Garny's New York

I was standing in the 81st Street Station when I came to an even deeper understanding of how complex the city of New York really is. I had just left the Museum of Natural history for the second time and entered the station. First I started off by just looking at the station and realizing that since this station was literally connected with the Museum of Natural History that it had certain distinct features that no other subway station has such as images of elephants and dinosaurs. I really admired these distinct designs  to the station. Having just left the museum, where I was studying the Hall of Human origins, I was still in a state of inquiry. Examining and observing the changes in the biological aspects of human origins and understanding the slow cultural and architectural advancements of early humans had put me in a place to try to understand how everything fits in the timeline of human existence. So, 200,000 years ago the first homo sapiens took position in the vast amount of species on planet earth. 70,000 years ago the first known form art took place in Southern Africa on a piece of clay. 25,000 years ago humans constructed small huts designed with the use of mammoth bones. With all these discoveries still ringing in my head I couldn’t help being hypersensitive to my surroundings. The idea that I was how many feet underground about to take a train powered by electricity that would travel at an inhuman speed underground and over bridges into brooklyn felt unbelievably new. Then, in my head, I zoomed out and looked at NYC as if you could see the layers of NYC stacked on top of each other from the skyscrapers above to the network of underground stations and realized that this is probably the most complexed place on earth. Under the greatest city in the world is located so many sub cities connected by railway. The web of stations all underneath Manhattan each differing from each other and expressing different aspects of the city through architectural differences and cultural differences is absolutely amazing.  It is an absolute privilege to witness and be part of such a dynamic city.

On September 17th I visited the Museum of Natural History with my friends I’ve known since elementary school. The museum interested me in ways I’ve never imagined it too. The first exhibit we visited was marked in big, bold letters “Hall of Human Origins. This exhibit was the most interesting to me because it’s allowed me to open my eyes to new ideas. The possibility that humans evolved from lesser life has never even been a consideration for me. Lately I’ve been opening my mind to new ideas and the Hall of Human Origins brought to light so much new information and possibilities. The museum brings together the history of the human species. The Museum is very descriptive in the development of human cultures all over the world. Taking an anthropological perspective, it was also very interesting to compare and contrast the cultures from different areas of the earth. It seemed as if geology played a big role in the evolution of the culture of the people. For example the people of Mexico and Latin America wore much less clothing than those of North America. The fact that North Americans also had animals such as the buffalo also greatly impacted their culture in contrast to other cultures. My biggest takeaway from this experience is that we as a species are highly complexed organisms that posses a beautiful history of cultural development. We as a species have also advanced in unbelievable ways through things like communication and technology. Looking at our past and physically seeing how much we have developed with so little to work is absolutely astonishing. On the other hand, now that we have made the world so much smaller through globalization and have surpassed our ancestors by so many years in advancements, how will this impact the culture we build as a species for years to come?

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