To parents, older brothers/sisters/cousins, aunts & uncles:
I’ve been working on a history project – a book – for children around ten to 12 or 13 years old (inspired by my grandchildren). Here are the first two sections:
- “How Did We Become Humans?” explains how human being evolved, how a primate first walked upright, freeing up their hands, which led to the development of the opposable thumb and… tool making. It was from that that the larger brain (and greater intelligence) arose.
- “How did Early People Organize?” explains the “Neolithic Revolution” – the transition from food gathering (hunting and gathering) to food production (domestication of plants and animals) and agriculture. Contrary to what a lot of people might still think, after the agricultural revolution people worked a lot harder, longer hours, had worse health and died earlier. Also, this was the basis for exploiting the labor of others, the rise of class society and the oppression of women.
Part 1: How Did We Become Humans?
“How did we become humans?”
This might seem like a strange question. You have always been a human. Everybody you know has always been a human. Of course, we’re talking about evolution – how earlier species evolved into the human species.
But this leads to another question: “Why does it really matter?” After all, this happened a looong time ago (we’re talking millions of years). Now that we’re here, what does it matter how we became what we are?
It matters because it helps determine how we look at human society. That means, how we look at what people do in their everyday life. And if we can get a clear understanding of that, we can change it too. But to understand it, we have to look at how we got there, starting with how we – the human species – became what we are.
Here is the book: Children’s Book, first 2 parts
So I have a request to anybody who reads this: If you like it, please read it or give it to a younger person. Maybe read it along with them, get their reaction, and let me know what they think. What you think too.
Thanks, John Reimann