An example of collective learning can be seen when a lioness teaches her cubs to hunt. ), Worlds of the Silk Roads: Ancient and Modern. Fax: +7 (8442)42-17-71 Smallpox, measles, and bubonic plagues devastated the populations at either end of the routes, where people had less resistance. Half a century after the Han began to engage with their western neighbors, Augustus came to power in Rome following a century of civil war. 6.2—Collective Learning. Even though Pliny's figure is undoubtedly exaggerated, it provides evidence of the incredible scale of Silk Roads commercial exchanges. Vol. In Hodder, I., Isaac, G., and Hammond, N. Big history is the collective history of everything from every human's perspective. Aspects of the Secondary Products Revolution. 2013: 180). Connecting the four world zones posed many challenges, but after 1400, innovation and collective learning took a giant leap forward. September 18, 2018 September 26, 2018 Big History Project BHP General. 19–45). Prior to the success of pastoralists in these more marginal zones, agrarian civilizations were considerably more isolated from each other. XXV. What is Big History? 2013: 177–178). 4. Humans are cable of doing this because of our powerful brains and language. By 166 CE, the Han emperor himself was sacrificing to the Buddha, and the Sutra on the ‘Perfection of the Gnosis’ was translated into Chinese by 179 CE. Activity: Claim Testing – Collective Learning. Volleyball is a great example of collective learning, and also is very relevant to the idea of change over time. An early example of intellectual exchange, which took place before the Silk Roads had started to operate with real intensity, was the spread of Greek and Hellenistic culture from the Eastern Mediterranean to Central Asia and India. Keywords: complexity, collective learning, demographic cycles, … Geography made it possible for the first agrarian civilizations of western Eurasia and northeastern Africa to form cultural and commercial connections, but geography also prevented Chinese civilization from joining these developing networks in any substantive way. Event Highlights. World History Bulletin 1: 30–32. The trans-civilizational contacts that occurred through this exchange resulted in the most significant collective learning so far experienced by the human species. China and the Dar al-Islam were clearly engaged in intense commercial exchanges during this second Silk Roads Era, and Arab mariners undertaking lengthy seagoing voyages were maintaining this vibrant trans-Afro-Eurasian web late in the first millennium of the Common Era. The diagram opposite is a very simple map of the relations between three people (or perhaps three groups of people). Big History explains everthing starting with Big Bang until nowadays. As a result of this interaction, despite the diversity of participants, the history of Afro-Eurasia has preserved a certain underlying unity, expressed in common technologies, artistic styles, cultures and religions, even disease and immunity patterns, a unity that was to have profound implications for subsequent world history. (eds. The output from these workshops reflects the sort of synthesis typical of the intensity of collective learning during the Era of Agrarian Civilizations. convened an important meeting in Kashmir at which the decision was taken to rewrite the Buddhist scriptures in a more popular and accessible language. Through collective learning humans adapt to our environment without changing genetically. The appearance of a species capable of collective learning marks a tipping point in the history of the biosphere, after which the very rules of change begin to change. But collective learning likely goes back more than 50,000 years ago. The Yuezhi. 2013: 181). Such knowledge is institutionalized in the form of structures, rules, routines, norms, discourse, and strategies that guide future action. Collective Learning Agriculture Expansion and Interconnection The Modern Revolution The Little Big History of Watches References Reference Part 2 Big History From the Beginning of time to the world we know today. 8.1 Exploration and Interconnection Exploration required crossing dangerous deserts and deep ocean waters. Collective learning is the increase in complexity over time as ideas and knowledge are preserved, spread and built up upon among communities. One idea is passed from one person to the next, and is improved upon. Turnhout: Brepols. Traditions and Encounters. The primary function of the Silk Roads was to facilitate trade, but the intellectual, social, and artistic exchanges that resulted had an even greater impact on collective learning. : 30–32). This joining together of previously separated human communities led to a steep increase in levels of collective learning and complexity that had regional and global ramifications. New York: McGraw-Hill. The Tang bowls were functional and intended for the ninth-century equivalent of a ‘mass market’. Tag: Collective Learning. National Geographic Magazine (June 2009): 112–123. The major Chinese export commodity in demand in Rome was silk, an elegant, translucent, sensual material that soon came to be regarded as the last word in fashion by wealthy patrician women. Benjamin, C. 2007b. In Africa, there is strong evidence of new technologies from 100,000 years ago or even earlier. Collective learning, as defined by Big History, is the ability to "use language to share and build knowledge". It can refer to pedagogical designs that feature collective intelligence, i.e. Donate or volunteer today! 2013: 178). Since wolves/dogs were so intelligent humans used that to their advantage and once domesticated they were able to learn off each other through their actions and behavior. Why collective learning? Vol. Collective Learning COLLECTIVE LEARNING SNAP JUDGEMENT We have to look at the following statements and quickly decide whether they are true or false. Big History and Collective Learning. The Kushans in World History. The more they did this, however, the more nomadic they had to be, so that they could graze their animals over large areas. Significant linkages developed during the era in the Americas, Australasia, and the Pacific, but the four zones were so isolated from each other that human populations in each remained utterly ignorant of events in the others. The Christian missionary, Paul of Tarsus, may have traveled as many as 8,000 miles along the roads and sea-lanes of the eastern Roman Empire preaching to small Christian communities. The Han iron was prized in Rome for its exceptional hardness. The winds blow reliably from the southwest in summer, allowing heavily laden trade ships to sail across the Indian Ocean from the coast of Africa to India. By the middle of the first millennium BCE, a number of large pastoral nomadic communities had emerged with the military skills and technologies, and the endurance and mobility, to dominate their sedentary agrarian neighbors. Only with the biological evolution and then human domestication of the silk worm and the Bactrian camel did the Chinese have an export commodity valuable enough, and a transport mechanism hardy enough, to justify and facilitate the expensive and complex expeditions necessary to allow the Chinese merchants to join the pre-existing Afro-Eurasian exchange network. Not only did the passing of disease bacteria along the Silk Roads by traders play a significant role in the depopulation and subsequent decline of both the Han and Roman Empires, but the exposure of millions of humans to these pathogens meant that antibodies spread extensively throughout the Afro-Eurasian world zone, and important immunities were built up within populations. On a Big History course, ... with collective learning." ‘Made in China’. Gallery: What Makes Humans Different? Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. BIG HISTORY PROJECT / LESSON 6.2 ACTIVITY 2. Tel: +7 (8442)42-04-08 Passage One “It is a fact that all over the country of Cathay there is a kind of black … An example of collective learning can be seen when a … PART 4 COLLECTIVE LEARNING 9 1180L 2. Second Silk Roads Era c. 600 – c. 1000 CE. The Chinese, realizing the commercial value of their monopoly on silk, carefully guarded the secret of silk production, and border guards in Dunhuang searched merchants to make sure they were not carrying any actual silk worms out of the country. Collective learning, one of the most important threshold moments plays a huge role in the story of gunpowder. : 30–32). The Chinese merchants active in the silk trade became attracted to the faith, too, and returned home to spread the Buddhist message. Video: Early Collective Learning It would appear that collective learning plays a direct mechanistic role in increasing the level of free energy rate density and also the number of available cultural variations and technological innovations. Threshold 6: Humans and Collective Learning. By the middle of the last century BCE, conditions in Afro-Eurasia were ripe for levels of material and cultural exchange – and collective learning – hitherto unknown (Benjamin 2009: 30–32). peruch@mail.ru Population growth tended to Vol. This raises the … The Central Asian religion of Manichaeism also benefitted from the silk routes after it emerged in Mesopotamia in the third century CE. One of the distinctive ideas of big history is that of collective learning.David Christian describes collective learning in this way in his Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History:. However, with the creation of the Dar al-Islam in the eighth and ninth centuries CE, and the establishment of the Tang Dynasty in China at the same time, significant Silk Roads exchanges along both land and maritime routes revived. It is a continuous chain of ideas about the universe. The religion also later found ready acceptance in Korea, Japan, Tibet, Mongolia, and Southeast Asia (Benjamin 1998, 2009). The bulk of overland Silk Roads trade was literally carried on the backs of these extraordinary animals (Christian et al. k.bir@mail.ru, Globalistics and globalization studiesBig history & global history, In Memoriam: Robert L. Carneiro (1927-2020), 6th International Scientific Congress “Globalistics-2020”: “Global issues and future of humankind”, A new volume: A Big History of Globalization. We all descended from a common shrew-like ancestor. With these preconditions in place, it was the decision by the Han Chinese to begin to interact with their western neighbors and engage in long-distance commerce that turned small-scale regional trading activity into a great trans-Afro-Eurasian commercial network. The Thresholds are sections that summarize a time of the Universe. to grow the collective learning of the time. Early Humans 6.2—Collective Learning. After a slow 7 million years of evolving, developing bipedalism, collectively … Big History, a new perspec tive originally introduced by Prof. David Christian, tries to provide an evidence-based scientific . narrative of the evolutionary changes from the Big Bang to the present status of human society. 400079 Benjamin, C. 2013. Practice: Quiz: Collective Learning. The Silk Roads also facilitated the spread of Christianity, Manichaeism and, later, Islam. Collective Learning as a Key Concept in Big History David Baker One of the key concepts for the human part of the grand narrative is known as ‘collective learning’. Plough and Pastoralism. Working as a team, decide what Polo is describing in the passage and how you came to that conclusion. The Silk Roads also illustrate another key theme in Big History – evolving complexity at all scales. As noted above, long before the Tang came to power, many foreign religions had made their way into East Asia. Our ancestors have passed on their knowledge to us, and as time passed on, we began to develop and expand our knowledge. The Periplus demonstrates that sailors had discovered the secrets of the monsoon ‘trade’ winds. The animal that made Silk Roads trade possible in the eastern and central regions of Afro-Eurasia was the Bactrian camel. Big history explains the past ,and gives us,knowledge about collective learning. The demise of the Western Roman, Parthian, Kushan and Han Chinese empires resulted in several centuries of less regular contact, but the second ‘Silk Roads Era’ subsequently operated for several centuries between c. 600 and 1000 CE, connecting China, India, Southeast Asia, the Dar al-Islam, and the Byzantines into another vast web based on overland and maritime trade. The primary function of the Silk Roads during both periods was to facilitate trade. Silk Roads exchanges play an even more significant role in the big history narrative. Collective learning is the ability to share information so efficiently that the ideas of individuals can be stored within the collective memory of communities and can accumulate through generations. Bentley, J., and Zeigler, H. 2010. In 65 CE, Roman Senator Pliny the Elder wrote that trade with Asia was draining the treasury of some 100 million sestercii every year (Ibid. Vol. As smallpox devastated the Mediterranean world late in the second century, populations declined again, to perhaps 40 million by 400 CE. Benjamin, C. 2009. Collective learning increases when there is greater diversity within a network Rule 3 Uneven distributions of information produce uneven distributions of power and wealth Positive feedback cycles compound the effects of these three rules, accelerating collective learning Collective learning worked differently in the world zones. Worrall, S. 2003. It's a story about us. BIG HISTORY PROJECT / LESSON 8.3 COLLECTIVE LEARNING & WORLD TRAVELERS. The major biological consequence of Silk Roads trade was the spread of diseases and plague. ( Log Out /  Collective Learning Acoustic guitars tie into the collective learning threshold because without collective learning, the guitar wouldn't have been invented and evolved The history of the acoustic guitar can be traced back to about 1400 BC and it is used to make all types of music Zhang Qian and the Origins of the Silk Roads. Christianity eventually spread further to the east along the Silk Roads, through Mesopotamia and Iran, into India, and eventually into China. Silk Roads Studies Series (pp. The firing date of the bowls was carefully noted in the ship's manifest. 1981. Early Evidence of Collective Learning. The bowls required the use of cobalt for blue coloring, which was imported by the Chinese manufacturers in significant quantities from Iran. It helps explain Project Overview. In winter the winds reverse, and the same ships carrying new cargo would make the return journey to the Red Sea. Origin, Migration and the Conquest of Northern Bactria. 6.4 Humans (CK) Projects Feedback 6.2.1 6.2.2 6.2.3 6.2 Quiz Lesson Resources: Activity 6.2.1 Objectives Video: What makes humans different? STUDENT MATERIALS CULTURE AND COLLECTIVE LEARNING DEBATE Purpose In this activity, you’re asked to think about collective learning and its relationship to culture. The commingling of so many goods, ideas, and diseases around a geographical hub located deep in central Eurasia was the catalyst for an extraordinary increase in the complexity of human relationships and collective learning, a complexity that drove our species inexorably along a path towards the modern revolution. Some innovations increased the possibility for collective learning among agrarian civilizations. First Silk Roads Era (c. 50 BCE – c. 250 CE). This was true within each of the individual world zones, although not between them. IX. The development of the Silk Roads is also an example of another key theme in Big History – evolving complexity at all scales. Elfrieda H. Hiebert, PhD, UC Santa Cruz, Text Genome California, USA Note: This blog post is featured in Session 3.2, Teaching Reading of Teaching Big History, our online training course for new and returning BHP teachers. II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. It shows how dinosaurs from 100 million years ago are connected to why you and I are here today. Volgograd, Russia Plagues and People. Humans use collective learning in their everyday life in order to communicate, and establish society as it is today. At the heart of the Silk Roads network, straddling and influencing both the land and maritime routes, was the Kushan Empire (c. 45–225 CE), one of the most important yet least known agrarian civilizations in world history (Benjamin 1998, 2009). Once such communities emerged, they facilitated the linking up of all the different lifeways and communities. Because of this regular commingling the very idea of distinct agrarian civilizations with rigid borders is misleading. ( Log Out /  It is a very prominent broad trend that sweeps across all human history. To this day Buddhism remains one of the great cultural bonds shared by millions of Asian people, one of the many legacies that the modern world owes to the Silk Roads. This is the currently selected item. 2013: 177–178). Video: The Common Man. About 200,000 years ago, man evolved to become the most important force for change on the Earth's surface. The uprising of the Homogeneous species was brought upon by the following ingredients and goldilocks condition: powerful brains, adaptable language, and a new type of interaction between individuals and others. With its promise of salvation, Buddhism seriously challenged Daoism and Confucianism for the hearts and minds of many Chinese, and in the end the syncretic faith of Chan Buddhism (Zen Buddhism in Japan) emerged as a popular compromise (Christian et al. Their use of collective learning made them an important force for change in Little Big History. When Zhang Qian returned after an epic journey of twelve years, he convinced the emperor that friendly relations could be established with many of the states of the ‘Western Regions’ because they were ‘hungry for Han goods’ (Benjamin 2007b: 3–30). The borders of agrarian civilizations were more often vague regions within which the control of rulers fluctuated or was contested by the claims of neighbors or local rulers. 2 3 In the final essay of a four-part series, David Christian explains how advances in communication and transportation accelerated collective learning. The Big History Project Tuesday, 25 October 2016. 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