Western Civilization Blog

Today in class we continued to write notes. We went over the powerpoint and had interesting discussions about the gods of ancient egypt. Mummification sounds gross but I am intrigued, there is a video apparently. The way of the Ancient Egyptians sounds really nice and simple, there was no one to oppose the pharaoh, it all relies on the crops and the weather. There's no one to start a riot or try to impeach the pharaoh. They all put their full trust in him or her. Sounds nice. Thanks Mr. Schick.

Today we took the quiz. We had 10 minutes to review in the beginning of class which was useful as I didn't study. We took the quiz and it was relatively easy. After the quiz we took notes on the pyramids of mesopotamia.

Today in class was fun. Mr. Schick assisted us in reviewing for the test and it was not boring. Thank you for that Mr. Schick.

Today I realized I do not know what I'm talking about. I definitely need to study for this quiz coming up (it's a big one). I actually do now know most of the vocab since we reviewed it and I'll be fine for the quiz but when I got called on I did not know the answer. I'll work on it.

Today in class we took short notes. We also discussed about Hammurabi's code. We read lots of laws and talked about them. I think walking around in ancient Sumer there would be a lot of people missing limbs. This is actually pretty interesting and I think it would be cool to live back then. The rules are so specific about certain things so obviously this stuff has actually happened before.

5. Hammurabi's code covered mostly punishments. He seemed like he wanted to have a fair set of rules. The only thing that seemed unfair is that the punishment varies based on your rank in society.

1. Fertile Crescent: The regions curved shape and the richness of its land - faces the red sea. Mesopotamia: Land in the middle - east framed by the Tigris and Euphrates river. City-State: Area that functions similarly to how an independent country does today. Dynasty: Hereditary rulers of a country. Cultural Diffusion: The spread of culture from one area to another. Polytheism: Belief in multiple gods. Empire: Multiple states or countries under one government rule. Hammurabi: Ruled Babylon which peaked at his rule. 3. Disadvantages of the Sumerians in the Fertile Crescent are: unpredictable flooding/ period of drought, no natural barriers for protection, scarce amount of natural resources & building material.

In human geo we watched COLLEGE jeopardy instead of teen. I found it more interesting.

Today in human geo we watched teens do jeopardy and played along. It was quite fun, since we finished our last chapter of human geo (r.i.p). Thanks Mr. Schick!!!

We took the test. It was everything we covered in the video and nothing I haven't seen before so I hope I did alright or else I'm ending the quarter with a B. Thanks Mr. Schick.

The rest of the notes from the video and review notes - same latitude = similar climate - crops of fertile crescent fed everyone - crops & animals taken from fertile crescent to the new world - 100,000,000 cows in america - geography - the answers Yali's question - PLANT DOMESTICATION ended hunter & gather era - New Guinea - Christian Cargo: the stuff you own

Karlee Hartman and I went to the pow wow I cannot figure out how to flip it

We watched guns, germs, and steel again. - Animal Domestication: useful for meat, milk, clothes, fertilization - goats and sheep were the first to be domesticated - useful with the plough - grow more food and feed more people - pigs not as useful as goats, sheep, pigs, cows, horses, donkeys, bactrian camels, arabian camels, water buffalo, llamas, reindeer, yaks, mithans, bali cattle - none from New Guinea, all from Asia and Europe, one from South America (llamas) Technology

Today in class we continued to watch guns germs and steel. After class I had a very cool conversation with Mr. Schick which made me consider some things about certain topic, (if that even makes sense). China makes rice, Middle east makes barley and wheat, America - corn, squash and beans, Africa- sorghum, yams, millet, - GEOGRAPHIC LUCK DETERMINES HOW SUCCESSFUL A NATION IS

Today we continued watching guns, germs, and steel - great civilization = advanced technology, large population, well organized work force - prehistory: the time before things were written down (13,000 years ago hunter-gatherers existed) - Papua New Guinea one of the only places with hunter-gatherers - Sago: tree that they eat from (make a dough that they can cook) - 70lbs per tree - super high in starch not much protein - barley & wheat much better for you than sage - draa - archaeologist Ian Kite found oldest known human settlement Jordan Valley River Dead Sea  - They were the first farmers 11,500 years ago - created world's first granary (grain storage place) - domestication: the way things are changed by human interaction

Today in Human Geo we discussed the fact that we will be watching a video called "Guns, Germs and Steel" and then having a 100 point test on it. We started watching it and took notes: - goal to understand roots of global inequality -won lots of awards - quest began in Papua New Guinea - Jared Diamond is a UCLA college professor who started as a biologist - his real passion was studying birds (thats what brought him to New Guinea) - Yali asked him: Why do you white men have so much cargo and us New Guineans so little? - That question started Jared Diamonds quest. - Colonials believe power is determined by race - white people genetically superior (basically the first white supremacists)