Chapters 1 and 2

I have just completed reading chapter 1 and the amazing journey of homo sapiens through the Paleolithic era into the Agricultural era. I never felt like I knew enough about history, especially world history, to be able to argue my way out of a wet paper bag. After September 11, 2001, I have been much more curious about world history and learning the reasons why we are who we are, and the events that have formed our thinking and behaving. This first chapter has helped me understand the basics of early human history and the important milestones that helped us evolve and flourish. It is fascinating to think that the Paleolithic era was 96% of human history and that the Neolithic, Ancient, Classical and Modern histories are just a blip on the historical calendar. And that all of human life is merely seconds on the cosmic calendar. Makes me feel a bit insignificant, that life is truly fleeting, and that one day, really just milliseconds on the cosmic calendar from now, we will all be...I digress. It really is amazing though how long it took humans to migrate out of Africa and to develop simple technologies that moved them from a gatherer/hunter society into an agrarian society. Perhaps it was working well for them and they had the "if it ain't broke, why fix it" mentality. It seems that it worked well for male and female relationships in many areas as they both carried out equally important roles to help their kin survive and hopefully thrive. While still in other areas, the author talks about how female infanticide may have been practiced indicating a preference for male children. Some things haven't changed!
Chapter 2: The section on Hierarchies of Gender disturbed me and I keep thinking of the girls in Nigeria who where kidnapped only because they were being educated. For millennia in Paleolithic and agricultural communities, men and women for the most part were regarded as equal--their position and contributions equally important to the survival of their people--and then suddenly during the development of the First Civilizations women were seen as weak, in need of protection, and control because men feared women as potentially disruptive. What I really want to know is why and how women allowed this to happen to them? Was it sudden? Was it a gradual stripping away of their power? Did they just give in? Did men turn on women because they were afraid of women's connection with nature, something they could not understand or ever experience themselves? It is hard for me to imagine that mere muscle mass could determine superiority. Also, the unbalanced laws with regard to the punishment of women and men's sexual indiscretions is sickening, and still so prevalent today in so many countries.