A Brief History of the Human RaceW. W. Norton & Company, 2003 - 385 من الصفحات Why has human history been crowded into the last few thousand years? Why has it happened at all? Could it have happened in a radically different way? What should we make of the disproportionate role of the West in shaping the world we currently live in? This witty, intelligent hopscotch through human history addresses these questions and more. Michael Cook sifts the human career on earth for the most telling nuggets and then uses them to elucidate the whole. From the calendars of Mesoamerica and the temple courtesans of medieval India to the intricacies of marriage among an aboriginal Australian tribe, Cook explains the sometimes eccentric variety in human cultural expression. He guides us from the prehistoric origins of human history across the globe through the increasing unification of the world, first by Muslims and then by European Christians in the modern period, illuminating the contingencies that have governed broad historical change. "A smart, literate survey of human life from paleolithic times until 9/11."—Edward Rothstein, The New York Times |
المحتوى
THE PALAEOLITHIC BACKGROUND | 3 |
II GENETICS AND THE ORIGINS OF THE HUMAN RACE | 9 |
III STONE TOOLS | 14 |
THE NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION | 19 |
II THE GENETICS OF DOMESTICATED PLANTS AND ANIMALS | 30 |
III POTTERY | 34 |
THE EMERGENCE OF CIVILIZATION | 38 |
II WRITING | 44 |
CHINA | 175 |
II KEEPING IN TOUCH WITH THE ANCESTORS | 194 |
WHATS IN A NAME? | 200 |
THE ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN WORLD | 205 |
II THE BACKGROUND TO ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY | 222 |
III ATTIC BLACK AND REDFIGURE | 227 |
WESTERN EUROPE | 234 |
II THE MONSTROUS REGIMENT OF WOMEN | 251 |
III KINGSHIP | 47 |
AUSTRALIA | 55 |
II GETTING MARRIED AMONG THE ARANDA | 63 |
III FLAKED POINTS AND OTHER NOVELTIES | 69 |
THE AMERICAS | 75 |
II MESOAMERICAN CALENDARS | 88 |
III THE QUIPU | 94 |
AFRICA | 99 |
II THE AGEGROUP SYSTEMS OF EAST AFRICA | 112 |
III SHABTIS AND THE EGYPTIAN WAY OF DEATH | 118 |
THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST | 125 |
II DOWNSIZING THE PANTHEON | 136 |
III ARCHAISM | 142 |
INDIA | 147 |
II THE NAMBUDIRI BRAHMINS OF KERALA | 164 |
III OF GODS AND COURTESANS | 171 |
III JUPITERS PARAMOURS | 258 |
ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION | 267 |
II MUSLIM ETHNOGRAPHY | 287 |
III THE MUSLIM CALENDAR | 290 |
THE EUROPEAN EXPANSION | 295 |
II HOW SOME NONEUROPEANS RESPONDED | 308 |
III THE SNIFFING HABIT | 320 |
THE MODERN WORLD | 325 |
II THE LOFTY TOWERS | 342 |
III JUPITERS PARAMOURS AGAIN | 348 |
CONCLUSION | 354 |
FURTHER READING | 360 |
CREDITS | 368 |
| 373 | |
طبعات أخرى - عرض جميع المقتطفات
عبارات ومصطلحات مألوفة
adopted Africa age-group Americas Anatolia ancestors ancient Arab Arabana Aranda archaeological Australia Brahmins bronze Bronze Age Buddhist calendar century B.C. chapter China Chinese Christian Chu Hsi city-states civilization climatic Confucian conquest continent contrast course culture domesticated dynasty early East eastern Egypt Egyptian elite emergence of farming empire Eurasia European example expansion fact genetic Gondwana Greek highlands Holocene hunter-gatherers India island Japan Japanese king land language later living Lucretius major Mediterranean Mediterranean world Mesoamerican Mesoamerican calendars Mesopotamia millennium B.C. modern humans moiety Mongols monotheism Muslim Nambudiris Neolithic Neolithic revolution northern northwestern Europe OCEAN Old World period political population pottery quipu red-figure region religion role Roman rule rulers Samburu script shabtis Shang significant society Southeast Asia southern Spanish spread stone tools survive territory things thousand tion tradition tribes tropical ture unlike Upper Palaeolithic western writing