How did the custom of kissing start?

We know the kiss as a form of expressing affection. But long before it became this, it was the custom in many parts of the world to use the kiss as an expression of homage.

In many African tribes the natives kiss the ground over which a chief has walked. Kissing the hand and foot has been a mark of respect and homage from the earliest times. The early Romans kissed the mouth or eyes as a form of dignified greetings. One Roman emperor allowed his important nobles to kiss his lips, but the less important ones had to kiss his hands, and the least important ones were only allowed to kiss his feet!

It is quite probable that the kiss as a form of affection can be traced back to primitive times when a mother would fondle her child, just as a mother does today. It only remained for society to accept this as a custom for expressing affection between adults.

We have evidence that this was already the case by the time of the sixth century, but we can only assume it was practised long before that. The first country where the kiss became accepted in courtship and love was in France. When dancing became popular , almost every dance figure ended with a kiss.

From France the kiss spread rapidly all over Europe. Russia, which loved to copy the customs of France, adopted the kiss and it spread there through all the upper classes. A kiss from Tsar became one of the highest form of recognition from the Crown.

In time, the kiss became a part of courtship. As marriage customs developed , the kiss became a part of the wedding ceremony. Today, of course, we regard the kiss as an expression of love and tenderness. But there are still many places in the world where the kiss is part of formal ceremonies and is intended to convey respect and homage.

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How long have people been using last names?

"Hey, Shorty!" "Hi, Skinny." "Here comes Blondie." Sounds familiar to you? It's a perfectly natural way to call people-give them a name that describes them in some way.
And you know, that's exactly the way first names were given originally! A girl born during a famine might be called Una (Ctelic for "famine"), a golden haired blonde might be called Blanche (French for "white"). A boy might be called David because it means "beloved".
A first name was all anybody had for thousands of years. Then, about the time Normans conquered England in 1066, last names, or surnames, were added to identify people better. The first name wasn't enough to set one person apart from another. For example, there might be two Davids in town, and one of them was quite lazy. So people began to call this one "David, who is also lazy," or "David do little". And this became David Doolittle.
The last names were originally called "ekenames". The word "eke" meant "also". And by the way, we get our word "nickname" from this word!
Once people got into the habit of giving a person two names, they thought of many ways of creating this second name. For example, one way was to mention the father's name. If John had a father called William, he might be called John Williamson, or John Williams, or John Wilson ( Will's son), or John Wills.
Another good way to identify people with second names was to mention the place where they lived or came from. A person who lived near the woods might be called Wood, of if he lived near the village green he might be called John Green.And then, of course, the work that a person did was a good way to identify him. So we have last names like Smith, Taylor, and Wright. ("Wright" means someone who does mechanical work).
The nearest thing to last names in ancient times existed among the Romans. A second name was sometimes added to indicate the family or clan to which a child belonged. Later , they even added a third name, which was a kind of description nickname.
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Who were the first people to believe in one God?

The believe in one God is called "monotheism". The belief in many Gods is called "polytheism".
Most of the "dead" religions-religions which no longer have any followers-were religions having many Gods. Among these are the Egyptian, Babylonian, Assyrain, Greek, Roman, Celtic and Norse. In very primitive times and among primitive peoples everywhere, there were only religions having many Gods.
The idea of monotheism-one God- developed quite late in the history of religion. And according to most people and students of the subject, it is the fullest and best expression of the spirit and meaning of religion. It is built on the conviction that the ethical and religious values we hold must have a basis, and this is the one God on whom all existence and values depend.
But the idea of monotheism took a long time to develop. It first started with what is called "monarchianism". Just as a monarch is set above his people, so the idea arose that one God should be exalted above the rest and should be the king of the Gods. Among the ancient Greeks, for example, Zeus stood supreme over all the Gods.
The same idea existed among the Babylonians and the Egyptians. The Babylonians has a God called Marduk who was the supreme over all the other Gods, and the Egyptians had Ra, who was ruler over all the other Gods.
The next step was the idea of "monolatry". According to this concept, other Gods do exist, but only one is worshipped. About the 14th century B.C., an attempt was made in Egypt to introduce the idea of monotheism, with the sun as the one God. But it failed. And about 800 years before Christ, a Zoroastrian religion in Persia held that there was the great one God. But true monotheism, the belief that Chritians, Jews, and Mohammedans hold in one God, comes from the Hebrew religion as expressed in the Old Testament.

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How did the races of mankind originate?

Scientific authorities believe, based on evidence they have found, that man originated in one place and that all races of mankind have a common ancestor. Man's common ancestor, according to some of these scientist, looked very much like modern man and probably first appeared in Asia. Other scientists believe man first appeared in several places, at different times, and later met and mingled to form the present races of man.
About 500,000 years ago, in western Asia, man's ancestors lived in small groups. In these small, isolated groups, the first signs of difference appeared-differences in head shape, or eye sockets, or body build. Later, they began to look for new places to live, and about 300,000 years ago, groups of men began to move southeast towards Indonesia and north towards China.
Still later, other migrations took man to other parts of the world, where some developed in seperate ways while others met and mingled.
Modern students say that there are three major divisions or "stocks" of mankind. These are: the Caucasoids, similar to the people who lived in the Caucasus Mountains and who were thought by early scholars to be typical of the "white" race; the Mongoloids, similar to the Mongols who lived in Mongolia in Asia; and the Negroids, like the Negroes who lived in the forest regions of Africa.
Early scholars divided man into five groups based on skin color. This classification is no longer accepted, because the color of the skin dosen't tell to which main stock a group of people belongs. Nor can any other single triat, such as head type, blood type, or nose type, tell the stock to which a man belongs. Many physical traits must be considered.A race, therefore, is simply a group of people who have in common certain physical traits which they inherited from theirancestors and which set them apart from other groups.

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In trying to explain the existence of the complicated body structures we see in living things around us, a theory of evolution has been developed. While most scientists accept this theory, many people do not. They feel it goes against what is written in the Bible.
This theory is that all the planets and animals in the worl today have developed in a natural way from earlier forms that were simpler. These earlier forms developed from still simpler ancestors, and so on back through millions of years to the very biginning when life was in its simplest form, merely a tiny mass of jellylike protoplasm.
According to this theory, man, too, developed from some simpler form, just as the modern one-hoofed horse is the decendant of small five-toed ancestor.
In trying to prove that evolution did take place, scientist depend on three chief "signs". One of these is the study of fossil remains of animals and plants of past ages. Some of these fossils seem to trace the steps of evolution at work. Fossil remain of primitive men have been found that go back to a time 1,000,000 years ago. Fossils of certain crablike animals go back nearly 5,000,000,000 years. These fossils show that fish developed in the waters of the earth before amphibians, amphibians before reptiles, reptiles before birds, and so on. Scientist believe this proves life has progressed from one form to another.
Another "sign" of evolution comes from the study of embryology, the growth of a new living thing from an egg. In studying the development of the chick from the hen's egg, there is a time when this embryo is like a fish, later it's like an amphibian, then it passes through the reptile stage, and finally develops into its bird form. The unborn young of all animals go through the same kind of process, repeating their history of development.
The third "sign" is the bodies of living animals. For example, the bone and muscle structure in the paddles of a turtle, the wings of a bird, the flippers of a whale, the front legs of a horse, and the arms of a man are similar in structure. And man many organs in his body which seem of no use. They are thought to be relics handed down from his earlier ancestors. These are some of the "signs" that led to a theory of evolution.

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Who made the first map?

Imagine how hard it would be to tell in words the exact location of all the streets and buildings in your town. It would be simpler to make a picture or diagram of the location of such objects. The result would be a map!
The first map we have record of was modeled in clay and then baked more than 4,000 years ago, in Egypt. In ancient times, landowners marked the outlines of their land, and kings, the boundaries of their kingdom on maps. But when people tried to show on maps the location of faraway places, they ran into problems.
This was because the earth is round and it is difficult to measure large distances accurately. Astronomers were a great help to early map-makers, because their studies had to do with the size and shape of the earth.
A Greek called Eratosthenes, who was born in 276 B.C., figured the distance around the earth and came every close to the truth. His methods made it possible for the first time to calculate north-south distances correctly. About the same time, Hipparchus suggested that a map of the world be divided evenly by imaginary lines of latitude, or parallels, and of longitude, or meridians. The proper positions of thses lines, he said, should be based on knowledge gainedfrom study of the heavens.
Ptolemy, in the 2nd century A.D., used the same idea and made an improved map with evenly spaced lines of latitude and longitude. His book on geography was the standard text until after the discovery of America. The discoveries of Columbus and others greatly increased interest in maps and charts. The first large collection of maps was published by Abraham Ortelius of Antwerp in 1570. Geradus Mercator bacame the father of modern map-making. He made a map on which all the curved lines on a globe were straight ones on a map. This enabled the map to show a straight line between two places which would give a true course by the compass. This kind of map is known as "a projection"; it "projects" or transfers the earth's surface onto that of a map.
On the title page of his book there was a drawing of the giant Atlas, and this is why a collection of maps has come to be known as an "atlas"!
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Which nation had the first flag?

The idea of a nation having a flag is fairly new, but flags have existed from earlier times. They were used in war to mark the positions of leaders.
In very ancient times, most of the flags were craved poles. The ancient Greek's flag was merely a piece of armor or single letters held aloft upon poles. The first cloth flag was the invention of the Romans and consisted of a square banner attached to a crossbar at the end of a spear.
When the United States adopted a national flag, the idea was still very new. Most European nations were then fighting under the flags of their kings. The French used the white falg of the Bourbon family. The original national flag of England was the banner of St. George. The present form of union flag was proclaimed January 1, 1801. Probably the two oldest national flags are those of Denmark, adopted in 1219, and of Switzerland, used as early as 1339.
After the United States had chosen a national flag, many other nations followed that example. After the French Revolution, the Tricolor was chosen to represent France. The green, white and red flag of the Italians was first established in 1805. In the 19th century, many South American republics designed flags for themselves and the idea of a national flag became universally accepted.
Did you know that in the early stages of the American Revolutionary War the Colonies had flags of their own? Massachusetts had a flag with a pine tree; South Caroline had a rattlesnake; New York had a white flag with a black beaver on it.
In designing America's falg it was first proposed that the English Union Jack be part of it. But this was rejected and it was decieded to substitute 13 stars from the Union Jack.
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Was America discovered before Columbus?

When we say "discovered", we usually have a very special meaning in mind. We mean that people from one civilization came to a region where no one from their place had been before. As you know, an explorer often finds a people and a civilization already living in the place he "discovers." Why not say these people discovered it before him?

From our Western-civilization point of view, we say that Columbus discovered America. This is because after his discovery the New World he found began to be visited and finally populated from the Old World. But 500 years before Columbus was born, the Norsemen did a bit of "discovering," too. They sailed west to discover Iceland, then Greenland, and later the America mainland.

Did you know that the Chinese tell of an even earlier voyage by Chinese sailors to discover what has become California? And people of the South Sea Islands still sing of the great men of their distant past who sailed to South America long time before the white man reached either South America or the South Sea Islands.

For all we know, there may have been many ages of exploration thousands of years ago. There were certainly ages of exploration before the time of Columbus. Perhaps we might say that neither Columbus, nor the Norsemen before him, "discovered " America. Weren't the Indians already living here for many centuries before the white man arrived?

And who can say that they didn't set out on a voyage of discovery? It is believed that they cam from Asia, though we don't know when or how they made a trip. Probably they reached America over a period of centuries and by different routes. They also probably sent their scouts ahead to seek out routes by land or sea. These scouts were their explores, and perhaps it was really they who discovered America!

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What is Mythology?

Man has always wondered why the world is the way it is. He has tried to explain to himself why things happen as they do. Today, we have scientific explanations for things that happen in the universe. But in earlier times, man had to make up his

"explanations".

Just consider all the strange things he couldn't understand. Why did the snu rise and set so regularly? Why were there different seasons? What were the stars, and why did they move as they did?

Then there were all the events in man's personal life to consider. Why did unpredictable events happen? Why did men dream? Why did people get sick? Where did people come from and where did they go after death? How was the world and everything in it created?

All primitive people have asked these questions and tried to answer them. Different tribes of people in various parts of the world have had different explanations. But their "explanations" somehow accounted for the events of their world. The fanciful stories which contain these explanations are called "myths". All the myths of a people taken together from a mythology.

By their myths, early men tried to "humanize", or "personalize" their world. That is, they imagined the objects around them to be persons like themselves,thoughtful beings, some with great power. All these objects, animals, plants, stars, rivers, the sun and the moon, came to be gods with magic powers. Some of these gods were thought to be good and kind, some were evil and brought pain, hunger, and death.Because they thought all these objects, or gods, were intelligent beings, they felt they could appeal to them. Since the sun has a mind, they could beg him to send his rays so that plants would grow. They could pray to the rain god for rain and the rain god could understand them.

This led to all kinds of rituals, or ceremonies. There was a certain way to appeal to a god, and if you did it the wrong way the god would be angry. The purpose of these ceremonies and rituals was to keep men on good terms with their god. In that way, men believed they were able to direct and control events and live happier lives.

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