Chapter one in the text book talks a great deal about the way things were during the Paleolithic times and then the invention of agriculture during the Neolithic times. I understand that historians have ways to date things that are written down or artifacts that were created or even possible cave drawings, but I am having a hard time understanding how they can assume what life was like dur ing mostly unrecorded time of the Paleolithic people. Obviously one can assume. There obviously were no cars or phones and there was for the most part no technology. To know what they ate and how their society was ran I do not get. Obviously there were certain plants, fruits and animals common to the countries in which these people date back to but what proof is there that they actually indulged in there foods? Who is to say that a small group that was set up in the lands around parts of Africa were not vegetarians? They obviously would not be called vegetarians but they may have followed the idea that they did not indulge in meat, if they even had the chance to ever come across any.
                   
                      Strayer mentions that "Paleolithic societies had rules and structures." How does he or any historian know this? Much of this so distant history is assumed and based off of the periods that follow. Periods in which they do have more recorded history and may offer clues into how things were before them. The future civilizations had to come from somewhere in order to evolve and become what they were. Another topic that interested me during my reading was the concept of how agriculture came about. I understand that it must have been a slow evolving process though. It's not like one day a nomadic hunter found some seeds and had the brilliant idea that he should put them in the ground and then water it in good soil as to grow enough corn for him and all his newly established community. There obviously was a long process of trial and error and figuring what is the best way to msake things work. This must be the case for the establishment of law, security, engineering, building, weapon making, building storage units and so on. Since nothing prior had been developed it is pretty crazy how humans minds all of a sudden started to think a different way.

                      It is interesting to think what qualified someone of this time to make decisions. During the Paleolithic times it is believed that there was no hierarchy, genders were equal, there was no wealth or status. Now with the ability to grow food and domesticate animals, things such as power, wealth, status and an overall hierarchy begin to flourish and most likely cause problems. When deciding who to put in certain positions, were the bigger, stronger people put in positions of power or were the smarter more intelligble one? Were women still as equal as men? Was sharing still as common? It is great there is so much recorded history out there but it is truely amazing to relly sit back and think about what things amy have actually been like back in these Paleo and Neo lithic days.