in Austin.  I figured, why not, and have loved every second of it!  Coming from a background of my mom's Japanese roots, and my dad's Spanish side, I've always been interested in history behind where my grandparents and ancestors came from, and how they lived their lives!  Both my grandmother's tell me stories about unimaginable situations they've been in, from my Japanese grandma sitting in her home while she heard bombs destroying homes nearby to my Spanish grandmother picking prunes in the fields from dawn until dusk.  Such hardships in their lives make me ap...