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Era 1 Overview Video (9:00)

Key Ideas

As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.

Key Ideas

Think about the following questions as you watch the video


  1. 01:30 What kinds of narratives about the past might you encounter, according to the video?
  2. 03:06 Why should we start a course in world history before humans existed?
  3. 05:00 The video introduces one historian’s account of history, David Christian’s Big History. What does Christian argue were the big transitions, or changes, in this account?
  4. 06:25 The video also introduces the story of Ardi, who was one of our ancestors but not yet a modern human. Ardi’s life seems very different from ours. What were some of these differences?
  5. 07:12 Ardi and her species did share at least one attribute with modern humans, however. What was it?