Big Era Two: Panorama Unit

Why This Unit?

This unit aims to help students understand what makes our species, known as Homo sapiens, unique. It also shows what humans shared with their near relatives among the genus Homo. Ninety-five per cent of human history falls within this Big Era, which spans the period from the emergence of Homo sapiens to the beginnings of agriculture.

The unit raises several big questions:

• What makes a human being human?
• In what ways did early Homo sapiens, the species "like us," differ from or resemble other representatives of the genus Homo, particularly our near relatives, the Neanderthals?
• What can historical evidence tell us about how our ancestors lived before about 10,000 years ago? How reliable are our conclusions from that evidence?
• What features of the way of life of modern humans before 10,000 years ago paved the way for the emergence of the complex societies, or civilizations?
• How do we assess what is historically important using information about this Big Era?

The lessons in this unit focus on three important aspects of the era.

• In Lesson 1 students compare Neanderthals with Homo sapiens of pre-30,00 years ago, discussing the question, "Should the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights apply to both species? One of them? Neither of them? Why?
• In Lesson 2 students draw conclusions about the way of life in an imaginary sub-arctic settlement of about 24,000 years ago. Their investigation is based on site-plans, pictures of finds, and descriptions in form of field-notes.
• Lesson 3 considers on the questions of how well art of this era fits definitions of art, what part it played in the societies creating it, what attempts have been made to decode its meaning, and what it reveals about ways of life and thought of its creators.