sade's perception of ways of the world; intro. ch1. ch.2

When reading the introduction to Ways of the World I was reminded of how in line the history of man is with Christianity. The section titled, "The Globalization of Humankind," had a sentence that read Today, every significant landmass on earth is occupied by human beings, but it was not always so. A mere half million years ago our species did not exist, and only 100,000 years ago that species was limited to Africa and numbered, some scholars believe, fewer than 10,000 individuals" (pg.4). This particular line made me think of the story of Noah and the Ark from the Bible or Torah.  Where God rid the Earth of all mankind except 2 of every animal and Noah's family were left to replenish the earth. 

I also was very intrigued by our usage of the word "Paleo diet" and how our generation tries to portray it as if it's all the new rave and craze when really we took it from Paleolithic era way of life. But it's not really accurate because Paleolithic era the people really were hunter gatherers and only took what they could eat immediately. The book states, "The word "Paleolithic" literally means the "old stone age," but it refers more generally to a food-collecting or gathering and hunting way of life, before agriculture allowed people to grow food or raise animals deliberately." I thought it was very in line with American culture where we tend to assume the creation of undocumented or other people's unpatened ideas and claim them as our own, just like what happens when a country or civilization is colonized.  Because when we say Paleo Diet we are really talking about extremely low carb to zero carbs or caveman diet. 

The section titled "The Revolution of Farming and Herding" made me realize how much of takers of the land we are. While it was a great "first" in Human history to accomplish farming and raising animals for food, we also became abusers of the land we so greatly love. The book poses the question, "What changes to human life did this new technology bring with it?" and it greatly answer's it in section titled, "The Turning Point of Civilization." The quote, "They gave rise to empires of increasing size, to enduring cultural and religious traditions, to new technologies, to sharper class and gender inequalities, to new conceptions of masculinity and femininity, and to large-scale warfare, (pg.6)." There have been many great advancements with technology, but also great ruin due to corrupt minds.  How did we move from a society that loved and value women to then making them foot stools for men. 

We have so much to be thankful for because the first inventors from the Paleolithic Era have paved the way for greater and greater Technology for us today.  I noticed it talked alot about how people who used tools made of stone where somehow less human or less intelligent than those who used metals tools, but I disagree completely.  We piggy backed off of their ideas completely and their initial creation gave birth to new and improved forms of the same tool, but made for more ease and comfort.