The Human Legacy

OUR DISTANT ANCESTORS Humans first appeared in east Africa millions of years ago, and from there spread throughout the world.
HUMAN UNIVERSALS What were the universal qualities shared by our early ancestors as they migrated out of Africa?

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
The First Word Researchers inside and outside the field of linguistics are establishing the study of language evolution as a solid science.
Language Evolution How did forms of communication come to be, and how have they developed over the course of human life on earth?
The Indo-Europeans Theories of the origins of the Indo-Europeans.

OUT OF AFRICA
The Great Human Diasporas Our journey out of Africa from the biological, archaeological, social anthropology and linguistic point of view.
Before the Dawn How geneticists have applied the results from the human genome project to the evolutionary history of the human race.

EARLY SETTLEMENTS
China A glimpse into the material life of the early communities in China.
Australia Information and controversy surrounding the First Australians and the “Hobbit.”
Europe The journey of modern humans to Europe.
America Was America first populated by ancient Siberians who crossed from Asia by way of Beringia or by sea-going Ice-Age Europeans?

Turning Points in Human Thought

Human beings are a problem-solving animal. As with our physical evolution, our mental evolution occurs in response to problems. In this section of the human journey review the development of human thought, tracing its journey to contemporary Western religious and spiritual thought.

PRE-AXIAL THOUGHT
From about 40,000 years ago our ancestors made an enormous creative and cultural leap in the advancement of tool making and in the creation of art. At this point they became psychologically modern humans. How did this help them survive? What do we know about the way they and later humans saw their world, their origins, life and death?

Sections include: Introduction | The Noble Ones | Greece | China

AXIAL AGE THOUGHT
In 1949 the German philosopher Karl Theodor Jaspers coined the phrase “Achsenzeit” (“Axial Age” or “Axis age” in English) to describe a time between approximately 900 - 200 BCE when “The spiritual foundations of humanity were laid simultaneously and independently and these are the foundations upon which humanity still subsists today.”

Sections include: Introduction | Zoraster | Hinduism | Buddhism | China | Greece | Judaism

POST-AXIAL AGE THOUGHT
An overview of the influences and development of religious and spiritual thought in the Western world.

Sections include: Jerusalem | The Church that Paul Built | The Best-known Gospels | The Historical Jesus | Jesus the Teacher | A Multicultural Story | Mohammad

The Road to Now

Guns, Germs, and Steel Support for the claim that Eurasians had geographical and ecological advantages that gave them a head start on the rest of the world.

The Axemaker’s Gift How discoveries and innovations drive adaption and change.

1491 How the impact of European contact with the Americas altered the ecological dynamics.

STILL IN DEVELOPMENT FOR THIS PART ARE THE FOLLOWING SECTIONS: