History 106 – Professor’s Commentaries
Week 1
This class is specifically organized around the principles of human rights and the social contract. How does (& did) civilization serve the needs of people? Following a history from early ideas of universal human needs to modern concepts of human rights, therefore, becomes the unifying theme of this course.
Civilization is supposed to guarantee human prosperity. And, it would seem it has – except for our habit of killing our own kind. We begin with the premise that society should be organized for the benefit of all of those who are members of that society. And, that the social disparities that exist (at least in part) are the result of human actions.
War is now and historically has been one of – if not the – greatest threat to human rights. Today, despite the persistence of separate (and disparate) nation-states and under the questionable influences of trans-national corporations, we see the development of a World Society – a World Civilization. And we see an unceasing increase in both war and the denial or violation of human rights.
If civilization is to promote human well being, then why war? This is what will be the underlying theme for this course. In this historical context, what is the role and responsibility of our social institutions in promoting Human Rights and human well being? Also, what are the reasons for and the effects of war?
Because history is both a discipline of thought and a skill involving research, any other articles from other sources about a weekly topic are also fair game for writing assignments. This means National Geographic, Civilization, or any other natural history/world history source.
Week 2
This Weeks Topic: Origin of civilization – Crack the book. Scan the sections of the book. Look at each land mass - Asia, Africa, Europe, the Americas, & the islands of the Pacific - in the book. Consider the idea of universal human needs. Find out the circumstances that are in common (ie. food, water, shelter, security). Note the differences. Compare the dates. How does geography determine social and cultural developments? At what point do we decide that a group is "civilized?" Develop criteria for defining when a group becomes a civilization. Is it writing? Is it settled farming? Why? What is the importance to today for when and where the book(s) say civilization originated?
How does Gobekli Tepe fit into the common scenarios for the origin of civilization? Compare Gobekli with Catal Huyuk, or to Jericho.
MATRIARCHY as SOCIAL ORGANIZATION - Inanna (Isis, Demeter, Ceres)
When God Was A Woman - Merlin Stone
REVIEW: SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS, ORGANIZATION
GEOGRAPHIC DETERMINISM / DOMESTICATION / SEDENTARY LIFE
VILLAGE LIFE, PRIVATE PROPERTY and the rise of the PATRIARCHY
GOBEKLI TEPE - CATAL HUYUK –
KEMET (EGYPT) – OSIRIS & NARMER/MENES/AHA
SUMER - GILGAMESH - SARGON
MINOANS - SHANG – INDUS -
Week 3
This Week’s Topic: Food and Water. This is key to survival and the first stage of complex Human Ecology. Examine the sections of the text that deal with the successful production of food and the control of water. How did (does) geography determine social organization and food production? What impacts do particular types of food and food production, storage, and distribution have on social organization? In what ways does food become economic? Does the production of food require certain types of social organization? What does food surplus represent to a society? How does food production reflect itself in divisions of labor in a society? What are the connections between food, and the development of social class, gender dominance, and war? Take a look at Caral. Now the Harappan or Indus civilization and the rise of caste systems. And, then, the Shang of ancient China.
Week 4
This Week’s Topic: Cities and early civilization. Compare the complexities of settled life within and between the early civilizations. What are examples of the best aspects of these societies? What are examples of the worst aspects of settled societies? What are the criteria for making such judgments? Show the evidence. Since all the groups meet the criteria of civilization (universals) why are they no longer around? What are factors of stability and instability? What are The Fatal Flaws? Consider social factors like Asabiyah because reasons for the rise and fall of societies will be part of your midterm.
Week 5
This Week’s Topic: Social Organization and the State. In what ways do civilizations change and reorganize to meet new demands? What are the effects of societies in contact? What is an empire? How is colonialism carried out, and what is the impact on social (re) organization? What is a hero? How did warfare fit in with the new social organization?
Week 6
This Week’s Topic: Religion, Philosophy and Human Thought. Fernandez Armesto reveals much about religious thinking. Identify the major religious traditions that the book highlights. Familiarize yourself with their core beliefs and origins. What moral or ethical features do they share? What are differences? How does religion deal with the unexplained/unexplainable aspects of human experience? Compare the social (institutional) nature of the religions. What happens to a spiritual movement when it becomes a (institutionalized) religion? How does spirituality become religion? How does religion become a Church? How does a Church become political? What does Smith text say about religion and war?
The text covers many of the great intellectual traditions of human history. Look for the word "philosophy" in the index (also political science). What distinguishes a philosophy from a religion? Does having an empirical world view preclude having a spiritual world view? Where and why do the lines blur? What role does philosophy play in culture? Examining Fernandez Armesto describe the philosophy and philosophic history of human rights. Evaluate skepticism.
Week 7
This Week’s Topic: Empires and Imperialism. As we see the expansion of societies and civilizations, we see a growth in the complexities of social organization and interrelation. Trade is a big feature of this. However, warfare becomes entrenched in the actions between societies. Warrior heroes give way to standing armies of great empires. Militarism is the glue – war is an institution. Though peace may reign within the Empire, it is often at the expense of (near) constant warfare on the frontiers of empire.
Compare Asoka with Alexander the Great. How did they see war? What were their justifications? How did they motivate and unify peoples? How did empire change the ways people lived?
Week 8
This Week’s Topic: The Barbarian. What is a “barbarian? How did the empires cause the barbarian phenomena? Consider the many ways in which empire(s) and barbarians interacted. What role did war play in the relationships, and how did this barbarian warfare affect and effect civilized empires? Could the barbarians be considered civilized? What happened when barbarians became Christians, or Muslims?
Week 9
This Week’s Topic: The “Great Religions.” What social institutional purposes does religion fulfill? What is moral and ethical behavior and how does religion fit?
All religion offers comfort and explanation in three areas of what is called “The Great Mystery”:
#1, What happens before life (where do we come from and why)?;
#2, Why do things happen the way they do (good things happen to bad people, bad things to good people, etc), in other words why are we here?; and
#3, What is death, and what happens after it? All the “Great Religions” have at the core peace-of-mind if not a doctrine of peace on Earth – at least among the faithful…
Make the effort to genuinely evaluate the Pagan pre and non-Christian religions as compared to the Judeo-Christian-Islamic religions and Buddhism in your book. How do these religions absorb or replace the older ones? What is the Buddhist tradition? What is the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition? Also, how can one person be Taoist, Buddhist, and Confucian – all at the same time? How can one be a Buddhist, a Christian or Muslim and make war?
A student video - the Spread of Islam and another - Spread of Islam
NONE FOR WEEKS 10 & 11
Week 12
This Week’s Topic: Holy Wars Between Empires. We are often reminded in the modern world about the idea of holy war. We are led to believe that this is a new thing – a modern problem. Due to the current perception of the expression “holy war” we blame modern Islam for its origin. However most of this is media misperception and misdirection. Holy war is as old as organized religion. And, well before the modern jihad extremists, there were Christian extremists who conducted their own campaigns of war and terror. Compare and contrast the expansion of Islam (read earlier) with the Crusades. What were the rationalizations and underlying motivations for each? Are there comparisons to be made with the current state of affairs? Is it possible for modern (mostly) Christian nations to enter holy war?
Week 13
This Week’s Topic: The Great Khan. The Mongolian explosion of Genghis Khan and his heirs is considered by some to be the gravest crisis civilization has ever faced. But by others, Genghis Khan is seen as the essential ingredient to the formation of modern civilized institutions. Both may be said if we consider the Great Khan to be un-civilized, and if we presume the West and South were civilized. Was the Mongol expansion, bloodshed, and war a “good thing,” or not? Underlying this is the idea that good can come from war. To we in the modern world, war is sometimes considered a necessity – a good thing – as in the need to defeat Hitler, or Saddam Hussein. Genghis Khan put and end to what he saw as evil. The “Pax Mongolica” – Mongolian imposed peace-through-conquest – ushered in the highest level of trade, intellectual interaction and peace the world had known. Before and since, much of the West and South were in continuous states of war or readiness for war. But, then again, the Mongolian conquest also opened the door to the plague.
Week 14
This Week’s Topic: And, about re-birth (Renaissance) and renewal. What is a “Dark Age?” Why do the Europeans experience a Renaissance, and other societies do not? What are the criteria for calling something a "Renaissance?" Your book has a huge amount of data on various feudalisms through to the European Renaissance. This is a peak period in the formation of the modern world. New ideas about the nature of humanity and society developed. Both modern capitalism and nationalism originated here, as does their offspring - colonial imperialism. Define these terms and evaluate their impacts on the modern world. Look up the book 1421: The Year China Discovered America, by Gavin Menzies. What are some explanations for why Japan or China not "conquer the world?"
FINAL EXAM INSTRUCTIONS: Your Final Exam will require you to hand in all Student Learning Objective / Outcomes sheets (SLO), and to complete a five-page comparative overview of the 5 areas of Discussion we have been examining all semester (Race, Gender, Class, etc.). You may use any-and-all work completed so far to do this final Critique of the time period.
Week 15
Discussion: Final Discussion Topic for next week – Can war and civilization be disentangled?
Final CLASS Discussion Points available Topic: “Can we stop war?” – re-read the final section of the Smith book: “C. How We Stop – Social Re-Organization and Cultural Evolution” on war, genocides, and organized violence. Human history is full of killing. We are unique in our obsessive ability to perfect mass destruction of our own kind. Humankind may be better organized around killing and the wealth it brings than it is organized around human prosperity (human rights). Study the books for war. Explore the relationships between civilization and war. It may well be that war only exists because civilization – social organization and division of labor – allows it to exist. Why do we have such a historic lack of peace? Why do we have so many "great warriors" in the book? What is the role of wealth and power in the history of human conflict? What are the relationships that you perceive between war, wealth, and human rights? In what ways is society and social organization focused on militarism? What does this do to human rights?
Examine how many of today’s problems are rooted in the past. What conditions make it seem that “history repeats itself” in tragedy and triumph? Is the point of civilization to care for the many – or the few?
This class is specifically organized around the principles of human rights and the social contract. How does (& did) civilization serve the needs of people? Following a history from early ideas of universal human needs to modern concepts of human rights, therefore, becomes the unifying theme of this course.
Civilization is supposed to guarantee human prosperity. And, it would seem it has – except for our habit of killing our own kind. We begin with the premise that society should be organized for the benefit of all of those who are members of that society. And, that the social disparities that exist (at least in part) are the result of human actions.
War is now and historically has been one of – if not the – greatest threat to human rights. Today, despite the persistence of separate (and disparate) nation-states and under the questionable influences of trans-national corporations, we see the development of a World Society – a World Civilization. And we see an unceasing increase in both war and the denial or violation of human rights.
If civilization is to promote human well being, then why war? This is what will be the underlying theme for this course. In this historical context, what is the role and responsibility of our social institutions in promoting Human Rights and human well being? Also, what are the reasons for and the effects of war?
Because history is both a discipline of thought and a skill involving research, any other articles from other sources about a weekly topic are also fair game for writing assignments. This means National Geographic, Civilization, or any other natural history/world history source.
Week 2
This Weeks Topic: Origin of civilization – Crack the book. Scan the sections of the book. Look at each land mass - Asia, Africa, Europe, the Americas, & the islands of the Pacific - in the book. Consider the idea of universal human needs. Find out the circumstances that are in common (ie. food, water, shelter, security). Note the differences. Compare the dates. How does geography determine social and cultural developments? At what point do we decide that a group is "civilized?" Develop criteria for defining when a group becomes a civilization. Is it writing? Is it settled farming? Why? What is the importance to today for when and where the book(s) say civilization originated?
How does Gobekli Tepe fit into the common scenarios for the origin of civilization? Compare Gobekli with Catal Huyuk, or to Jericho.
MATRIARCHY as SOCIAL ORGANIZATION - Inanna (Isis, Demeter, Ceres)
When God Was A Woman - Merlin Stone
REVIEW: SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS, ORGANIZATION
GEOGRAPHIC DETERMINISM / DOMESTICATION / SEDENTARY LIFE
VILLAGE LIFE, PRIVATE PROPERTY and the rise of the PATRIARCHY
GOBEKLI TEPE - CATAL HUYUK –
KEMET (EGYPT) – OSIRIS & NARMER/MENES/AHA
SUMER - GILGAMESH - SARGON
MINOANS - SHANG – INDUS -
Week 3
This Week’s Topic: Food and Water. This is key to survival and the first stage of complex Human Ecology. Examine the sections of the text that deal with the successful production of food and the control of water. How did (does) geography determine social organization and food production? What impacts do particular types of food and food production, storage, and distribution have on social organization? In what ways does food become economic? Does the production of food require certain types of social organization? What does food surplus represent to a society? How does food production reflect itself in divisions of labor in a society? What are the connections between food, and the development of social class, gender dominance, and war? Take a look at Caral. Now the Harappan or Indus civilization and the rise of caste systems. And, then, the Shang of ancient China.
Week 4
This Week’s Topic: Cities and early civilization. Compare the complexities of settled life within and between the early civilizations. What are examples of the best aspects of these societies? What are examples of the worst aspects of settled societies? What are the criteria for making such judgments? Show the evidence. Since all the groups meet the criteria of civilization (universals) why are they no longer around? What are factors of stability and instability? What are The Fatal Flaws? Consider social factors like Asabiyah because reasons for the rise and fall of societies will be part of your midterm.
Week 5
This Week’s Topic: Social Organization and the State. In what ways do civilizations change and reorganize to meet new demands? What are the effects of societies in contact? What is an empire? How is colonialism carried out, and what is the impact on social (re) organization? What is a hero? How did warfare fit in with the new social organization?
Week 6
This Week’s Topic: Religion, Philosophy and Human Thought. Fernandez Armesto reveals much about religious thinking. Identify the major religious traditions that the book highlights. Familiarize yourself with their core beliefs and origins. What moral or ethical features do they share? What are differences? How does religion deal with the unexplained/unexplainable aspects of human experience? Compare the social (institutional) nature of the religions. What happens to a spiritual movement when it becomes a (institutionalized) religion? How does spirituality become religion? How does religion become a Church? How does a Church become political? What does Smith text say about religion and war?
The text covers many of the great intellectual traditions of human history. Look for the word "philosophy" in the index (also political science). What distinguishes a philosophy from a religion? Does having an empirical world view preclude having a spiritual world view? Where and why do the lines blur? What role does philosophy play in culture? Examining Fernandez Armesto describe the philosophy and philosophic history of human rights. Evaluate skepticism.
Week 7
This Week’s Topic: Empires and Imperialism. As we see the expansion of societies and civilizations, we see a growth in the complexities of social organization and interrelation. Trade is a big feature of this. However, warfare becomes entrenched in the actions between societies. Warrior heroes give way to standing armies of great empires. Militarism is the glue – war is an institution. Though peace may reign within the Empire, it is often at the expense of (near) constant warfare on the frontiers of empire.
Compare Asoka with Alexander the Great. How did they see war? What were their justifications? How did they motivate and unify peoples? How did empire change the ways people lived?
Week 8
This Week’s Topic: The Barbarian. What is a “barbarian? How did the empires cause the barbarian phenomena? Consider the many ways in which empire(s) and barbarians interacted. What role did war play in the relationships, and how did this barbarian warfare affect and effect civilized empires? Could the barbarians be considered civilized? What happened when barbarians became Christians, or Muslims?
Week 9
This Week’s Topic: The “Great Religions.” What social institutional purposes does religion fulfill? What is moral and ethical behavior and how does religion fit?
All religion offers comfort and explanation in three areas of what is called “The Great Mystery”:
#1, What happens before life (where do we come from and why)?;
#2, Why do things happen the way they do (good things happen to bad people, bad things to good people, etc), in other words why are we here?; and
#3, What is death, and what happens after it? All the “Great Religions” have at the core peace-of-mind if not a doctrine of peace on Earth – at least among the faithful…
Make the effort to genuinely evaluate the Pagan pre and non-Christian religions as compared to the Judeo-Christian-Islamic religions and Buddhism in your book. How do these religions absorb or replace the older ones? What is the Buddhist tradition? What is the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition? Also, how can one person be Taoist, Buddhist, and Confucian – all at the same time? How can one be a Buddhist, a Christian or Muslim and make war?
A student video - the Spread of Islam and another - Spread of Islam
NONE FOR WEEKS 10 & 11
Week 12
This Week’s Topic: Holy Wars Between Empires. We are often reminded in the modern world about the idea of holy war. We are led to believe that this is a new thing – a modern problem. Due to the current perception of the expression “holy war” we blame modern Islam for its origin. However most of this is media misperception and misdirection. Holy war is as old as organized religion. And, well before the modern jihad extremists, there were Christian extremists who conducted their own campaigns of war and terror. Compare and contrast the expansion of Islam (read earlier) with the Crusades. What were the rationalizations and underlying motivations for each? Are there comparisons to be made with the current state of affairs? Is it possible for modern (mostly) Christian nations to enter holy war?
Week 13
This Week’s Topic: The Great Khan. The Mongolian explosion of Genghis Khan and his heirs is considered by some to be the gravest crisis civilization has ever faced. But by others, Genghis Khan is seen as the essential ingredient to the formation of modern civilized institutions. Both may be said if we consider the Great Khan to be un-civilized, and if we presume the West and South were civilized. Was the Mongol expansion, bloodshed, and war a “good thing,” or not? Underlying this is the idea that good can come from war. To we in the modern world, war is sometimes considered a necessity – a good thing – as in the need to defeat Hitler, or Saddam Hussein. Genghis Khan put and end to what he saw as evil. The “Pax Mongolica” – Mongolian imposed peace-through-conquest – ushered in the highest level of trade, intellectual interaction and peace the world had known. Before and since, much of the West and South were in continuous states of war or readiness for war. But, then again, the Mongolian conquest also opened the door to the plague.
Week 14
This Week’s Topic: And, about re-birth (Renaissance) and renewal. What is a “Dark Age?” Why do the Europeans experience a Renaissance, and other societies do not? What are the criteria for calling something a "Renaissance?" Your book has a huge amount of data on various feudalisms through to the European Renaissance. This is a peak period in the formation of the modern world. New ideas about the nature of humanity and society developed. Both modern capitalism and nationalism originated here, as does their offspring - colonial imperialism. Define these terms and evaluate their impacts on the modern world. Look up the book 1421: The Year China Discovered America, by Gavin Menzies. What are some explanations for why Japan or China not "conquer the world?"
FINAL EXAM INSTRUCTIONS: Your Final Exam will require you to hand in all Student Learning Objective / Outcomes sheets (SLO), and to complete a five-page comparative overview of the 5 areas of Discussion we have been examining all semester (Race, Gender, Class, etc.). You may use any-and-all work completed so far to do this final Critique of the time period.
Week 15
Discussion: Final Discussion Topic for next week – Can war and civilization be disentangled?
Final CLASS Discussion Points available Topic: “Can we stop war?” – re-read the final section of the Smith book: “C. How We Stop – Social Re-Organization and Cultural Evolution” on war, genocides, and organized violence. Human history is full of killing. We are unique in our obsessive ability to perfect mass destruction of our own kind. Humankind may be better organized around killing and the wealth it brings than it is organized around human prosperity (human rights). Study the books for war. Explore the relationships between civilization and war. It may well be that war only exists because civilization – social organization and division of labor – allows it to exist. Why do we have such a historic lack of peace? Why do we have so many "great warriors" in the book? What is the role of wealth and power in the history of human conflict? What are the relationships that you perceive between war, wealth, and human rights? In what ways is society and social organization focused on militarism? What does this do to human rights?
Examine how many of today’s problems are rooted in the past. What conditions make it seem that “history repeats itself” in tragedy and triumph? Is the point of civilization to care for the many – or the few?