I: INTRODUCTION and UNDERSTANDING THE PAST ● What is History? ○ Simply a record of things people have done – a collection of names, dates, places? ○ "History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” – Maya Angelou, American poet and civil rights activist ○ “History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.” – Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the UK during WWII ○ History is all this and more; history is the key to understanding ourselves – but only if it serves as a true reflection of the past ○ History is not a perfect retelling – there are still many voices that go unheard throughout history ● Developing a Global Perspective ○ We can discern patterns of behavior through careful study of the past ■ “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it” – George Santayana, philosopher ○ How studying history benefits you as a college student: ■ Studying history prepares you to face modern challenges ● People around the globe are more integrated than ever by social and economic forces, and your public and private lives will require knowledge of the world and people ● Understanding the diversity of people and ideas and possessing cultural empathy and awareness prepares you to meet global complexities competently ○ You will enhance your critical-thinking and analysis skills, among other skills prized by employers, such as adaptive thinking, social intelligence, cross-cultural competency, and media literacy ○ The historian must be able to observe and gather as much information as they can and then interpret that data to conclude, often needing to possess creative minds and communication skills to effectively tell a story ● World History and Global Citizenship ○ Knowing about the world will prepare you to be a global citizen, someone who may reside only in one nation but self-identifies as a part of the larger world community. ■ Climate change, social justice, and human rights issues are global in scale ○ The aftermath of World War II and the establishment of the United Nations (UN) established a series of universal declarations that conceived of all people as deserving of human rights and dignity ■ Three such declarations affirmed the rights of women (CEDAW, 1979), of children (1959), and of people with disabilities (1975). ■ The UN regularly requires that member nations report on progress in these areas. ○ In times of prosperity, sentiments favoring a world community grow; in times of strife, people tend to revert to local, national identities. ● How we will approach this class: ○ We will not necessarily be approaching these civilizations in strict chronological order ○ We will learn how to analyze the two main kinds of historical sources: primary and secondary sources, as well as how to cite them properly. ○ We will attempt to approach history from multiple perspectives as opposed to from only one ○ Prof. Wechsler’s MVP of the Day – I will present one (or more) historical figures per class whose lives either dramatically shaped or were shaped by the processes of the civilization they lived in ■ Keep track of these figures as they will be important to know later! ● Learning to Evaluate Documents and Images ○ A primary source is an object or document that comes directly from the time to which it refers. ■ Might include government documents, restaurant menus, diaries, letters, musical instruments, photographs, and art ■ Example: A statue of a pharaoh or hieroglyphics from Ancient Egypt ○ A secondary source is one written or created after the fact ■ Examples: a 20th century biography of an Egyptian pharaoh; a map drawn in the 1960’s to identify key battle sites of World War II ■ Useful for setting context and placing a topic in relationship to others of the same era or to provide access to scholarly research based on primary sources. ○ Good historical research requires both types of sources and some attention to historiography, the study of how other historians have already interpreted and written about the past. ○ All primary sources are not equal ■ Historians find written records to be more valuable than oral histories or visual/physical artifacts such as prehistoric cave paintings or artifacts. ■ Without context, interpretation of the past is difficult – fake news has always existed, even in academia! ○ Four key things to consider when interpreting sources: the author, the audience, the intent, and the context. ■ What kind of source is it? ■ Who authored the source, and why? Is the source simply a record of information, or was the author involved in the event? Do they have an agenda, or are they reliable? ■ What is the historical context? How does the source relate to the events covered in the chapter? ■ Note that none of these answers necessarily disqualify a source from adding value, but precisely what that source brings to the overall picture depends on those answers. ○ Online searches for sources are a valid way to do research, but students must beware of misinformation on the internet – Google AI is not a good source, nor is ChatGPT! Google Scholar, however, is a good source if the search is targeted enough. ■ Wikipedia is not a good source, but the pages you visit will often have sources attached. ○ Ask questions when you encounter a source online: ■ Who is producing this website? Scholars, a museum, a research org? ■ Is this material cited? Are those sources objective and reliable? ○ The types of language used in a source can be used as clues to its interpretation (otherwise known as rhetoric, the use of language) ○ Another challenge presented by certain sources is that a lot of important details are left out. ■ Oftentimes, pre-modern history is told from the elite’s perspective; we know a lot about the lives of kings and queens, but what of those they ruled? ○ Some groups of people remain hidden in our historical accounts because their lives were simply unrecorded ○ Historians of the 1960s began to refocus historical research on studying the past “from the bottom up,” utilizing sources such as church records, newspapers, and court hearings to illuminate the lives of the poor and illiterate. ■ It remains difficult even today to accurately represent women, the poor, and minorities on an equal footing with those who have traditionally held power. ○ Civilizations with long-standing and abundant historical documents often have more complete histories than others – Europe and China have deep roots in the written word. The Middle East and India have rich textual histories. In Africa and Latin America, the record is less full. ■ In LA, European conquerors deliberately destroyed Indigenous histories to erase their longstanding cultures. ■ Africa’s historical record is complicated by several factors, including its size, diversity, and colonial past. ■ New scholarship is emerging in both regions ● Causation and Interpretation in History ○ In seeking answers for why an event occurred, historians look at both the immediate and long-term circumstances of an event. ○ Levels of Causation ■ The primary cause is the most immediate and important answer ■ The secondary cause is once removed from the primary. ■ The tertiary cause offers a broader context. ○ Example from the textbook: “Why am I currently reading this textbook?” ● Interpretation in History ○ Why did the people of the past make the choices they did? ○ The first historians largely concerned themselves with the study of wars and rulers in accordance with the great man theory of history that credits leaders and heroes with triggering history’s pivotal events. The elitist nature of education at the time contributed to this becoming the standard for historical writing ■ Historical detail is present alongside bravado, exaggeration, and political spin – history was sometimes written for royalty at their behest. ○ By the mid-nineteenth century, the advent of Romanticism in academia and art paved the way for a broad reexamination of what was worth studying and knowing ■ In his novel War and Peace, Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy argued that history was driven by “the general mass of men.” ○ History as a discipline would become simultaneously dominated by nineteenth-century colonial attitudes and a desire to reintegrate people of lower classes into the human story ■ One early European school of thought was progressive history, which viewed history as a straight line to a specific destination ■ Historians with this ”progressive” view believed societies would become more democratic over time ● This was a very Western/European-focused model of viewing history ○ Intellectual history, which looks at the ideas that drove people to make certain choices and the history of human thought, grew in popularity after the horrors of World War I. ○ The counterculture movements of the 1960s (seeking to challenge the lack of rights for women/minorities) led to the rise of social history, which argued that history is made by all people and not just elites ■ Young historians and sociologists came up with new theories to explain social behavior; Berger and Luckmann’s argument that our belief systems are informed by social constructs, ideas that are created and accepted by society (gender/class/race) ○ To understand history, it is important to understand how people define their societal roles and perceive themselves in a social context. Gender/class distinction/age/race are all powerful subconscious influences. ○ 20th-century historians continually reexamined history through new lenses in a process known as revisionism: ■ Marxism considers history to be driven by class struggle ■ Women’s history (now referred to in the context of gender history) sees history as driven by power differences between men and women ■ Postcolonialism focused on the history of places formerly occupied by colonial powers ○ Example: the history of colonial Latin America between 1493 and the 1820s independence movements ■ Each kind of historian would examine different elements to weave a more complete picture of the past ○ The student of history must be able to set aside modern assumptions and biases, avoid passing judgment even if they find historical figures, attitudes, and decisions abhorrent – practice historical empathy. ● MVP of the Day:... ○ •Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) ○ •Author of several important books, most famous for writing Things Fall Apart (1958), which explores the impact of British missionary work in Nigeria ○ •Works explored the historic legacy of colonialism and the need to see ourselves first independently and then in relation to others ○ “But, of course, something doesn’t continue to surprise you every day. After a while I began to understand why the book [Things Fall Apart] had resonance. I began to understand my history even better. It wasn’t as if when I wrote it I was an expert in the history of the world. I was a very young man. I knew I had a story, but how it fit into the story of the world—I really had no sense of that. Its meaning for my Igbo people was clear to me, but I didn’t know how other people elsewhere would respond to it. Did it have any meaning or resonance for them? I realized that it did when, to give you just one example, the whole class of a girls’ college in South Korea wrote to me, and each one expressed an opinion about the book. And then I learned something, which was that they had a history that was similar to the story of Things Fall Apart—the history of colonization. This I didn’t know before. Their colonizer was Japan. So these people across the waters were able to relate to the story of dispossession in Africa. People from different parts of the world can respond to the same story, if it says something to them about their own history and their own experience.” - Chinua Achebe in Katie Bacon, “An African Voice,” The Atlantic II. Early Humans and the Neolithic Revolution ● Human Evolution ○ Human evolution took place over millions of years and was influenced by climate, diet, and survival strategies + the need to develop new skills and tools ○ Research by anthropologists, archeologists, historians, and more shapes what we know about prehistory – but it is still mostly educated guesswork ○ We can trace the origin of human evolution to Australopithecus, which lived in Africa 2.5 to 4 million years ago ■ The famous Lucy (pictured here) was a member of this genus (taxonomic rank that includes several related species); the species is called afarensis ○ Could walk upright and use tools; otherwise were very similar to chimpanzees ○ The human genus Homo evolved from Australopithecus 2-3 million years ago ○ The earliest member of the human genus was Homo habilius (“handy” human), named so as it was once thought that stone tools originated with them ○ Resembled us in many ways – large brain, small teeth, human-esque facial features; still had ape-like characteristics, adult height of 3-4 feet ○ 2 million years ago, Homo erectus (upright human) emerged from East Africa ■ The ability to walk upright necessitated dietary changes: tough plants -> nuts, fruits, honey, meat ■ Hands are now free to use more sophisticated tools ○ Homo erectus was closer to modern humans – sometimes 6 ft in height, relied on fire for food and warmth, could possibly communicate vocally, even cared for the sick and elderly ○ Lived as recently as 100,000 years ago ○ 1.8 – 1.5 million years ago: homo erectus migrates beyond East Africa, possibly due to climate change or hunting pattern ■ Populations evolved to adapt to the environments they moved to ■ Diversity of species led to Homo neanderthalensis or Neanderthals, Denisovans, and modern humans (Homo sapiens, or “wise” man) ■ Denisovans and Neanderthals originated from outside Africa – modern Europeans and Middle Easterners have between 1-4% Neanderthal DNA ○ 40,000 to 15,000 years ago, homo sapiens ultimately supplanted the other human species ■ Out of Africa theory: 100,000 years ago, homo sapiens began expanding out of Africa and replacing other human populations through war or interbreeding ■ “Multiregional evolution model” – homo sapiens evolved from homo erectus in several places around the same time; this explains why there are diverse genetic traits in humans, but relies on fossils and not genetic data ● Why Did Humans Move & Where Did They Go? ○ Historians believe that Homo sapiens began leaving Africa 100,000 years ago due to drier climates (fewer plants and animals needed to survive) – early humans were hunter-gatherers and likely spread out over large areas over thousands of years to forage and hunt ○ Humans adjusted to their new environments and often overhunted animals to extinction, such as mastodons, mammoths, giant sloths, and beavers, though climate change also played a part ○ In Australia, early humans hunted large reptiles (?), marsupial lions (pictured here), and huge wombats and kangaroos ● Early Human Technologies ○ We do not know for certain what tools were made by early humans, as many were made with wood, animal skin, earth, and bone (which survives occasionally) ○ About 3 million years ago, our ancestors began utilizing stone for tools, marking the start of the Paleolithic Age (or Stone Age), which ended 12,000 years ago ○ Homo habilius created stone tools by smashing smooth rocks together to make sharp edges – called Oldowan tools, they were used to cut, scrape, and chop meat and bone ○ By 1.7 million years ago, humans had started shaping rock into knife edges (called Acheulean tools by archeologists) ○ About 250,000 years ago, humans were shaping tools and weapons from flakes of stone rather than from the stone itself (Mousterian tools), and even worked them into Stone Age art pieces ○ Fire was an incredibly important tool for early humans – began to be used as late as 125,000 years ago ■ Helped cook food, warmed in a cold climate, hardened wood weapons and softened stone, and served as a point of social gathering ○ Homo sapiens also developed early languages around 100,000 years ago ○ Prehistoric art emerged 40,000 years ago – humanshaped items such as fertility idols and cave paintings have been discovered ■ Cave art could have been a part of shamanistic rituals conducted deep within caves ● The Ice Ages ○ Over billions of years, there have been five ice ages, each including glaciation periods where glaciers grew on land ○ The most recent was 100,000 years ago and ended 18,000 years ago ○ Temps drop in the Northern Hemisphere, sea levels decline, tropical areas dry, rivers disappear, jungles -> savannahs, grasslands -> deserts ○ These climate changes likely spurred initial human expansion out of Africa – low sea levels allowed for human expansion into Japan, Australia, SE Asia, and humans crossed the Bering Strait into the Americas ○ Humans in colder climates invented new forms of clothing and developed sewing needles (thread made from animal remains or flax) ○ When the Earth warmed again, new rivers and lakes formed ● Life in the Paleolithic Age ○ As recently as 10,000 BC, humans relied on subsistence hunting and gathering to survive – groups of humans could be anywhere from 15 to 40 and divided into family units ○ Diets consisted of nuts, fruits, berries, wild grains, honey, fish, birds, shellfish, and insects – depending on their environment ○ Most hunting focused on smaller animals, though groups of men would hunt big game – required group cooperation and sophisticated tools ○ Paleolithic humans had religious traditions similar to animism, the idea that a degree of spiritualism exists in people, plants, animals, and natural phenomena ■ Burial traditions begin with modern humans and Neanderthals – afterlife? ● Diverse Paleolithic Peoples ○ San people of the Kalahari Desert ■ Divide labor based on sex – men create fires and hunt, women gather and build shelters ■ Can live on very little water, and use hollowedout ostrich eggs as buckets ■ Religious beliefs centered on a being called Kaggen – sometimes helpful, sometimes foolish ■ Rituals for important life events like marriage and a boy’s first kill ○ Inuit people of North America ■ Generally egalitarian hunter-gatherers ■ Few plants to gather, but an abundance of birds and animals ● Use thick animal hides for warmth ■ Women outnumber men, as hunting is extremely dangerous – polygamy and infanticide are common ■ Rich mythology, including stories of fantastic hunts and incredible creatures, northern lights are seen as a supernatural element ● The Neolithic Revolution ○ Around 10,000 BC, modern human populations adopted agriculture for reasons that remain obscure, inaugurating the Neolithic Age ○ Hunting/gathering ----> agriculture, domestication of animals ○ Allowed humans to devote more time to changing social organization, accrue forms of wealth, and develop religious traditions ○ The Neolithic Revolution occurred independently at different times across the Near East, China, Africa, and the Americas ○ Speculated that the end of the Ice Age prompted humans to begin crop cultivation ○ Not every region of the world had the right “conditions” to encourage the shift to subsistence farming, although the first region to do so is speculated to be the Fertile Crescent in the Near East. ■ 10,000 BC: People in Mesopotamia begin domesticating edible wild grasses, which later become wheat and barley; peas, lentils, carrots, olives, and dates were also grown ■ 8000 BC: Along the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers in modern East Asia, people began growing rice, millet, and soybeans ■ 4000 BC: In sub-Saharan Africa, people began actively cultivating sorghum, and later peanuts and sesame ■ 4000 BC: Groups in Mesoamerica begin growing maize (corn), and later beans, squash, and peppers; in the Andes Mountains, people begin growing potatoes ○ These crops and the techniques to grow them would expand into other areas over time ■ Wheat -> Europe, maize -> the southwest US and the Andes region ○ Selective seed cultivation eventually altered the plants themselves ■ Ancient wild barley and wheat had heavy husks to protect their seeds ○ Animal domestication began in the Fertile Crescent around 8000 BC; most were selected for characteristics that would be beneficial for humans, such as docility, strength, ability to feed on available resources, and rapid growth/reproduction cycles for human consumption ■ Sheep/goats in the Near East 8000 BC ■ Chickens in South Asia 6000 BC ■ Horses in Central Asia, Llamas in Peru, 4000 BC ○ Some groups did not adopt these practices – Aboriginal Australians lived in environments that would have sustained these practices, yet continued to practice a hunter-gatherer lifestyle until Europeans arrived over two centuries ago ● How Farming Changed the Human Experience ○ Why did some groups not adopt agriculture? ○ Transition to agriculture was sometimes painful ■ Loss of leisure time – hunter-gatherers spent 20 hrs per week looking for food resources, agricultural societies spend 30+ hrs farming. Women were affected far more than men ■ Large groups vulnerable to epidemic diseases; couldn’t easily migrate when weather conditions became unfavorable ■ Diets were a lot worse – less meat consumption, more starchy carbohydrates -> mineral and vitamin deficiencies ○ Agriculture allowed for much larger populations and if it worked well could create food surpluses ○ The egalitarian nature of hunter-gatherer communities fell away as agriculture demanded labor specialization ■ The most successful farmers were able to accumulate wealth in the form of land and material property, leading to wealth and social status that led to later social divisions ■ If food was plentiful, not everyone was needed to farm; many were able to become traders, artists, stone workers, religious leaders, and other “elites”. Those without wealth lived difficult lives ■ Social divisions based on sex emerge – women were relegated to the domestic sphere; men worked the fields but were less tied to the home, and thus allowed men to become community leaders and to take on the defense of the settlement ○ Agriculture influenced the development of religion – the division of labor allowed for the emergence of priestly classes whose authority derived from their ability to interpret the intentions of the supernatural world ■ Pre-agricultural societies: animism, spirituality in all things ■ Neolithic societies: focus on agricultural fertility, deities can intervene in human experience ● MVP of the Day… Wheat? ○ The process of plant and animal domestication is often seen as a one-way street, with humans orchestrating the process while staying relatively unchanged. But it may also be the case that humans transformed, or domesticated, themselves in order to develop populations most suitable for the agricultural lifestyle. Some have argued that the adoption of agriculture encouraged humans to select and reproduce traits that would produce the most advantages, such as docility and cooperativeness. The fact that modern humans are far less aggressive and more cooperative than we were tens of thousands of years ago appears to support the conclusion that we adapted ourselves. And as some, such as Michael Pollan, have suggested, edible plants themselves exerted pressures on us we didn’t quite recognize. Just over twelve thousand years ago, for example, wheat was merely one wild edible plant among many found in the Near East. Today it is grown around the world. This incredible success was made possible by humans, who labored to remove rocks from the fields, bring water, remove insects, and work from dawn to dusk to ensure wheat’s survival and success. These costs borne by humans have redounded to the great benefit of wheat. Did we domesticate wheat, or did it domesticate us?
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