Response to Chapter 12 (Esther)

    This chapter is mainly about the evolution of culture from the historical perspective. Five million to one million years ago, our ancestors lived in group of a few dozen as hunters, gatherers or both. They started walking on two legs. They showed marked variability and adaptability to circumstances.
    One million to forty thousand years ago, it was ice and fire stage. humans an all mammals that lived through the ice ages developed larger brains. They lived in small primary groups of dozens of individuals but they started migrating to other places and fight other cultural groups.
     Forty thousand to ten thousand years ago, our ancestors start to show signs of much richer art and technology. During this period, genetic evolution sped up and this enabled the social and intellectual development. The dynamics of this ages would have pushed humanity toward increasing amounts of spiritual feeling and ritual over time.
     Twelve thousand to seven thousand five hundred years ago, it was the villiges and agriculture age. This was a time of plenty for plant and animal life, allowing humans to stay in one place for longer period. Possessions introduced an inherited hierarch in agricultural society.
     Seven thousand five hundred years ago until now, it's the large - scale civilizations ages. People are still learning how to live in large- scale anonymous societies. Parsons (1964) proposed a number of such pivotal, irreversible innovations. They are social stratification, alongside cultural legitimation, bureaucratic organization, money and markets, generalized universalistic norms, and the democratic association.
     Besides the evolution of culture, I also learn the essence of evolution and some contemporary issues, like business and government. From the chapter before, I know more specifically about the aspects of culture, but in this chapter, I combine the history with culture, which is interesting and fruitful.