NATS 1840 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Chinese Whispers, Indus River, Karl August Wittfogel
9 Nov 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Nats 1840 - lecture 4 - ancient civilizations and technological determinism. Tool use for hunting and gathering (2 million years ago) Use fire to cook, warmth, light, make tools. Human beings since the beginning ruined eco systems and got up and relocated. Agricultural revolution (12000 years ago)- making crops, creating roots instead of picking up and moving away. Someone figured out you can eat seeds and berries, you can also plant seeds, and new plants grow with more seeds. That first person had to teach others delayed gratification, patience, He had to tell people do(cid:374)"t eat seeds, pla(cid:374)t the(cid:373) i(cid:373)agi(cid:374)e the uphill (cid:271)attle. Being a farmer and growing crops for this long created a civilization. Farming does(cid:374)"t stop (cid:271)ut people (cid:373)o(cid:448)e i(cid:374)to (cid:272)ities. Somebody noticed that there was excess water so they created a reservoir to save water for when they need it. Management of surplus led to centralized government, taxation.
