Chapter 14

Trade and exchange of goods has helped the world and civilizations expand beyond their borders but how did we go form trade commodities to fellow human beings on the same level. The atrocities in our world history are abundant and one that has always baffled me is the slave trade. It is amazing that some how we decided that other people should/could be captured and sold off to the highest bidder without any say of their own. In theory I guess they thought it was a good idea because cheap labor was needed and indentured servants had to eventually be let out of their contacts and were costly and the work was strenuous to be done by themselves. My problem is that Europeans would take people from their homes and drop them off somewhere and make a profit off of this person’s life. From the sources in the back of the book we learn the story of one slave’s journey through slavery in Africa as well as when he made the transatlantic journey to the Americas. We know his story because not only did he read and write but he was also able to buy his freedom later on in life. Even though he was stolen from his home and separated from his sister he seemed happy in the African home he ended up working in. It wasn’t until he was sold off and sent to the America’s that we learn of the truly horrific things these people experienced. He describes and he was kidnapped and in terror during this time and he wished to die and be done with it. I couldn’t even begin to imagine life during the slave trade for either side, the slaves or the traders. To be stripped of your basic rights or be the person doing this to another are both not experiences I would want firsthand.

Chapter 5

I have always been amazed at what humans are capable of. As we previously learned it is believed that homo sapiens began in one area and over time migrated to other areas of the planet. This essentially can mean that we are all the same. In Paleolithic times there was no need for class systems or a belief that one human was better than another. However, as we became more “civilized” this all changed. We began to see social hierarchies based on birthright, slavery, and discrimination between the sexes. I feel that it is important to study this history and learn from the, in my opinion, inhuman acts of people who lived thousands of years before us. It has taken so incredibly long for ideas such as slavery to be seen as not okay and for women to have equal rights. It is also a newer concept that you can start at the bottom in a lower class and through hard work potentially move your way to the top. One of the more interesting systems to me is the caste system in India. It is all based on birth and you more or less have no way to control or change your fate. It feels so oppressive and confining for those who are unfortunate to be born a Sudra or even worse an untouchable. The photograph on page 225 in our textbook really showed the division between the classes. The landowner will hire a lower caste employee but will not risk making any physical contact with him out of fear that the lower caste will rub off on him. It’s very telling of the discrimination that was imbedded into the culture that I’m sure even though times have changed still exists to a point.

Early People

This was actually an exciting chapter to read. It has always amazed me how much the world has changed in just the past fifty years that I've rarely thought much about the earliest people here on Earth. Even though we have made many advances in a short period of time it was their era that prepared humans for life.

I first really started to learn about these people last year when I visited a Neolithic passage tomb in Ireland. My fiancé and I chose Newgrange as one of our stops because he is obsessed with history and how often in the United Sates are you able to stand in a building that has been around for over 5000 years. We weren't able to take pictures inside of the tomb but the museum has recreations of what it looks like. When discovered, human remains were found which lead archeologists to believe it to be a tomb. Another interesting fact is that beginning at dawn on the winter solstice each year the sunlight illuminates the inside of the tomb by about 9am. This discovery also indicated that this site was possibly an important place with the people's culture and spirituality.

One of the most upsetting things to see was the lack of care people have for these ancient irreplaceable sites. Inside the tomb we noticed many carvings made by people during the years between it's discovery and when it was set up as a protected monument. Now there are strict regulations on the number of people allowed in the tomb and the length of time you can spend inside. They have also prohibited photos from being taken in an effort to preserve this space. I think the more we can learn about and study from the beginning civilizations the more we can learn about ourselves today. Even though they took longer to make these advances, they are the foundations for our current life.

Yay - I'm done!