Anthropology, 210 (Response for Chapter 7)

Your social analysis of the "mother" and "father" assignment is very valid, but I'd like to point out that there are times that adopted children have felt a sense of not belonging with their caregivers.  The definition of "mother" and "father" can be brought back to the nature versus nurture argument, where sometimes people will assign these roles to people who they feel fill those roles, be it within their household, outside the household, or even a figure they don't have true intimate ties with.  It's also variant between societies for the emphasis placed on parental figures, for instance, how some groups have communal caregiving, shared elders, and hold the genetic history in high regard.  These values would affect how a child would view themselves and their parental role assignments.

Anthropology, 210 (Kiowa Christianity)

The Kiowa nation were a Native American tribe who interacted with Christian missionaries in the late 1800s. As tensions rose between settlers and Native Americans, Christian reformers were tasked to westernizing the tribes through missionary work. At first there was resistance, but as more prominent members of tribes accepted the change, other followed suit. Missionaries were successful by not forcing the Kiowa to abandon their traditions, but instead, to interweave their native traditions and values with Christian ones. The tribe traditionally practiced a Sun Dance ceremony which was forcefully stopped by the U.S. Government in 1890.

With the abolition of their Sun Dance ceremony, it was a natural move for Christian traditions to fill the void. Churches became a strong centre of their community, with the focus on “the will of God” as the values they were following. Many hymns and songs were written specifically for their culture in their Kiowa language. These hymns actually gave strength to the individual Kiowa culture, language, and spirituality. The primary values of the village did not change with the adaptation of Christianity, they were just celebrated and expressed through a slightly different medium. The method is reminiscent of how Christianity itself adopted traditions from other cultures and religions to blend them together.

Anthropology, 210 (Response to Agriculture as a Mistake)

I agree with your assessment.  Forming groups and hierarchies is more of an innate character trait of social animals, including humans.  Even before stationary settlements, there was a concept of who were the leaders, who plays which role, and how much priority was given to that role.  Egos naturally come into play in a group setting.  It is a natural drive to want to be the best among your peers and have the best resources.  As you said, much more positive was gained from settlements than negative.  Just like technology, social interactions evolve over time.  Humans are just reluctant to change.

Anthropology, 210 (Agriculture and Diseases)

Before agriculture and the domestication of consumable animals, humans were nomadic groups moving between locations, foraging and hunting for food.  As agriculture developed, tribes were able to create small settlements and create more advanced social structures.  Some settlements were in naturally fertile areas while others were adapted using irrigation techniques.  Developments in agriculture and animal raising made it possible for larger populations to congregate in a single location.  Close quarters, waste build up, proximity to animals, and enlivened trade made populations susceptible to disease.

Cramped space makes disease easier to transmute from person to person, making the impact larger than a smaller population over a faster amount of time before people can have the chance to develop immunities.  With more people and animals producing waste faster than can be properly dealt with, some animal borne diseases transfered to humans.  Animals also carried parasites which compounded in moist geography and areas that were developed with irrigation.

Large production of resources and established settlements made trade more common and easier even across broad distances.  Remaining nomadic groups would travel from settlement to settlement with not only goods but also carried diseases with them between populations.  This pattern had many different effects, including weeding out the weak, crippling a settlement against invasions, or even completely wiping them out.

History of Civilizations, 111 (History Method; Algebra)

Mathematics are a study which has been touched upon by many ancient civilizations. Islamic mathematicians expounded upon a lot of Greek geometry, while mixing in discoveries by neighbouring cultures such as the Syrians and the Babylonians. Using these previous founding and their own ingenuity, Arabs scholars were able to develop algebra, the art of using arithmetic with unknown non-numerical objects in equations to find possible solutions for the unknowns. Other developments included the decimal place-value system and fractions, parabolas, and cubic equations.

The word algebra actually comes from the Arabic root جبر (jabr) which means “to set or fix” making الجبر (al-jabr) equate to “the fix” or “restore”, lending to the idea of solving the two sides of equations used in algebra lead to the solution. The findings found by scholars of this era are still used in modern times and have been the cornerstones to more advanced mathematics such as trigonometry.