The commonality of coffee shops demonstrates how far we have come as a society, yet at the same time, illustrates how similar some would think we are to the societies of history. Much like how we sit in Starbucks, talking with friends and family, creating what could be considered the modern watering hole, the peoples of history have done similarly, creating the first settlements by most forms of water. Even though we live in a time where information is rather abundant and taken for granted such that many people use the same coffee shops to learn how to access information on devices that grow smaller and smaller and smarter and smarter, Robert Strayer argues for the notion that societies that lacked technology let alone writing ability still have the ability to convey history. He writes "Some historians identify 'real history' with writing and so dismiss the Paleolithic era as largely unknowable because its people did not write. Others, impressed with the rapid pace of change in human affairs since the coming of agriculture, assume that nothing much of real significance happened in the Paleolithic era -- and no change meant no history" (12). This quote would seem to illustrate a common theme in history -- we only assimilate what we want assimilated -- oral, written, illustrated, or though song and dance. But there is a hidden notion within this quote that could be easily missed. What Strayer is actually getting at is the notion of a common ancestry -- a lack of writing not equating to the "juicy" tidbits we commonly find in history books but to a history of where we came from as would be alleged by the majority of historians.
Both Strayer and the previous passage indicate a newly minted mainstream belief system. But how is it that Strayer comes to find such history in the Paleolithic communities as he commonly refers to them? A third notion which can be gathered from the previous passage is that of interpretation. Interpretation is the keyword of most of this era of history. We know -- to some degree -- that it happened, but it's through our interpretations with which our understanding of the past comes to be formed.
In continuing the analysis of Strayer's writing, something that resonates rather strongly is the idea that the biblical history of society as assimilated by Catholicism (early Christianity), only focuses on the regions where events took place. There was obviously more going on in the world, but biblical history is governed around a specific region which should be considered as we attempt to understand the Paleolithic as well as subsequent civilizations. But what is also of interest is the account of "relative equality between the sexes with no-one having the upper hand" (27). This interpretation doesn't seem to last very long, though, as the very next passage dictates a rather distant reality of sexual aggression and power by the San peoples. These accounts would also seem to coincide with biblical evidence of the time. By comparison, one might consider the social impact of the Chumash peoples by a similar light. The proliferation of "wealth" is a major factor in our interpretation of a people who began developing separate trades and a primitive class system -- something the San would most likely detest.
In subsequent chapters, Strayer moves into the notion of the birth of civilizations, but also the birth of inequality, something that is alluded to in biblical history as well in reflected regions. It's been thoerized that as man moved from the the necessity of shared responsibility in the home to a more laxed societal role, more time was freed up in order to take on the upper echelons of social leadership. As a result, a change in social status also became evident in that women were still left at home while men were now in a position of power. If we were to fastforward to Jesus' time, we would be rather astonished by the fact that the women of Christendom were the ones to carry the message of Jesus' resurection as it was obviously known at this time that women held little chance of social credibility. Other themes that Strayer touches upon are that of slavery. It's rather interesting that slavery much like the social standing of different people was not shared in the same light as it is today -- social oppression. Similarly, slavery of the day had more hope for the offspring of current slaves in that they had the, most likely slim, possibility of becoming freed citizens.
The current state of society as well as the growing societies of chapter three would seem to be more similar than different -- the only difference being the obvious advent of electronic technology. We still face a world of oppression, we still face a world of slavery, it's just a matter of interpretation in how we choose to see the world around us and how we choose to interact with it.
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