Key for Page 2
Human Odyssey test Sept. 21, 2001
NOTE: Below are "perfect" answers. I was looking for most, but not necessarily all, of the replies I give below. Be sure your answers include defining the term as well as its significance.--JS
Identification:
Bipedalism and its evolutionary advantage: As the article "Carrying and Sharing" pointed out, walking upright on two feet (bipedalism) did not increase speed or help spot predators, but instead freed the hands so that carrying larger quantities of food back to share with the tribe, thereby increasing more humans’ chances for survival. Tools could also be better transported, rather than being improvised on the spot each time.
Jericho: One of the oldest, if not the oldest, settlements – so permanent its walls remain today, as opposed to the nomadic nature of most human existence. Here early humans engaged in village life and clearly engaged in cultivation of crops. (Just mentioning the Bible or Joshua got no credit.)
The poetic development of Virgil: Important to know, because for centuries poets imitated the passage from writing pastoral poems, celebrating the springtime, carefree and nomadic existence of the shepherd, to those highlighting the hard work of the farmer, settled into communities, to epic poems, sagas of war that inspired a nationalist pride.
Two physiological reasons why humans have speech ability: One: Our larynxes "migrate" further in our throats with maturity, so that we can pronounce more complex sounds (though we are now in greater danger than chimps, for instance, of choking). Two: Our brains have clearly developed a center for speech, known as Broca’s area, the indentation for which can be seen in Cro Magnon skulls. Other animals appear to lack this.
"Bushes" vs. "Ladders" in evolutionary theory: Stephen Jay Gould’s article carries this title. Some have seen evolution as a fairly rung-by-rung ascent from a common ancestor, each species of man replacing what went before and getting better and better. A romantic idea – we could one day be perfect! Gould suggests it’s more complicated – that a number of species branched off simultaneously from a common ancestor. The co-existence of Neanderthal and Cro Magnon suggests this idea.
Short essay.
What are the "two cultures" C.P. Snow writes of, and what problem does he see with the two?
The basis of this course, really, Snow’s idea is that once scientists and the "litterati" were pretty much the same – every educated person had a good foundation in both science and the arts. But as scientific knowledge exploded, educated people began unavoidably to specialize. The deplorable part of this is the mutual contempt and disrespect the two sides now show each other, which leads to a dangerous state of willful ignorance – particularly when the complex world grows increasingly in need of fully informed minds!
What advantages did Europe and Asia have over the Americas in plant and animal domestication?
Though until recently the idea of Western superiority has dominated much of our study of history, we now know that accidents of geography gave Europeans and Asians a leg up on civilization. In those two parts of the world, spread out on an east-west axis, more temperate climates, combined with native crops like grains and rice that were more easily cultivated, allowed more people to survive. In the extremes of hot and cold that the Americas and Africa experienced, cultivation was harder, and native plants weren’t as adaptable. In addition, in "The Accidental Conqueror," an author points out that the horse, native only to Europe and Asia, changed everything. Once domesticated, its speed and power were so invaluable and such an advantage that it wasn’t replaced until the steam engine and the Model T!