Understanding the Modern World

Question: Discuss about theUnderstanding the Modern World. Answer: Introduction The world has drastically changed since the occurrence of the two worldwide wars among the power mongering countries, which has gradually led to an era where from social life to economy, everything has turned to become technology oriented (Craib 2015). The present paper is attempting to make a valid comparison as well as contrast between societies those have gone through a rapid evolution from the year 1500 to 1800. More specifically, it is to say that the present essay is going to understand the contrast between Geoffrey Blaines account regarding life and society between the periods of 1500 to 1800 and the life and society of present times. As per Blaines narration jotted in the chapter called Dethroning the harvest, irrespective of any country most of the typical or common families between the timeline of 1500 to 1800 lived a life where there had been little chances for them to own a land of their own (Blainey 2003). Therefore, it has been understood that most of them suffered through an unfortunate life yet living in a productive year. The cause of such social distress as per Blaines vision and account has been the compulsion, which had led most of the inhabitants existing between this time line to work as a labor in the trade centers or in others farms to satisfy their very basic needs. It can be understood that the daily life of the common inhabitants has not been graceful. Moreover, it could be interpreted from the account of Blaine that lives of most of the common individuals have been to earn a full bowl of meal for daily survival in terms of satisfaction (Blainey 2003). In this regard, it is unfortunate to note that lives of most of people belonging to middle and lower middle class families of the developing countries have been found to be the same. In third world countries like India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and most of countries of Africa, people still now survive by working in others farms and struggles hard to acquire a minimum standard of living (Crone 2015). It can be comprehended from Blaines account that lives of people belonging to the timeline of 1500 to 1800 predominantly evolved around the activity of harvesting. Specifically, in the early 1500, one of the common choices of common people had been to scavenge and forage, while in the initial period of 1800, the society from the corner of south China Sea to the inland lakes of America the has encountered a substantial occupational change. In other words, the fruitful side of harvesting grains flooded the minds of most of the people of the world and irrespective of sex, lives of almo st every single inhabitant started to revolve around this distinct occupation (Blainey 2003). It is to contribute in this respect that probably in the current era, for most of the people belonging to the rural societies; it is possibly a hard to imagine a harvest-centric life (Giddens 2013). Hence, it is to say that the predominant difference between the lifestyle and socio-economic background of the modern time and the period of 1500 to 1800 is the occupation of harvesting grain has been isolated to the rural lives of most of the territories. In this respect, it should be considered that the reason behind this incongruity is possibly the monstrous emergence and advancement of the aspect of industrialization (Hatch and Cunliffe 2013). However, in the considered chapter of Blaine, it has been identified that the single aspect of harvesting grain triumphed over the food habits of most of the inhabitants. From using it to for making bread to prepare Gruel, grains has become almost an essential part of the daily live in the period of 1500-1800 (Belk 2016). On the other side, in the European land, breeding of Barley had been mainly done for preparing beer. Thus, it can be coherently perceived that consumption of alcohol had become a necessary aspect of daily diet specifically for the country of England. Even it has been narrated that the children of the contemporary society of England had been parts of the tradition of consuming alcohol at the dinner table (Blainey 2003). However, in the modern era there has been little evidence about the fact that children are taking active part in drinking alcohol along with their guardians at the time of meal. Nevertheless, it should be contemplated that the habit of alcohol consump tion in almost every developed countries has been probably drawn from the practice from this very old culture of brewing beer from Barley (Henslin et al. 2011). However, with the occupational culture of growing grains, there came a simple economic ambience, which is comprised of systems like Barter and use of gold coins. On the contrary, the modern community, which is growing with fast technical advancement and innovative occupational culture, has developed its economic orientation with the banking system. On the other hand, it has been understood that harvesting grains have also become an inevitable part of the religious practices. It is well understandable that in a society where the socio-economic dimension has been largely dominated by the culture of harvesting grains; the same aspect would highly determine the religious activities (Macionis and Plummer 2011). It has been noted from the chapter that this individual facet used to determine the premise of family planning. In the modern society, as per the observation, family planning is relatively personal and depends on the individuals of distinct families whereas the society of the pre-modern era used to be determined by the amount of harvested corp. It is interesting to note that the keeping cats for domestic purpose have been started from the sixteenth century when they are kept in home for catching mice. Here it is to say that the purpose of keeping cats in terms of having pets has been also related with grain harvesting, as cats are helpful in killing rats that largely produce damage on grains. This particular concept of keeping pets for domestic use is continuing in the modern era in form of growing poultries and animal firms. Therefore, it can be concluded that the main difference between the life and society of modern times and of the pre-modern era is, modern life has become more technology and industry centric whereas pre-modern society used to mainly evolve around harvesting corp. References Belk, R., 2016. A history of global consumption, 15001800.Consumption Markets Culture,19(2), pp.244-247. Blainey, G., 2003.Dethroning the harvest in A short history of the world, Viking, Ringwood, pp.409-429. Craib, I., 2015.Modern social theory. Routledge. Crone, P., 2015.Pre-Industrial Societies: Anatomy of the pre-modern world. Oneworld Publications. Giddens, A., 2013.The transformation of intimacy: Sexuality, love and eroticism in modern societies. John Wiley Sons. Hatch, M.J. and Cunliffe, A.L., 2013.Organization theory: modern, symbolic and postmodern perspectives. Oxford university press. Henslin, J.M., Possamai, A.M., and Possamai-Inesedy., 2011.Sociology: A down to earth approach. Pearson Higher Education AU, Frenchs Forrest, pp. 136-140. Macionis, J. and Plummer, K., 2011. Sociology: a global introduction, 5th edn, Pearson Prentice Hall, Harlow, pp. 105-113.