HIS_111_World_Civ_I

Spring 2012 - Week 1.2

Thread Ideas:  One of your assignments is to choose a "thread", an aspect of culture, that you will follow throughout the cultures we will study.  Your findings will be posted in your E-Portfolio.  We will discuss some ideas in class, but here is a list of threads that students have chosen in the past.  You can choose one of these, or you may select a new one and talk to me about your choice before beginning.  Remember to think about class difference when discussing your thread.  For example, in some cultures, the status of women varied greatly between the upper and lower classes.  Be sure to make a note of that difference.  Here is the list in no specific order:

• art of war
• weaponry
• art
• architecture
• medicine/healing
• religious beliefs/practices
• technology/inventions
• common trading items
• trading partners
• games/sports
• social/family structure
• status of women
• status of children
• educational methods
• typical foods/diet
• clothing/hair styles

Project Ideas:  Another one of your assignments is to choose a topic to explore in depth and to produce a PowerPoint Presentation (PPP) of 6-8 slides answering some questions found in your syllabus and briefly describing your research.  Many students in the past chose a "historical" film about ancient history, chose some specific scenes, and very successfully showed what was historical fact and what was fiction in those scenes.  You may choose this option and what follows are some of the films used in the past.  You may also choose to read a historical book and I have added a list of some classics recently reviewed in the Wall Street Journal (1/21-22/2012) that have been written about the period we are studing.

Possible Movies to Review:

• 300
• Gladiator
• Kingdom of Heaven
• Hercules
• Clash of the Titans
• Spartacus
• The Oddessey
• Cleopatra

Possible Historical Books to Review: