Reading Response #1

Chapter one

                 In reading the first chapter, the part that put most of it in perspective for me was reading the reflection at the end of the chapter. The book says we used to view the Paleolithic era as “primitive and superstitious.” We have truly come a long way since those days, especially with technology in every aspect of living. Looking at the Chumas Tomol, it was a great invention at the time. It was used to paddle on voyages from California all the way to the Channel Islands. My previous opinions of these times (without much knowledge) were that they did not travel much, or at all, they mainly just stayed in one location and they traveled by way of foot when they did have to travel. Turns out I couldn’t have been further off. Although the Paleolithic era obviously didn’t have the technology that we have now, but they still made do with what they could to travel, eat, find shelter, etc. Now days we can go to a store to buy things such as food, they had to find other means to do so. They would trade some of the products that they had in order to obtain food, crops, clothing and other essentials. For example they would go into the mountains and bring them things such as fish or beadwork and exchange them for fox skins to be used as blankets. The beads and such types of art were used as a type of currency. The more beads and such that you had accumulated meant that you were wealthier than a person with none or very little.

Chapter two

                A question at the end of the chapter states that “The agricultural revolution provides evidence for progress in human affairs” and then asks if I agree with that statement. To answer that question, I one hundred percent agree with that statement. In the beginning of the agricultural era, the world’s population was close to six million and by the end of the era; it was estimated at 250 million. That is an enormous increase in population, and I would consider that a huge progress in human affairs. The agricultural era produced many essential crops such as teosinte. Teosinte looks nothing like, but is similar to what we now know as corn. I wish that there was a written record of everything that was done during this era so we could truly gauge how advanced they really were for their time.