Exploring Big History: Origin Stories, Human Migration and Agriculture

This assignment delves into the core concepts of Big History, examining traditional origin stories from various religions and their impact on social structures. It explores the relationship between energy flow, the Goldilocks condition, and the emergence of complexity in organisms, highlighting how energy is essential for survival and the maintenance of complex systems. The assignment further investigates the spread of humans across the globe, tracing migration patterns and adaptations, including the development of diverse ethnic groups. Finally, it discusses the development of agriculture as a response to population growth and resource scarcity, emphasizing its role in establishing resource balance. The assignment draws on various sources, including scholarly articles and online resources, to support its arguments and provide a comprehensive overview of these interconnected themes.

4 Questions

TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUESTIONS ..................................................................................................................................1
1. Traditional origin stories..........................................................................................................1
2. Relationship between energy flow, Goldilocks condition and emergence of complexity ......1
3. Understanding spread of humans across globe through Big history .......................................2
4. Agriculture development ........................................................................................................2
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

QUESTIONS
1. Traditional origin stories
The origin stories of the religions helps to understand and learn the development of social
and religious values across different parts of the world. Such stories also provide valuable
learning related to development of religious communities and how they influence the social
structures of particular nation (Spier, 2015). For instance the origin of Christianity is considered
as derivative of Jewish faith. After the death of Jesus in first century, his teachings and actions of
his followers played great role in promoting philosophies and principles of Christianity all over
the world. Contrary to this Islam was originated in Mecca, present day Saudi Arabia during life
event of Prophet Muhammad. He is considered as the central figure in Islam and who travelled to
Yemen and various places to spread the Islamic teachings and messages.
The origin of Buddhism is linked with Siddhartha Gautama known as historical Buddha
was born in Lumbini (foothills of Himalaya). He was founders of sect of wanderer ascetics
(Sramanas). The Sramans movement in 7th century BC originated Buddhism and many other
religions like Jainism and Charvaka (Simon, Behmand and Burke, 2015). After the death of
Buddha Mauryan Indian emperor Ashoka provided favourable political and social environment
for the promotion of Buddhist ideas by encouraging Buddhist monks and missionary activities.
2. Relationship between energy flow, Goldilocks condition and emergence of complexity
As per Big history theory with the evolution energy level of the organisms becomes more
complex and variable. Each and every type of complexities consist of matter and requires energy
for their emergence. However, there are complexities such as galaxies or solar system which
does not require any energy to retain their shape or existence. Contrary to this human require
regular flow of energy in the environment so that they can survive (Zinkina and et.al., 2019). All
forms or life are required to harvest energy to maintain their complexity. This is also explained
by Goldilocks principle which state that for emergence and existence of complexity situation
must be right.
Situational change beyond the requirement of Goldilocks criteria for any specific
complexity can prohibit energy flow and thus their emergence may questioned or terminate.
Different perspectives are brought to Big history. For instance the scientific theory of evolution
helped to understand the physical changes while social theories are used to integrate these
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changes with social and racial notations. With the migration of humans, knowledge humanities
and culture are also evolved with the time across the world.
3. Understanding spread of humans across globe through Big history
The big history project aims to explore and discover the evolution of life and every aspect
of society. Between 130,000-90,000 years ago Homo sapiens migration across Africa took place.
Around 70,000 years ago climatic changed and glaciers cuts caused division of north west and
north east Africa along with the division of South (Alvarez, 2016). The physical separation also
resulted in gene diversity. As a result of this 4 main ethnic groups of globe namely African,
Caucasian, Mangolian and Aboriginal were developed.
Around 60,000 years ago these group migrated to different parts of the world and carried
diversities with them. The theory also helps in understanding the notion of race. For instance
around 34,000 when the great ice sheet was swept then migrated people also adapted changes in
appearance by developing paler skin so that sufficient vitamin D can be produced even in the
weaker sunlight of Ice age (Simon, Behmand and Burke, 2015). Such types of genetic and
physical adaptations helps to understand the racial notions across globe.
(Source: Map of Homo Sapiens Migration, 2019)
4. Agriculture development
Humans used to migrate from one place to other in search of food as well as to explore
the new environments. Along with the search of edible foods they also used to hunt animals for
their survival. At one place when food began to reduced due to increasing consumption then
humans used to migrate. However, in the last phases of Ice age end many of the human groups
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Illustration 1: Migration of human population

decided to stay at same place instead of migrating in search of food. By using learned knowledge
from the environmental experience humans initiated agricultural experiment. The growing
density of the population in small areas also caused food scarcity and thus making agriculture as
good option for getting surplus of food (Christian, 2018). Agricultural development is important
so that resource balance can be established at various places and resource scarcity is not caused
due to exploitation of resources at one place.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alvarez, W., 2016. A most improbable journey: a big history of our planet and ourselves. WW
Norton & Company.
Christian, D., 2018. Origin story: A big history of everything. Hachette UK.
Simon, R.B., Behmand, M. and Burke, T. eds., 2015. Teaching big history. Univ of California
Press.
Spier, F., 2015. Big history and the future of humanity. John Wiley & Sons.
Zinkina, J., and et.al., 2019. A Big History of Globalization: The Emergence of a Global World
System. Springer.
Online
Map of Homo Sapiens Migration. 2019. [Online]. Accessed through
<https://www.ancient.eu/image/6605/map-of-homo-sapiens-migration/>
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