Analysis: Where Did We Come From?

Asking the question “where did we come from?” seems to be one of the oldest of human traditions. We know that modern day humans evolved from primates and early ape-man to eventually conclude with our modern day humans, otherwise known as, Homo sapiens. A question remains though, where did our humanity come from? Where was the turning point that separated us from the rest of the animal kingdom and into the dominating force of the planet? This moment can be traced back to the time of the Neolithic revolution, in an area known as the Fertile Crescent, where the first sedentary human civilization began, and forever changed the course of human history. Nestled between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, is a stretch of land called the Fertile Crescent,

It allowed for people to specialize within their community. This allowed for some people to be, for example, farmers, merchants, artisans or labors. With this new creation of diverse roles, there needed to be a central government to regulate trade, enforce laws and to protect the citizens. For example, we see evidence of a central government in the archeological records by looking at how these ancient civilizations were set up. These city-states we laid out in a careful manner, the homes were not randomly placed, but were placed in a way that was symmetrical and allowed for roads. That meant that there had to be a watchful eye overseeing the construction of these homes, making sure that the plans were being followed. Another piece of evidence that there was a central leadership, was the fact that most of the city states had some sort of fortification or protection such as towering walls around the city’s borders. Showing that there must have been a plan in place and a compelling force to make sure that these walls were constructed in the intended way. While the previous examples show the positive sides to having an elite ruling class, there is a dark side. The dark side of this whole matter is that in order to have an upper class, there must be a lower

In the archeological record, we start to see proof of social stratification in how people were being buried. Some are buried with a lot of care and adorned with many material goods, while some were given humble burials, those that would be seen as fit for the lower class. This shows that social power was not only being measured in privilege and access to resources but in material goods. Social stratification is also the cause behind shift in attitude towards the sexes and the races. We see the beginning of social constructs like race and gender. For example, race is not actually something that makes us biological different from one and other. The color of your skin or your “race”, is determined by where your ancestors evolved from in the world. If your ancestors were from somewhere along the equator, like Africa, then natural selective pressures favored those with more melanin in the skin to protect an essential vitamin called foliate. It actually has very little scientific significance because it is completely arbitrary. So race is not an actual reality but is a social invention that we use to separate and label