Ø Focus on Urban-Based Socieites and Their Core Characteristics

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