Chapter 4 and Service Article

Chapter 4 depicts the one of the most important advancments that make the classical era differ from the ancient agricultural era, mainly because of how religion became a major part of most large cultures and communities. Instead of focusing on the bettering of the nations the earliest thinkers began to start asking why we are here and our purpose for life in a deeper way than ever before. In earlier chapters we see the natives relying on nature for their spirituality. In this time their are two distinct forms of belief, In human rationality and in unseen entities. The people of China and Greece had a form of the confucion point of view. Even though Greece still had the Gods of Mount Olympus, they had a multitude of greek thinkers that shifted away from having religion be the source of philosophy, The man taking the lead of these free thinkers was Socrates. For every little thought you could think of there appeared to be a different philosopher for each. Getting into religions in the middle east, I was very surprised to see that they all have some sort of correlation or allusion to the other. For example the first monotheistic practice was held in Persia and had a God and an evil entity in a battle for human custody. Just like Buddism, Judaism and Christianity. I never knew how similar christianity and buddism are. Both deal with a prophet who went on their own derivative of a spiritual journey and came back to share their experience and obtained a following. Also one thing I didnt particualrily know about Christianity is how it was preached to be an egalitarian practice but its stated in the Bible how women are to serve men.


I agree with the message the article is sending. I have gotten the message from mentors and people i look up to about the difference between the two. There is a fine line between the two and it makes me think of how I can serve without personal satisfaction and just for the goodness of life and a smile on another peson's face. Helping without seeing a person as having a problem or broken and interacting with them as the human being they are is key and essential to serving.

Chapter 3 Documents

Source 3.2

I would love to see the original documents used by Tacticus in order to write his thoughts on the germanics people. They seemed to have a distinct way of life that worked for them and might have not worked anywhere else. They had strict rules and strict enforcement of these rules. I think the adultery punishment is a little harsh but that would teach a person a lesson. I didn't really understand how power was distributed in this nation either. Kings were appointed but generals did not abuse their power, punishment came from the priest. which would give an explanation on why adultery was punished harshly. Their laws were inferred to be religion based and i guess in a secluded nation their way of life is the only they see fit. Its surprising. I was fascinated by their lack of diversity being so close to Rome.THey married within themselves and only themselves which is kinda cool but weird at the same time. I have a feeling that some of these statements made by Taticus are assumptions based off of what he read in the documents rather than restated fact. THe only way to find out is to read the original documents.

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Part 2 Chapter 3

The introduction to part 2 opens talking about the changes from our first civilizations to our next civilization, they called this time the Age of Agriculture just like in the neolithic era. Compared to the first civilizations there were a lot of "minor changes' at least according to the author but since there was no technological advancement to further enhance resources this time period was in some ways a bust. From a political standpoint however, we learn that there were some changes that can still be seen today.

Learning about the rise of the Persian and Greek was really interesting to me. Two nations adjacent to one another one of about 50-60 million people and the other with about 5-6 million. It's hard to really see the greek empire prevailing and being able to hold its own against a huge army from a nation known to expand via conquest while greece was known to expand via settlement. The persian empire was sort of like a "one nation under emperor" type of place which to me was really funny yet interesting because of all their rituals held in honour of their emperor at the time.

 To me the rise of greece was also a surprise because of their lack of a unified political system throughout their city states. Though these nations shared the same language and God they could only get along once every 4 years for their olympics.

I believe their non ability to get along led to their nation losing in the peloponnesian war. This war saw the end of Athens and led to Macedonia taking over. this is how Greece began his reign. 

Alexander the Great when he was around my age did more than I ever could lead an army to defeat the persians.. They even started their own expansion via conquest until alexander died.

THe other to empires talked about rose from conquest due to their brutal military. 

 The romean Empire went from rags to riches story and in a way so did the chinese empire. THere was a funny story about how rome repopulated when they were in poverty but i don't think its the best idea to mention that here. EIther way in the end all of the nations feel either to conquest , death or lack of resource and the main reason for that lack of resources wasbecaue of no technological advancement to enhance those resources on the growing populations. 

Although these empires had their hardships id love to live in this era, Preferably in the mediterrainean or india which at the time saw the change in their cultures and became a huge melting pot of culture.

Document 2.3 "Dancing GIrl"

At first looking at this staute, I wouldn't assume this woman was anything less than royalty because usually random statues of women arent made. Secondly this women is dressed in a lot of jewelery with her hair tied back. The dancing girl had very long legs (disproportionate to her body). I think those features stood out because thats what attracted the artist or creator of this statue. IN my opinion the is how women of society were looked at, Long legs a dancer with a lot of jewelry mustve have been what guys were into in this society.

Answered: "How do you react to this statue? What qualities does the figure evoke?"

Agricultural Revolution;More Harm than Help?

I left off talking about the effect the ending of the Ice Age had on early civilization, this process of 'Intensification begins. resulting in the emergence of people ( I Guess you could say the first Baby boom). Selective breeding and domestication of animals brings about the most impactful changes on early society with a source of protein in most areas, fertilizer and, for lack of a better term, horse power. The majority of the agricultural age took place around the same time for all regions on the planet. The result? Deforestation of course. but I guess it helps that trees were destroyed only to bring about more plant life and food. As the areas became more engrossed with crops and food the people began to settle. A majority of the continents forced out the "gather hunters" as they became farmers: that population was almost extinct by the end of the common area. Farming and agriculture brought people together, languages and people of different nations start to migrate towards each other and societies first melting pots I have emerged. The downfall? Human communities start to see the earliest forms of inequality and a form over government rise. Even with women being the stable source of income, males become alphas. most early villages had a some rendition of a democracy. Others had what they called a Chiefdom which inherited positions of power and privilege introduced a more distinct element of inequality. Chiefs could use seldom force to compel the obedience of their subjects. Overall I was shocked at the early struggles with inequality once communities formed, but i never knew that once gather hunters transitioned into farmers they struggled with their health and life expectancy. Today I understand the purpose of moving forward and still introducing crops to to the carnivorous gather hunters, but why do these people think it was okay when their life expectancy significantly dropped?