This Fleeting World Summary

We are only a brief second in the long history of the universe; many things have preceded us to make us the most complex creatures that ever walked the Earth. We are a “new level of complexity” which makes us different from all other creatures that have come before us. Our species has only been around for 250,000 years, a short time compared to the formation of the Earth at 4.5 billion years ago and the creation of the Universe at 13.7 billion years ago, but the time we have had on this Earth has greatly affected the outcome of history. In an attempt to provide an overview of human history in his book This Fleeting World, David Christian introduces it in the context of the history of the universe and then systematically breaks it down

The emergence of agriculture was a major stepping stone in human history. During this birth of agriculture, also known as the Neolithic revolution, humans began inhabiting permanent settlements, grow their own crops, and domesticate both plants and animals for food (Weisdorf, 2005). Considering humans have been hunter-gatherers for the majority of their approximately 7 million years of existence, the emergence of agriculture in the Old World only occurring 10,000-5,000 years ago, marks a significant transformation in food sustenance techniques (Weisdorf, 2005). However, this turning point in history is associated with both positive and negative implications. There is much controversy over whether or not the introduction of

The main idea of Howell’s arguments about the Neolithic Revolution is that the adoption of agriculture is beneficial because hunting life makes nature in control of humans. Nature controls the limit on animals and plants. When it reaches its limit in a given place, humans are forced to move to survive. Nature requires humans to spread themselves out across the land and limit the number of people they band themselves with to not use all the natural resources in short amount of time. Moreover, the limited resources cause groups to kill off the young, sick, and elderly to lower the amount of humans exploiting the land. As a result of isolation amongst each other, humans rarely become civilized or social and the sexual division of labour does not change. As a result of agriculture, food is domesticated and grown rather than gathered. Also, humans are able to create civilizations with hundreds of people.

The Neolithic Revolution took place from around 10,000 B.C.E. to 4000 B.C.E. and was thought to be one of the largest transformations in human culture. The transition in lifestyle centered around the shift from a life of hunting and gathering as the main source of food to a life of agriculture through the cultivation and breeding of animals, plants, and fungi as the main source of food. The planting and growing of crops allowed for a dependable and steady source of food and income for many individuals in several parts of the world. This transition was known as the Agricultural Revolution, a movement enabling more people to put a halt to their nomadic ways and settle in one location. This revolution is so important to the evolution of human

In This Fleeting World: A Short History of Humanity, the author, David Christian, offers the reader an elaborate perspective on world history in a concise book. In this book, he uses a unique form of periodization, so he’s able to categorize world history into three major eras along with subordinate eras. An example of his periodization is a chart “Three Major Eras of World History,” which is displayed on page 103. This Fleeting World: A Short History of Humanity mainly focuses on the changes and progress of communities in between each era. To illustrate, a piece of progress in the agrarian era is the creation of irrigation, “techniques of water management” which is a part of the accelerated technological innovation in agriculture. Irrigation

The Year 1000 by Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger offers a delightful, often astonishing portrait of everyday life in Anglo-Saxon England in the year 1000. This very informative book, describes what life was like that the turn of the first millennium. The Anglo-Saxons, a practical, self-contained, fervently superstitious people, were 99% illiterate, yet their language would become their most widespread legacy. Compared to modern day times, people are almost the opposite from the Anglo-Saxons. There are many qualities that are the same, but also different when comparing the Year 1000 to the modern era of the 21st century. Within this paper, it will discuss about how the community, lifestyle, advances in technology, politics, and religion were formed in the Year 1000. It will also compare and constrast the Year 1000 to the Paleolithic and Neolithic era.

Political, economic, and social conditions have often led to turning points that have changed the course of history for nations and people. The Paleolithic Era and Neolithic Revolution was a turning point that changed the orbit of history for mankind. In Documents 1, 2, and 4, they explain life before the Neolithic Revolution and what changed during the period and provide an analysis of results of the revolution. They introduce food supply and settlement, and civilization and trade.

Prior to living in homes build to with stand the test of time, growing food their food source, and raising animals, humans were nomads who followed their food source around and were hunters and gathers. Although it took many years, from 8000B.C. to 3000B.C. for humans to go from hunters and gathers to a more common day life as we now know it, the result is referred to as the Neolithic Revolution the begins of human civilization. As the people of this time began to settle down and they began to both farm the land and domesticate animals for the better of the community. Along with the development of these communities as for the first time began to create social class among the many different roles they played in their community. Because

Over 10,000 years ago humans’ lives were spent hunting and gathering just to survive. That all changed when some humans figured out how to capture animals and plant wild seeds so that they could control their food supply. This change in how people lived is known as the Neolithic Revolution and it ultimately led to the beginnings of civilization. The Neolithic Revolution is considered a turning point in human history because it led to permanent settlements, improvements in technology and the development of social classes and job specialization.

My first mention is the Neolithic Revolution. Prior to the Neolithic Revolution, humans lived in an age called the Paleolithic Age. In this time, humans were nomadic hunter and gatherers. They did not make permeant settlements and lived on the go, following animal migrations and vegetation cycles. It wasn’t until after the end of the last ice age around 10,000 B.C. when humans changed from hunter and gatherer nomads to learning how to grow their own crops and settling down into locations and settlements with other peoples. This was a big change for humans moving forward. Humans could now participate in trade with others and instead of being on the go all the time, they now had a chance to settle down and build shelter and participate in things that they couldn’t prior. This change in human ways also gave rise to what is patriarchy. As the book says, “Men assumed the responsibility for working in the fields and herding animals, jobs that kept them away from the home” while the women took on the roles of “caring for the children, weaving cloth, and

In This Fleeting World, a nonfiction novel by David Christian, the ability to create, destroy, communicate, travel, and farm have all changed greatly over time, while the trends of life expectancies, equal rights, and competition have stayed the same.

In this time frame there was a substantial amount of change in society. Some of the advancements and achievements they made during this time were the use of polished stone tools. One advantage they had was the vessel and the grind stone, which were used to grind the grains. Eventually they start making pottery, growing their own crops and raising animals. All of this leads up to the revolution of agriculture. Some of the factors that play into this was the discovery of seeds scattering and growing into crops. Also the rise in temperatures, the warmer it got the more the crops grew. Another factor was that the supply of grain was humongous. In can be noted that during this time, the more food that was being harvested, the more people starting reproducing. Farming became a steady source for food, and this was a huge impact for them. Some of the major crops were bananas, corn, cotton. This made it easier for them to make clothes, instead of using animal hide. The domestication of animals also became another consistent source of food for them. The use of slash and burn farming was another huge impact on society. This was when farmers clear the land and burned the debris, and the ash was used to fertilize the soil and then planted the crops on the land that was cleared

C. Looking into the past [Book] / auth. Michelle Friedman Christopher Saunders, Mzamo Jacobs, Yonah Seleti, Judith Gordon. - [s.l.] : Maskew Miller Longman, 2006.

The Human Past Chapter 6 Trevor Watkins, Chapter 9 David L. Browman, Gayle J. Fritz, Patty jo Watson. David j Meltzer 2005 2009 Thames and Hudson Limited

According to Taylor (1995), there are two main perspectives that can be applied to understand the rise of modernity. The first one is the difference between civilisations, and the second one is the demise of a “traditional” society and the rise of the “modern”. Taylor distinguished the former as “cultural” and the latter as “acultural”.