This chapter introduces the holistic approach that shapes this world history. It explains how human development across time and space provides the foundation for a periodization framework, organized into five critical turning points, or waves. These waves mark major transformations in human experience and are examined through the lens of systems thinking and a holistic perspective. In addition, the chapter explores five influential worldviews—indigenous, modern, fundamentalist, globalized, and transformative—that continue to inform and shape the ways we think today.

This chapter situates the “big picture” of human history within the broader physical and biological story, spanning from the Big Bang to the evolution of our species. Interwoven throughout the narrative are five guiding threads—interdependence, paradox, creative and destructive forces, change and continuity, and commonalities and diversity. Together, these threads illuminate how the universe was formed, how life emerged on Earth, and how our human story continues to unfold.

This chapter examines universal human behaviors through five comparative patterns, or currents, that link our past, present, and future. Drawn from an interdisciplinary perspective and integrated within a historical framework, these currents highlight recurring dimensions of human activity across time. The five currents—Relationship to Nature (Ecosystem Currents), Ways of Living (Techno-Economic Currents), Human Networks (Social Currents), Establishing Order (Political Currents), and Human Expressions (Cultural Currents)—differ in content yet reappear within each wave of human development.

In the Communal Wave, people live by gathering, hunting, or foraging for food while bound together in small, nomadic bands through strong kinship ties. This wave begins with the emergence of modern humans around 40,000 years ago and continues today in altered forms among a few groups still practicing foraging lifestyles. The chapter also includes a case study of the !Kung people of southwest Africa, illustrating this enduring way of life.

With the Agricultural Wave, people shifted from foraging for food to producing food through agriculture, adopting a sedentary, village-based way of life. This transition first began in some—though not all—regions of the world around 10,000 BCE. Groups that adopted agriculture at later times experienced similar changes when they made the shift to farming. Even today, some communities continue to live in small villages and maintain certain Agricultural Wave characteristics that resemble those of early agricultural societies. This section also includes a discussion of chiefdoms and a case study of Cahokia.

During the Urban Wave, beginning in Mesopotamia around 3500 BCE, societies evolved from sedentary agricultural villages into more populous and complex urban centers. This wave marks the transition to what we commonly call civilization, along with its defining features. Many people around the world today continue to practice traditions rooted in the Urban Wave, particularly its religious traditions. This section also includes a discussion of nomadic and pastoral peoples. The Urban Wave is further explored across three major historical periods: ancient, classical, and post-classical civilizations.

The Modern Wave emerges around 1500 CE, when several Western European countries rise to global prominence, beginning with the conquest of the Western Hemisphere and followed by extensive interaction with—and subjugation of—societies around the world. After 1500, modern characteristics, shaped largely by Western European influences, begin to diffuse globally. The Modern Wave is organized into three periods: the early modern era, the modern industrial era, and the modern 20th century.

The Global Wave is currently unfolding across the world. Humans in this wave are creating deeply interconnected communication, transportation, financial, commercial, and trade networks, supported by increasingly sophisticated technological innovations. This section also provides further explanation of the five worldviews: indigenous, modern, fundamentalist, globalized, and transformative.