From Prehistory to Civilization- January 31, 2014

During the prehistoric era many things occurred that changed our future forever. Prehistory was the time before history was recorded through written documents. Language, religion, art, technology, farming, family life, and village communities originated in the prehistoric era. There was an era during prehistory called The Paleolithic Age which was the earliest and longest period of prehistory where humans were making simple tools. The other era during prehistory was called the Neolithic Age. This was when humans advanced in tool making and agriculture became popular. Anyway, most people during prehistory were wandering hunters or gatherers. By most people, I mean men. Women back in prehistoric times were supposed to take care of the children. Though during this time there weren’t many children or a big supply of food so the women had to breast feed the children that were there. The Agricultural Revolution was a transformation from hunting and gathering to a more settled way of life. They would farm and herd animals. Also, around 6000 B.C. agricultural villages became to appear for people to live in. As these people started to be civilized and lived properly and could survive safely, it spread. Soon, civilizations appeared and people were spreading and living. 

January 30, 2014- Western Civ

Today in West Civ class we had a lockdown. We found out where we would go in case an intruder comes into the building. Other than that we went over what we did in the last class which was the notes we took. Phil and Jevan taught the class for a while when we were reviewing notes, which was pretty funny. We took new notes today which were still based on the city, Sumer. We learned what a Pantheon was, which is the highest peak of something. So a Pantheon of Sumerian Gods (Example: God of Fire) emerged and Ziggurats were made. Ziggurats were Sumerian Temples built on top of mountains on earth. They were built on “mountains” to symbolize the people’s beliefs and make them bigger. We also learned about Hammurabi’s Laws, made by King Hammurabi of Babylon which were made to contain the estimated 40,000 people in towns. The three that really stuck out to me were rule number 141, 195, and 210. The reason why they jumped out at me were because they showed me that back in that time men were so superior to everyone else. Once someone did something wrong or wrong to a man, they were either killed or had one of their body parts cut off. Also, one of the rules stated that if a woman died, her daughter had to be killed. Men really were Hierarchies. 

January 28th 2014 - Western Civ Class

Today in Western Civ we got our books for the semester class and started to take notes. We took notes on what Western Civilization was or what the western world was. We also took notes on how people didn’t or did survive due to the lack of knowledge whether or not there would be food to eat or clothes to wear every day. We took notes on the earlier cities as well. We talked about what Hierarchies were and how they came into town villages. Hierarchies are people who are superior to other people. For example a type of Hierarchy would be a hunter because he would bring food back to the village for people to eat which in those days was a miracle because they needed food. We talked about Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent. We also discussed how women back in those days didn’t hunt and were expected to breast feed the children and such. Women couldn’t hunt because they weren’t as strong as men, so they stayed back and took care of the children. 

Second Class of Western Civ

Today in our second class of Western Civ we discussed the movie we watched yesterday; “Girl Rising.”  We talked about the different girls in the video and their stories. We discussed how we would feel if we were in their situation as well. We compared our situations here in the U.S. and their situations in the different countries. We also discussed how men are “superior” to women and how they get all the advantages and how the women get disadvantages. Such as when women weren’t allowed to vote and men were. Mr. Schick told us a story about when he was younger and his orthodontist ran for mayor. The point of the story was to inform us that every single vote does count whether our person wins or doesn’t. Women should be able to voice their opinion. So when you have all women voting, it makes a difference.  Overall, the class today was based on women’s rights and the movie we watched yesterday. We learned about real life experiences in the movie and I think we all realized how thankful we should be for the things we have. 

First Class of the New Semester

Today in our first class of Western Civilization we went over what we will do for this class during the second semester. For us new people we learned we do blog posts every night. At first I was a little surprised because I thought it would be hard, but people tell me it isn’t anything to worry about as it is fun to do the blogs every night. We also learned we need a notebook for this class as well. It seems this class will be fun, and from what I hear Mr. Schick is a great teacher. Also today we learned how to set up our blog. We also had to send our link into Mr. Schick that way he can read our blog posts. It seems that this class is organized and that it will be interesting and fun. There aren’t too many people in our class, so it seems that this semester won’t be as crazy.