Oliver Q. - World History

CH. 6 (Way of the Worlds): “The particular cultures and societies of Africa, the Americas, and Pacific Oceania discussed in this chapter developed largely in isolation.” What evidence would support this statement, and what might challenge it?      Both agriculture and civilizations represent significant turning points in human experience, growth, economy, and exposure.  Population provides a statement in parts of Africa, the Americas, and Pacific Oceania which seemed were more contained and not widely populated and not as civilized or up to date as Eurasia and North Africa.   They continued to gather, hunt, and fish as their main source of food compared to where other parts of the world where things were at a larger scale plus seemed more equipped and advanced than they were.  Religions especially Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam spread more widely and influenced the lives of more people than did the traditions/religions of the Mayans or the Bantu-spe...

Ch. 5 (Ways of the World): What changes in the patterns of social life in second-wave civilizations can you identify? What accounts for these changes?     In 124 b.c.e., Emperor Wu Di established an imperial academy where potential officials were trained as scholars with an emphasis on Confucian teachings.  As for Chinese peasants, most were farmers.  The officials, they came from wealthy families which in China wealth meant land.  By the first century B.C.E., population continued to grow exponentially, taxes were being issued, and many owed debts to those higher class that owned large land as many peasants found it necessary to sell their lands.        Many peasants rallied and a movement creating the "Yellow Turbans", which became a large and well armed group of many followers by 184 C.E.  They consisted of leaders who unified the people using the ideology of a form of Daoism which were said to have supernatural healings, powers l...

Ways of the World (Ch. 4) How would you define the appeal of the religious/cultural traditions discussed in this chapter? To  what groups were they attractive, and why? Most religions come from ancient texts or stories, creating doctrines to spread the teachings, and have powers beyond our imagination that can question reality and humanity itself.  Although many religions and/or cultural traditions have changed throughout the past.  Such as, Hindu tradition changed from a religion of ritual and sacrifice to one of devotion and worship. Also with Buddhism which became more conventionally religious, emphasising on the supernatural, as it evolved from Theravada to Mahayana forms. A male-dominated hierarchical Christian Church was very different from the small house churches that suffered persecution by imperial authorities in the early Christian centuries.  With politicians of the past or those who were in higher power, disregarded or looked down upon these religious pr...

Ways of the World (Ch. 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 always believe history will repeat itself as it has throughout time with wars, conflicts because of indifference, interest in gaining power, political status, and the misuse of "their" own people.  A recent example, is with the Chinese leader Mao Zedong bringing communism to China in the twentieth century as he compared himself to Shihuangdi, who was the unifier of China but the brutal founder of the Qin dynasty.  If you think about politics like democracy, it was first known in Greece, Athens.  The world leaders of the past including today and their political statuses for what they believe in or what they think is good for their country and its people.   We will continue to learn from the past and I hope to better understand our mistakes.  I don't think the d...

This interesting opinion writer Annalee Newitz for the New York Times wrote about "Modern cities can learn from the fate of the collapsed civilizations at Ugarit and Mycenae".  It was about the bronze age which is around 3000 - 1200 B.C.E. These cities were not just grand, but believed to be the beginning of "Western Civilization.  In these times, it was all about trade especially Bronze which was made from copper and tin.  These two cities took everything they could from wars, taxes, fees from their citizens, and trade goods.  Many historians have different depictions onto how they fell from rebel from within causing the cities to crumble, outside sources such as pirates coming from the Mediterranean Sea, famine, the plague, drought, and/or many of the people migrated out of these cities forcing them to be unprotected plus unmanned when it came to labor.  This changed the power from those high up trying to control everything when they no longer could get a...

From The Epic of Gilgamesh (abbreviated version) In the wildness she created valiant Enkidu, born of Silence, endowed with strength by Ninurta. His whole body was shaggy with hair, he had a full head of hair like a woman, his locks billowed in profusion like Ashnan. He knew neither people nor settled living,. He ate grasses with the gazelles, and jostled at the watering hole with the animals; as with animals, his thirst was slaked with mere water. A notorious trapper came face-to-face with him opposite the watering hole. On seeing him the trapper's face went stark with fear, and he and his animals drew back home. The trapper was rigid with fear ;  though stock-still his heart pounded and his face drained of color. He addressed his father saying:       "Father, a certain fellow has come from the mountains.       He is the mightiest in the land ,       his strength is as mighty as the meteorite of Anu !       He continuall...

I was sad to read the story of Ishi (discovered in 1911, died of tuberculosis in 1916), the Last of His People (small group of 300-400 in the mid-nineteenth century) is so very sad and upsetting with how his people were being extinct because of massacres of local militias and vigilantes who were at the time only looking to “clean up the Indians” (1965), when we know through history of how power and wealth takes over more than just lands, but pushing people out of them too (1849 CA Gold Rush).  By 1908 he saw his family die in front of him or start to disappear… it must have been a total shock to be received by people that took him in to want to know more about him and his stories.  Alfred Kroeber, the primary anthropologist involved with Ishi, observed, “He was the most patient man I ever knew . . . without trace of self-pity or of bitterness to dull the purity of his cheerful enduringness.” (pg. 38-39)  Through it all, he was a human being just trying to survive and...

  I was surprised to learn about the different artwork and complex architecture of the past.  I believe that art was a form of language and it used symbols or drawings to communicate (pg. 77 Distinctive forms of writing emerged in most of the First Civilizations)  The first artifact I was surprised to see was the Willendorf Venus in Austria which is a small figure about 25,000 years old.  Its carvings were very prominent in the female sexual organs were very detailed.  There is still speculation on what this significant piece was made for.  The designs of how structures were built was a surprise to me because of how strongly built they were because its still visibly intact today.  The Gobekli Tepe or also called potbelly hill in southeastern Turkey is dating to almost 12,000 years ago which is a 25 acre complex currently consisting of about 200 massive limestone pillars, up to 18 feet, and weighing as much as 50 tons.  It's also known as the world...

  I found it interesting that with the emergence of the earliest Homo Sapiens (250,000-200,000 B.P.) and how it turned into the globalization of humankind within the timeframe of how far apart it was to see how our ancestors migrated due to many factors such as food supply, climate change, and the layout of the land but most of all traveling through the water (60,000-40,000 B.P.) with the first use of boats.  Then to see that our last settlement was in New Zealand just in 1000-800 B.P.      Then the next interesting thing I read about was how our early ancestors were hunters and gatherers for a long time only til about 12,000 years ago that they began to cultivate plants and domesticate animals.  People believe that there was a process of global warming between 11,000-9500 B.C.E. (pg. 32) that resulted in this progress.  With agriculture becoming globalized, it meant more populated settlements, migrating to more fertile lands, and creating civilization...

  Cosmic, Gaiac, and Ecozoic are additional eras that I am not familiar with or heard of in a timeline before.  If I had to make an educational guess in line with Paleolithic, Neolithic, Ancient, Classical, and Modern then I would have to say: since we were talking about the “Big History”, I would put the Cosmic before all this at the beginning at the Big Bang.  Now for Gaiac, I believe the root word is Gaia which means the Earth or Land, so maybe this is pertaining to Pangea or when the Earth itself was created or land was formed so this would go right after Cosmic.  Ecozoic to me would fall in place after aModern as “Eco” to me is more of the ecosystem or environmental era, maybe about the atmosphere, and possibly leading to climate change or speaking of global warming.   Now after this hypothesis of mine, I just had to find out for myself if I could find out about what these additional three eras could possibly mean and where they would fit in a historical pe...

  When I think about our human genetics I think about my family lineage connected to the history of our ancestry.  But at a whole perspective, we as human beings are all linked and share that same genealogy within each other.   In order to understand what we are, we need to go farther than we know in our past but to the beginning of human kind.   The earliest of human like life forms were known as Australopithecus where they originated in Africa which is said to be the center of life.  They are closer linked to apes which the genus name, meaning “southern ape,” which were discovered in South Africa but have the common.  They were similar to humans being bipedal which is walking on two legs but characteristically looked more like an ape.  According to an article in the Britannica, "The various species of Australopithecus lived 4.4 million to 1.4 million years ago (mya), during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs" (which lasted from 5.3 million to 1...

  What is the "Big History"?  Big History is an academic discipline which examines history from the Big Bang to the now.  It's literally the history of everything... Big History is one of the most complicated, complex, and thee most important historical culmination of how the universe was created and adapted to the present which connects to discovering the future.  The creation of the universe which was 13.8 billion years starting at the Big Bang and traveling through time all the way to the future. The connections in our world, the resources of our collective learning, trying to understand how our universe and our world has evolved from the most simple to the multi expanding and ever increasing complex universe we live in.  The universe is infinite and there is more and more to learn about it which links to the past to the present and to the foreseeable future of events.   It's a very interesting study and concept of linking history like American hist...

Hello everyone,   My name is Oliver Q. and I attend NDNU majoring in Human Services.  I currently work as a P.E. instructor for an elementary school, Program Director for SF Basketball Academy, and Athletics Coordinator for the district/city.  I have two lovely daughters and am with the love of my life as I've known her since Kindergarten, so we've known each other for over 25 years... but that's a story for another time.   I'm currently writing from Belmont, CA where my home is now my gym, a distance learning hub, office, classroom, and whatever else I can make of it, haha.  This COVID season has definitely made things different, but we just have to adapt and continue moving forward just hoping for the best.  During this time, it's interesting to be student as we are able to learn and grow while at home with utilizing technology as our resource.   Growing up and going through school, I've always been interested in history.  I've always marveled a...