Chapter 7 Africa and the Americas

Richard DiTullio

Africa and the Americas

Reading chapter 7, Africa and the Americas, reminded me of how  restaurant critics evaluate restaurants in San Francisco.

Did you know there are over 6,000 eating establishments in the City by the Bay?

You may be asking, what is the relevance to the chapter regarding

 “Classical Era Variations”

If you were an alien, who was observing and learning about the restaurant scene in San Francisco as you orbited earth, you may get the wrong impression if you obtained your data from the San Francisco Chronicle.

It seems that the top 100 restaurants are the consistent choices of food critics. Each of these establishments take turns being rated 1 star, 2, 3 or 4 stars. It’s the same old restaurants just re-cycled and written about, saying the same old boring stuff.

What about the other restaurants? Are they relevant in any way shape or form? Do they not have interesting menu selections? Why then, don't we here to much about them?

Historians often refer to the ancient civilizations of Greece, Rome, Persia, China and the Indians of South Asia, as the “Classical Period” of mankind's tenure on earth. These were the civilizations that received the most “ink” in the History Books.

Well, as in the case of the restaurant scene of San Francisco, there were other civilizations that flourished around the Globe that were just as significant and valued, as the aforementioned “Eurasian” societies. 

Robert Strayer, the author of “Way of the World”, and other scholars have sought to counteract a “Euro-Centric” telling of World History. These other civilizations existed, thrived and broke apart, just as their Eurasian counterparts did while occupying the same “time and space” as Greece, Rome, Persia, China and the Indians of South Asia

 They were primarily located on two of the three super-continents, i.e. the African continent and the Americas continent.

To be fair Historians may have focused on the big-5 civilizations due to unevenness in population disbursements.

For example: Historians estimate that of the three great Super-continents of “Eurasia”, “Africa” and the “Americas”, 80% of the world’s population resided on the “Eurasian” continent; and, about 11% on the “African” continent and another 3 to 7% on the continent of the “Americas”. Hence,The Eurasian continent received the most "historical" examination in the history books of our elementary and high school classes.

Many, many restaurants are making top notch food and are generally contributing to a thriving and exciting restaurant scene in San Francisco.

So too, the civilizations of the “Mesoamerican Maya”, the “Peruvian Moche”, and the civilizations of the “African continent”, like the “Mero”, “Axum” and the “Niger River Valley” were thriving and contributory civilizations, therefore just as relevant,  as their neighbors on the Eurasian continent.

As we have seen in the preceding chapters, the “Agricultural Revolution” was the genesis of civilizations. As early man transitioned from ”gatherer-hunter” societies to residents of city-states, a culture started to emerge.

The book goes into details on 3 regions in Africa and 3 regions of the Americas. I will only speak broadly about these details to emphasize the relevance and existence of these other valued civilizations.

These other two Super-continents, as its Eurasian neighbor, had variations and similarities based on proximity to water and other ecological variables like changing weather patterns.

They existed and disappeared, based on environmental changes as well as from internal upheavals, wars, and disease.

For example: the Maya civilization of Mesoamerica started around 2000 B.C.E. to about 840 C.E., however, they disappeared by nearly 85% due to famine, epidemics, fratricidal warfare, and a prolonged drought. Their culture developed mathematics, astronomy, architecture and writing, etc, as the other more popular civilizations like Greece and Rome did.

The city of “Teotihuan” was the largest and most sophisticated urban complex in the Americas. Its population was estimated to be between 100-200,000 people. The city boasted grand public buildings, temples, broad avenues lined with statues, palaces, and market squares, as well as a political system of governance. It also had a complex, irrigation network, providing water,  just as the Roman Aqueducts’ had on the Eurasian continent.

Other examples of “first civilizations” of the Classical Era are the Bantu speaking peoples of the African continent. Also, the city of Axum, which was located on the horn of Africa, was a thriving metropolis. This was a highly developed agricultural region that produced a fairly sophisticated society. The Axumites constructed “obelisks” to honor their dead. Some were over 100 feet tall. There is a noteworthy one that is almost 80 feet tall and cut from a single stone. The engineering of these structures rival the Pyramids of the Pharaohs’

The people of the African Continent as well as the continent of the Americas, had, developed as a result of the “agricultural revolution”. The civilizations of the African continent and the Americas continent, created long distance trading, which allowed exposure to other religions, spices, artwork, etc, ; they developed urban centers, complex societies, architecture and written languages, that parallel the same major features of the “classical” Eurasian civilizations.

Just like the restaurants of San Francisco that are not on the “top 100” list, these lesser known , but equally important, civilizations contributed to the rich traditions and cultures of mankind, that make their home on the third planet from the sun,… called ………Earth.