Reaction#1 Ch.1 & 2

Chapter 1- First Peoples

After reading chapters 1 and 2 from the Ways of the World, I can say that it made me feel very good to read about how much humanity has evolved over the years. Paleolithic years were very different. Humans had no tools for hunting and they struggled a lot to survive. The human population was very small but started to grow as they moved to other areas and began to interact with other humans. The story of Ishi made me feel sad because he was the last person of his people, the Yahi, and he was left alone. The role of women was important during this time. The work they did was sometimes equal as that of the men. They were not just responsible for the children and the cooking; they also went out and hunted like the men.

Chapter 2-First Civilizations

In this chapter, I learned about how gender roles were seen as different for the men and the women. The men were viewed as superior and more powerful than the women. The women were seen as inferior and “their roles both reproductive and productive took place in the home” (Strayer p73). Early writings were different for people from different regions. Most of the writing systems were “logophonetic.” In general, chapter 2 talks about how civilization began and I find it very interesting.