human history dawned?
May. 7th, 2019 05:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
People can be so strange. Take the phrase "dawn of human history," for example. The matching of one gradual process for another is apt; the idea that humanity began with a bright shining moment, less so.
As for history, that's rather arbitrary. I am not infinite, but I am long-lived (for certain definitions of life) and humanity has exchanged accounts of itself for all the length and breadth of my existence. History "begins" with the oldest extant records in known languages, but any records can get damaged or lost with time. Plenty of human groups had oral histories that died with their peoples, but they were histories whether or not they were written.
As for history, that's rather arbitrary. I am not infinite, but I am long-lived (for certain definitions of life) and humanity has exchanged accounts of itself for all the length and breadth of my existence. History "begins" with the oldest extant records in known languages, but any records can get damaged or lost with time. Plenty of human groups had oral histories that died with their peoples, but they were histories whether or not they were written.