The Epic of Gilgamesh

                                                            The Epic of Gilgamesh

This legend was about the King of Uruk in  Babylonia.   King Gilgamesh was two-thirds god and one-third man.   The Epic of Gilgamesh was written approximately 2700 B. C.  As he traveled around the world with a young-man and a god, Enkidu, he performed great deeds as a hero.  Enkidu taught Gilgamesh  the meaning of love, compassion, and humanity. When Enkidu died, King Gilgamesh became devastated in sorrow.  Gilgamesh experienced that his love for Enkidu allowed him to feel the human pain of the loss of a love one.  Gilgamesh searched a way to live forever to lessen the pain he felt after Enkidu died.  This legend emphasized the nature of man.  As King Gilgamesh relentlessly searched to live forever,  Utnapishtim gave him a test in which he had failed.  He learned that eternity was only for the gods.  Also, Gilgamesh discovered that the gods were dangerous for mortals.  Unfortunately, he ascertained that he must experience and endure the death of Enkidu  for him to understand his significance as King.  King Gilgamesh eventually realized that nature’s power was to remind him of his place on earth.     When he returned to his city Uruk, he understood how mortal he was,  and  now, he visualized his city as splendid and glorious rather than horrible and dreadful.  

Finally, The Epic of Gilgamesh embarked on the assertiveness of the gods and displayed the roles of the humans in society.   This legend displayed the struggles of a hero, Gilgamesh’s stubbornness to fight for eternity.  His quest led him to his place back to his city in Mesopotamia.  Thus, he finally understood what Enkidu had taught him from the beginning which was life, and in the end, which was death.  Also, The Epic of Gilgamesh taught Gilgamesh the two worlds, uncivilized and civilized.

Chapter 2

                       

In Chapter Two, the First Civilizations in the natural world grew peaceful communities. Eventually, globalization emerged due to major communities forming in the Middle East, China, Central Asia, and Egypt.  Noteworthy, the first civilization formed was Iraq, or Mesopotamia. All the communities varied in beliefs and way of survival but remained harmonious. 

I presuppose communities helped one another.   People listened because they knew they have to work together.  For example, during 1200 B.C.E. , the Olmec cities rose with the building of temples, altars, pyramids, and tombs of rulers.  As more and more communities developed, so did their resources.  Farmers started to use the techniques that eventually lead to building dikes, channels, and reservoirs.

             I conceived that we acquired vital technology from the first civilizations especially from Mesopotamia and Egypt.  The first writing system was inscribed symbols and pictures on tablets of wet clay near by the Sumerians.   However, more technology introduced inequality that lead to the decline of human communities.  Wealth, status, and power became the norm of later civilizations.  I accredited that the institution of slavery emerged in order to acquire more labor.  More and more humans were abused in order to gain power and greed.   Inequalities in gender roles existed where the men dominated power over the women, and the women were secondary to them.

I affirmed that ancient civilization brought enormous technologies that benefitted the people from neighboring communities.   However, this technology also brought greed to the powerful.  Each ruler wanted to conquer more land, wealth, and power.  Finally, this greed eventually  lead to injustice, more conflicts, and unnecessary wars.  

The Life and Words of an !Kung Woman

             The Life and Words of an !Kung Woman 

Nisa, now 50 years old, described her experience living in the !Kung society.  Nisa talked about her living experiences in the villages of !Kung bushmen or Zhun/Twasi during 1969.   Nisa described that there were no cows or goats.  She had narrated her experience from childhood to adulthood.   She contributed her own interpretation of how !Kung women married and their stages of reproducing, pregnancy, and childbirth.

            During Nisa’s childhood, she was faced with hunger.  Food became her happiness as a child.  Nisa described her excitement when she saw her father bring home honey or meat.   Nisa elaborated the two different roles of the male and the female.  Men were the hunters and, thus, held the authority of the tribe. The customs and the traditions of the women’s role held the responsibility of taking care of the family. This tradition lied solely on many factors from the tribe’s elder members.   The women’s duties were to collect food, such as berries and tsin beans. The !Kung society influenced Nisa to mature faster than she wanted to sexually.   Nisa experienced marriage and sex for the first time as a child.  She articulated her fears while losing her virginity. She was faced to grow up quickly.  Nisa described the women’s role was to give birth to increase more members of the society.  However, she disclosed painfully her hurt of the death of her parents, husband, and children as equal.  Nisa seemed to find comfort in blaming God for the loss.  Nisa described her method of healing in the !Kung society. She described her own experiences going through the n/um, a Trance-medicine. She further elaborated how she eventually broke free of the trance that enabled her to become stronger.

            Finally, Nisa’s life inside !Kung society enable us to identify how women’s roles were different than the men.  Nisa’s society was based that men and women were equal.  Women and men held responsibilities.  Furthermore, Nisa’s story helps us to compare and contrast the differences women face through maturity.