Ch.6

After reading chapter six, a few of the main points the author talked about that interested me was on: Continental Comparisons, Civilizations of Africa and the city of Meroe. In the section of Continental Comparisons the author explained that the three super-continents were Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas. Even though the second-wave era is known as the turning point for the Agricultural Revolution, gathering and hunting still remained as the sole basis for sustaining life and its society. Also, during the second-wave era Eurasia (not Africa) held more than 80% of the world's people, Africa came in second at about 11%, and the Americas between 5 and 7 percent. In the section Civilizations of Africa, the author talked about how Africa was the most tropical compared to the other two super-continents and because of this the climatic conditions brought numerous disease-carrying insects and parasites. Lastly, the city of Meroe was a Nile Valley civilization and even though the city eventually declined and was later conquered, its reputation in the world of northeastern Africa and the Mediterranean was great riches because of their access to gold, ivory, tortoiseshells and ostrich feathers.            

Chapter5

Chapter five addressed many topics/issues such as: societies in China, the class and caste system in India, comparing slavery and patriarchies in different societies, arguing with Solomon and Buddha, the Romans vs. the Greeks... However I enjoyed reading about the Tang dynasty, specifically the roles of the women and what they brought to the two different societies. During the time of the Tang dynasty elite women were allowed to handle the legal and business affairs on their own, ride horses + play polo, and the daughters were even able to inherit property from her family of birth. This is something that wasn't common during those times and women were normally treated unfair. Even more so at one point the Tang dynasty had a female empress, Empress Wu. She was the only women to ever rule China and before she became an empress she was a high-ranked concubine in the imperial court. Even though her reign was brief, it was a nice "change of scenery" (as far as the women go) after reading the rest of the sections from chapter 5.