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Social Evolution
A Brief History of the Human Race
We diverged from our common ancestor with other apes around 5 million years ago, went bipedal 2.5 million years ago, invented the hand axe 1.2 million years ago, became anatomically modern about 200,000 years ago, became culturally modern about 50,000 years ago, stumbled onto agriculture about 10,000 years ago, and then quickly developed civilization, large hierarchical power structures, organized religion, armies, wars, epidemics, slavery. We had polytheistic religions for the first several thousand years, which generally gave way to monotheistic religions which gave dignity to individuals, regardless of where they stood in the social hierarchy. But then the monotheistic religion, which was supposed to break the power structure of the hierarchies ended up establishing its own hierarchy: the Roman Catholic Church. Destruction of knowledge, the Dark Ages, followed by the rise of science, the Renaissance, new communication technology (the printing press) which enabled Enlightenment and an Industrial Revolution which is continuing to this day. Now power takes the form of corporations. Power always finds a way to exert itself. It reinforces itself. Power, by definition, is the ability to force one’s will upon structures and other people. And one often has the will to acquire more power.
Excerpted from Wikipedia (on 1-Nov-2014)
Sources:
URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History
History (from Greek ἱστορία, historia, meaning “inquiry, knowledge acquired by investigation”) is the study of the past, specifically how it relates to humans. It is an umbrella term that relates to past events as well as the memory, discovery, collection, organization, presentation, and interpretation of information about these events. Scholars who write about history are called historians. Events occurring prior to written records are considered prehistory.
History can also refer to the academic discipline which uses a narrative to examine and analyze a sequence of past events, and objectively determine the patterns of cause and effect that determine them. Historians sometimes debate the nature of history and its usefulness by discussing the study of the discipline as an end in itself and as a way of providing “perspective” on the problems of the present.