“Human Traditions courses introduce students to the broad range of human cultures from prehistory to the present, taking a thematic approach rather than a strictly chronological one. Its framework reflects our commitment, expressed in the second year theme of our core curriculum, to cultivate social and global awareness. We ask questions such as the following: what are the epochal developments in the history of the world? What are the forms of religious belief and practice? What are the artistic and literary achievements of the world? What yearnings do these traditions express? What are the political, literary, philosophical and cultural connections among them? What are the assumptions they make? What questions do they raise? For example, when does civilization arise? Where? Why? What are its characteristics and enduring challenges? What does the emergence of urban societies mean for relations between rich and poor, between men and women and between humans and their natural environment? These courses ask students to think critically about ideas within their historical contexts and to examine ways in which human expressions are responses relate to and reflect broad intellectual and cultural patterns. The title of this courses reflects a commitment to think globally, to acknowledge that the range and richness of the human experience carries beyond the narrow, binary scope of a worldview that too easily separates East from West and privileges the latter – and its traditions – over the former. Women in the Ancient World We will trace the emergence of civilization from the river cultures of the Near up to the global world of 1500 CE. Our focus is on the role of gender in both the lives of those who lived in the ancient world and in the continued role gender plays in how we, today, look to and understand the past. Our goal is to recover the all but invisible lives of women in the ancient world, drawing on art, literature, history, archeology, and other humanities.” – UNE course catalog