The Earth and its Peoples Chapter One Outline
Chapter One Notes
Before Civilization (Circa Lorraine)
Culture: constituted by learned patterns of action and expression
FOOD GATHERING AND STONE TECHNOLOGY
Stone tool-making first appeared around 2 million years ago
Stone Age
Lasted from 2 million to about 4,000 years ago
Misleading label: bone, skin and wood just survive poorly
Paleolithic = Old Stone Age Neolithic = New Stone Age
Foundations of science, art, and religion begin here
May have believed in afterlife
In game-rich areas, people could practice these things
Mostly about hunting, some about religion, some, attempts at writing?
Foragers
Hunting and food-gathering peoples that tended to live in groups
Early humans didn’t live primarily on meat
Proof of cooking begins about 12,500 years ago (clay pots, East Asia)
THE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTIONS (Middle Eastern Origin)
10,000 years ago domestication begins to supplement food needs
Began w/ foragers spreading seeds of native plants at seasonal camps
beer b/c of wheat production
Middle East shows earliest signs
Emmer wheat and barley were ‘created’
Some local spread, but some independent
Many methods focus on soil fertility (2600 BCE, Central Europe starts using plows)
Pastoralism
A way of life dependent on large herds of livestock
Semi-cultivation, mobility, milk reliance
The Holocene
Global warming period that ended the last Ice Age and may have triggered the ARs
Some drier regions stuck with H&G until more recently
LIFE IN NEOLITHIC COMMUNITIES
Early farmers may have had to work even harder than foragers
Benefits (winter store) outweighed negatives
Some say there was conflict between farmers and foragers, others say the change may have been gradual thus minimizing conflict
Matrilineality: tracing descent thru women Matriarchal: rule by women
Megaliths
Relating to religion
Jericho and Catal Huyuk
Examples of relatively large, complex Neolithic societies
CH had one shrine per two houses
Abundance of female deities
Before Civilization (Circa Lorraine)
Culture: constituted by learned patterns of action and expression
FOOD GATHERING AND STONE TECHNOLOGY
Stone tool-making first appeared around 2 million years ago
Stone Age
Lasted from 2 million to about 4,000 years ago
Misleading label: bone, skin and wood just survive poorly
Paleolithic = Old Stone Age Neolithic = New Stone Age
Foundations of science, art, and religion begin here
May have believed in afterlife
In game-rich areas, people could practice these things
Mostly about hunting, some about religion, some, attempts at writing?
Foragers
Hunting and food-gathering peoples that tended to live in groups
Early humans didn’t live primarily on meat
Proof of cooking begins about 12,500 years ago (clay pots, East Asia)
THE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTIONS (Middle Eastern Origin)
10,000 years ago domestication begins to supplement food needs
Began w/ foragers spreading seeds of native plants at seasonal camps
beer b/c of wheat production
Middle East shows earliest signs
Emmer wheat and barley were ‘created’
Some local spread, but some independent
Many methods focus on soil fertility (2600 BCE, Central Europe starts using plows)
Pastoralism
A way of life dependent on large herds of livestock
Semi-cultivation, mobility, milk reliance
The Holocene
Global warming period that ended the last Ice Age and may have triggered the ARs
Some drier regions stuck with H&G until more recently
LIFE IN NEOLITHIC COMMUNITIES
Early farmers may have had to work even harder than foragers
Benefits (winter store) outweighed negatives
Some say there was conflict between farmers and foragers, others say the change may have been gradual thus minimizing conflict
Matrilineality: tracing descent thru women Matriarchal: rule by women
Megaliths
Relating to religion
Jericho and Catal Huyuk
Examples of relatively large, complex Neolithic societies
CH had one shrine per two houses
Abundance of female deities