What is Civilization?
Marshall High School Mr. Cline Western Civilization I: Ancient Foundations Unit One BF * Early Humans and the Herds
• At some point in our development as humans, we stopped simply foraging and scavenging, and began hunting. Because at the time, the most reliable sources of food were migratory herds.
• To keep up with these herds, our ancestors had to be as mobile as the animals they were hunting, so we developed longer legs and an upright form of walking.
• To outsmart and track those herds, we developed bigger brains.
• To take down large game we combined those bigger brains with finer hands and teamwork, and started making tools.
• In short, the challenges presented by the ice age forged man into the hyper-intelligent, highly adaptable, upright walking, tool generating creature we know today.
• And so now we come to the latest period of interglaciation, a great thaw that began around 10,000 BC.
• Human beings had been following the migrations of herd animals for thousands of years.
• The scarcity of plant life required herds to move constantly. The herds moved to find new vegetation to eat; the humans moved to follow the herds.
• With the thaw, plant life thrived again. * Early Humans and the Herds
• Herds no longer needed to move such long distance to find fodder. Yet countless generations had made these migrations instinctive to herd animals.
• Human beings, on the other hand, had no such instincts to constrain them.
• They quickly realized that the animals they hunted would survive just as well without walking for thousands of miles every year.
• Now if only they could find a way to convince the animals to abandon their instincts.
• The Domestication of Animals
• This marks the beginning of domestication of animals. Human beings did whatever they could to break animals of their migratory habits.
• This proved easier with some animals than with others.
• Likely the first herd animal to be domesticated was the sheep.
• Sheep are smaller than humans, and do not move very quickly.
• When a herd of sheep began to migrate, all it took were a few humans to restrain them and drive them back to more convenient pastures. * Early Humans and the Herds
• The Domestication of Animals
• Humans might have been helped in this process by the very first domesticated animal, the dog.
• According to the genetic and archaeological evidence, dogs were the first animal to be domesticated roughly between 7200 and 32000 years ago
• They most likely began as wolves who would feed on scraps left from humans, and so learned to follow them
• Over time, they began to lose their fear of humans, and approach them for food, and humans and dogs developed the symbiotic relationship of friend, pack animal, food source, source of warmth, and danger signal.
• The dog makes an excellent shepherd. He's fast, he's intelligent, he's deadly, and he's absolutely terrifying to your average herd animal, who thinks he's a wolf.
• These factors combined to make the dog an appealing ally even during our early days as hunters, which was probably when we first formed our alliance with the canine species. * Early Humans and the Herds
• The Domestication of Animals
• Yet the domestication of animals was less successful in the history of humanity as one would think. • Many cultures in Africa and the Americas do not have any native domesticated animals, save the ones their ancestors brought with them from Asia
• It has been theorized that in order for an animal to be domesticated it must possess these six traits:
• A flexible diet
• A reasonably fast growth rate
• Ability to be bred in captivity
• A pleasant disposition that shows in lack of aggressiveness towards humans
• A temperament that makes it unlikely to panic
• A modifiable social hierarchy * Early Humans and the Herds
• The Domestication of Animals
• Some scientists theorize that some of these traits may not be necessary to domestication, but come about as a result of domestication itself, particularly having a pleasant disposition and temperament
• For example, domesticated animals no longer have a territory to defend for mating purposes, so domestication made aggressiveness made low, not natural selection
• Domesticated animals change genetically a great deal as a result of domestication in their physical appearances also, demonstrating a reduction in size, shorter faces with smaller and fewer teeth, diminished horns, weak muscle ridges, and less genetic variability. Poor joint definition, hair changes, greater fat accumulation, smaller brains, simplified behavior patterns, extended immaturity, and more pathology.
• Nevertheless, humans were able to break enough species of their migratory habits to allow us to settle in one place. Species Date Location Dog (Canis lupus familiaris) between 30000 BC and 7000 BC[19][20][21] Europe, East Asia and Africa
Sheep (Ovis orientalis aries) between 11000 BC and 9000 BC[22][23] Southwest Asia
Pig (Sus scrofa domestica) 9000 BC[24][25] Near East, China, Germany
Goat (Capra aegagrus hircus) 8000 BC[26] Iran
Cow (Bos primigenius taurus) 8000 BC[27][28] India, Middle East, and North Africa
Cat (Felis catus) 7500 BC[16][17][18][29] Cyprus and Near East Chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) 6000 BC[30] India and Southeast Asia
Guinea pig (Cavia porcellus) 5000 BC[31] Peru
Donkey (Equus africanus asinus) 5000 BC[32][33] Egypt
Domesticated duck (Anas platyrhynchos domesticus) 4000 BC China
Water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) 4000 BC India, China
Horse (Equus ferus caballus) 4000 BC[34] Eurasian Steppes
Dromedary (Camelus dromedarius) 4000 BC Arabia
Llama (Lama glama) 3500 BC Peru Silkworm (Bombyx mori) 3000 BC China Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) 3000 BC[35] Russia
Rock pigeon (Columba livia) 3000 BC Mediterranean Basin
Goose (Anser anser domesticus) 3000 BC[36] Egypt
Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) 2500 BC central Asia
Yak (Bos grunniens) 2500 BC Tibet Banteng (Bos javanicus) Unknown Southeast Asia, Java Island
Gayal (Bos gaurus frontalis) Unknown Southeast Asia
Alpaca (Vicugna pacos) 1500 BC Peru Ferret (Mustela putorius furo) 1500 BC- Europe
Muscovy Duck (Cairina momelanotus) Unknown South America
Guineafowl Unknown Africa Common carp (Cyprinus carpio) Unknown East Asia
Domesticated turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) 500 BC Mexico
Goldfish (Carassius auratus auratus) Unknown China
European Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) ad 600 Europe * Early Humans and the Herds
• The Domestication of Animals
• As a result; instead of humans following herds through their endless migrations, the herds would now follow the humans leading them from pasture to pasture.
• This system is called pastoralism.
• Yet despite these advances, the shepherd must still move about, albeit in a much smaller circuit than migratory hunters.
• The Effects of the Domestication of Animals
• Though domestication had made these animals dependent on man, man was still dependent on those domesticated animals.
• The warming earth would soon provide another option: the domestication of plants through settled agriculture. Yet it is important to remember that without the domestication of animals, human beings would likely never have been able to stay put long enough to raise a crop of wheat without starving to death.
• So we've seen how humanity developed in response to the extraordinary challenges presented by the ice age.
• Equipped to survive the utmost scarcity, our species entered this warm period of abundance. * Early Humans and the Herds
• The same adaptations that had allowed us to survive the depths of glaciation would enable us to dominate this interglacial period:
• The brains we'd developed to find food would later come up with ways to make food.
• The hands we'd developed to make and use knives and spears would go on to construct the millions of tools we use today.
• Finally, the teamwork we'd needed to pull down a mastodon would allow us to build cities, states, and empires.
• But there was one last major step that needed to be taken to achieve all of this; and it would require a revolution. * The Neolithic Revolution
• Neo*Lithic= New Stone in Greek
• The Neolithic Age marked a “new stone age,” but with marked technological changes, particularly in how people obtained their basic resources (food, clothing, shelter)
• Prior to this, in the Paleolithic (ancient or old stone) era, from the beginning of human existence to 10,000 B.C., most humans were nomadic hunter-gatherers marked by:
• Life in small populations of 20 to 30 people
• Primary use of daylight hours used to provide food
• A division of labor based on sex
• Use of simple tools based on stone, bone or wood to make spears, axes, knives * The Neolithic Revolution
• The Beginnings of the Revolution
• Wild species of plants occasionally mutate as humans do * The Neolithic Revolution • The Beginnings of the Revolution
• Wild species of plants occasionally mutate as humans do • And, occasionally this mutation is beneficial to humans, but could be deadly to the survival of the plant species
• For example, the larger seeds in this plant do not fall to the ground, and are attached more securely to the plant, and so the plant does not spread its seed as easily.
• Humans are better able to collect it however, so it survives in a symbiotic relationship with us * The Neolithic Revolution • The Beginnings of the Revolution
• Wild species of plants occasionally mutate as humans do • And, occasionally this mutation is beneficial to humans, but could be deadly to the survival of the plant species
• For example, the larger seeds in this plant do not fall to the ground, and are attached more securely to the plant, and so the plant does not spread its seed as easily.
• Humans are better able to collect it however, so it survives in a symbiotic relationship with us
• As time goes on, humans are better able to select the kinds of the plant they like best, and prefer, and those versions remain, while the entire plant is much different than its ancient ancestor * The Neolithic Revolution
• The Results of the Revolution • Transformed hunter gatherers into sedentary societies that created towns and villages
• This allowed them to increase cultivation, and advance agricultural technology through inventions such as irrigation, improved cultivation, and food storage techniques • Increased populations because larger food supplies were available
• Allowed for specialized labor and the division of societies into classes
• Allowed for the creation of non portable art, architecture and other cultural works • Allowed for trade between settlements, and over great distance
• The development of government and social hierarchy
• The development of writing and philosophy * The Neolithic Revolution
• The Results of the Revolution • Genetic evidence suggests changes in brain structure and size in humans at this time as well
• It truly was a REVOLUTION in every sense of the word for man, and though we apply the scientific nomen Neolithic to it, most people know it as a revolution based on its root cause, The Agricultural Revolution
• But what benefits did this revolution bring to humanity that made it stop hundreds of thousands of years of survival strategy as nomads, and settle down into civilizations?
• To understand this better, we should first look at the advantages and disadvantages of agricultural societies, and the other survival strategy options available to our ancestors.