• The 14 large domesticated animals could only be found in North Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America.
• The llama could only be found in South America.
• North America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Australia have no tamable beasts of burden.    

This is all I remember taking notes of because I forgot my notebook. My question was answered though. The reason the native Americans were not very advanced is because there were no animals of burden in North America at the time. Horses, cattle, and goats were not brought until later which probably kick-started the American Colonists. 

• Barly and wheat made it easier for people to survive.
• Archaeological site Draa is the earliest sophisticated civilization founded at around 11,000 years ago
• People started growing there own food.
• Domestication- When humans interfere with the growth and development of plants and animals.
• China began to farm rice.
• Corn, squash and beans started to grow in the Americas,
• People in Africa farmed sorghum, millet, and yams
• Geographic luck it also a variable in the development of civilizations
• Humans started to domesticate animals
• leftover food is used to feed the animals and we can use their dung to fertilize crops
• goats and sheep are first to be domesticated, then cows and pigs
• people in new guinea did not have strong animals
• out of 148 species, only 14 are domesticatable
• Goats
• sheep
• pigs
• cows
• horses
• donkeys
• bactrian camel
• water buffalo
• llamas
• reindeer
• Yaks
• nithans
• Bali cattle

Today in Western Civ. we had a small quiz on Guns, Germs, and Steel. I do not think I did to well on it. Guns, Germs, and Steel was hard to watch it in class because I did not have headphones so I had to use YouTube's auto-generated captions. The problem with the captions is they are inaccurate because it is an AI that reads words spoken and it is wrong a lot of the time so you just have to guess what the captions mean. This means I did not get too many specific details on my notes. I did not even know his name was Diamond because the captions said "Dimond". I really hope this was worth not a lot of points because I do not want to start by 2nd semester with a F and be not able to bring it back up. I also did not get very far in the video because I was taking a lot of notes. Otherwise, it is a very interesting video and I hope we watch the rest in class. It was always kind of obvious that regions with richer resources had more advanced civilizations but it is cool to see how the land the people are from affects there progress so much. I still wonder why the native Americans weren't so advanced though because North America is one of the best continents to get resources. Native Americans were definitely not as remote as the remote regions of New Guinea but it seems like they could have been much more developed, especially because people were in North America since 30 century BC. 

Guns, Germs, and Steel

• This video is about how guns, germs, and steel shaped history and why history became so unequal.
• Dimond is looking in Papua New Guinea to look for answers.
• Dimond is a biologist in training and is a professional in human physiology
• He is trying to fin out why the people of new Guinea are so much poorer than modern Americans
• When items were brought to new guinea by westerners the people of New Guinea were amazed and treated the items as religion items.
• All advanced civilizations had some things in common.
• large population
• advanced technology
• organized workforce
• Dimond went back thousands of years to when all people were about similar technologically speaking
• People lived as hunter gatherers in the middle east when the Earth was warming after the ice age. The middle east was not as arid.
• In New Guinea, Gathering is done by women and hunting is done by men.
• The reason people in New Guinea may be so underdeveloped is because of their environment.
• Wheat from grass in the middle east could have been a factor to set humanity on track.
• The ice age then started to return and herds of animals died and the middle east suffered an environmental collapse because the middle east got colder and drier.
• The first permanent villages were in the middle east.

             This is my very last blog of Human Geo. This was one of my favorite classes of the first semester. I do not know why I liked it so much, even though 90% of it was copying notes.  I think I just like the topic of social studies, it was also my favorite class in middle school. I also like the discussions that happen in this class sometimes. They are very interesting and I like hearing other people's point of view. Although they are not my favorite, the blogs are very helpful unless I forget. I have been forgetting more for some reason and I hope to keep remembering for the blogs in western civilization.

 Today in Human Geo we got our exam essays back. I was very surprised that I got such a high grade. I am a horrible writer so I was expecting at least below a ninety. A problem I have with Typing things is I have a super slow wpm of 25, so when I am half way through typing a sentence I completely forget the sentence I am trying to type. I am also noticing my blogs are getting shorter and shorter every day so I am going to try to keep longer for now on. I am pretty sure every class has to do a speech presentation. I do not know what the presentation in Human Geo, maybe just a power point?

Today in human geo we went over what will be on the test. This was very helpful because I know what to study now, usually I do not know what to study. The rest of the week will be very busy for me because I have a ton of homework and Quizzes. Tomorrow I have a test and a quiz, Thursday I have a Quiz, and I have two tests Friday. As of now, it looks like there is a big chance of no school Friday, which I would usually be happy about, but I do not want to have the tests postponed. I also have Track championships and if school is canceled, that may also be postponed and I will have track practice for another week. I do not know why, but this week seems more stressful then exam week.

           Christianity is a Monotheistic religion who's founder is Jesus Christ. Jesus Was born in a manger at around 4-6 BC on December 25, according to Christians. Jesus is believed to be God in human form and he founded the Christian Religion, which later became a wide-spread religion around the world. Christianity started in in Rome and later spread to Europe, Africa, Russia, and later North and South America when it they were colonized by Europe. It became the largest and most wide spread religion in the world. There are currently 2.2 billion adherents. Christianities Holy book is the Bible, but it is focused around the New Testament. There are many denominations, the largest being Catholic, with 1.2 billion followers. Other major denominations are the Eastern Orthodox Church, Protestants (Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and many more).

Islam is the second largest religion in the world, with 1.5 billion followers. There founder is Mohammed, who was born at around 570 A.D. You can find most Muslims(name for people who adhere to the religion Islam) In Indonesia, there are 225 million adherents. the two denominations are the Sunnis and Shiites. the Sunnis make up about 75%-90% of all Muslims. They are also monotheistic and there holy book is the Qur'an.

Hinduism is the third largest religion in the world with 1.1 million adherents. The Hindus(what you call people who follow Hinduism), can be found mostly in India and Nepal. Unlike other religions, Hinduism has no distinct founders, it is just a series of intellectual or philosophical points of view. They believe in reincarnation, and every living creature on Earth has a soul. There holy book is the Vedas, Which has 3 sub-groups. The Rig-Vedas, Yajur-Vedas, and Sama-Vedas.

  There are 500 mil to 1.5 billion Buddhists in the world. Buddhism was founded by Siddhartha Gautama. There are 4 denominations, Tibetan, zen, Theravada, Amidist. Buddhists can be found mostly in Asia, China, Nepal, and Japan. Buddhists follow the 4 basic truths: There is suffering, attachment to desire is the origin of suffering, there is a cessation of suffering, the Eightfold Path will lead to the cessation of suffering. The Eightfold Path is: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right dedication.

Judaism is the ninth largest religion in the world with around 16 million followers. Jewish people are referred to as Jews and most Jews are in Israel, 75% of them are there. There founder was Abraham and their Holy Book is the Torah. They are ethical monotheistic, meaning they believe in one God who is concerned with the actions of humankind. They follow the ten commandments and the 13 principles of faith.

• People who move to a country usually change their language but not there religion.
• 4 largest religions
• Christianity
• Islam
• Hinduism 
• Buddhism
• 14-28 million people in Judaism
• Atheism- belief there is no God
• Agnostic- the belief that God can not be proven
• In most countries, the largest number of adherents is either Christianity or Islam
• Christianity- most practiced religion in almost every country on the western hemisphere and most countries in Europe and sub Saharan Africa.
• Christianity has 3 major practices
• Roman Catholic
• Protestant
• Orthodox
• 50 percent of Catholics are Roman Catholic

Today in Human Geo we discussed our homework. We focused on Indulgences which were pretty much a way for the church to get money. Class was cut short because of the Pow-Wow assembly. I really liked the assembly and I really want to go to the Pow-Wow. I actually went to the Pow-Wow three years ago because my sister Catherine went with her friend Catherine and she brought me. Last time I went we did not walk around too much so this time I can walk around the shops. I thought it was very interesting so I am exited to go again.

1a. The Rig-Veda is an ancient Indian Vedic text which contains hymns in Vedic Sanskrit, which is an ancient Indo-European language. It also has additional information on liturgy, ritual, and mythical exegesis. There are 1017 hymns.

1b. The Yajur-Veda was primarily used for worship purposes and is also in Vedic Sanskrit. There are 1,875 verses.

1c. The Sama-Veda is mostly composed of songs and chants and was written in Vedic Sanskrit. There are 1,549 verses.

1d. The Athar-Veda is the latest scripture and has information on every day life. There are 730 hymns.

2.  Indulgences were something you could buy for a family member who had died that will get them out of purgatory.

3.  I think he saw it as a scam and it was just a way for the church to get more money.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indulgence

4.  The Hajj is a pilgrimage to Mecca, the holiest city to Muslims, that takes place every year over the course of five days. It is to show there submission to Allah (God) and about two million Muslims participate.

• Hinduism
• Founder: no distinct founder- series of intelligent or philosophical points of view.
• Example, "As a person puts on new clothes and discards old and torn clothes, similarly an embodied soul enters new material bodies, leaving the old bodies." This means reincarnation.
• Buddhism
• Number of followers: 500 mil to 1.5 billion
• Call them: Buddhists
• Geographic location: Southeast Asia, China, Nepal, Japan.
• 1.2 million Buddhists in the U.S.
• Founder: Siddhartha Gautama
• Denominations: Tibetan, zen, Theravada, Amidist
• 4 noble truths
• There is suffering
• Attachment to desire is the origin of suffering
• There is a cessation of suffering
• The Eightfold Path will lead to the cessation of suffering
• Right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, dedication
• Judaism
• Number of adherents, 14-18 mil (ninth)
• Call them- Jews
• Geographic location- Isreal, 6.4 million (75.4%) U.S, 5.3-7mil (1.7-2.6%)
• Founder: Abraham
• Holy book: The Torah
• beliefs: ethical monotheism- God is one and concerned with the actions of humanity.
• Ten Commandments
• 13 principles of faith.

I was not in class today because of a track meet.

• Christianity
• Number of adherent/followers:  ~2.2 billion in the world
• Call them: Christians
• Geographic Location: Europe, the Americas, Southern Africa
• Denominations:  Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Protestants, Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians and many more
• Founder: Jesus
• Christianity is an Abrahamic Religion
• Holy Book:  The Bible, especially the New Testament (Gospels)
• Beliefs:  Jesus is both human and divine - Son of God.  He led a virtuous life.  He was crucified, died, buried and resurrected:  he ascended into heaven where he reigns with God the Father.
• Clergy:  The Pope is head of the Catholic Church.  Priests & local authorities.
• Islam
• Number of adherent/followers:  ~1.5 billion (2nd largest)
• Call them: Muslim
• Geographic Location: Indonesia, Middle East, North Africa
• Denominations:  Sunnis (75-90%), Shiites (10-20%)
• Founder: Muhammad (570-632 a.d)
• Holy Book:  Qur'an
• Beliefs:  Monatheistic, Abrahamic, 5 Pillars (testimony, prayer, alms giving, fasting, pilgrimage).  Muslims see their purpose in life as serving and submitting to Allah (god) and observing Islamic law
• Hinduism
• Number of adherent/followers:  ~1.1 billion (3rd largest)
• Call them: Hindus
• Geographic Location: India, Nepal
• Holy Book:  Vedas - eternal truths revealed to the ancient sages composed in verse form.