Prologue, Part 1?, Chapter 1

matrilocal {Definition}

A culture in which young men upon marriage go to live with the brides' families.

bands {Definition}

A level of social organization normally consisting of 20 to 30 people; nomadic hunters and gatherers; labor divided on a gender basis.

pastoralism {Definition}

A nomadic agricultural lifestyle dependent on domesticated animal herds that feed on the natural environment; typically more populous than shifting cultivation groups.

Overview of cultural changes resulting from agriculture

Agriculture altered family forms, for example, by encouraging higher birth rates, both because more food was available and because more labor was needed. Permanent settlements arose fairly quickly, reducing local movements of people. By creating a surplus of food in most years, agriculture permitted a portion of the population to engage in occupations other than food production. This led to the development of unprecedented levels of social inequality, including heightened inequality between men and women. Agriculture altered the environment, sometimes resulting in over cultivation that depleted the soil. It encouraged humans to live in larger groups, and by doing so it created new vulnerability to communicable diseases. While agriculture clearly generated a mixture of advantages and disadvantages, its greater food production allowed more population growth. This in turn helps explain why agriculture tended to spread and why many people were willing to change basic aspects of their lives to accommodate to this new economy. In the most fertile areas, agricultural centers ultimately developed the organizational forms associated with civilization, most notably formal political structures and cities. Not all did so: stateless, loosely organized agricultural societies persisted in quite a few places until relatively modern times. But more formal political structures—states—plus larger urban centers— cities—as places to exchange goods and ideas could further the direction of agricultural economies.

shifting cultivation {Definition}

An intermediate form of ecological adaptation in which temporary forms of cultivation are carried out with little impact on the natural ecology; typical of rainforest cultivators

Agriculture's effects on the status of women

By virtue of their key roles as food gatherers in pre-farming cultures, it can be surmised that women played a critical part in the domestication of plants. Nonetheless, their position declined in many agricultural communities. They worked the fields and have continued to work them in most cultures. But men took over tasks involving heavy labor, such as clearing land, hoeing, and plowing. Men monopolized the new tools and weapons devised in the Neolithic Age and later times, and they controlled the vital irrigation systems that developed in most early centers of agriculture. As far as we can tell, men also took the lead in taming, breeding, and raising the large animals associated with both farming and pastoral communities. Thus, although Neolithic art suggests that earth and fertility cults, which focused on feminine deities, retained their appeal while the social and economic position of women began to decline with the shift to sedentary agriculture.

nomads {Definition}

Cattle and sheep herding societies normally found on the fringes of civilized societies; commonly referred to as "barbarian" by civilized societies.

Benefits of Domesticated Animals

Domesticated animals such as cattle and sheep provided New Stone Age humans with additional sources of protein-rich meat and in some cases milk. Animal hides and wool greatly expanded the materials from which clothes, containers, shelters, and crude boats could be crafted. Animal horns and bones could be carved or used for needles and other utensils. Because plows and wheels did not come into use until the Bronze Age, about 4000-3500 b.c.e., when stone tools and weapons gave way to metal ones, most Neolithic peoples made little use of animal power for farming, transportation, or travel. Neolithic peoples used domesticated herd animals as a steady source of manure to enrich the soil and thus improve the yield of the crops that were gradually becoming the basis of their livelihood. The domestication of animals, particularly cattle, sheep, horses, and camels, provided humans with another mode, pastoralism, of adapting to the environment. In roughly the same era as sedentary agriculture was being developed, groups of humans moved into the grasslands of central Asia and the Middle East, where they bred and tended herds of cattle, sheep, and goats. Domesticated livestock provided them with a steady supply of meat and milk, their staple foods, as well as hides for clothing and housing and bones that could be fashioned into tools and weapons. In some cases, pastoral peoples tamed horses, which allowed them to control larger and larger herds of domesticated animals and to hunt wild animals, such as bison and deer, thus expanding their food supply.

Overview of the beginning of agriculture

Domestication of animals and techniques of crop growing ultimately created alternatives to the hunting-and-gathering economy. Herding activities constituted one option, but agriculture was the more important innovation. Agriculture began at different times in different places, from about 10,000 years ago onward. It developed independently in at least three regions and perhaps more. Gradually, agriculture spread widely, although not universally, from these initial centers. The development of agriculture was a radical change in humans' way of life. By providing a dependable source of food, it allowed people to live in larger groups.

the "big concepts" (three)

Each of the key phases of the long period of early human history (2.5 million b.c.e.-1000 b.c.e.) can be characterized by a central topic or Big Concept. The first of these is the development of human hunting skills, the adaptation of those skills to the shifting geography and climate of the ice age, and above all the patterns of human migration that brought humans to so many different areas. The second Big Concept is the rise of agriculture and the changes in technology associated with the Neolithic revolution (9000 and 4000 b.c.e.). These changes set in motion the agricultural phase of the human experience that lasted until just a few centuries ago. The final Big Concept is the appearance of increasingly distinctive human societies through agriculture or nomadic pastoralism, and the earliest contacts among these first societies, particularly after 3500 b.c.e. when larger and more formally organized societies, often with early cities as well, emerged and began to develop more consistent patterns of interregional trade.

Çatal Hüyük {Definition + Unique Features}

Early urban culture based on sedentary agriculture; located in modern southern Turkey; was larger in population than Jericho, had greater degree of social stratication. The standardization of housing and construction at Çatal Hüyük suggests an even more imposing ruling group than that found at Jericho. The many religious shrines at the site also indicate the existence of a powerful priesthood. Excavations also reveal an economic base that was much broader and richer than that of Jericho.

Jericho {Definition}

Early walled urban culture site based on sedentary agriculture; located in modern Israeli-occupied west Bank near Jordan River.

matrilineal {Definition}

Family descent and inheritance traced through the female line.

2 reasons for a slow pace of change

First, inventing fundamentally new devices took time. In some cases, it never occurred at all: Impressive agricultural societies flourished with- out ever developing the wheel or metal tools. In addition, many people remained attached to old ways. Because the food supply was so precarious, the risk of innovation probably seemed dangerous. This was one reason why agriculture, although it did fan out from its initial centers, took so long to spread widely. People cherished the habits long associated with local migrations. Many men valued the challenge of hunting.

Learning Objectives: What were the major concerns and activities of early humans and in what ways might these explain the very slow development of early human societies?

First, inventing fundamentally new devices took time. In some cases, it never occurred at all: Impressive agricultural societies flourished with-out ever developing the wheel or metal tools. In addition, many people remained attached to old ways. Because the food supply was so precarious, the risk of innovation probably seemed dangerous. This was one reason why agriculture, although it did fan out from its initial centers, took so long to spread widely. People cherished the habits long associated with local migrations. Many men valued the challenge of hunting. Many groups held out against agriculture, even when they knew of it. Even as change occurred, it could produce efforts to preserve older values in new ways. In hunting-and-gathering societies, men and women both had key productive roles; the roles were very different, but they generated some mutual respect. With agriculture, men took on functions that probably seemed rather feminine, because they were linked to food gathering, which had been women's responsibility before. Men had far less time to hunt or to enjoy the masculine rituals associated with hunting. So, men looked for ways within agriculture to emphasize manhood. One common response was to claim new levels of superiority over women. Agriculture generated its own impulses toward continuity. Many peasant farmers clung fervently to traditional techniques and village structures, regarding further change with great suspicion. Thus, a tension between change and continuity was built into early human experience. Because plant cultivation involves more labor than hunting and gathering, we can assume that Stone Age humans gave up their former ways of life reluctantly and slowly.

The domestication of plants

In late Paleolithic times, wild barley and wheat grew over large areas in the present-day Middle East. Hunting-and-gathering bands in these areas may have consciously experimented with planting and nurturing seeds taken from the wild, or they may have accidentally discovered the principles of domestication by observing the growth of seeds dropped near their campsites. as Stone Age peoples became more adept at cultivating a growing range of crops, including various fruits, olives, and protein-rich legumes such as peas and beans, the effort they expended on activities outside agriculture diminished. The earliest farmers probably sowed wild seeds, a practice that cut down on labor but sharply reduced the potential yield. Over the centuries, more and more care was taken to select the best grain for seed and to mix different strains in ways that improved crop yields and resistance to plant diseases. As the time needed to tend growing plants and the dependence on agricultural production increased, some roving bands chose to settle down, and others practiced a mix of hunting and shifting cultivation that allowed them to continue to move about.

THE EMERGENCE OF WORLD HISTORY

In the West, world history depended on a growing realization that the world could not be understood simply as a mirror reflecting the West's greater glory or as a stage for Western-dominated power politics. This hard-won realization continues to meet some resistance. Nevertheless, historians in several societies have attempted to develop an international approach to the subject that includes, but goes beyond, merely establishing a context for the emergence of their own civilizations.

Civilization's Effects on Children

Most civilizations developed written language, although only a minority could afford the time to learn to write. As a result, the vast majority of children worked, but an elite minority were sent to school. Civilizations used codes of law and other prescriptions to emphasize the duties of children to their families. All agricultural civilizations emphasized the authority of parents over children and children's obligation to obey their parents. In this way, civilizations tried to instill in children a willingness to work for the benefit of their families. Children could be loved and could flourish, but there was a distinctive tone of strict discipline and obedience in agricultural civilizations that bolstered the necessity of children's labor.

agrarian revolution {Definition}

Occurred between 8500 and 3500 b.c.e.; transition from hunting and gathering to sedentary agriculture.

The First Towns: Seedbeds of Civilization

Over time some of the early sedentary communities grew into larger and larger concentrations of human populations with ever more specialized craftspeople and differentiated social groups that we have come to associate with towns, and somewhat later, cities. Two of the earliest of these mega- settlements were at Jericho, in present-day Palestine, and at Çatal Hüyük in present-day Turkey. With populations of about 2000 and 5000 people, respectively, Jericho and Çatal Hüyük would be seen today as little more than large villages or small towns. But in the perspective of human cultural development, they represented the first stirrings of urban life. Their ruling elites and craft specialists contributed to the introduction in the 4th millennium b.c.e. of critical inventions—such as the wheel, the plow, writing, and the use of bronze—that secured the future of civilized life as the central pattern of human history.

Religion in Paleolithic Age

Paintings and wood or stone sculptures were also crafted to worship and seek the assistance of nature spirits that were the center of the animistic religions. Animists believe that the natural world is alive with supernatural forces, which can be concentrated in groves of trees or revered animals or move about the atmosphere. Shamans or priests, who were gifted with the ability to communicate with these spirits, were among the first specialists in human societies.

Natufian Complex {Definition}

Preagricultural culture; located in present-day Israel, Jordan, Lebanon; practiced the collection of naturally present barley and wheat to supplement game; defined by large settlement sites.

The domestication of animals

Several animals may have been domesticated before the discovery of agriculture, and the two processes combined to make up the critical transformation in human culture called the Neo- lithic revolution. Sheep, goats, and pigs (which also were scavengers at human campsites) were first domesticated in the Middle East between 8500 and 7000 b.c.e. Horned cattle, which could run faster and were better able to defend themselves than wild sheep, were not tamed until about 6500 b.c.e. On the downside, at least in the early stages of pastoralism and the domestication of ani- mals more generally, contact with humans increased the incidence of disease for all of the species involved. Experts suggest that up to 80 percent of all human diseases came originally from ani- mals. Improvements in food supply and mobility made the tradeoff worthwhile, but agricultural societies and pastoral societies were burdened with new kinds of problems and anxieties as well.

social differentiation from agriculture

Surpluses meant that farmers could exchange part of their harvest for the specialized services and products of crafts- people such as toolmakers and weavers. Human communities became differentiated by occupations. Full-time political and religious leaders emerged and eventually formed elite classes. But in the Neolithic Age, the specialized production of stone tools, weapons, and pottery was a more important consequence of the development of agriculture than the formation of elites. Originally, each household crafted the tools and weapons it needed, just as it wove its own baskets and produced its own clothing. Over time, however, families or individuals who proved particularly skilled in these tasks began to manufacture implements beyond their own needs and to exchange them for grain, milk, or meat. Social distinctions probably were heightened by occupational differences, but well-defined social stratification, such as that which produces class identity, was nonexistent. Leadership remained largely communal, although village alliances may have existed in some areas. It is likely that property in Neolithic times was held in common by the community, or at least that all households in the community were given access to village lands and water.

Characteristics of early humans

Tens of thousands of years ago, the most advanced of the human species, Homo sapiens sapiens, migrated from Africa into the Middle East, then into Europe and Asia, and later into Australia and the Americas. Early humans developed tools, first using stones, sticks, and other natural objects. gradually, people learned to fashion tools and weapons from stone, bone, and wood.

The Neolitic Revolution as the Basis for World History

The fundamental transformations in society and culture that we include in the Neolithic revolution were essential to the development of cross-cultural and interregional linkages between formerly dispersed and isolated human groups, and eventually to the rise of world history. In contrast to pastoralism or hunting and gathering, farming made it possible to concentrate growing numbers of humans in towns and later cities. Because agrarian societies could generate surplus food production, they could also support occupational specialization on the part of groups like full-time blacksmiths, traders, or pottery-makers. Surpluses also facilitated the emergence of non-farming elite groups, like priests or warriors, which governed ever larger and increasingly diverse concentrations of human populations.

Homo sapiens {Definition}

The humanoid species that emerged as most successful at the end of the Paleolithic period

Paleolithic Art

The late Paleolithic was a period of particularly intense artistic production. Fine miniature sculpture, beads and other forms of jewelry, and carved bones have been found in abundance at sites dating from this period. The most striking works that survive from this period are the cave paintings that have been discovered at dwelling sites in areas as diverse as southern France, the plains of Africa south of the Sahara, and the Middle East. Some of these paintings appear to have religious significance. They may have been intended to depict prominent deities or to promote fertility. Paintings at some sites may represent early counting systems or primitive calendars. The art of the Old Stone Age indicates that humans were becoming increasingly interested in leaving lasting images of their activities and concerns.

Agriculture's Transformation of Material life

The sudden surge in invention and social complexity in the Neolithic Age marks one of the great turning points in human history. Increased reliance on sedentary cultivation led to the development of a wide variety of agricultural tools, such as digging sticks used to break up the soil, axes to clear forested areas, and the plow By the end of the Neolithic Age, human societies in several areas had devised ways to store rainwater and re-channel river water to irrigate plants. The reservoirs, canals, dikes, and sluices that permitted water storage and control represented another major advance in humans' ability to remake their environment. More and better tools and permanent settlements gave rise to larger, more elaborate housing and community ritual centers. Houses usually were uniform in construction. Seasonal harvests made improved techniques of food storage essential. At first, baskets and leather containers were used. But already in the early Neolithic Age, pottery, which protected stored foods better from moisture and dust, was known to several cultures in the Middle East.

The 4th Millennium b.c.e.: Another watershed

The years from 4000 to 3000 b.c.e. saw a second wave of major transformations in human culture in the Middle East and nearby regions. During this transition era, the use of the plow significantly increased crop yields, and wheeled vehicles made it possible to carry more food and other raw materials over greater distances. Both developments meant that even larger populations could be supported and concentrated in particular locales. The bronze tools that were forged from bronze further enhanced agricultural production and contributed to the development of larger and more lethal military forces. Like agriculture earlier, the new technologies—the wheel, the plow, bronze—began to spread in Afro-Eurasia in the centuries after 3500 b.c.e As metalworking improved further, better tools and weapons facilitated the rise of more centralized and expansive states. These radically new political units, which were usually centered on fortified towns and cities, greatly increased contacts between farming and nomadic peoples in everything from war and conquest to trade and religious expression. Merchant groups in farming societies also nurtured trading networks that provided perhaps the first enduring linkages between the urban centers of different states and civilizations. New modes of transportation, state patronage and protection, and a growing inventory of products to exchange made it possible to extend these networks across continents in Afro-Eurasia. Cross-cultural exchanges became ever more complex and vital for the societies that participated in them. The development of writing—first in Mesopotamia and later in India, China, and other centers of agrarian production—greatly improved communications and exchange within both these commercial networks and regional state systems. Writing enhanced the power of the political elites, who directed efforts at imperial expansion. Writing also played a key role in the emergence of each of the transcultural religions that arose in the ancient and classical eras.

Paleolithic Tools

Tools of wood and bone have perished; surviving stone tools such as these are our main evidence of the technology of this age. Early tools, crafted by species from which humans evolved, have been found at sites well over 2 million years old. These early species made tools by breaking off the edges of stones to create crude points or rough cutting surfaces. By the late Paleolithic Age, their fully human descendants had grown much more adept at working stone. They preferred to chip and sharpen flakes broken off a larger stone. These chips could be made into knife blades, arrow points, or choppers, which had a wide range of uses, from hunting and warfare to skinning animal carcasses and harvesting wild plants. Well before the Paleolithic—as many as half a million years ago—humans had also mastered fire.

Learning Objectives: In what ways did the rise of towns promote contacts and ongoing linkages between different human communities both within particular regions and across regional boundaries?

Villages in certain regions specialized in producing materials that were in demand in other areas. For example, flint, which is extremely hard, was the preferred material for axe blades. Axes were needed for forest clearing, which was essential to the extension of cultivation in much of Europe. The demand was so great that villagers who lived near flint deposits could support themselves by mining the flint or crafting the flint heads and trading, often with peoples who lived far from the sources of production. Such exchanges set precedents for regional specialization and interregional trade.

What Civilization Means

World history usually focuses on somewhat larger societies, with more extensive economic relationships (at least for trade) and cultures. Civilizations, unlike some other societies, generate surpluses beyond basic survival needs. This in turn promotes a variety of specialized occupations and heightened social differentiation, as well as regional and long-distance trading networks. Surplus production also spurs the growth of cities and the development of formal states, with some bureaucracy, in contrast to more informal methods of governing. Most civilizations have also developed systems of writing. Civilizations are not necessarily better than other kinds of societies. Nomadic groups have often demonstrated great creativity in technology and social relationships, and some were more vigorous than settled civilizations in promoting global contacts.

By the late Paleolithic Age, groups of the Homo sapiens species had colonized ____________________________ .

all of the continents except Antarctica

savages {Definition}

derogatory term wrongly applied to societies engaged in either hunting and gathering for subsistence or in migratory cultivation; not as stratifed and specialized as sedentary and nomadic societies.

Unique characteristics of Natufian complexes

developed sophisticated techniques of storing grain, and they devised pestles and grinding slabs to prepare it for meals. They built circular and oval stone dwellings that were occupied year round for centuries. The evidence from housing layouts, burial sites, jewelry, and other artifacts indicates that Natufian society was stratified. Clothing appears to have been used to distinguish a person's rank, and grand burial ceremonies marked the death of community chieftains. There is also evidence that Natufian society was matrilocal (young men went to live with their wives' families) and matrilineal (family descent and inheritance were traced through the female line). The fact that women gathered food crops in the wild may explain the power and influence they enjoyed in Natufian settlements. The Natufian strategy for survival did not involve new tools or production techniques. It rested primarily on intensive gathering of wild grains and improvement of storage techniques.

In contrast to the great apes and other mammals, human children ____________

did not develop mature teeth until well after weaning. For human children to survive, their parents or other adults had to devote a much longer period to providing food. Family structures had to develop accordingly.

The combination of __________ enabled different human species to make and use tools and weapons of increasing sophistication. These implements helped to offset the humans' marked inferiority in body strength and speed to rival predators, such as wolves and wild cats, as well as to many of the creatures that humans hunted.

free hands with opposable thumbs and a large brain

Agriculture's Effect on Children

hunting-and-gathering societies depended on a relatively low birth rate, with few children per family. Too many children would overwhelm resources; and no family could easily transport more than one young child during migrations. so hunters and gatherers limited births, mainly by breast-feeding each child for up to four or five years... with agriculture, more children could be supported, and indeed children became a vital part of the family labor force. Infants began to be weaned at about 18 months on average, a huge change from earlier human patterns. Birth rates shot up—agricultural families usually averaged five to seven children, although some would die because infant mortality rates were high. Childhood began to be defined in terms of work. Even young children had obligations. And by the time they were teenagers, their families depended on their labor.

band composition and characteristics in Paleolithic age

labor was divided according to gender: Men hunted and fished in riverine or coastal areas. Because they became skilled in the use of weapons in the hunt, it is also likely that men protected the band from animal predators and raids by other human groups. Cave paintings suggest animal hunts were major events in the annual cycle of life in Paleolithic societies. Nearly all able-bodied men participated in the hunting parties, and women and children prepared and preserved the meat. Although women's roles were less adventuresome and aggressive than men's, they were arguably more critical to the survival of the band. Women gathered the foods that provided the basic subsistence of the band and permitted its survival in times when hunting parties were unsuccessful. Women also became adept at using medicinal plants, which were the only means Paleolithic peoples had to treat disease.

cultural consequences of the arrival of civilizations

monumental buildings often associated with religion and more formal art and culture were standard features of this final great innovation in early human history

The history of civilizations covers ____________

most of the people who have ever lived; their literature, formal scientific discoveries, art, music, architecture, and inventions; their most elaborate social, political, and economic systems; their brutality and destruction caused by conflicts; their exploitation of other species; and their degradation of the environment—a result of changes in technology and the organization of work.

Living conditions and movements of Paleolithic peoples

most preferred to live on open ground The migratory peoples who lived on hilltops or in forest clearings built temporary shelters of skins and leaves or grass thatching. Their flimsy campsites could be readily abandoned when movements of the herd animals they hunted or threats from competing bands prompted migration. Although it is likely that bands developed a sense of territoriality, boundaries were vague, and much conflict focused on rival claims to sources of game and wild foods.