Samuel Da Silva HIS 250 Week One Assignment

While reading the first chapter one, it talked about how most history books skip the
Paleolithic age as there aren't any writings and assume that nothing interesting happened. Both
Strayer and Nelson argued that we would be neglecting 200,000 years of history if we do, so
they talked about some of the achievements acquired during that time. I agree that we should
learn as much as we can from the past, especially since the Paleolithic age is the beginning of
known history. In that age, societies were created (although small), and agriculture became
popular amongst human life. The pages they wrote about how societies were and the
breakthrough of agriculture are crucial to talk about and teach to future generations. Most of
the time, I wonder about the origins of how something got started, like my family, specific
buildings, etc.; learning where societies first began to form gives me a sense of appreciation.
Since I read about different early societies, humans always wanted to create communities and
work with others. I especially liked reading about cultures from across the world back then and
how each has its own story. Even learning about farming is interesting; I always joked around
saying what kind of madman before then thought to put a seed in the ground and expect it to
grow into something, and here I read that multiple societies thought of it. These societies at the
start had no way to contact someone from another continent, yet all of them were able to
figure out how to farm and build their small communities in different environments.
The book talks about how our ancestors started in Africa and the "human revolution"
took place, where culture became more than just surviving. The development of culture is a
huge step since this is the beginning of societies for a long time. For example, a section in the
book talked about the potential religious beliefs that different Paleolithic cultures might have,
which is relevant today. It showed that people in the Paleolithic age weren't just cavepeople
that only thought about eating. Seeing the cave drawings, statues and reading about specific
spaces deep inside in caves indicate that societies had their own beliefs in spirituality. This is
relevant today as many countries today have views that are different from others. This period
was also when many tools gave an idea of how life was back then. Paleolithic people likely
hunted, foraged, and employed a communal system for dividing labor and resources. They also
were able to change their landscape as they created deliberate fires to encourage the growth of
certain plants. Usually, the most common was the rapid extinction of certain animals/plants
after humans migrated. This chapter showed me that life back then had some similarities as
people during the Paleolithic age created the basis of what culture will be today. We are still
communities (although bigger ones than back then) who are not trying to survive and have our
ways of life. Reading this whole chapter made me curious as to why other historians skip the
Paleolithic age; Strayer and Nelson showed the beginnings of our societal norm with evidence
showing the idea of art/language. I'm not a history major, but as someone who loves, just
knowing how things started this age is something not to be overlooked.