Chapter 1 & 2 Journal Commentary

I have never been much of a history enthusiast.  I always wanted to be but had a difficult time organizing all of the information.  In the end, everything was intermingled and nothing made any sense.  Now that I am much older, things seem to fall into place with a bit more ease than in my younger years.  I can actually retain information now for my own knowledge and not just for an exam.  I appreciate my current learning experiences in a much more enriching way.

One thing that seems to pique my interest, according to the textbook reading, was that the first homo sapiens came to originate in Africa.  Catholic Theology is a passion of mine and so right away, I connected this information with the story of Creation and the Garden of Eden.  I wanted to find the connection from the Scripture passage of the whereabouts of the Garden of Eden and the textbook reference to Africa to see if a correlation could be made.

In Genesis 2:  10-14, the following is stated:

A river rises in Eden to water the garden; beyond there it divides and becomes four branches.  The name of the first is the Pishon; it is the one that winds through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.  The gold of that land is excellent; bdellium and lapis lazuli are also there.  The name of the second river is the Gihon; it is the one that winds all through the land of Cush.  The name of the third river is the Tigris; it is the one that flows east of Asshur.  The fourth river is the Euphrates.

Well, Mesopotamia literally means "between two rivers," so this area is located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which is modern-day Iraq.  However, "the land of Cush" corresponds to a region in the middle of Africa.  So while scholars tend to lean more towards the location of the Garden being in Iraq, there is no definitive answer.  Africa is definitely a possibility.

As my reading progressed, I became to realize just how simply the first humans lived.  Imagining that they hunted what they needed for that day's meal and that was it.  Then they spent the rest of the time with their families or communities, which were small groups.  When the agricultural era came to be, that's when things changed.  I don't know if it was necessarily for the better.  I'm a bit torn on this one.  Yes, crops could be grown to feed larger groups of humans, so populations increased.  With this innovation, the life expectancy also increased to reach beyond the 35 years of age life span.  While this is great news, I feel that the environment suffered immensely for these accomplishments. Animals went into extinction since people seemed to stay in one place and hunted more often versus the nomadic peoples that had to travel often in search of an adequate food supply. This gave the environment time to replenish itself.  The plants native to certain areas also became extinct for the same reasons mentioned.  So while God gave Adam dominion over the animals and gave him the role as steward in caring for the Garden as it was, we are also to use what is given to us and not waste hastily.  Only use what we need in order to live and no more. We are to take care of this planet as our home and not waste the resources that are available to us here.  

It was also interesting to see the progression of human advancement.  The changes didn't occur very quickly at first, but when they came, they seemed to push through like a blazing hurricane.  The humans that couldn't keep up with the changes were forced into extinction.  Definitely survival of the fittest holds true in this case.  How humans first solved their problems on their own, to then appointing someone to take care of matters.  Men and women held different roles yet each role was just as important as their counterparts. Then eventually, positions of power being created where inequality among their own peoples was born. 

Different species of humans went into extinction during this Paleolithic time period as soon as more inventions were introduced into the world.  Just like nature's global warming caused the extinction of many different species, our man-made global warming of today will most likely take us down this same path.  I begin to wonder just how long it will be until this time passes away and a new era begins.