Feb 7 History of GD Class Response

Our discussion from Friday's class was based on the chapter 1 reading. We discussed that the earliest forms of communication was not intended for artwork. One exercise that we did during class was that we had to think of as many different ways to visually show a "man" and a "woman". We were told to think of bathroom signs to help us show different ways to visually show these. Coming up with ideas were easy, but there were some that represented ideographs instead of pictographs. We continued in class talking about Hammurabi and the different laws that were put up around the village. They were trying to establish order by setting these rules up. One other thing we discussed is the Rosetta Stone. It is amazing that this stone was the only way to translate from the three different languages.

One thing that I found very interesting in class today was the Hammurabi. These rules were placed around a village to help keep order. Some of these rules were extreme. For example, some stated that if you build a house and it caves in on a man, you will be killed. It is interesting to think of who thought up these rules and how they were implemented.

One question that I pose is how exactly ere these Hammurabi rules put into place? How did the village handle these new orders and respond to them? Were they rebellious or did they give in to social order?