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Chapter 1 Notes

❖ Focus on Themes

➢ Focus on urban-based socieites and their core characteristics

■ cities and surrounding farmland

■ complex institutions

• government bureacracies

• armies

• religious hierarchies

■ multi-layered social structures

■ record-keeping abilities

■ technologies

■ organized long-distance trading relationships

❖ Before History = before Written History

➢ Humans have existed for about 200,000 years; world already had flora and fauna before humans originate

■ Farmers and Pastoralists

■ Neolithic Revolution

• Advent of farming; domestication of plants and animals

• 8,000 B.C.E

• Benefits

□ Surplus food that can be stored in a shed or house for later use

□ Surplus food means healthier people and therefor larger populations

□ Some people could leave farming and take up specialized tools or warriors and trade their services for food

• Creation of Social Classes due to perception of importance or more successful

• Unifying different peoples

□ Laws, Languages, religion, myths, monumental art

□ New religious beliefs appear

• Interactions

□ Peaceful- trade and travel

□ Aggressive -military contacts and conquests

➢ By 600 BCE, all the core and foundational civilizations (river valley civilizations) have ended. Their patterns continue.

❖ The evolution of Homo Sapiens

➢ Genetic makeup and body chemistry have created different levels of intelligence and control over the natural world

➢ Humans have a high order of intelligence

➢ Hominids- Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania) & Hadar (Ethiopia); humans and human-like species

■ Australopithecus

• Walked upright

• Opposable thumbs

• Ability to communicate

• Could plan and traveled distances to complete their plan as evidenced by the stone used in their tools

• Tools (choppers, scrapers)

■ Homo Erectus

• Upright-walking human

• Larger brains

• Better tools (cleavers, axes)

• Fire- how to starta nd tend fires = cooking food; defense tool; source of heat

• Better at expressing & coordinating

• Increased control over the natural environment; evidence of congregations

• Migrated into new regions (N. Afr and Eurasia)

• Throughout E. Hemisphere 200k yrs ago; temperate zones

■ Homo Sapiens

• Consciously thinking humans

• 200k yrs ago

• Brains large esp in frontal reions

• Physiological tratis unique among animal species

□ Developed vocal chords and mouth cavity w.tongue 100-50k yrs ago

• Moved beyone the temperate zones progressively colder regions and then to Oceania and the islands

• Every habitable region 15k yrs ago

• More complex tools- knives, spears, bow and arrow

□ Used to kill off several large animal species

• Effective and efficient competitors in the natural world; became a threat to other species

❖ Paleolithic Society

■ Old Stone Age

■ Humans foraged for their food

■ Scavenged meat killed by predators or hunted or gathered plants

■ Evolution from the first hominids until 12K yrs ago

➢ Economy and Society of Hunter-Gatherers

■ Archaeologists and anthropologists responsible for discoveries

■ Relative Social equality

• No gathering of private property

• No social distinctions of wealth

• Mobile; had to follow animals

• Egalitarian existence

■ Relative gender equality = all members contribute

• Men hunted

• Women/children gathered

• Equal between two

• Lived in small bands

• Interdependence of two sexes= lack of gender divisions

• Lived in small bands- 20-50 ppl

• Little contact w/outside groups

• Exploit environment by following migrations

■ Big Game Hunting

• Required special tools and tactics that they fashioned and devised

• Demonstrated their capacity to coordinate

■ Paleolithic Settlements

• Natufian (Med) 13.5k yrs ago

• Jomon (Japan) 10k-300 BCE

• Chinook (Pacific NW) 3k-19th century CE

• Permanent dwellings

• Several hundred ppl in settlements

• Specialization

• Organized omplex societies w/ specialized rulers and craftsmen if abundant food supplies

➢ Paleolithic Culture

■ Neanderthals- graves (Shanidar) show significance of life and death, some sort of emotion

■ Creativity of homo sapiens

• Could construct languages to communicate complex ideas

• Could build knowledge over time

• Allowed them to create more effective ways of satisfying human needs and desires

• 200k yrs ago, created cutting edges on stone blades

• 140k, started eating shellfish (supplements diet); created trade networks for obsidian

• 110k, catching fish from deep waters

• 100k, create sharp tools out of animal boon (needles, harpoons)

□ Later, spear throwers

• 50-40k, ornamental beads, necklaces, bracelets

□ Shortly after, paintings images of humans and animals

• 10k, invention of bow and arrow

■ Venus Figurines

• Small sculptures of women with exaggerated sexual features

• Shows deep interest in fertility

■ Cave Paintings

• 34k-12k yrs ago

• Altamira and Lascaux (SP and FR)

• Mostly animals (large game) with some humans

• Represents conscious and purposeful activity of a high order

• Compounded pigments and created tools

• Made paints

• Sympathetic magic?? page 15

❖ The Neolithic Era and the Transition to Agriculture

■ When humans started cultivation and domestication

■ Altered the natural world and human societies

➢ Origins of Agriculture

■ Neolithic Era

• “New stone age”

• Refinement of tool-making techniques (polished stone over chipped)

• Occurred in areas where people relied on cultivation

• Now referred to as the early stages of agricultural society (12-6k yrs ago)

■ Global Climate Change

• Ag impossible until about 15k yrs ago due to ice age

• Growth of edible plants and domesticating previously wild animals

■ Gender Relations and Agriculture

• Women most likely began agriculture; systematic care of plants

• Neolithic men began to capture and domesticate animals; supervised breeding

• Over centuries, led to formation of agricultural economies

■ Independent inventions of agriculture

• Ag emerged independently in several different parts of the world

□ 9000 BCE Southwest Asia; wheat, barley, sheep, goats, pigs, cattle

□ 9000 to 7000 BCE Afirca (present-day Sudan); cattle, sheep, goats, sorghum

□ 8000 to 6000 BCE Africa (present day Nigeria); yams, okra, black-eyed peas

□ East Asia

➢ 6500 BCE Yangzi River; rice

➢ after 5000 BCE Yellow River; millet nd soybeans

➢ 6000 BCE; pigs, chickens and then water buffaloes

□ 3000 BCE Southeast Asia; taro, yams, coconut, breadfruit, banans, citrus fruits-oranges, lemons, limes, tangerines, grapefruits

□ 4000 BCE Mesoamerica (central Mexico); maize and then added peppers, beans, squashes, and tomatoes

□ 3000 BCE Andean South America (modern Peru); potatoes, maize and beans

□ Domesticated animals not really found in Americas except for llamas, alpacas, guinea pigs; did add manioc, sweet potatoes, and peanuts

■ The Early Spread of Agriculture

• Ag spread rapidly due to the methods

• Slash and burn cultivation involved frequent movement

• Would burn down trees, creating a fertile soil for farming

• The field would lose its fertility after a few years, would have to move on

• By 6000 bce, had moved from SW Asia into Mediterranean Europe

• By 4000 bce, spread to western Europe

• Goods originally cultivated were moved from their origin due to trade

• Farming involved long periods of physical labor

• Required more work than foraging

• Over time, farming helped create abundant food supplies

➢ Early Agricultural Society

• From agriculture came a series of social and cultural changes that transformed human history

• Population explosion most important

|Year |Pop |

|3000 bce |14 million |

|2000 bce |27 million |

|1000 bce |50 million |

|500 bce |100 million |

▪ Emergence of Villages and Towns

• Growing pop and ag economy encouraged new forms of social organization

• Settled in permanent villages

• Ex: Jericho (Israel) in 8000 bce, 2k ppl, farmed wheat and barley, no domestication, traded for salt and obsidian, created a wall and moat

▪ Specialization of Labor

• Large # of ppl-> not everyone had to farm

• Led to specialization of labor

• Catal Huyuk (Turkey) 7250-4500 bce, 5k ppl, evidence of specialization, prominent due to obsidian nearby, could trade with others

• Three early craft industries: pottery, metallurgy, textiles showed off specialization

• Craft industries either provided tools for farmers/herders, or made use of their products in new ways = coordination

▪ Pottery

• Earliest of craft industries

• Hunt-Gather had no use for pots- couldn’t store anything, pots are heavy

• By 7000 bce, many had discovered how to formed clay into pottery

• Could also etch designs and create glazes, becoming an artistic medium as well

▪ Metalworking

• Earliest metal that humans systematically created was copper

• Could pound the cold metal and form it into jewelry and tools

• By 6000 bce, figured out they could heat it to extract copper and became easier to mold

• By 5000 bce, had raised the temp high enough to melt copper and pour it into molds

• Could also make weapons and farming tools

• Was the foundation that led to the working of gold, bronze, and iron

▪ Textiles

• Dating of textiles is not certain (decay), but survive from as early as 6000 bce

• Used selective breeding to create better fibers for weaving

• Probably the work of women who would weave while nursing

• Quickly became a huge enterprise

▪ Social Distinctions and Social Inequality

• Settling down and specialization led to the ability to accumulate wealth

• Could trade surplus food or goods they produced for gems, jewelry, etc

• Institutionalization of private property enhanced the significance of accumulated wealth

• When families kept their wealth for several generations, created defined social classes

• ****Land was the ultimate source of wealth in any agricultural society, remains that way today

➢ Neolithic Culture

• Farmers closely observed the natural world around them, noting the conditions for successful harvests

• Built up generations of learned knowledge

• Learned to associated the seasons with the position of celestial bodies, creating a relationship between those on earth and heavenly bodies

• Created the first steps to a calendar

▪ Religious Values

• Neolithic religion had the same interest in fertility as earlier (remember Venus Figurines)

• Celebrated the rhythms that governed farming- birth, growth, death, new life

• Thousands of representations of gods and goddesses- clay figurines, pots and vases, ritual objects

• Also had deities associated with the cycle of life, death, and regeneration (infant dieties)

• Neolithic religious thought reflected the natural world of early ag society

➢ The Origins of Urban Life

• Within 4k years, ag had transformed the earth

• Human pop rapidly grew, congregated in dense areas, cultivated surrounding lands, and domesticated several species

• Ag transformed the lives of humans- as they moved to living in settled communities of hundreds or thousands, social relationships became more complex

• Gradually, dense populations, specialized labor, and complex social hierarchies gave way to a new form of social org- the city

▪ Emergence of Cities

• A gradual transition

• What distinguished cities from Neolithic towns and villages?

• Two main ways- cities were larger and more complex; cities influenced the political, cultural, and economic life of large regions

• Cities fostered more intense specialization- creation of professional classes

• Professionals refined existing tech, invented new ones, raised levels of quality and production

• Professional managers appeared- governors, administrators, military leaders, tax collectors; helped the survival of the community

• Professional cultural specialists like priests who maintained cultural values, transmitted these values, organized public rituals

• Cities established marketplaces that attracted distant merchants

• Trade over increasingly longer distances promoted economic integration

• Cities, guaranteeing their food supplies, took over larger areas of farming land

• The building of schools and temples in neighboring regions extended their cultural traditions and values

• The earliest cities grew out of villages in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers

• These communities became “urban” around 4000-3500 bce

• Cities became the focal point of public affairs- where leaders guided human fortunes, supervised neighbors, and organized the world’s earliest complex societies

❖ The Role of Urbanization in the Creation of Patriarchy

➢ Early urbanization:

▪ the establishment of states that localized power in the hand of a small group of people

▪ organized military protection

▪ made laws to control large populations

▪ oversaw the development of large-scale infrastruture such as irrigaion

▪ exerted conrol over the surrounding countryside

▪ Decline in women's status over time

▪ Rise in patriarchy = institutional domination of men over women

➢ Why?

▪ Women's role became the producers of children

▪ Militarization of socieites declined women's status; it is possible if the city was protected or safe women had a better status

▪ Keep power and wealth within certain families -within the lineage

➢ By 1000 BCE is an accepted practice and custom across the known world

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