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For 8/31 and 9/2 |
Assignment 0
Early Humans and Europe
Handy man, Erect man, Wise man,
and Double-wise man.
["Man" being used in a collective sense.]
Does brain-case size alone
explain why we call ourselves "Double-Wise Men" or is it vanity?
This is the standard format for my assignment pages.
The readings are given and then a description for the suggested essay. Additional or optional readings are also given in the bibliographical section. I may also put in some other material in this sight such as maps, short essay-ettes, or links to other things of interest. It is your job to look over these assignment pages fully.
For Wednesday: Be prepared for a
quiz on these readings, including the Class Policies.
Ask me
for the password for the PDF readings if you don't know it. Here's my email for this class: HHS123F09@mifami.org
Email me and tell me if you had any
problems making this page and its links work. This email will also serve as a way for me to contact you,
so try to email me from an account that you check.
Read
-Read
the Class
Policies.
-Diamond's
"The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race" found here: Diamond_Worst_Human_Mistake.pdf
-Read
pp. 64-83 in Davies [start at "Danubius" and read up to "The
Iron Age brings..." This is
the required text, but I'm posting a PDF of this assignment for those who
haven't gotten it yet. Davies-Europe-intro-ch1-120dpi-13.5MB.pdf
[This may take a while to download.]
-NYTimes
article: "Early
Humans Used Heat-Treated Stone for Tools". Read the short article. If you want, listen to the podcast that is linked to this
story. Feel free to skip the first
part of the podcast on drugs that mimic caloric restricted drugs and a few
headline stories and go to the tool making part. The tool section is the last 5 minutes of this audio
podcast.
Essay: There is no essay for this
week. Normally I'll give some
details on the essay assignment here.
Next week's essay will incorporate this week's readings as well.
Citations to the assigned readings other
materials.
Davies, Norman. Europe : A
History. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. [Your copy may
have a different date. Use the
date from your copy when you cite this in an essay.]
Diamond, Jared. "The Worst
Mistake in the History of the Human Race." Discover, May 1987, pp. 64-66. [Diamond_Worst_Human_Mistake.pdf]
Fountain, Henry. "Early
Humans Used Heat to Shape Their Tools." New York Times, August 13/18 2009.
Maps of Europe- these can be downloaded and magnified for better viewing.
With west up, the European region can be better appreciated as a coherent land mass and is more easily seen as a peninsula of sorts.
Take note of the Balkan Peninsula, the Trans-Caucasus, the Danube River, the Volga River, and the various bodies of water.
This orientation (literally east directed, orient-ation. From the verb, orior, in Latin for to rise, meaning rising of the sun, which happens in the ...)
The Western European border is pretty easily to define, it's the Atlantic Ocean. The Northern and Southern borders are also pretty obvious, but the Eastern boundary is a problem. Basically the question is, "Where does Europe end and Asia start?" Should we try to find a nice clean boundary like a river or a mountain range, or get all fancy with plate tectonics, or should we look at things like language and culture or even genetics? Does it make sense that a Western boundary can move depending on time?
These maps are all from Davies, our textbook.
eLibrary [This link is provided in
case the direct links are inoperable.]
Back to
Syllabus
[EuroHist-HHS123-F09]
Me
– HHS123F09@mifami.org