Threshold 7: Agriculture and Civilization
Woolly mammoths cross Big History’s 7th threshold, Agriculture and Civilization, because of their role takes place in early human civilization. Like mentioned previously, humans hunted mammoths for the meat, pelts, and bones, and even foraged bones from previously dead mammoths to use as fuel and housing material. Using the mammoth bones, early Homosapiens built villages and communities that were meant to be permanent, even though most continued with the traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Humans also learned how to work together to hunt a woolly mammoth, since the creatures could weigh up to almost 7 tons. In reality, the woolly mammoth also connected civilizations, since indigenous populations traded ivory with larger civilizations and dynasties.
Threshold 6 and 8: Collective Learning and the Modern Revolution
Threshold 6, Collective Learning, and Threshold 8, Expansion and Interconnection, is also crossed by the woolly mammoth because over time, humans have learned from hunting mammoths for meat, to trading and creating works of art out of ivory, to sequencing DNA to try and bring back the woolly mammoth from extinction. This all has to do with collective learning. In the beginning, humans learned how to hunt such a large animal, and that they could use not only their meat for food and pelts for clothing, but that their bones could also be used for substantial housing units. Early humans also began trading the woolly mammoth ivory, which, along with elephant ivory, eventually became a very big success on the black market. Finally, the amount of collective learning and interconnectedness needed to have the scientifical ability and technology to be able to sequence enough important DNA to have the possibility of bringing an extinct species back to life is astounding.