Summer of Pandemic - History Blogs

I somewhat agree that the histories of Africa and the Americas resembled those of Eurasia however Eurasia has more artifacts and records than the Americas or Africa did. Eurasia also contained over 80% of the population of the world. Larger religions such as Christianity and Buddhism took up a majority of Eurasia while smaller regions consumed Africa.  Bantu Africa did not experience the massive migrations or did it experience invasions from Alexander the Great. Eurasia covered an area of 21,049,000 miles and grew to a population of 5,041 million compared to Africa's 11,608,000 square miles and population up to 1,110 million. The Americas together covered 16,245,000 miles and had a population of up to 972 million. The human migration began in Africa and then went into Eurasia and the Americas. These three super-continents lead the Agricultural Revolution and transformed human life.

Changes and patterns of social life in the second-wave civilizations occurred, just at a much slower pace than today's modern world. Life ceremonies such as childbirth, marriage, and death were honored and rituals were developed. Developments such as agriculture, creation of cities, humans settled to one particular area, and states began to build. These all happened over time and in fact, people did not get to live to see the entire social change that was brought upon these actions. Religions emerged, leaders conquered empires and other social and cultural patterns became. Social systems were formed as well as patriarchy. All of these patterns in history have had a lasting effect as these made an impact on today's world to some degree.

The secular outlook on the world comes from a long line of history dated back to the second wave era as far as the early 1st century B.C.E. with Christianity.  The thinkers of this era go all the way back to the 9th century of the second-wave era with the religious/philosophic ideas. These regions have lead humans, even through today's world.

I think contemporary circumstances are mostly unique compared to the past, in particular, the second-wave empires as they may not be relevant in today's world. The ancient legacies of the second-wave empire do in fact teach lessons that related to the world back then however in today's modern world, it seems as if these are merely lessons for the empires back then and not today. For example, in China the Chinese leaders compared themselves by proving their excellence by the number of scholars killed under their dictatorship as to say the leader who killed the most was the better one and so forth. The influence of the second-wave whether inspirational or precautionaries were lessons for this era and not so much the new age. 

The NY Times published the following article  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/11/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-inequality-history.html  about the economic need for small businesses and essential workers. I find it interesting that history is repeating itself to some degree as the wealthiest 1% always seem to get tax breaks, however; they heavily rely on essential workers and the small businesses for the grunt work of things. To sustain an economy, we need local networks and workforces and not rich kings and elitist. The working class and poor people most times feel they do not have the power as the rich do, however, when they come together as a community, they find that they have an immense power to overthrow the rich as the rich relies on them and without them, money does not generate. During the Bronze Age, 50% of the population was killed by plague, wars, fire, and famine. When these rich towns died, two new small communities were built, both fairly and sustainable by all of t...

  It was surprising to learn of the most distinctive first civilization cities, Uruk. This was the largest city in Mesopotamia and had a population of over 50,000 people. The astonishing city could be seen from miles away. In the center of the city was a stepped pyramid and walls over 20 feet tall surround the center. This city was built by people of different trades such as copper workers, masons, and weavers. The city was filled with other temples and places of ritual. The Epic of Gilgamesh comes from this which is Mesopatmia's poem describing Uruk. The poem goes like this, "Come then, Enikdu, to tamparted Uruk. Where fellows are respledent in holiday clothing, where ever day is set for celebration, where harps and drums are played. And the harlots too, they are fairest of form, rich in beauty, full of delights, even the great gods are kept from sleeping at night." This poem captures the spirit of the city and the sacred and vibrant energy it has.

I was sad / disappointed / angry to read that the social order of the Catalhuyuk in southern Turkey in 7400-6000 B.C.E. buried their dead under their houses and then filled the houses with dirt and built new ones on top, layer after layer. There was nothing between the homes in this village, not even the streets. The homes built so high people would walk on rooftops to enter the home. The idea was to keep social and gender equality of these the hunting and gathering communities as the did not have dictators, kings, queens, aristocrats, chiefs, or bureaucrats. Men and women could commonly wear many hats and do many things despite gender. Social equality is not what made me sad at all, in fact this is delightful to hear of the social justice brought on even back then. What made me sad was the idea of dead bodies in a home, the smell of them, the living on top of them, and just the idea that people lived on graveyards for several thousand people, all within a small geographic area grossed...

I found it interesting that scholars thought of the first people as gathering and hunting people rather than food producers. The old stone era was a time when humans foraged for food and dead animals to survive, rather than produce or farm for food. This is the only time in history when this type of thing happened. Up until modern history, humans continue to produce food; in fact probably too vast and definitely not of on the same level as the new stone age. On the same note, it is interesting indeed that modern-day humans pay a tribute to the paleolithic era while recognizing the fashion fad, "Paelo," diet which attempts to emulate the diets of paleolithic humans over 12,000 years ago. The diet is consistent with the paleolithic era diet and the food they would forage such as wild grains, nuts, berries, roots, fish, and meat. Despite the simple fact of history often neglects to recognize the paleo era and the significance of its teachings, its rich substance its relevance t...

Cosmic Era – Evolution of universe from Big Bang, ( 3.799 ± 0.021 billion years ago)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_epochs_in_cosmology Gaiac Era – Theory predicts earth’s behaviors as a single organism. For balance between the between biotic and abiotic elements on Earth.  The earth's ecosystems interacting forming components of the earth's structure and regulating the earth. http://www.catholic-saints.net/gaia-and-gaianism/ Paleolithic   Era – aka, old stone age when humans were Neanderthals. https://www.ancient.eu/Paleolithic/ Neolithic Era – The new stone age and the final stage of  cultural evolution  among prehistoric humans https://www.britannica.com/event/Neolithic Ancient Era – The Ancient Era is the earliest era in Civilization IV and its expansions. It begins in  4000 BC  . https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Ancient_Era_(Civ4) Classical Era – The period between the 8th century BC and the 6...

Early humans date back to six million years. Modern forms of humans evolved nearly 200,000 years ago. Human civilization is about 6,000 years old. https://www.universetoday.com/38125/how-long-have-humans-been-on-earth/ Australopithecus aka, “Ape man,” or Southern ape are known to be related to or ancestors of early humans discovered in South Africa. Australopithecus  lived about 4.4 million -1.4 million years ago in the mya during the   Pliocene  and  Pleistocene  epochs. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Australopithecus The Homo Erectus aka, “Upright man,” had roughly the same size bodies as the modern human. These fossils were found at different parts of the world, including Indonesia which is where my family is from. Fossils found range back to one million + years ago and were known to have larger brains than other species of humans. https://www.livescience.com/41048-facts-about-homo-erectus.html Homo Sapiens aka, “Wise man,” or “Early human...

I was intrigued by the many facts of history dated back to 14 billion years ago to now and looking in the future on the Big History Project website,  https://www.bighistoryproject.com/home . Bill Gates is one the founders of this project which I am not surprised since he is brilliant, resourceful, and is dedicated to making a difference in our world. Big History is broken into 8 different groups called thresholds, 1) Big bang 2) Star formation 3) New chemical elements 4) New Earth & solar system. 5) Life on earth 6) Collective learning 7) Agriculture 8) Modern revolution. I had only heard of a couple of thresholds individually and did not realize they were all tied together in the Big History Project. It is mindblowing to see all of the correlations of all of the thresholds and how they each made an impact in this world. All of the information found on this project is very valuable. The Goldilocks Theory of, too hot, too cold, and just right is simple and genius. It would take ...

Howdy from Turlock, California, ya'll. I am a Bay Area native and moved to the valley 18 years ago. You read that right, I am not 18 years old fresh from high school but rather was living my life for the past 18 years. I graduated long ago in Y2K (2000). I am a mother of 3 children and it was more important for me to invest my time to raise my children than stay in college. I chose to work full-time, be married, and raise a family instead. So here I am, prepped to finally graduate in Spring 2021. Just one semester before my high school son graduates which is my goal. How could I tell him to go to college when I had not? So, phew, by the hair of a tail I am doing it. I have worked in the Human Services Field since 2002 on state and federal grants. Currently, I work for my local Office of Education as an Operations Coordinator for the Child & Family Services Division. This is my 10th year here. I love what I do and what makes it better is to have the opportunity to work with hu...