The first few chapters are so interesting to me. I am always humbled by the creativity and tenacity of our ancestors. They had no books or Internet to help them, but they sure had their creativity and instinct. I feel ill equipped to live as the paleolithic people did, however, if I were raised in their time period no doubt I would learn their ways. I wonder what they would think of the twenty-first century?
It dawned on me last Friday at work, as I was wishing co-workers to have a great weekend, that people in the stone age didn’t have a calendar. They had no reason to look forward to Friday or the weekend. Every day was followed by the next. What they had were seasons and no calendars. Yet somehow they learned when to plant crops by watching the seasons.
As a woman, I much prefer the paleolithic time period for its equality of the genders vs. the civilized communities. I now see how things evolved into a patriarchal society with women having to fight for equality all over again as we progressed through the ages.
I find it fascinating that they felt there was a higher power and believed in a “supernatural” world. I’m a Christian and believe in a higher intelligence. I’ve been reading some interesting books on the subject recently that have strengthened my belief. Also taking a nutrition class and learning how the body processes food is enough to convince me there is an intelligent design.
I also found it interesting that for a time these agricultural villages were able to function without strong leadership or a formal political system until civilization evolved. The first one to arrive on the scene were chiefdoms that use positive reinforcement to encourage cooperation within the village.
I am fascinated they figured out how to make beer and wine! That’s the first I’ve heard of this fact. Wine making started in 5400 B.C.E and beer was widespread by 4000 B.C.E. Wonder how the flavor would compare to the wine and beer of today?
Seems as civilization started developing, along with it came all the struggles of large groups of people living together and needing a central authority to guide the masses - just as we need today. Also violence came into being to enforce obedience. I wonder how many people were put to death under the law code of Hammurabi? I am glad to have missed 1800 B.C.E.
Overall, I liked the way Strayer compared Egypt and Mesopotamia and the similarities and differences in their local regions. It showed that location can be every thing when developing a civilization. Although Egypt did well for sometime they did eventually get taken over for awhile by other civilizations.
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