Krimel said: History, by definition means during the period after people started writing things down. That would be about 12,000 years ago, about the time that agriculture developed and group population sizes began to exceed what we are
biologically equipped to deal with. dmb says: Actually, Herodotus is considered the father of history. (5th century B.C.) He was the first one to systematically record events and the first to be concerned with historical accuracy. We can't take this too literally as I'm sure he didn't just invent history out of nothing and others must have come before, but the basic idea is that myths and legends and self-serving tales of glory became distinquishable from an impartial record of event. In that sense, the prehistoric era ended only 2 centuries ago. And by the way, its true that 12,000 years means very little in terms of our biological evolution, but in terms of cultural evolution the changes can hardly be overestimated. 12,000 years ago what we were basically highly advanced cave men. The bronze age was still in the future and we've since entered the space age or the information age or whatever. And that is just a technological indication of the evolution that occured. The cultural changes are just as stark. Think about how much religion has changed. Or fashion. Today people would laugh out loud if you dressed your mummy in linen. [Krimel] Thanks for the refresher I lost my notes from high school. I found this in the history wiki: "Traditionally, historians have attempted to answer historical questions through the study of written documents, although historical research is not limited merely to these sources. In general, the sources of historical knowledge can be separated into three categories: what is written, what is said, and what is physically preserved, and historians often consult all three. Historians frequently emphasize the importance of written records, which universally date to the development of writing. This emphasis has led to the term prehistory, referring to a time before written sources are available. Since writing emerged at different times throughout the world, the distinction between prehistory and history is often dependent on the topic." But my God this takes nitpicking to new heights or is it depths. No matter, they are equal in Wilber World. moq_discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
