Chapter 1

First People; First Farmers (to 4000 B.C.E.)
Strayer talks about how usually in history books start with cities and civilizations and don't talk about the Paleolithic people. Strayer thinks that this is incorrect and chooses to start the book with them.

First Migrations 

Eurasia 

• Homosapiens developed in Africa around 250,000 years ago
• Collective learning helped these people develop over time
• Stone tools helped these humans 
• Developments helped migrate from Africa to Eurasia (100,000 years ago)
• First migrations were into the middle east and then into South Asia 
• (20,000 years ago) cold ice age temperatures forced humans to migrate into Southern Europe
• People started developing more advanced tools and weapons such as spears, arrows, bows, and more stone tools to hunt
• Human communication consisted of cave paintings and figurines

Australia 

• Migrations reached Australia 60,000 Y.A. 
• 300,000 people by the time Europeans arrived in 1778 there for there were only a few people
• Even though there were not many people during this time there were several languages of diversity,  around 250 native languages
• Aboriginal were the native people 
• "Dream time" was a complex outlook on the world, knowledge of the natural environment such as rocks rivers, water holes, is a form of spirituality 

Americas

• Migrated to America by using land bridges formed by colder temperatures and low sea levels
• Also migrations could have used small boats to sail along the pacific coast at that time
• Migrations started around 30,000 to 15,000 Y.A.
• Reached what is now Southern Chile in 12,500 Y.A. 
• First fine wide spread and defined culture in America was the Clovis Culture 

1. Clovis is named after a spear head called Clovis point found all around North America, 
2. Used to hunt big animals 
3. Used by the Clovis people

• Migrations from 35,000
• Shortly after the Clovis culture big animals like the mammals, some horses, and camels started to disappear. 
• Clovis culture also disappeared
• Some groups still hunted while other groups adopted early agriculture 

Pacific

• Human migrations last great wave came from South East Asia into all of the Pacific, from Indonesia to Madagascar in the Indian Ocean
• Internal colonization of new lands

The Ways We Are 

The First Human Societies