Chapter 0: FOUNDATIONAL CULTURES OVERVIEW
We Are All African
The bones and tools of the oldest humans were found in East Africa, so scientists think that’s where human history began. During the Paleolithic Era (which began 2.6 million years ago!), men hunted beasts and women gathered nuts and berries to eat. As populations grew, humans spread in all directions constantly following the animals (who migrated with the seasons) looking for more stuff to eat. Slowly, over thousands of years, small groups of humans began the tedious process of migrating all over Afro-Eurasia (Africa + Europe + Asia, aka the Eastern Hemisphere). During the last Ice Age, the Bering Strait wasn’t a strait at all but a land bridge (that’s because much of the ocean water was frozen). Some Paleolithic people crossed the land bridge from East Asia over to modern-day Alaska. From here, humans kept on spreading southward, until they finally hit the tip of South America in about 15,000 BCE. For the first time in the history of our planet, the entire earth (well, at least the parts worth living) was populated by one species… us!
The bones and tools of the oldest humans were found in East Africa, so scientists think that’s where human history began. During the Paleolithic Era (which began 2.6 million years ago!), men hunted beasts and women gathered nuts and berries to eat. As populations grew, humans spread in all directions constantly following the animals (who migrated with the seasons) looking for more stuff to eat. Slowly, over thousands of years, small groups of humans began the tedious process of migrating all over Afro-Eurasia (Africa + Europe + Asia, aka the Eastern Hemisphere). During the last Ice Age, the Bering Strait wasn’t a strait at all but a land bridge (that’s because much of the ocean water was frozen). Some Paleolithic people crossed the land bridge from East Asia over to modern-day Alaska. From here, humans kept on spreading southward, until they finally hit the tip of South America in about 15,000 BCE. For the first time in the history of our planet, the entire earth (well, at least the parts worth living) was populated by one species… us!
Civilization Was Built on Poop!
Around 8000 BCE, women figured out how to actually grow plants, not just find them in the wild. Men also figured out that it was much easier to house their animals in one place than it was to run around hunting them. Not just small creatures but big and useful beasts like oxen and horses. These animals were useful in a number of ways: we ate them, we used their hair and skin as clothes, we used their muscle power as a tool, and we used their poop as fertilizer. This changed everything. Humans would NEVER be the same! Farming (with the help of poop) led to way more food. Way more food led to way more people. These people settled down living in one place instead of migrating with the seasons. Eventually, we got so good at farming that we let a handful of farmers do it for all of us. The rest of us went on to do other things… we got jobs or started careers. We had a bunch of different people doing and making different things and trading with each other for what we needed. And since everybody traded different stuff and some stuff is more valuable than others, some people became richer than others. This complicated mass of humans living together needed protection, laws, and organization so the rich hoarded all of the metal for weapons and took political power. In short: poop 🡪 civilization!
Around 8000 BCE, women figured out how to actually grow plants, not just find them in the wild. Men also figured out that it was much easier to house their animals in one place than it was to run around hunting them. Not just small creatures but big and useful beasts like oxen and horses. These animals were useful in a number of ways: we ate them, we used their hair and skin as clothes, we used their muscle power as a tool, and we used their poop as fertilizer. This changed everything. Humans would NEVER be the same! Farming (with the help of poop) led to way more food. Way more food led to way more people. These people settled down living in one place instead of migrating with the seasons. Eventually, we got so good at farming that we let a handful of farmers do it for all of us. The rest of us went on to do other things… we got jobs or started careers. We had a bunch of different people doing and making different things and trading with each other for what we needed. And since everybody traded different stuff and some stuff is more valuable than others, some people became richer than others. This complicated mass of humans living together needed protection, laws, and organization so the rich hoarded all of the metal for weapons and took political power. In short: poop 🡪 civilization!
Civilization 1.0
While most people around the world still lived in small villages, beginning in about 8000 BCE, 6 societies used poop to build civilizations. They all used rivers to water the plants and soft, fertile soil from the river valleys (known as silt) to grow their food. The 6 civilizations were: the Mesopotamians in Southwest Asia, the Egyptians in North Africa, the Harappans in South Asia, the Shang in East Asia, the Olmecs in Mesoamerica, and the Chavin in South America. These societies achieved A LOT: Alphabets and writing systems were developed to help keep trade records, mathematics and astronomy emerged to help secure better harvests, technologies and tools were invented to make farming easier and to yield larger crops as well as to move people and stuff around, polytheistic religions emerged to help people understand their surroundings (these early gods were usually tied to the local geography, whom controlled and helped explain important things like why the river flooded and killed everyone), and monarchies emerged in which “divine” kings ruled over the masses and controlled large armies who used the most up-to-date weapons. These kings usually built architectural monuments to impress their followers and help secure their “divine” status. However, there is also a dark side to being “civilized.” In early civilizations, (in fact in almost all civilizations) women and slaves became the property of men ☹.
While most people around the world still lived in small villages, beginning in about 8000 BCE, 6 societies used poop to build civilizations. They all used rivers to water the plants and soft, fertile soil from the river valleys (known as silt) to grow their food. The 6 civilizations were: the Mesopotamians in Southwest Asia, the Egyptians in North Africa, the Harappans in South Asia, the Shang in East Asia, the Olmecs in Mesoamerica, and the Chavin in South America. These societies achieved A LOT: Alphabets and writing systems were developed to help keep trade records, mathematics and astronomy emerged to help secure better harvests, technologies and tools were invented to make farming easier and to yield larger crops as well as to move people and stuff around, polytheistic religions emerged to help people understand their surroundings (these early gods were usually tied to the local geography, whom controlled and helped explain important things like why the river flooded and killed everyone), and monarchies emerged in which “divine” kings ruled over the masses and controlled large armies who used the most up-to-date weapons. These kings usually built architectural monuments to impress their followers and help secure their “divine” status. However, there is also a dark side to being “civilized.” In early civilizations, (in fact in almost all civilizations) women and slaves became the property of men ☹.
Civilization 2.0 (Classical = Bigger and Better)
The civilizations of the classical era (600 BCE-600 CE) built on achievements of the civilizations of the ancient era and created some of the most influential civilizations ever known. The Qin and Han in China, Greece and Rome in the Mediterranean, the Mauryan and Gupta in India, and Persia in the Middle East built some of the wealthiest and powerful empires in human history. First, they developed highly stable and powerful governments (using big bureaucracies, strong militaries, and building lots and lots of roads) that effectively created stability over their vast empires. Second, they built elaborate waterworks like dams, irrigation networks, and aqueducts that dramatically increased agricultural productivity and therefore increased population and made some people very rich! The cities built were like none seen before: big, beautiful, and filled with stuff from all over Eurasia (meaning Europe and Asia) for their citizens to enjoy. Unfortunately, good things do not last forever… See the classical civilizations were kind of like an experiment. Humans had never lived luxuriously in huge empires like this before. Eventually military expansion, high taxes, oppression, and extreme social stratification caused peasants to rebel, nomads to invade and disease to ravage populations. By 600 CE all of the Eurasian classical civilizations were gone!
“Better late than never,” powerful states emerged in Mesoamerica really late in the Classical Era. By about 200 CE, Mayan Civilization on the Yucatan Peninsula built a “classical” civilization in the Americas and started doing all the stuff discussed above… including collapsing! They were gone by about 900 CE. We will not discuss them in this course but those classical civilizations are the foundation that the Global Tapestry civilizations are built on
The civilizations of the classical era (600 BCE-600 CE) built on achievements of the civilizations of the ancient era and created some of the most influential civilizations ever known. The Qin and Han in China, Greece and Rome in the Mediterranean, the Mauryan and Gupta in India, and Persia in the Middle East built some of the wealthiest and powerful empires in human history. First, they developed highly stable and powerful governments (using big bureaucracies, strong militaries, and building lots and lots of roads) that effectively created stability over their vast empires. Second, they built elaborate waterworks like dams, irrigation networks, and aqueducts that dramatically increased agricultural productivity and therefore increased population and made some people very rich! The cities built were like none seen before: big, beautiful, and filled with stuff from all over Eurasia (meaning Europe and Asia) for their citizens to enjoy. Unfortunately, good things do not last forever… See the classical civilizations were kind of like an experiment. Humans had never lived luxuriously in huge empires like this before. Eventually military expansion, high taxes, oppression, and extreme social stratification caused peasants to rebel, nomads to invade and disease to ravage populations. By 600 CE all of the Eurasian classical civilizations were gone!
“Better late than never,” powerful states emerged in Mesoamerica really late in the Classical Era. By about 200 CE, Mayan Civilization on the Yucatan Peninsula built a “classical” civilization in the Americas and started doing all the stuff discussed above… including collapsing! They were gone by about 900 CE. We will not discuss them in this course but those classical civilizations are the foundation that the Global Tapestry civilizations are built on
Jesus and Sid Rock the Boat, While Confucius Steadies It
While the Romans morph Greek gods into planets and the Hindus are toiling in the circle of reincarnation, Jesus and Siddhartha provide the masses with new ways to reach salvation. Roman polytheism persecuted both Jews and Christians, leading to Jesus & Christianity. Christians borrowed Mesopotamia’s flood and other Ancient traditions to build a faith that would ultimately spread throughout the Roman Empire. In India, Siddhartha taught the “Buddhist path of moderation” to bring hope to the low Hindu Castes. While Hinduism survived as the main religion of India, Buddhism spread to Central Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. Buddhism and Christianity (while so different) have SO much in common: both developed out of earlier faiths, both teach that simple living and good behavior leads to salvation, both teach that people are all equal and therefore appeal to the lower classes, and both spread like wildfire as the classical civilizations collapsed. At the same time Islam developed using the same ideas as Judaism and Christianity teaching about Monotheism and spreading quicker than any other religion.
In contrast to these philosophies, which were centered on an afterlife, Chinese philosophies competed to try to bring stability to a very “real world” problem: the chaos brought by a weak government. Confucianism (family), Daoism (nature), and Legalism (rules) all attempted to fix this problem in different ways. While they all shaped Chinese thought, Master Kong Fuzi (Confucius) won the great wrestling match to influence the powerful Han Dynasty. Confucius thought that if society behaved the way a family did… peace and stability would prevail.
While the Romans morph Greek gods into planets and the Hindus are toiling in the circle of reincarnation, Jesus and Siddhartha provide the masses with new ways to reach salvation. Roman polytheism persecuted both Jews and Christians, leading to Jesus & Christianity. Christians borrowed Mesopotamia’s flood and other Ancient traditions to build a faith that would ultimately spread throughout the Roman Empire. In India, Siddhartha taught the “Buddhist path of moderation” to bring hope to the low Hindu Castes. While Hinduism survived as the main religion of India, Buddhism spread to Central Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. Buddhism and Christianity (while so different) have SO much in common: both developed out of earlier faiths, both teach that simple living and good behavior leads to salvation, both teach that people are all equal and therefore appeal to the lower classes, and both spread like wildfire as the classical civilizations collapsed. At the same time Islam developed using the same ideas as Judaism and Christianity teaching about Monotheism and spreading quicker than any other religion.
In contrast to these philosophies, which were centered on an afterlife, Chinese philosophies competed to try to bring stability to a very “real world” problem: the chaos brought by a weak government. Confucianism (family), Daoism (nature), and Legalism (rules) all attempted to fix this problem in different ways. While they all shaped Chinese thought, Master Kong Fuzi (Confucius) won the great wrestling match to influence the powerful Han Dynasty. Confucius thought that if society behaved the way a family did… peace and stability would prevail.
Development of Influential Cultural Traditions
Philosophies- Confucianism and Taoism
Dharmic Religions- Hinduism and Buddhism
Abrahamic Religions- Judaism, Christianity and Islam