Assignment:
The Black Death was one of the most disastrous demographic collapses in history. Read the following primary sources and answer the following questions. What conditions allowed it to spread so quickly, and what were the significant social consequences of the outbreak?
Write a 3 to 4 page essay that responds to any one of the prompts below (your choice):
Essay Option 1
Jared Diamond has stated that when humans adopted agriculture, it was "the worst mistake in the history of the human race." The Anthropologist Marshall Sahlins also had an positive view of the Paleolithic Era of hunting and gathering. Others, however, might argue that agriculture ushered in a new era of human ingenuity and "progress," as seen in the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt of Western Civilizations).
What is your position? Read these sources (Diamond, Sahlins, Chapters of the textbook) and support your answer with concrete examples.
Jared Diamond's article on "The Worst Mistake in Human History" https://discovermagazine.com/1987/may/02-the-worst-mistake-in-the-history-of-the-human-race
Chapter, "The Original Affluent Society," from Marshall Sahlins' book, Stone Age Economics:
Look for this under "Supplemental Readings" on our Canvas page under Modules
Essay Option 2
In the 1970s the anthropologist Marjorie Shostak interviewed a woman (named Nisa) of the foraging !Kung peoples of the San culture of Africa's Kalahari Desert. Read the excerpts of Shostak's work (called "Nisa Interview" in the Supplemental Readings section of Modules) and write an essay that answers the following questions:
• How would you describe Nisa's overall assessment of San life? Support your answer with examples. Also, how would you compare the society that Nisa describes with women in early agricultural civilizations, such as Mesopotamia and Egypt (as discussed of Western Civilizations)?
Essay Option 3
Read the secondary source entitled "Crime and Punishment in Ancient Mesopotamia," (see Supplemental Readings in Modules) then read the entirety of the Law Code of Hammurabi here: https://avalon.law.yale.edu/ancient/hamframe.asp
Write an essay that answers the following questions:
• From reading the entirety of the Law Code of Hammurabi, what would you say were the three main issues that the code was trying to address in Old Babylonian society? Please make sure to provide specific examples to support your argument.
Essay Option 4
Analyze the visual evidence in the "Remembering Hatshepsut" section of Chapter (of Western Civilizations), and read the following interpretation of reliefs (engravings) about her birth, which were found in her mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri in Egypt:
Write an essay that answers these questions:
• In what ways do the primary sources deal with gender? When and how is she portrayed as female? And when and how is she portrayed as male?
• Are there any signs of tension or resistance concerning Hatshepsut's claim to power? Explain these.