Chapter 1: Out of Africa & The Ways We Were

Regardless of how many times that I hear or learn about it, the beginning of human civilization will always remain incredible to me. Homo sapiens, stemming from Africa, were able to overcome difficult challenges that the huge and undiscovered world held. They survived the Ice Age and traveled from continent to continent via land bridges that the melting glaciers had created.We worry about what we will do after we graduate college and these nomads had to worry about day to day survival.
Early human societies were very small and nearly everyone had the same set of skills. Obviously, men were more typically hunters and women were more typically gatherers, however, there were no "specialists" of any kind of particular trade. One could say that things were more free, equal, fair. In fact, a study showed that plants gathered by women made up 70% of the diet while meat hunted by the men made up about 30%. Imagine that-a society where the female is the one who is looked to bring home the bacon. While today, we have made huge strides in beaming a more equal society, there are still many stereotypes that apply. Overall, the male is the one still looked upon to bring home the food and the money. Seeing that they do continue to make more money annually than women.
It's interesting because the earlier human societies lived such simple lives. There are so many distractions and materialistic values and intentions today. Reading about how things once were causes reflection of how much we have changed. And it brings about curiosity about the future. How much will change?