*In reading the prologue, I appreciated the section "Less Can Be More", because that short paragraph summed up what I believe history should be. Broad topics and understanding the evolution of humans and the world today is so much more important to me than memorizing random specific dates and details. Its important for us to understand how each moment in history impacts ours lives today and reflect on how the actions of our ancestors make us feel, whether it be happy, sad, or angry.
*The Intro to Part One was very insightful and made me really see all our ancestors went through to get us to the point we are at today. I can't believe that the Homo habilis species started using tools 2.3 million years ago...essentially they are the reason that we have the useful, developed tools we have today. It is so impressive that living beings lived so long ago, with so little. We have so much today that I cannot imagine living without. This section was also a great little summary of the development of the world, from earlier species to the development of civilization and the beginning of farming...we use each one of those things today, and we owe it all to those who came before us.
Out of Africa to the Ends of the Earth: First Migrations
*Homo sapiens emerged 250,000 years ago and spent about 150,000 of those years in just Africa
*Culture became more important than biology in shaping behavior
*Hunting and fishing began, as opposed to the scavenging that happened prior
*Migrations out of Africa began about 100,000 years ago
*Middle East about 45,000 years ago
*Best evidence from early civilizations comes from southern France and Northern Spain
*New hunting habits and technologies
*Australia-sparce settlement
*Development of 250 languages
*Major communication and trade networks
*Migration to Americas by seas
*Clovis: first clearly defined widespread culture of the Americas
*Much greater cultural diversity as people adapted to end of Ice Age
*Settlers in Pacific were among some of the only migrators to take agriculture with them
The Ways We Were
*First human societies contained 25-50 people with slow population growth
*Paleolithic people were nomadic, but moved in patterns
*Early human societies did not have people who specialized in trades, so most people had the same skills
*Gender equality, much more equal than in later societies
*Hunting people in Australia were described as socially equal
*European settlers observed physical among Australian males and wife beating
*Paleolithic societies had rules
*Low life expectancy (35 years)
*Fires deliberately set to encourage growth of certain plants
*Due to lack of written sources it is difficult to understand the spiritual world of Paleolithic people
*Paleolithic people had frequent use of psychoactive drugs to contact spirits
*Many beliefs in Paleolithic time
*Population rise after last ice age, with beginnings of settlement
*Settling down process occurred in many areas between 4,000 and 12,000 years ago
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