Big History

By: Sabrina Kiss

Big History• Big History is historical study

that looks at history on a larger scale by a multi-disciplinary approach.

• Focuses on alteration and adaptations in humans. Both themes and patterns.

• Examines history from the beginning of time to the present day.

• Big history looks at the past on all time scales, starting with the Big Bang to

modernity using a multi-disciplinary approach from the latest findings, like biology, astronomy, climatology, anthropology, natural history, etc.

• Big History came about by looking at the 20th century and grasping history as a whole, looking for common themes across the entire timeline of history.

The Day the Universe Changed

• The main point of this documentary is to express how the universe is perceived. The way it is perceived is through your mind, if you change your knowledge, then it will change. It is how you view it.

• James Burke named and explained many different ideas in History that have to do with technology and knowledge that have changed the world.

The Way We Are• Man has always wondered why

and when, Burke showed us the Greeks be the first to stumble onto across these questions.

• Burke also showed the many ways we have adapted to all the newer civilizations. Then and now.

Spencer Wells• Spencer Wells was a leading

geneticist who made an amazing documentary of humankind in their DNA.

• Well’s studied history and biology at the University of Texas at age 16. Later receiving a Ph.D.

• In 1998 Wells and his colleagues went to Asia and studied 25,000 miles. This allowed findings leading to advances in the

understanding of the male Y chromosome.

• Analyzing DNA from people all over the world, Wells concluded that all humans alive today are from a single man who lived in Africa around 60,000 years ago.

Continued • Wells addressed these ideas in

the document The Journey of Man, he explains how we traced and figured out the modern humans from Africa by analyzing genetic changes in DNA from the Y chromosome.

• Wells stated, “As often happens in science, technology has opened up a field to new ways of answering old questions—often providing startling answers.” (National Geographic)

Journey of Man• Wells argued that the Y

chromosome gives us a unique opportunity to follow our migrant inheritance back to a sort of Adam, just as earlier work in mitochondrial DNA allowed the identification of Eve, mother of all Homo sapiens.

• With all the information in genes and fossil records, Wells

was able to find out a lot of

information.• Analyzing human DNA from

around the world concluded that all humans alive today are descended from a single tribe called, "Adam.” The tribe lived in Africa 60,000 years ago.

Catastrophe• Catastrophe is a very important

date within history, because a single event in about 535 CE triggered between 18 months and 3+ years of bad weather worldwide. The first disaster to follow the catastrophe was drought in some places, massive floods in others. On the heels of terrible weather came famine worldwide and plague in the old world.

• Keys traced movements of

peoples in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America

• Along with radical changes in government everywhere.

• Keys explains how we uses dendrochronology or using tree rings to discover the past.

Continued • The eruption hurled so much dust, water, sulfuric acid and aerosols

into the stratosphere. • The volcanic cloud blocked sunlight everywhere, destroyed crops

and led to famines that prompted mass migrations and invasions. • The spread of diseases killed much of the human race and

irreversibly relocated social and political societies throughout the world.

Guns, Gems, & Steel• Diamond explained how

civilization is not created by intelligence but is the result of developments, like technology and biological advances.

• Climates and agriculture plays a role in a growing civilization. 11, 500 years ago our human race was being to expand in the population.

• In early civilizations, humans were hunter-gatherers. To move

towards agriculture with farming crops and animals.

• This process lead to excessive amounts of food that supported the societies and help with the rapid population growth.

• The larger societies were first to develop the ruling classes which then had supporting governments.

World & Trade• These beans, who all were so

curious about were first known as ka-ka-wa in Mayan, then the Aztecs changed the name to cacao and lastly the Spanish changed the name to chocolate.

• Chocolate started out as a drink, by just adding water, then Chile peppers, honey, vanilla, and much more.

• Chocolate soon occupied the Aztec marketplace, everyone

wanted it but it was very hard to get.

• Europe, with their capitalist world soon controlled all the chocolate.