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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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