JC Human Geography

During class we reviewed a couple things for the Mesopotamia quiz tomorrow. We listened to song about Mesopotamia. We kind of just messed around for the rest of class which was fun. The test is tomorrow, so I'm gonna study a lot today.

During class, we discussed the questions on the quiz that's coming up on Wednesday. I answered a question, but I didn't know the answer to it. It was, "What is the Old Stone Age?" and the answer was preneolithic. Some possible questions are: What is the first set of laws? the Hammurabi code How many laws in the Hammurabi code? 282 How did the people know the Hammurabi laws? It was written on stone Gilgamesh? A great flood. (Also in the Bible in Noah's Arc) Silt? A fine material carried by running water deposition as sediment Modern places in Fertile Crescent? Iran Greek for between the rivers Mesopotamia Temple built on mountains? Ziggurat Generation of military leaders? Dynasty City state? kind of like an independent country, but not. Has own government, rulers, city + surrounding land Belief in many gods? Polytheism Sumerian writing system? Cuneiform New stone age? Neolithic Revolution Old Stone Age? Preneolithic

During class, we discussed the Hammurabi's Code, as well as the laws that go with it. One of the most well known law is "An eye for an eye." The laws were literally so violent and so specific? Like, dude, Hammurabi needs to chill. Some examples of this are: If a man BEATS A PREGNANT WOMAN to the point she has a MISCARRIAGE he only has to pay up some money. But if he beats her to DEATH then his daughter dies. If a slave is getting real sassy with his owner, then his ear is chopped off If  a priest woman person goes to a bar then they SET HER ON FIRE If a woman has an affair, then she and the guy will be binded and will be drowned together. Also the original husband guy can save her if he wants  If a guy accuses another guy of something, then they toss the accused into the river so that the river decides. If he's dead, then he was guilty, and if he survived, then he isn't... If a son talks back to his dad, then his hands would be chopped off. Bruh

What areas of life did Hammurabi's Code cover? Hammurabi's code was formed by Hammurabi. It was a series of laws that he created because a single uniform laws help unify diverse groups in an empire. There were 282 of them that affected the community, including family relations, business conduct, crime, and protection of the women and children from discrimination. There were also many laws that relate to property. All of these laws applied to everybody, however the punishments varied depending on how much money you have.

1) Fertile Crescent- The regions curved shapes and richness of its land Mesopotamia- A plain (Greek for "Land between rivers") City state- Similar to an independent country. They have their own gov. and rulers. They have a city and the surrounding land. Dynasty- Military leaders and passed their power unto their sons. Cultural Diffusion- Process a new idea or product spreads from one culture to another Polytheism-Belief in many gods Empire- Brings together several people, nations, or previously independent states under one ruler Hammurabi-1792 BC-1750 BC. the sixth king of the Amorite First Dynasty of Babylon. 3) The three disadvantages were: Unpredictable flooding/little to no rain No protection or defense Limited resources

During class we watched the Jeopardy Teen Tournament. It was really fun, since we were just joking around and it was the end of the semester, so we couldn't really learn new material.

Today we took the Guns, Germs, and Steel Test. I think I did pretty well on the test. There were some questions that I wasn't too sure about, but I still think I did okay. Mr. Schick put on some music during the test which was nice. I also drew Gary the Snail on my test.

In class, we finished watching the last ten minutes of "Guns, Germs, and Steel." We discussed possible questions for the test and reviewed the content of the video/notes.

We continued watching "Guns, Germs, and Steel." We learned about animal domestication. To tame animals to benefit both humans and the animals.Only certain animals can be domesticated. They must be herbivores, large, and social. They have to reproduce regularly, and they have to get along with humans. There are 14 animals that are successfully domesticated by humans. Goats, sheep, pigs, cows, bali cattle, horses, donkeys, bactrian camels, arabian camels, water buffalo, llamas, reindeer, yaks, and mithans. At least one of these animals were in many different countries, however, in Papua New Guinea, there were none of the listed animals there. Again, this is where the geographical luck comes in. They were very unlucky, not have very little plants, but also no animals that are able to be domesticated. Some of the uses of domesticating animals is to get their milk, use them for clothes, and to do labor chores such as pulling a plow.

We continued to watch "Guns, Germs, and Steel." We learned that a lot of how a country succeeds is based off of their geographical luck. For example, in many places such as China and the Americas, they thrived off of farming. However in Papua New Guinea, the people there farm as well, however, the plants and food that are available to them are foods that are lacking in protein. They are not able to store them for long. they have even resorted to eating bugs as a source of protein. Papua New Guinea's geographical luck was bad, so even though they farm like many other countries, they aren't as successful.

During class, we continued to watch Guns, Germs, and Steel. We learned that all great civilizations have three things in common: Advanced Technology Large Population Well Organized Work Force We also learned a couple of definitions such as: Pre history-Before things got written down Plant Domestication-Controlling plants. It's ALMOST like farming Granary-A place to store grain (Used in Draa) We learned that Draa is the oldest known human settlement. It was a small village. with 40-50 people, which was considered a large population 11,500 years ago

In the first part of class, we looked at our exam grades, and I did really well. We also looked over the book "Guns, Germs, and Steel." The main idea of the book was that the different continents and countries develop at different paces based on their geography. After discussing our notes, we started to watch the first part of the movie.