Monday, September 06, 2010
Engines of Ingenuity: Inventing Agriculture
This is the transcript of a science radio program, from
Houston public radio station KUHF and the
University of Houston, Texas.
Click here to visit the show's website.
by John H. Lienhard
Click here to listen to this program.
Today, a new look at the birth of a very old technology. The University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.
Scholars have been turning their lenses back on the invention of farming. We know farming began eight to ten thousand years ago in the Middle East and the Holy Land. We also know it began after certain wild wheats mutated.
09/06/10 |
Posted by teacher | Category Senior Humanities
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Monday, September 06, 2010
Another View: Invention Of Agriculture May Have Been A Step Backward
Anthropological texts have always ballyhooed the development of agriculture as one of man's greatest achievements. Not so, says Mark Cohen, of SUNY Plattsburgh. The switch from hunting and gathering to sedentary agriculture, it seems, occurred rather suddenly and was attended by a sharp drop in life expectancy. Ancient human bones reveal much more disease, fewer older people, and more violent deaths for centuries following the adoption of agriculture. Why did humanity give up the surprising degrees of security, freedom, and leisure intrinsic in hunting and gathering? Cohen claims that population pressure was the cause. Unable to stem the human population explosion, ancient humans were forced to adopt a life of toil, disease, and stress.
(Lewin, Roger; "Disease Clue to Dawn of Agriculture," Science, 211:41, 1981.)"
Invention Of Agriculture May Have Been A Step Backward
09/06/10 |
Posted by teacher | Category Senior Humanities
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Friday, September 03, 2010
Prehistory Reading for Humanities
Excerpted from Philip Van Ness Myers, Ancient History, Revised Edition
(Boston: Ginn and Company, 1904), pp. 1-12]
The Antiquity of Man.
In ages long past, when both the climate and the outline of the continents were very different from what they are at present, primitive man roamed over them with animals now extinct; and that, about 5000 B.C., when the historic curtain first rises, in some favored regions, as in
the valleys of the Nile and the Euphrates, there were nations and civilizations already venerable with age, and possessing arts, governments, and institutions that bear evidence of slow growth through very long periods of time
The Prehistoric Age and the Historic Age:
09/03/10 |
Posted by teacher | Category Senior Humanities
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Thursday, September 02, 2010
Artist Project:Humanities
DUE October 22, 2010
Your assignment is to research the life of a prominent artist, chosen from the list I provide. The list is first-come, first-served, one-student-per-artist. From your research, prepare a five minute oral presentation which tells the story of the artist’s life and career. You must have visual aids to support your presentation, in the form of an electronic slideshow I’ll show you how to make. You must also prepare a multi-page written report on the artist, which includes a bibliography prepared in according to the guidelines taught in social science classes. Links to formatting and citation conventions are available on the main page in the links section.
09/02/10 |
Posted by teacher | Category Senior Humanities
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Wednesday, September 01, 2010
Senior Humanities Grading Policy
Grading: This class will be graded on a standard scale, 90-100: A, 80-89: B, 70-79: C etc.
The points will be divided according to the following system:
43% Writing and Project (This may change after the first weeks of school)
24% Reading
8% Listening and Speaking
5% Class Participation
20% Final Exam
Extra credit will be handled on an individual basis and is not guaranteed to anyone. Rounding up in the tabulation of grades is my purview and is never done on a wide basis.
Materials: You will be expected to bring the following items to class
EVERY DAY regardless of whether you think you are going to need them:
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
Questions on "The Hunters" for Senior Humanities
Answer these questions in complete sentences after watching the film "The Hunters."
1. Where does the film take place? Be specific.
2. About how long ago where these events filmed?
3. List the tools do the people used.
4. List the materials of which the tools were made.
5. Of what are their houses made?
6. Which members of the family hunt for animals to eat?
7. Which members of the family hunt for plants to eat?
8. Which groups supplies the most food for the family?
9. Are these people poor? Explain
10. Summarize what you learned from this film.
"I might just fade into Bolivian, you know what I mean?" — Mike Tyson
09/01/10 |
Posted by teacher | Category Senior Humanities
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Wednesday, September 01, 2010
Read More about Hunters film maker John Marshall
The film we've been seeing in class,
The Hunters, was made by John Marshall when he was 18 years old.
Here's an excerpt from an essay about him and his important work, from
newenglandfilm.com.
John Marshall first went to the Kalahari when he was 17. In 1950 he accompanied his father, Laurence Marshall, on a search for the "Lost World of the Kalahari." A year later he returned to the region known as Nyae Nyae, with his entire family on an expedition to look for "wild bushmen." He received a 16mm Kodak camera from his father with the advice, "Don’t direct, John, don’t try to be artistic, just film what you see people doing naturally." John’s mother, Lorna, subsequently published a number of ethnographic papers based on the lives of the people they lived with. His sister, Elizabeth, published "The Harmless People," a popular account of their expedition.
John Marshall filming in the Kalahari Desert.
09/01/10 |
Posted by teacher | Category Senior Humanities
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Friday, August 27, 2010
What are the Humanities?
According to Mr. Hannigan's favorite online definition, the Humanties are
"the study of the manmade arts such as art, literacy, music that convey the cultural aspects of humanity."
Click here to go to wikipedia, which has more information about what the Humanities are.
Mr. Hannigan's class will focus on the history of the visual arts and the development of humankind. We'll start with prehistoric man and try to find the roots of the ways we live today in our common past.
The philosopher Plato is one of the greatest figures in the Humanities
08/27/10 |
Posted by teacher | Category Senior Humanities
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