Ch 1: First Peoples; First Farmers

Up to this point, I have read through the Prologue and Intro to Part 1 (First things First). I still can't shake the fact that we are able to date so far back. I mentioned this before but the capability to assume what happened in the past is questionable to me. All of this is subjective and how people interpret the information collected and provided.  I would have to say the cosmos portion of the reading was the most fascinating part for me. Comparing the this version and the reading insert we had in class... either way it is intriguing to base this information all on science and how we came about and not religion based. Anyway.. back to the people.. and agriculture.

In the text, I found particularly interesting about the aboriginal people in Australia. Despite the outside influences that came in with technology that the Aboriginal people still practiced  their ancient way of life. It appears that the Europeans had their hands in this influence, bringing in about 250 languages, wide variety of farming needs (bulbs, seeds, roots..etc) and hunting large/small animals.

I am starting to see a trend with the Europeans. World domination still comes to mind. From my world religion class to world history - there appears to be a common denominator.. the Europeans. They may have tried to go to China, Korea and Japan but it seems like they were unable to influence those countries their way.

I do have to mention how I am amazed that there are still communities (tribes) out there that continue to practice their ancient ways. I would not deserve this. I am assuming they are aware of technology but choose not to go down that road.

Lastly, I have to point out, in the text it stated that relationships between man and women were FAR more equal in the beginning than in later in society. Why is that? What changed for humans to think it is ok to treat women inferior? This has been question that goes through my mind every so often. After taking women's literature it made me question who decided women were not equal to man? If the paleolithic era was before religion into play, what was the driving force that changed the mindset for people?