Journal Reflection 1

I have not taken a History course in maybe 5 or so years and even then it was US history. The last time I studied world history was in High School. This course is definitely going to be somewhat of a challenge but a great way to refresh my memory! Like most classes in the beginning  reading the syllabus was very overwhelming. I really did not know what to expect - I do like how the class seems like it will be more hands on then most classes I've taken in the past two years.
The first three chapters were interesting because I don't know very much about early world history. 
Chapter 1 (The Paleolitic era)  focused on the beginning of the "Homo Sapien" which is the and how they emerged over 200,000 years ago. It was interesting to read about how the Hazda of Tanzania are one of the last "gathering and hunting" societies on earth and how they are likely to vanish sometime in the near future. It is crazy to me that when that happens it will mark the end of what was "Universal human existence." Strayer talks about how it is wrong to ignore the first 200,000 years of human existence, I would have to agree. In some ways I feel I am one of these individuals who have chosen to "ignore" the first 200,000 years. I hope to change this because this is how we came to be today. Strayer tells us in chapter one how much archaeology tells us about the people who lived back then. He also explains to us how they settled and created our first human societies.
Chapter 2 talks about what we call the Neolithic era also known as the "Agricultural revolution." I have family who are farmers in England and this chapter reminds me of how important agricultural really is to our society. It is sad to me that only 5 percent of Americans still live on farms, and these statistics are from 12 years ago, makes me wonder what it would be now in 2012.
In Chapter 3 Strayer talks about "The Emergence of Civilizations" Strayer tells us how civilization came to be and how it was a global phenomenon. The chapter talks about the 6 major civilizations and explains how our civilization got here today. I found this chapter pretty interesting because it touches on many of societies issues that we have today, such as gender equality. It is interesting to learn that back then women were more or less equal to men. Chapter 3 gave great insight to what more is to learn in this class.