After reading and presenting chapter 6 of Charles Mann, the 25 little cities of Norte Chico that have been more or less recently discovered made me think of how interesting it would have been to uncover some of those artifacts of the mummies and remnents of the ancient buildings. To be able to discover somewhat of how the people lived and even ideas of what they ate is a privledged look into a window of the past. It makes me wonder if a big global event happened to wipe out most of the human race, what would future generations find in the rements of our civilization? Would they know of our technological advances or lack thereof? Would they be able to tell if we had harmed our envoirnment or was careless with our resources? How much of a footprint do we leave everyday and is it benefical or it is detrimental to us or to those who would "discover" us in the future?
Now ultimatley I don't believe necessarily in any occurance of such an event, however I think that these questions are ones that need to be asked in order for us to do a self-evaluation about how we are living. Are we are doing or at least trying to do something good for all of us and our future generations or are we just living and not caring about it till wer're already gone?
¡Finzamos!
The Official Blog for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's Spanish 4362/Language 7313.
6 comments:
I really liked the calender. Everyone thinks that I'm psycho about it but it is really cool how they could use nature to know that there are 365 days in a year. I have no clue how they would know that without telescopes or the technology that we have. The book says they even knew that there really is 365 and 1/4 days in a year and that is why we have leap year. How were they that precise? That is the relationship that they had with nature, they were really apart of it.
Beau S., You should check out _Maya Cosmos_ by Linda Schele. This could be a good final project for you...
I am curious about the calender myself, but I have hit the point where reading about it doesn't help. I like to think mechanically and the best thing for me is to handle the object. So anyone know where "I can get my hands on" one of those calenders?
Make one! I made a piece of one in grad school, but the profe kept it. I'm sure you could google and find one, too.
I think that the imprint we are leaving on the world is most definately a negative one. I mean with the way our resources are being depleited and our rainforests cut down and oceans polluted you have to imagine what effect that will have on our children and grandchildren in the future.
I once read a series of books where people from our time went back to the Bronze Age. They were really interesting in a similar vein. The modern people had a history professor on their team, so there were lots of insights into what they were seeing. I also read John Stewart's book on the things we will leave behind. Hilarious. http://earththewebsite.com/
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