Jan 31st Daily

Identify the 'Venus of Willendorf'. What does it suggest that the beginnings of art and the domestication of animals happen during the same period in human history?

Venus of Willendorf is the most famous ancient image of a woman, and was found in 1908 by Josef Szombathy in Austria. The date that this image was said to be created was about 24,000-22,000 BC. They were able to determine it was created this far back because of all of the layers of deposit on it. Venus of Willendorf is said to be an icon of prehistoric art. She became the "first woman," being built up to be an Eve-like figure to the world. The statue is a little over 4 inches tall, and is said to be held at Vienna's Naturhistorisches Museum. Venus of Willendorf was originally nicknamed la poire, meaning pear, because of the shape of the body. Because of this figure being the first Palaeolithic statue of a woman, all other art statues from this era are said to be "Venus" as a collective term for all of these figures. This sculpture showing what real women looked like at this time in life may have lead scientists to create an idea of what the animals looked like, which could make it easier to study the domestication of animals. Scientists could use this image of this woman as an idea of the domestication of animals because animals and humans are both mammals and they share a lot of the same characteristics. This images makes it somewhat easier to study the domestication of animals, and it could possibly suggest that the beginnings of art and domestication of animals happened during the same Palaeolithic period. 

Venus of Willendorf

Works Cited: 

http://witcombe.sbc.edu/willendorf/

Weekly: Theory of History Movie

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Jan 27th Daily

Will a "Hypertext" World Make us More Accepting of Cyclic History? 

I think that if we lived a "hypertext" world, we would accept the theory of cyclic history a lot more. Hypertext is when you click on a link on a website that leads you to another website, creating a cycle of links and websites that you can look at. This is a great example of living in a cyclic history kind of world because a hypertext will lead you to another event, but eventually you will come back to the first website that you were on, just like events in history. In history, there are a lot of cycles that occur. One of the major evens of cyclic history is the cooling and heating of the Earth and global warming. There have been a lot of times in history were the temperature of the Earth in the northern hemisphere is very hot in the summer, but very cold in the winter. This is a good example of cyclic history because the weather is always repeating itself, like it is in a cycle. I think that a "hypertext" world would make us a lot more accepting of cyclic history because hypertext is a lot like a cycle, so we would be familiar with what cyclic history really is. Being familiar with this theory of history is the first step onto accepting it. Because of how similar cyclic history and living a "hypertext" world is, it is easy to be aware and accept cyclic history and how it works. 

Jan 26th Daily

Don't our traditional forms of information communication, notably "the book" and especially "the textbook" contribute to our belief in linear history? 

I believe that our traditional forms of communication like the book and textbook contribute to our theory of linear history for many reasons. Books, especially textbooks and research books, speak about events that happened in the past but for the most part, do not relate the events to each other, like the theory of linear history.  There are also many linear time lines in history textbooks based on events that had occurred.  We can learn and record events that have happened on a linear timeline and it helps us understand the material that we are reading in the textbook. Books of all sorts teach us about the linear history of whatever subject that book is on. It talks about the events that have occurred in or because of that idea or subject. It teaches us more about that subject, and using a linear timeline, we can easily see what event happened and if that even lead to another even to happen in the future. Linear history is in the form of a timeline and show events that have happened in the past from the date at which they occurred. It does not tell you that an event happened because of a different event that happened before it, but looking at events that have occurred can help you decide whether events in the past do lead to major events happening in the present time and future. Because of the knowledge that we have on linear history, we can agree that our forms of communications like the book and textbook do contribute to linear history. 

Western Civ Daily Jan.25th

Does History Progress? Is an Elephant Really "Better" Than a Mammoth?

History, in my opinion, can progress. In some cases, bad events from the past have helped another bad experience like a war or famine from happening. But for the most part, history does not progress. If it did progress, there would not be wars happening, people dying on account of lack of healthcare and food, and there wouldn't be terrorists. A progression in history would keep bad things from happening in the future, and that is just not happening. There have been civil wars in African countries for hundreds of years, with no progression, or anything which makes it seem that the wars are just getting better. I do agree with the concept like the Hegelian theory that says that everything in history happens because of something in the past. There would be no wars if there was not a reason to fight, which is an event in the past. People wouldn't be dying in Africa if there was not war and famine. In this sense, I do consider history a progression, but it does not mean that it progressed positively.

An elephant is not always "better" than a mammoth. An elephant is related to a mammoth. They are very similar, but no animal is better than another one, especially when they are so similar and related. An elephant is like a newer version of a mammoth, like a mammoth progressing into what a modern day elephant is. The biggest difference between an elephant and a mammoth is that a mammoth has a lot of hair on it and an elephant doesn't have any. This is the largest difference, which isn't even that big of a difference. This shows that an elephant is not "better" than a mammoth. They are just two different animals, and even though an elephant is an example of the evolution of a mammoth, it does not mean an elephant is better.

Western Civ Daily. Jan 24th

Is Modern Life "Always" Better Than it was in the Past? 

I personally think that modern life is not always better than the past. Modern life definitely has more advantages and newer and better technology than in the past, but that does not necessarily mean that it is always better. Technology can sometimes lead to problems, and people online can create rumors of famous and important people in the world which sometimes leads to nationwide controversy. The past was lacking technology, communications weren't always great, there were many problems like wars, nationwide depressions, and other problems, but there are still problems in modern time. The United States is in a war, we are dealing with major economic problems, less jobs available, and many other problems. The past may have been lacking a lot of things, but that does not mean that present time is always better. There have been awful things happening to people in the past like infectious diseases like yellow fever, comas, diabetes, pneumonia, and many other were once major diseases which most of the time, lead to death. After years of research in all of these diseases, they are now curable. This is a way that the present is better than the past, but there are still so many non-curable diseases still in this world like cancers, STD's, AIDS, meningococcal meningitis,  influenza, asthma, the common cold, and many others that are still incurable and are still affecting people all over the world every day. Therefore, in some ways the present time is better than the past, but there are ups and downs in both the past and present. This shows that modern life is not ALWAYS better than the past, but modern technology helps with a lot of things in the present times, but it is not the answer to everything. 

Exam Question 14

With Kelly McCloskey
1. We could use our computers for every class
2. We could use online textbooks
3. We could use our web cams to communicate with children our age in other countries.
4. We could take tests on online .
5. We could do homework and projects online.
6. We could use calculators
7. We could use our cell phones.
8. We could make our own websites
9. We could make our own search engines
10. We could use smart boards.