Part I: First Things First

Part I: First Things First

Having taken a cultural anthropology class a year ago I was somewhat familiar with the first 150,000 years of human life on earth prior to reading this text. I am familiar with the theory that Homo sapiens emerged from eastern and southern Africa and that migration took place from about 100,000-60,000 years ago from Africa to: Eurasia, Australia, Americas, and the Islands of the Pacific.  

I found it interesting that the first human societies were largely egalitarian, meaning they lacked many inequalities of wealth and power. I also found it interesting that the male and female relationships were considered equal; however monogamy was not surprising to me because many homo species are monogamous. It seems that as we transitioned from a hunter-gatherer society to a more agricultural society the earth as well as the human race began to face many new and threatening challenges. As agriculture became a common practice, “it provided the foundation for growing populations, settled villages, animal-borne diseases, horse-drawn chariot warfare, cities, states, empires, civilizations, writing, and literature” (Strayer, 2013, pg. 26).

 The text hints at the idea that the down turn of society surfaced with the birth of civilization. I find it unlikely and difficult to believe that civilization was a “global phenomenon, showing up independently in seven major locations scattered around the world during several millennia after 3,500 B.C.E.” (Strayer, 2013, pg. 62). The text seemed to provide a few scenarios that could have occurred regarding the onset of civilization. I tend to lean toward the idea that similarly to the globalization of agriculture, civilization was learned through “neighboring groups and the slow colonization and migration of agricultural people as growing populations pushed them outwards” (Strayer, 2013, pg. 34).

          I found it particularly interesting that slavery as well as hierarchies of gender emerged along with civilization. Slaves were initially prisoners of war, criminals, and debtors. Many females were slaves because the first prisoners of war were females. Slavery was not tied to the color of skin and did not have a connection to those of African heritage. I always wondered at what point in history women became subordinate to men, and Strayer believes this occurred during the breakthroughs in agriculture. Many of the agricultural jobs were geared toward the success of men due to their physical strength and stature. Due to the growing populations women were pregnant for a good majority of their lives which limited them from much of the physical labor in the fields.

Overall, I learned a lot from the first two chapters of this text and look forward to gaining more knowledge regarding world history.