Alma Ruelas History Class Summer 2020

The evidence that supports the cultures and societies of Africa, the Americas and Pacific Oceania developed largely in isolation,  it had to do with different factors: it had to do with the slow movement of people, slowly expanding to East Africa and not immigration of outsiders (p. 252), and the fact the systems of agriculture that they had in place worked very well for them for hundreds of years. In addition, the Americas were hunters and gatherers and most villages were agriculture based. Also there were nomadic tribes living in the Southern part of America that were hunters and gatherers. All those tribes that inhabited from north america all the way to south america created individual settlements linked to one another in local trading networks and sometimes in an extensive ¨webs of exchange that brought many local products such as buffalo hides, cooper, turquoise, seashells, macaw feathers, and coiled baskets from quite distant locations¨(p)255. In regards to Pacific Oceania, they

I believe slavery was so much more prominent in the Greco-Roman civilization than in India and China because it supported the economic system that was in place. I often wonder why here in the U.S.  millions of undocumented workers are not granted legal residency, the right to work legally? Because by being limited in their legal rights, they support the economy with cheaper labor. Spartacus Slave Revolt did not affect much the Roman Empire because it was a small scale, but it hints that if this revolt had been more extreme it would have affected the economic system of that time (p. 209). 

Yes, I agree religion is a double edge sword. It constitutes a big problem because some of the religious teaching contradicts and addresses the injustices the political authorities support, such as Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Yet, sometimes religion uses some of their beliefs or cults to manipulate people to do what is convenient for their institutions such as Catholicism during the Inquisition in the 14th century. 

I was impressed with the greatness of Empires because the system they had was very similar to what we have with todayś successful countries. For instance, both the Roman and Chinese empires defined themselves in universal terms (p.123). Bringing the entire world ¨under the control of Rome¨; the Chinese empire was described ¨all under heaven¨. Their main focus was investing in their public infrastructures to facilitate their respective domains militarily and commercially speaking (p.123). Both empires invoke supernatural sanctions to justify their rules. Romans started to convert their deceased emperor as god, to perpetuate and enhance the authority of the new rulers. During this time, Christians refused to be part of this cult, provoking their persecution by the Roman authorities. In China something similar had previously existed in which events linked Earth with the invisible realm called Heaven (p.125). Heaven was considered an impersonal moral force that regulated the universe. When

It was very interesting to find out that there is one thing people everywhere through the times have  in common: they all are curious about the beginning of things. They all seek to understand the meaning of life from a very deep context. I grew up Catholic and I remember as a little girl being fascinated by the biblical stories of Genesis - how the world was created, and slowly how human beings came here. In  Australia,  the Aboriginal or native peoples have lived there for many years until the Europeans arrived; they had a very primitive lifestyle of hunters and gatherers. In fact, there is still a very small community that still practices some of the ancient rituals. Furthermore, there is a collection of myths, legends and stories that explains how the earth was formed and came to be the way it is now. It is called Dreamtime. It is also very interesting that both in Genesis and the Dreamtime stories the main characters of these stories are male and female (p.49).

 I was surprised to learn that the first human societies were very egalitarian societies. They did not have formal structures such as chiefs, bureaucrats , soldiers, nobles or priests (p.20). Even men and women had different responsibilities. For instance, men were responsible for hunting and women were responsible for gathering , and because of this, both were equal then later societies. This is based on a study of the San people of southern Africa. They found out that women would be responsible for gathering plants that constituted 70 percent of their diet, versus men who were responsible for hunting and accounted for 30 percent of their diet (p. 21). Why was there no apparent conflict between the sexes? At what point men became the domineering force? Was it when their masculine  identity became more strong as they were more successful in killing larger animals?

It makes me angry to think how modern people see the distant past. They think of people who lived back then as primitive people ¨as primitive or superstitious, unable to exercise control over nature, and ignorant of its workings´( p.46). Primitive people lived respecting and working with their environment. Unlike us, modern peoples, do just the opposite. Ishiś story is a good example. He was the last member of a local tribe, the Yahi people who lived in northern California. They survived here for thousands of years gathering and hunting. They were pushed to extinction by a more aggressive farming and herding of modern men during the California ¨gold rush¨ (p.38).

When it comes to the timeline eras, I could not separate  Gaia of the rest of the eras. Based on my understanding of this concept, Giai is constantly manifesting itself in all organisms of the earth. Based on an article in Kosmos Journal, the way Gaia is defined as “ the sphere consciousness of planet earth”. Every living thing, every evolution the earth has gone through from the beginning, Gaia has been interlinked in that transformation. So I would organize the timeline as follows:  Cosmic , the creation of earth,  Paleolithic - stone age,  Neolithic - continuation of stone age but progressing to a more sophistication on tools previously used,  Ancient - the civilization that we know now and the discovery of the written world,  Classical - Western civilization begins,  Modern - the renaissance/European era,  Ecozoic - present time, and a great need to recognize all the damage that we have done to our earth, and in order to survive we need to live in harmony with human and non-hum

How far back does the human species go? Based on an article from humanorigins.si.edu, the Homeo floresiensis were the early human species. “Homo floresiensis (nicknamed ‘Hobbit’), have so far only been found on the Island of Flores, Indonesia. The fossils of H. floresiensis date to between about 100,000 and 60,000 years ago, and stone tools made by this species date to between about 190,000 and 50,000 years old. H. floresiensis individuals stood approximately 3 feet 6 inches tall, had tiny brains, large teeth for their small size, shrugged-forward shoulders, no chins, receding foreheads, and relatively large feet due to their short legs. Despite their small body and brain size, H. floresiensis made and used stone tools, hunted small elephants and large rodents, coped with predators such as giant Komodo dragons, and may have used fire”.   Was Australopithecusa a species of human? Based on an article written by Donald C. Johanson and Henry McHenry from the Encyclopedia Britannica, “Aust

 “Big History.” What is Big History? International Big History Association blog states that “ Big History seeks to understand the integrated history of the Cosmos, Earth, Life, and Humanity, using the best available empirical evidence and scholarly methods”. The manner in which I understand it is that there is a big correlation between the physicality of our planet with the events that have shaped our human history: one thing had not existed had not the big bang had occurred. Everything is interlinked with history: science, physics, biology, sociology, geology, so history is viewed within this context. I had never heard that concept before, but now that I have read about it, it does make sense that history is taught this way.                          Sources: " What is Big History " bighistory.org, n.p. 2020 < https://bighistory.org/whatisbighistory/ > Green, John, " The Big Bang: Crash Course Big History #1 " youtube.com . Sep 17, 2014 < https://www.youtub

I was born and raised in Mexico and came here when I was 18 years old. It has taken me a lifetime to complete my bachelor degree. I have taken many classes in different community colleges, and have obtained many certificates, but it is until now that I am close to obtaining my Bachelor's in Human Services.  I am a parent engagement coordinator for a local  high school, and I work very closely with the Latino and Asian parents -I truly love my job! I am also a spouse and mother of three young women. One of my passions is Mexican folk dance, and my youngest daughter shares this passion as well. In fact, she has been dancing for over 10 years, and I have been her number one supporter. I believe  folk dance fascinates me because it reflects the historical, anthropological and cultural background of a country. I am very excited to take this class. After I read Professor Andres' blog regarding this class, I noticed the context in which this class will be taught is very insightful:  i