History - History and Prehistory

History and Prehistory

Human history and prehistory
↑ before Homo (Pliocene)
Three-age system prehistory
Stone Age Lower Paleolithic Homo, Homo erectus Middle Paleolithic early Homo sapiens Upper Paleolithic behavioral modernity Neolithic civilization Bronze Age Near East · India · Europe · China · Korea Iron Age Bronze Age collapse · Ancient Near East · India · Europe · China · Japan · Korea · Nigeria
Recorded History
Ancient history Earliest records Middle Ages Early · High · Late Modern history Early · Late · Contemporary
See also: Modernity and Futurology
↓Future

Further information: Protohistory

The history of the world is the memory of the past experience of Homo sapiens sapiens around the world, as that experience has been preserved, largely in written records. By "prehistory", historians mean the recovery of knowledge of the past in an area where no written records exist, or where the writing of a culture is not understood. By studying painting, drawings, carvings, and other artifacts, some information can be recovered even in the absence of a written record. Since the 20th century, the study of prehistory is considered essential to avoid history's implicit exclusion of certain civilizations, such as those of Sub-Saharan Africa and pre-Columbian America. Historians in the West have been criticized for focusing disproportionately on the Western world. In 1961, British historian E. H. Carr wrote:

The line of demarcation between prehistoric and historical times is crossed when people cease to live only in the present, and become consciously interested both in their past and in their future. History begins with the handing down of tradition; and tradition means the carrying of the habits and lessons of the past into the future. Records of the past begin to be kept for the benefit of future generations.

This definition includes within the scope of history the strong interests of peoples, such as Australian Aboriginals and New Zealand Māori in the past, and the oral records maintained and transmitted to succeeding generations, even before their contact with European civilization.