Download Economic: Specialization of Labor

Mohamad Adada
Mr. Tavernia
Period 5
World History AP
Packet B
Economic: Specialization of Labor
After the pleistocene came the holocene, with its warmer temperatures. This change in weather
paved the way for migration mainly from equatorial areas like Africa to the Middle East. In
9,700 BCE, the Neolithic revolution took place, and agriculture became widely practiced
throughout many civilizations. With the spread of agriculture, less men were needed to obtain
food, therefore these men went on to do other jobs like metallurgy which helped further
technology, or building ziggurats and pyramids. This specialization of labor can be grouped into
3 sections, skilled, unskilled and coerced. Skilled labor, like metallurgy or scripture took training
from a mentor, while unskilled labor included jobs like building. Coerced labor on the other hand
included jobs like slaves for the wealthy. Coerced labor was even existent in the future with the
slave trade of the 1800s.
Anam Ahmed
Mr. Tavernia
AP World History/ Period 5
Packet: B
Economic: Linear B
Linear B Script was the writing system of the Ancient Mycenaean civilization in Greece. It was
used around 1450 BCE through 1100 BCE. The use of this script was limited to major sites with
palaces, like Thebes, Mycenae, Knossos, Pylos, and Tiryns. The Ancient Greek wrote these on
clay tablets as a system of record keeping, documenting economic transactions. There are also
some tablets with records of military activity.
Linear B is the oldest form of written Greek that is preserved and that we know of. It consists of
90 syllable signs with many pictorial signs. The syllable signs represent a vowel or
consonant-vowel pairing. Most tablets written in Linear B have administrative roots; there are
many lists, statements, instructions, and records. There were also some tablets with lists of
religious offerings. This provided historians with the knowledge of the types of food they ate, but
also the names of gods and goddesses. The god and goddess names of Mycenaean times actually
had similarity between the classic Greek religion. They both had Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Hermes,
Ares, Dionysus, and Artemis.
Before the Mycenaeans took over, the Minoan Greeks used a writing system called Linear A
script. We do not know much about Linear A; much of it is a mystery. Linear B has many similar
signs as Linear A, so historians infer that scribes adapted Linear A to Greek , forming Linear B.
After the Mycenaean civilization collapsed, Linear B started to disappear and fully became
extinct around 1100 BCE. Until the Greek alphabet was formed, literacy was lost in Greek
civilization( during the Greek Dark ages).
Alex Andreozzi
Mr. Tavernia
Ap World History P.5
Packet A
Theme 4: Barter Systems
A barter system is an old method of exchanging goods. This system
has been used for many centuries and a long time before monetary
systems were invented. In this system people exchanged services and
goods for other goods and services in return. A barter system is a form of
economic system introduced in 6000 BC by Mesopotamian tribes. This was
then adopted by the Phoenicians, who bartered goods to those cities
across the oceans. Babylonian’s also developed improved bartering
systems. Relating to the theme, barter systems were common in major
cities and trading ports as systems of trade.
William Block
Mr. Tavernia
AP World History Period 5
Packet B
Creation, Expansion, & Interaction of Economic Systems:
Labor Systems
Labor systems developed over time with the creation of agriculture and job
specialization. It is also one of the main causes for the creation of hierarchies. Labor began as
just foraging and searching for resources for a kinship group or other group. The males would
usually go hunt and gather while the woman would do labor such as making clothes and taking
care of children. The domestication of animals was used to assist in labor. There is evidence that
shows they could have had horses or oxen type animals carry things around on leashes.
Eventually hunter gathering turned into agriculture with the end of the Ice Age.
Agriculture caused job specialization because less people needed to get food because it was
being produced. Eventually jobs emerged such as priests, traders, scribes, etc. Labor got their
own classes over time. They were called skilled labor, unskilled labor, and coerced or slave
labor. Labor systems helped expand into new territories by transportation. They also helped
contact other civilizations which sometimes led to conflict. Because of traders different
civilizations could trade iron and other minerals. Overall, Labor specialization helped old
civilizations greatly and further advanced
economy.
Yasmine Charles-Harris
Mr. Tavernia
AP World History / Period 5
Packet: B
[Economic]: (Foragers)
The culture of foraging is also known as hunting
and gathering. These groups of people depend
primarily on wild foods for subsistence. All
peoples were foragers until about 12,000 to 11,000
years ago,
when animal domestication and
agriculture emerged in Mesoamerica and in
southwest Asia. There were many foraging
strategies, which depend on the local environment.
These strategies have included gathering wild plant
foods such as fruits, vegetables, seeds, and nuts,
gathering shellfish or insects, fishing, and hunting or trapping small and/or big animals. In order
to have a balanced diet, most foragers combined these strategies. The men usually hunted large
animals and women and their children and grandchildren collected foods such as shellfish,
plants, and insects. Forager mothers normally began to train their children at about three or four
years old, because young children do not have the silence nor the patience needed to hunt and
stalk animals.
Sofia del Rio
Mr. Tavernia
AP World History/Period 5
Packet: B
Specialization of Labor
Originally, humans were hunter gatherers, and survived by doing whatever they could to
find food and shelter for themselves and their families. A clan of individuals, known as a kinship
group, had to do all the tasks necessary for life, including hunting, dressing kills, gathering,
making tools, and making shelters. As a result of the
Neolithic Revolution, agricultural villages developed and
that led to a surplus of food. As societies became larger and
more complex, people no longer needed to participate in
agricultural activities and began to specialize in different
types of jobs. It was no longer necessary for one person to know how to do everything. Instead,
one person could make pottery, while another
could be in art. As a result of this
specialization, men and women were able to
focus on their skills, and the quality of their
products became increasingly better. As a
result of the specialization, social structures
became evident. Men became more important
than women, for their hard labor was required to keep the fields and agriculture growing. A class
system also came into play. Most early villages had four classes: the elites, skilled workers,
unskilled workers, and coerced labor. Jose Duran
Mr. Tavernia AP
Period 5
Domestication
During the Mesolithic Age, humans achieved the domestication of
animals. There was a massive step towards the agricultural revolution
because humans started to notice that animals made work faster and more
efficiently. The first animal to be ever domesticated in America was the llama.
Other animals that were first domesticated are: Goats, sheep, horses, and
pigs. All of these animals provided easier field labor, and safe transportation,
food, and clothing. Domestication has been a remarkable event to human
history, historians state, because it is when humans started to revolutionize
and adapt to their environments. These trained animals also increased
transportations between civilizations because people could travel in horse
faster than they could run. This safe transportation also led to the trade of
different communities, which increased the relationships between them and
made some communities allies. This affected the world economically
because it expanded trade to not just the people in a community, but to the
population in a much bigger radius. There are records of this in Ancient
Mesopotamia, Egypt and Mesoamerica.
Sofia Godoy
Mr. Tavernia
Period 5
Packet B: Ancient Civilizations
Creation, Expansion, and Interaction of Economic Systems:
Domestication
Around 10,000 years ago, people began to domesticate plants, such as wheat and barley,
and animals, such as dogs and goats. With this newfound ability to develop improved strains of
plants, agriculture was born. Better adapted to different environments around the world,
domesticated and hardier crops were able to feed a greater population. Now, people didn’t have
to worry about not having a reliable source of nourishment. Instead, there was a food surplus
within communities, allowing job specialization to occur. This, in turn, created the concept of an
economy. Providing valuable commodities, like wool and milk, domesticated animals also
played a significant role in the formation of the economy. Expansion of the economic system
was aided by the domestication of animals, which could be used as a means to carry goods. Since
plant domestication permitted some people of the Stone Age to specialize in metallurgy and
similar fields, they built wheeled carts, which were conducive to trade and the global spread of
economic ideals.
Pastoral Nomadism
Nomadic pastoralism is a form of ​pastoralism when ​livestock are ​herded in order
to find fresh ​pastures on which to ​graze​. Strictly speaking, true nomads follow an
irregular pattern of movement, in contrast with transhumance where seasonal pastures are
fixed.​[1] However this distinction is often not observed and the term nomad used for
both—in historical cases the regularity of movements is often unknown in any case. The
herded livestock include ​cattle​, ​yaks​, ​sheep​, ​goats​, reindeer, ​horses​, ​donkeys or ​camels​,
or mixtures of species. ​Nomadic pastoralism is commonly practised in regions with little
arable land​, typically in the developing world, especially in the steppe lands north of the
agricultural zone of Eurasia.
Of
the
estimated 30–40
million nomadic pastoralists
worldwide, most are found
in central Asia and the ​Sahel
region
of
West
Africa.
Increasing numbers of stock
may lead to overgrazing of
the area and desertification if
lands are not allowed to fully
recover between one grazing
period and the next. The
nomadic pastoralism was a
result
of
the
​Neolithic
revolution​. During the revolution, humans began ​domesticating animals and plants for
food and started forming cities. Nomadism generally has existed in symbiosis with such
settled cultures trading animal products (meat, hides, wool, cheeses and other animal
products) for manufactured items not produced by the nomadic herders.
Sydni Josowitz Mr. Tavernia AP World History p5 Packet B [Economic: Pastoral Nomadism] Nomadic Pastoralism was practiced by many cultures through history. Nomadic Pastoralists are groups of people who practice herding livestock while at the same time moving from place to place. These nomads do not have a permanent home, instead they wandered from one field to the next in search for new pastures and fields for their animals. Nomadic Pastoralism began during the Neolithic Revolution, along with the domestication of animals. Mark Kava
Tavernia
World History AP/Period 5
Packet B
Economic- Cuneiform
Cuneiform is a form of writing that originated in ancient Mesopotamia.
Cuneiform originated in 3500 BCE and continued all the way to 3000 BCE.
Cuneiform is a system of writing in which wedge-shaped symbols represented
words or syllables. It was Used initially for Sumerians and Akkadians, but later
was adapted to represent other languages of western Asia. Cuneiform is one of
the earliest known written languages to the modern world.
Cuneiform was generally written on clay tablets in Mesopotamia. One of
the most famous Cuneiform works is ​The
​ Epic of Gilgamesh. The Epic of
Gilgamesh was found in the Library of Ashurbanipal.
Cuneiform revolutionized history. Because people were capable of keeping
records, this led to the development of written history. Because of the discovery
of the rosetta stone, people can now read and comprehend Cuneiform which is
vital to understanding the Mesopotamian history.
Overall, Cuneiform was the first complex writing systems and helped to
develop written history and modern day language.
Thomas Lovegren
Mr.Tavernia
AP Human Geography
Packet B
AP theme: Pastoralists as Disseminators of Technology
Pastoralists have been distributors of technology for two reasons: they diffuse
they best method of that current technology around, and they bring a certain technology
to civilizations and city-states that may not have known about a certain technology.
They achieve this through the same method. Because pastoralists are on the move at
all times they bring ideas and technology to different civilziations and they adapt the
best ideas from other civilizations. So as the pastoralists move around, so do the ideas
that they adopt.
Elizabeth Matei
Mr. Tavernia
World History AP/Period 5
Packet: B
Creation, Expansion, and Interaction of Economic Systems: Cuneiform
Cuneiform was the writing system developed and used by the ancient Sumerians in
Mesopotamia. Cuneiform writing consists of wedge-like figures pressed into soft clay, which
then hardened into tablets and were able to be read. Cuneiform was written in the “Sumerian”
language, also the name of the people who created it. The first forms of cuneiform only depicted
simple pictures of discrete events happening in life such as a flood. But, as the Mesopotamian
civilization began to develop, cuneiform became more complex and began to depict deeper,
metaphorical saying and stories, which were written in figures that looked more like words
rather than pictures. It advanced to the point where cuneiform tablets would relay messages of
love, hope, and different emotional states. One of the most famous stories written in the
cuneiform is ​The
​ Epic of Gilgamesh (story of an epic hero), found extant in the Library of
Ashurbanipal in Nineveh. Ultimately, cuneiform was used for the recording of daily events,
trading purposes, literature, languages, and sometimes astronomy. It’s findings show the modern
day world how knowledge and complex people of the Ancient past were.
Alba Minxha Mr. Tavernia AP World History Period 5 Packet B Theme 4 Trade and Commerce: Papyrus Papyrus grew abundantly only in the delta of the Nile River. The Egyptians made the plant into a paperlike material. The production began over five thousand years ago, and the product became one of Egypt's major exports. The pharaohs realized the importance of papyrus as a part of the Egyptian economy, and made its production a state monopoly. Egyptians traded papyrus in much larger numbers than any of their other exports. It spread from Egypt to throughout the Middle East and Mesopotamia. Papyrus proved to be essential to other civilizations because of its practicality. While today we see the process and method of writing on papyrus as cumbersome, at the time, it was simple for scribes. Emily Namm
Michael Tavernia
AP World History/ Period 5
Packet B
[Economic]: Cuneiform
Cuneiform was the ancient system
of writing and record keeping originally
developed by the Sumerians in
Mesopotamia, around 3000 BCE. The
name cuneiform comes from the Latin
word cuneus, or wedge, because a wedgeshaped stylus was used to make
impressions into a soft clay tablet. After
the Sumerians came up with it, cuneiform
spread from Sumer to all of Mesopotamia,
until all the civilizations, such as the
Akkadians, Babylonians, Elamites, Hatti,
Hittites, adopted cuneiform.
The earliest form of cuneiform tablets that were discovered were called
proto-cuneiform. They weren’t much more than
pictorials. As cuneiform developed, the writing
become more complex, becoming, instead of a
system where a small picture represented a noun, the
word consisted of parts that represented how the
word was spoken aloud.
In its earliest times, cuneiform was used
mainly for record keeping of trade. As it developed,
Mesopotamians used it for more complex things, even, eventually, literature.
Alexander Rabin
Mr.Tavernia
AP World History P.5
Packet B
Economic Theme: Specialization of Labor
As civilizations specifically in the Neolithic era created efficient agriculture, a labor force
was freed up. Inventions like the plow and the domestication of animals required less
people to be farmers and allowed different jobs to be given to different people. Early
specialized jobs included priests, traders, and builders. Job specialization also
introduced a class system where jobs ranked people in social classes. This contrasts to
egalitarian groups of past eras. Basic needs and staple foods were both taken care of,
so people could afford to optimize their existence rather than just survive. This process
also increased the population of the civilization, which also allowed a bigger variety of
jobs. Childbirth also increased, which freed up the adult work force. These civilizations
contrasted the nomadic tribes of a contemporary time. Large civilizations impacted by
the specialization of labor include Mesopotamia and Egypt.
Scott Robins
Mr. tavernia
AP World History Period 5
Packet B
Theme 4 (Economic): Cuneiform
Cuneiform is a type of writing that developed in Mesopotamia. This style of
writing includes wedge-shaped symbols that carry out the meaning of words.
Today it is known as one of the earliest known written languages to mankind.
Cuneiform main purpose at first was for record keeping, which eventually
transitioned it a written language. It originated in 3500 BCE and lasted until 3000
BCE. People are able to translate Cuneiform due to research, therefore
historians are able to find out more information on the people in Mesopotamia. A
lot of Cuneiform writing was done on clay tablets, so some of them are still
preserved today. Being able to read these tablets can also tell us about the types
of technology that was used during this time. This type of writing helped pave the
way for civilizations to communicate and trade in the hope of becoming wealthy.
Sean Robins
Mr. Tavernia
AP World P.5
Packet: B
Theme 4 (Economic): Foragers
Foragers used many things in the environment such as animal skins for
clothing, and berries for paints for hobbies. The earliest evidence of woven clothappearing about 26,000 years ago. One example according to page eight of the
Bulliet textbook is grouped in the African grasslands who spent around three to
five hours a day finding food, clothing, and shelter. This would leave them with a
lot of free time. With this extra time, they would learn to build technology and
teach themselves how to produce items necessary for living. This time probably
led to learning how to make clothes, art, pottery, and many more things they
needed to live their lives. They could then trade with other foragers for items they
needed for survival. These foragers tested techniques using plant and animal
materials for clothing, and construction. Knowledge of the environment included
helping them decide which minerals made good paints and which rocks they
could use for tools.
http://www.worldhistory.biz/sundries/45590-foraging-lifeways.html
Alejandro Sosa
Mr. Tavernia
AP World History P.5
Packet: B
Portfolio Project
Economic: Specialization of Labor
In Paleolithic times, all humans would work to find food and survive. The only division
was that men would hunt and women would gather and take care of the food once
recovered. When nomadic peoples transitioned into the age of agrarian societies, there
was a large food surplus from farming which allowed for actual specialization of labor.
The division of labor during Paleolithic times was based on the fact that men were
physically stronger than women, but afterwards, job specialization allowed for a
civilization to be not just filled with farmers and people concerned with obtaining food,
but artisans, craftsmen, smiths, leaders, and even more new jobs. With more complex
civilizations, it wasn’t sufficient for people to learn a bit of every job; workers dedicated
to a job were needed to support expanding and more advanced civilizations. If a person
was both a farmer and a craftsman, they would have to spend most of their time
dedicated to the crops, without ever becoming a master craftsman. Instead, farmers
created more food and then the people remaining could fill other jobs and become more
proficient at them. Later on, further specialization of labor would allow for further
advancements in technology and let workers hone their skills further. In the early
civilizations, labor was spread into three main classes, skilled, unskilled, and coerced
labor. Skilled labor consisted of artisans, craftsmen, warriors, priests, merchants,
scribes, and leaders. Unskilled labor involved farming and servants. Finally coerced
labor forces were always made up of forced labor like slavery. While societies like
Mesopotamia didn’t have slaves and consisted of two main classes, civilizations like
Egypt that kept prisoners of war as slaves had three classes of labor. China was also
the only civilization to value farmers over merchants. The Hittites were a civilization that
practically relied on their blacksmiths, as they prepared their stronger iron weapons for
war. Without labor specialization, many technological
advancements would have taken much longer to occur or
may have not occurred at all.
Kathryn Treacy
Mr. Tavernia
AP World History, Period 5
Packet B: Ancient Civilizations
Creation, Expansion, & Interaction of Economic Systems:
Domestication
The domestication of plants is more understood than the domestication of animals.
Foraging bands of humans primarily lived on wild seeds, fruits, and tubers. Eventually,
some humans tried planting seeds which favored varieties that they liked. People stopped
collecting the wild types and relied on farming and further developing their new domestic
type.
In the case of animals, the basis of selection to suit human needs is less apparent.
Experts looking at ancient bones and images interpret changes in hair color, horn shape,
and other visible features as indicators of domestication. As for the uses most commonly
associated with domesticate animals, some of the most important, such as milking cows,
shearing sheep, and harnessing oxen and horses to pull plows and vehicles, first appeared
hundreds and even thousands of years after domestication.
Horses and camels were domesticated relatively late and most likely not for meat
consumption. The societies within which these animals first appeared as domestic species
already had domestic sheeps, goats, and cattle for meat, and they used oxen to carry loads
and pull plows and carts.
Saaketh Vedantam
Mr. Tavernia
AP World History/Period 5
Packet: B
Economic: Specialization of Labor
During the ancient times, labor specialization formed as a result of social stratification. In
fact, this was caused by a chain of events, starting with pastoralism and agriculture, which led to
more reliable and abundant food supplied, leading to an increased population and finally
specialization of labor. Occupations other than farming arose, since food surpluses were grown
and fewer people were needed to produce crops. These included priests, traders, builders,
artisans, warriors, and merchants. Three general classes that encompassed all of this were skilled,
unskilled, and coerced labor.
Even as early as the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras, there was a small specialization of
labor with men as hunters and women as gatherers. However, this spread to make skilled jobs, as
civilizations grew. In all four of the core ancient civilizations, specialization of labor combined
with other things resulted in groups reaching unprecedented wealth. The job specializations were
very similar to the social class divisions, in that there were artisans, merchants, warriors, priests,
and farmers. At the bottom were coerced workers, or slaves, who worked because they had an
owner who gave them arduous tasks. Popular skilled jobs in Mesopotamia were formed after
technologies such as pottery and weaving. For example, certain specialized people used clay to
create different containers, which could be used to hold items. Also, ancient weavers used looms
to create clothing. Teachers usually taught rich boys to read the language, bankers started a
system for storing money, and scientists studied things like the world and the stars.
The impact of specialization of labor can be seen in both positive and negative ways. For
example, there is a lot of diversity in jobs today, but there is also a lot of poverty in groups who
work low paying jobs.
Saaketh Vedantam
Mr. Tavernia
AP World History/Period 5
Packet: B
Daniela Velez Mr. Tavernia AP World History/ 5 Packet: B Economic: Cuneiform If we were in ancient Mesopotamia right now, you would be reading a sentence composed of wedge­shaped symbols and inscribed into a clay tablet. Cuneiform, considered the most prominent contribution of the Sumerians, is a system of writing that was used to write city records and stories in the ancient Sumerian city of Uruk. Early cuneiform was pictoral, made up of small pictures and not symbols like in the alphabet. However, it evolved to have symbols representing more abstract things that could not be drawn, such as love or immortality. It also evolved into a much more simpler array of shapes, characterized by their wedge­like symbols. The earliest records of cuneiform are from the end of the 4th millennium BCE, around the time that urban centers such as Uruk and Susa developed. These early records were city accounts. Later, cuneiform started to be used for writing stories along with city records. Many great literary works that are read today were written in cuneiform, such as “The Descent of Innana” and the “Epic of Gilgamesh”. Isabella Whiting
Mr. Tavernia
AP World History P5
Packet B
Theme 4: Economic
One theme that AP World Geography focuses on is economic, which is the creation,
expansion, and interaction of economic systems. This theme encompasses how modes of
production, commerce, and labor systems have changed over time. As the neolithic revolution
began people shifted from gathering their food to producing it. Then in the Mesolithic period
innovations like pottery allowed people to store and trade food and the domestication of animals
allowed people to trade. The availability of more food led to an increase in population which
meant there were more farmers than necessary so people started performing specialized jobs.
This meant that people had shifted from hunting and gathering to a labor system where some
people were farmers while others were becoming priests, builders, etc. This change to
pastoralism and agricultural production also meant that trade began and soon people were
trading good for other goods which was called bartering or in exchange for money which was
completely different from hunting/gathering because at that time people followed food wherever
it went and only focused on food for
one day so there was no trading or
commerce being done.
Kevin Yeung
Mr. Tavernia
AP World History Period 5
Packet B
Theme 4 – Economic: Cuneiform
Representing the end of prehistory, cuneiform, an ancient writing system developed by
the Sumerians in 3000 BCE, would start the age of recording history. Cuneiform is probably one
of the most important cultural contributions by the Sumerians, and would be continuously used
by all of the Mesopotamian civilizations until about 100 BCE. This style of writing involves
using a stylus to create pictographs in soft clay and drying the clay out in the sun to harden it.
The earliest cuneiform tablets resembled pictures describing events and people, but the letters
would eventually become more simplified and refined to make reading the pictographs easier to
understand. Even though the art of cuneiform wouldn’t be cracked by modern humans until the
mid-1800s, archaeologists today wouldn’t have known so much about ancient Mesopotamia
without it.
The great literary works of Mesopotamia and tablets of maps
and discoveries were all written in cuneiform, and before they were
discovered and decrypted, Mesopotamian chronology was fuzzy and its
culture wasn’t entirely understood yet. With the decoding of the
cuneiform writing, historians would learn much more about how
Sumerians perceived the world, the gods and deities that they believed
in, and what their lives were generally like. For example, a tablet
created by the Babylonians depicted the geography and cities around
them, which shows that ancient Mesopotamians were advanced enough
to semi-accurately determine the locations of nearby regions. Ancient works like the Epic of
Gilgamesh and Atrahasis would describe the past kings of Mesopotamia and the stories of what
they had perceived as heroes during their time.
From an economic standpoint, cuneiform was most
likely created for keeping records of items like grains, sheep,
and cattle as it became extremely difficult to remember
everything. Everyday economic activities were recorded such
as the type and number of tokens received for a day’s work
or for trade and commerce. Numbers were also created
because of economic reasons. Before numeric systems,
pictographs were drawn out a certain number of times based on the quantity of that item. With
the invention of numbers in cuneiform, higher numbers of items could be recorded easily.
Therefore, production could finally be recorded and a means of providing evidence of trade had
been created. The invention of cuneiform in ancient Mesopotamia would eventually shape the
economic systems of the many societies that adopted this creative and brilliant way of writing.