Week #1 Post (Chapters 1-3)

I am revisiting these chapters and my reading notes at the end of the course, which has given me a different perspective than had I commented after first reading them.

Far and away the most important point about the first few chapters is how they put time and history into perspective. With respect to time, the cosmic calendar is a great tool in attempting to comprehend time in terms of human existence. Everything human-related happens on the night of December 31st.

With respect to historical perspective, our species has existed for approximately 250,000 years, and 95% of that time was during the Paleolithic age, during which humans practiced the hunting and gathering way of life.

The Agricultural Revolution which occurred approximately 12,000 years ago changed everything. The effects of this development on human society were immense. As I looked back through the reading and my notes, so many issues that were present throughout the rest of the text and history, first surfaced in these beginning chapters. Most importantly, the Agricultural Revolution marked the beginning of social inequality. Strayer states, “Rich and poor, chiefs and commoners, landowners and dependent peasants, rulers and subjects, dominant men and subordinate women, slaves and free people…these distinctions, so common in the record of world history, took shape most extensively in productive agricultural settings, which generated an economic surplus.” Furthermore, he says, “The endless elaboration of such distinctions, for better or worse, is a major element in the story of civilization.”