Nick

All of the content covered until today's class period which was when we covered societies that have "collapsed" was more of a review due to the fact that I took an anthropology class where the teacher was obsessed with Native American history and we would talk about that more than anthropology. I also read all of the first chapter which provided greater details to each subject than what was covered during lecture. The material that I learned today which looked at Hohokam (800-1400 A.D.), the Anasazi (900-1300 A.D.), and the Cahokin Mounds (700-1400 A.D.) was all new to me, but I knew that North America had numerous prosperous societies around this time period. I enjoy hearing about large societies that were important in history, especially before Columbus, but are often excluded from history classes. I also found the climactic change that occurred between the 12th and 14th centuries to be intriguing.
Other than the content which covered the "collapsed" societies, I just had a few general questions about the class. I have seen that one other person wondered this, but after today's lecture I was curious if we would learn any more details about this drought that was one of the major influences in the dispersement of the inhabitants of the three societies we examined. One other question I had dealt with the Maritime Theory. How was it was believed that people were able to travel from Chile to Australia. Even the Native Americans from NW and NE which were advanced with wood working didn't have that advanced of boats which would allow for more extensive ocean traveling. Other than these two questions, I feel comfortable with the material.