CH 1 (First Peoples)

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The beginning of the book starts with the Cosmic Era, which explains the Big Bang and all the up way up until the evolution of homo sapiens in the Paleolithic Era. After the big bang, slowly but surely our planet, the super organism Earth formed, in the Gaiac Era 4.5 BYA. This was eventually followed by more organisms, and then finally homo sapiens. In this 13.7 billion year process, humans have only been around for 200-250,000 years. Humans first evolved in Africa, where they remained happily for around 150,000 years. Around 60,000 years ago they began to migrate to Eurasia, Australia, and the Americas. During the ice age, around 20,000 years ago people migrated to warmer areas to survive. They lived in bands of people, around 20-25. Men and women were relatively equal, especially compared to later years. However, work was still divided, with men being hunters, and women being primarily the gatherers. Paleo people are now referred to as gatherer-hunters, as they gathered more food than they hunted.

From reading the beginning of this book, I was quite excited it started all the way back to the Cosmic Era. Most history books I have encountered start at the beginning of humanity, however, this really isn't the beginning of history. Understanding this galaxy, the stars, our planet, and the organisms, as well as other types of homos, is crucial to understanding how we as a species survived.

Cosmic Era -->  Paleolithic Era --> Neolithic Era --> Ancient Era --> Classical Era --> Modern Era

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