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Ways of the World
Part One
First Things First: Beginnings in History to 500 CE
1. First Peoples: Populating the Planet to 10,000 BCE
 Out of Africa to the Ends of the Earth: First Migrations
 Into Eurasia
 Into Australia
 Into the Americas
 Into the Pacific
 The Ways We Were
 First Human Societies
 Economy and Environment
 The Realm of the Spirit
 Settling Down: The Great Transition
 Comparing Paleolithic Societies
 The San of Southern Africa
 The Chumash of Southern California
2. First Farmers: The Revolutions of Agriculture 10,000 -3,000 BCE
 The Agricultural Revolution in World History
 Comparing Agricultural Beginnings
 Common Patterns
 Variations
 The Globalization of Agriculture
 Triumph and Resistance
 The Culture of Agriculture
 Social Variation in the Age of Agriculture
 Pastoral Societies
 Agricultural Village Societies
 Chiefdoms
3. First Civilizations: Cities, States, and Unequal Societies 3500 -500 BCE
 Something New: The Emergence of Civilizations
 Introducing the First Civilizations
 The Question of Origins
 An Urban Revolution
 The Erosion of Equality
 Hierarchies of Class
 Hierarchies of Gender
 Patriarchy in Practice
 The Rise of the State
 Coercion and Consent
 Writing and Accounting
 The Grandeur of Kings
 Comparing Mesopotamia and Egypt
 Environment and Culture
 Cities and States
 Interaction and Exchange
Outline: The Big Picture: Turning Points in Early World History
I.
The Emergence of Humankind
A. Most scholars in the post-Darwinian world regard human beginnings in the context of biological
change.
1. archeologists and anthropologists believe that the lines of descent leading to Homo sapiens and
chimpanzees diverged around 5 million–6 million years ago
2. hominid family emerged in eastern and southern Africa, with 20–30 different related species
a. they were bipedal (walked on two legs)
B. The hominids developed over time.
1. brain size increased
2. around 2.3 million years ago, Homo habilis began to use stone tools
3. by 1 million years ago, some hominid species, especially Homo erectus, began to migrate from
Africa
a. knew how to use fire
C. Of the hominid species, only Homo sapiens still survives.
1. emerged in Africa around 250,000 years ago; around 100,000 years ago began to migrate beyond
Africa
II. The Globalization of Humankind
A. Initial migrations from Africa took place in the Paleolithic Era.
1. gatherers and hunters
2. Paleolithic era continued until around 11,000 years ago
a. the Paleolithic era accounts for over 90 percent of human time on earth
b. accounts for about 12 percent of the total number of people who have lived
B. No other large species created homes in every environmental niche as Homo sapiens did.
1. slowly developed technology
2. slowly imposed meaning through art, ritual, and religion
III. The Revolution of Farming and Herding
A. 6.2 billion people in the world today; almost all live from domesticated plants and animals.
B. Domestication first occurred in several regions about 11,000 years ago.
1. it was the most significant and enduring transformation of humankind
2. provided the foundation for almost all subsequent change
3. the period from 11,000 years ago to around 1750 C.E. can be regarded as a single age—the age of
agriculture
4. allowed for a large increase in the human population
C. Food production laid the foundation for enduring divisions within human communities.
1. some regions were luckier in terms of climate and plants/animals available for domestication
2. the Americas were disadvantaged by the lack of large animals to be domesticated
3. in the Afro-Eurasian world, conflicts between agriculturalists and pastoralists became an enduring
pattern
IV. The Turning Point of Civilization
A. The most prominent human communities that emerged were “civilizations”: societies based in cities
and governed by powerful states.
B. Almost everyone in the world now lives in a state with a formal political authority.
1. state-based societies give prominence to cities
2. around half of the world’s population now lives in urban centers
C. The first cities and states emerged around 3500 B.C.E.
1. state- and city-based societies have been the most powerful and innovative human communities
a. they have given rise to empires
b. they have created enduring cultural and religious traditions
c. they have created new technologies
d. they have bred sharp class inequalities, patriarchy, and large-scale warfare
V. A Note on Dates
A. A recent convention encourages dating by B.C.E. and C.E., not B.C. and A.D.
1. B.C.E. = before the Common Era = B.C. (before Christ)
2. C.E. = the Common Era = A.D. (Anno Domini, Latin for “year of the Lord”)
B. B.C.E./ C.E. dating is an effort to get away from Christian-centered and Eurocentric thinking.
C. Societies have reckoned time in many different ways.
1. China: dated by the reign of particular emperors
2. Muslim calendar: Year 1 marks Muhammad’s emigration to Medina in 622 C.E.
Chapter1: First Peoples Populating the Planet, to 10,000 B.C.E.
CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• To familiarize students with the spread of human societies in the Paleolithic era
• To explore the conditions of life in gathering and hunting societies
• To examine factors that eventually led to change in the gathering and hunting societies
CHAPTER 1 OUTLINE
I.
Opening Vignette
A. The Hazda of Tanzania are one of the last gathering and hunting societies on earth.
1. likely to disappear soon
2. will mark the end of what was universal human existence until 10,000–12,000 years ago
B. For 95 percent of human history, the means of life was gathering and hunting.
1. food collection, not food production
2. has been labeled “Paleolithic” (old stone age) era
C. It’s wrong to ignore the first 200,000 years of human experience.
1. archaeology reveals a great deal about these peoples
2. they settled the planet
3. they created the earliest human societies
4. they were the first to reflect on issues of life and death
II. Out of Africa to the Ends of the Earth: First Migrations
A. Homo sapiens emerged in eastern and southern Africa 250,000 years ago.
1. stayed there exclusively for about 150,000 years
2. Africa was home to the “human revolution,” in which culture became more important than biology
in shaping human behavior
3. humans began to inhabit environments not touched by earlier hominids
4. technological innovation: use of stone and bone tools
5. hunting and fishing, not just scavenging
6. patterns of exchange
7. use of ornaments, perhaps planned burials
8. between 100,000-60,000 years ago: beginning of migrations out of Africa
a. adapted to nearly every environment on earth
b. much took place in the difficulties of the last Ice Age
B. Into Eurasia
1. humans started migrating into the Middle East around 51,000 years ago
2. the best evidence of early European settlement comes from southern France and northern Spain
a. settlers in northern Europe were pushed southward into warmer areas around 20,000 years ago
b. developed new hunting habits, new hunting technologies
3. the earliest Europeans left hundreds of cave paintings: depictions of animals and humans and
abstract designs (maybe early form of writing)
4. development of new technologies in Ukraine and Russia
a. needles, multilayered clothing, weaving, nets, baskets, pottery, etc.
b. partially underground dwellings made from mammoth remains
c. suggests semipermanent settlement
d. creation of female figurines (“Venus figurines”); earliest dated at least 35,000 years ago
C. Into Australia
1. humans reached Australia about 60,000 years ago from Indonesia
2. very sparse settlement; estimated 300,000 people in 1788
3. development of some 250 languages
4. still completely a gathering and hunting economy when Europeans arrived in
1788
5. complex worldview: the Dreamtime
a. stories, ceremonies, and art tell of ancestral beings
b. everything in the natural order is an echo of ancient happenings
c. current people are intimately related to places and events in past
6. major communication and exchange networks
a. included stones, pigments, wood, pituri (psychoactive drug)
b. also included songs, dances, stories, and rituals
D. Into the Americas
1. when settlement of the Americas began is still argued over (somewhere between 30,000 and 15,000
years ago)
a. mode of migration (Bering Strait or by sea down west coast of North America) also still argued
about
b. how many migrations and how long they took also argued over
c. evidence of humans in southern Chile by 12,500 years ago
2. Clovis: the first clearly defined and widespread culture of the Americas
a. name comes from the Clovis point, a kind of projectile point
b. flourished 12,000–11,000 years ago
c. hunted large mammals (mammoths, bison)
d. disappeared about 10,900 years ago, at the same time as the extinction of a number of large
mammals
3. next stage: much greater cultural diversity, as people adapted to the end of the Ice Age in different
ways
E. Into the Pacific
1. the last phase of the great human migration, started ca. 3,500 years ago
2. migration by water from the Bismarck and Solomon islands and the Philippines
3. very quick migration over very long distances
4. migrants spoke Austronesian languages (can be traced to southern China)
5. settled every habitable area of the Pacific basin within 2,500 years
a. also settled the island of Madagascar
b. made Austronesian the most widespread language family
c. completed initial human settlement of the world ca. 900 C.E. with occupation of Aotearoa (New
Zealand)
6. Pacific settlers
a. took agriculture with them, unlike other migrations
b. apparently followed a deliberate colonization plan
c. created highly stratified societies or chiefdoms (e.g., Hawaii)
d. massive environmental impact on previously uninhabited lands
III. The Ways We Were
A. The First Human Societies
1. societies were small, bands of 25–50 people
2. very low population density (because of available technology)
a. very slow population growth
b. perhaps 10,000 people in world 100,000 years ago
c. grew to 500,000 by 30,000 years ago
d. reached 6 million 10,000 years ago
3. Paleolithic bands were seasonally mobile or nomadic
a. moved in regular patterns to exploit wild plants and animals
b. since they moved around, they couldn’t accumulate goods
4. societies were highly egalitarian
a. perhaps the most free people in human existence
b. did not have specialists, so most people had the same skills
c. relationships between women and men were far more equal than in later societies
5. James Cook described the gathering and hunting peoples of Australia as tranquil and socially equal
6. Paleolithic societies had clearly defined rules
a. men hunted, women gathered
b. clear rules about distribution of meat from a kill
c. rules about incest and adultery
B. Economy and the Environment
1. gathering and hunting peoples used to be regarded as “primitive” and impoverished
a. modern studies point out that they worked fewer hours
b. wanted or needed little
c. but life expectancy was low (35 years on average)
2. alteration of natural environments
a. deliberately set fires to encourage growth of certain plants
b. extinction of many large animals shortly after humans arrived
c. gradual extinction of other hominids, like the Neanderthals (Europe) and Flores man (Indonesia)
C. The Realm of the Spirit
1. it is difficult to decipher the spiritual world of Paleolithic peoples
a. lack of written sources
b. art is subject to interpretation
c. contemporary gathering and hunting peoples may not reflect ancient experience
2. Paleolithic peoples had a rich ceremonial life
a. led by part-time shamans (people especially skilled at dealing with the spirit world)
b. frequent use of psychoactive drugs to contact spirits
3. apparent variety of beliefs
a. some societies were seemingly monotheistic
b. others saw several levels of supernatural beings
c. still others believed in an impersonal force running throughout the natural order
d. Venus figurines make some scholars think that Paleolithic religion was strongly feminine, with a
great goddess
e. many peoples probably had a cyclical view of time
D. Settling Down: “The Great Transition”
1. gradual change as populations grew, climates changed, and peoples
interacted
2. collection of wild grains started in northeastern Africa around 16,000 years ago
3. last Ice Age ended 16,000–10,000 years ago
a. followed by a “global warming” period
b. richer and more diverse environment for human societies
c. population rise
d. beginnings of settlement
4. settlement led to societal change
a. larger and more complex societies
b. storage and accumulation of goods led to inequality
5. settling-down process occurred in many areas 12,000–4,000 years ago
a. Jomon culture in Japan
b. Scandinavia, Southeast Asia, North America, Middle East
c. bows and arrows were invented independently in Europe, Africa, and Middle East
6. the process of settlement was a major turning point in human history
IV. Comparing Paleolithic Societies
A. Both the San and the Chumash preserved their ancient way of life into modern times.
B. The San of Southern Africa
1. northern fringe of the Kalahari Desert (present-day Angola, Namibia, Botswana)
2. 50,000–80,000 San still live in the region
3. part of the Khoisan language family, inhabited southern Africa at least 5,000 years
a. gathering and hunting way of life, with stone tools
b. remarkable rock art, going back 26,000 years
c. most of the Khoisan peoples were absorbed or displaced by Bantu-speaking peoples
4. The San (Ju/’hoansi) still practiced their ancient life with few borrowings when anthropologists
started studying them in the 1950s and 1960s
a. use some twenty-eight tools, including digging stick, leather garment for carrying things, knife,
spear, bow and poisoned arrows, ropes, and nets
b. men hunt, women do most of gathering
c. adequate diet
d. short workweek, with even labor division between men and women
e. uncertain and anxious life, dependent on nature
5. San society characterized by mobility, sharing, and equality
a. basic unit is band of 10–30 people, connected to other bands
b. many people claimed membership in more than one band
c. frequent movement to new territory
d. no formal leaders, priests, or craft specialists
e. very complex social relations
f. high value given to modesty, cooperation, equality
g. e.g., “insulting the meat”: a hunter is expected to disparage his accomplishment
h. complex system of unequal gift exchange
6. relative equality between the sexes
a. free sex play between teenagers
b. most marriages are monogamous
c. frequent divorce among young couples
7. frequent conflict over distribution of meat; rivalries over women
8. belief system:
a. Creator god, Gao Na, is capricious
b. lesser god, Gauwa, is destructive but sometimes assists humans
c. gauwasi (spirits of dead ancestors) are most serious threat to human welfare
d. evil influences can be counteracted with n/um, a spiritual potency that can be activated in “curing
dances”
e. state of warfare with the divine
C. The Chumash of Southern California
1. indicate a later Paleolithic stage than the San, with permanent villages
2. Chumash lived near present-day Santa Barbara, California
a. richer environment than the San
b. perhaps 20,000 when the Spaniards arrived in the sixteenth century
c. Chumash created new society after 1150 C.E. in response to violence and food shortages
3. central technological innovation: the planked canoe (tomol)
a. ability to make and own tomol led to social inequality
b. stimulated trade between the coast and islands
c. made deep-sea fishing possible
4. living conditions were more elaborate than the San
a. round, permanent, substantial houses (for up to 70 people)
b. a market economy, despite being gathering and hunting peoples
c. beginning of class distinctions (e.g., bearskin capes, burials)
d. emergence of a permanent, hereditary political elite
5. Chumash largely solved the problems of violence in the region
V. Reflections: The Uses of the Paleolithic
A. The study of history is about those who tell it today, not just about the past.
1. views of the past reflect our own smugness or disillusionment
2. Paleolithic era is sometimes regarded as a golden age
a. admired by feminists, environmentalists, antimaterialists
3. scholars have looked to the Paleolithic era in questioning explosive population and economic
growth of recent past
4. gathering and hunting peoples of today have looked to Paleolithic era in an effort to maintain or
recover their identities
B. A basic question: “What have we lost in the mad rush to modernity?”
C. Nobody can be completely detached when studying the past.
Key Terms
Austronesian migrations: The last phase of the great human migration that established a human presence in
every habitable region of the earth. Austronesian-speaking people settled the Pacific islands and
Madagascar in a series of seaborne migrations that began around 3,500 years ago. (pron. aws-troeNEEZH-an)
Brotherhood of the Tomol: A prestigious craft guild that monopolized the building and ownership of large
oceangoing canoes, or tomols (pron. toe-mole), among the Chumash people (located in what is now
southern California).
Chumash culture: Paleolithic culture of southern California that survived until the modern era.
Clovis culture: The earliest widespread and distinctive culture of North America; named from the Clovis
point, a particular kind of projectile point.
Dreamtime: A complex worldview of Australia’s Aboriginal people that held that current humans live in a
vibration or echo of ancestral happenings.
Flores man: A recently discovered hominid species of Indonesia.
“gathering and hunting peoples”: As the name suggests, people who live by collecting food rather than
producing it. Recent scholars have turned to this term instead of the older “hunter-gatherer” in recognition
that such societies depend much more heavily on gathering than on hunting for survival.
great goddess: According to one theory, a dominant deity of the Paleolithic era.
Hadza: A people of northern Tanzania, almost the last surviving Paleolithic society. (pron. HAHD-zah)
“human revolution”: The term used to describe the transition of humans from acting out of biological
imperative to dependence on learned or invented ways of living (culture).
Ice Age: Any of a number of cold periods in the earth’s history; the last Ice Age was at its peak around 20,000
years ago.
“insulting the meat”: A San cultural practice meant to deflate pride that involved negative comments about
the meat brought in by a hunter and the expectation that a successful hunter would disparage his own kill.
Jomon culture: A settled Paleolithic culture of prehistoric Japan, characterized by seaside villages and the
creation of some of the world’s earliest pottery. (pron. JOE-mahn)
megafaunal extinction: Dying out of a number of large animal species, including the mammoth and several
species of horses and camels, that occurred around 11,000–10,000 years ago, at the end of the Ice Age.
The extinction may have been caused by excessive hunting or by the changing climate of the era. (pron.
meg-ah-FAWN-al)
Neanderthals: Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, a European variant of Homo sapiens that died out about
25,000 years ago.
n/um: Among the San, a spiritual potency that becomes activated during “curing dances” and protects humans
from the malevolent forces of gods or ancestral spirits.
“the original affluent society”: Term coined by the scholar Marshall Sahlins in 1972 to describe Paleolithic
societies, which he regarded as affluent not because they had so much but because they wanted or needed
so little.
Paleolithic: Literally “old stone age”; the term used to describe early Homo sapiens societies in the period
before the development of agriculture.
Paleolithic rock art: While this term can refer to the art of any gathering and hunting society, it is typically
used to describe the hundreds of Paleolithic paintings discovered in Spain and France and dating to about
20,000 years ago; these paintings usually depict a range of animals, although human figures and abstract
designs are also found. The purpose of this art is debated.
Paleolithic “settling down”: The process by which some Paleolithic peoples moved toward permanent
settlement in the wake of the last Ice Age. Settlement was marked by increasing storage of food and
accumulation of goods as well as growing inequalities in society.
San, or Ju/’hoansi: A Paleolithic people still living on the northern fringe of the Kalahari desert in southern
Africa. (pron. ZHUN-twasi)
shaman: In many early societies, a person believed to have the ability to act as a bridge between living
humans and supernatural forces, often by means of trances induced by psychoactive drugs.
trance dance: In San culture, a nightlong ritual held to activate a human being’s inner spiritual potency (n/um)
to counteract the evil influences of gods and ancestors. The practice was apparently common to the
Khoisan people, of whom the Ju/’hoansi are a surviving remnant.
Venus figurines: Paleolithic carvings of the female form, often with exaggerated breasts, buttocks, hips, and
stomachs, which may have had religious significance.
Chapter 1. First Peoples
Questions
1. What was the sequence of human migration across the planet?
2. How did Austronesian migrations differ from other early patterns of human
movement?
3. In what ways did a gathering and hunting economy shape other aspects of
Paleolithic societies?
4. Why did some Paleolithic peoples abandon earlier, more nomadic ways and begin
to live a more settled life?
5. What are the most prominent features of San life?
6. In what ways, and why, did Chumash culture differ from that of San?
Big Picture Questions:
7. What is the significance of the Paleolithic era in world history?
8. In what ways did various Paleolithic societies differ from one another, and how
did they change over time?
9. Which statements in this chapter seem to be reliable and solidly based on facts,
and which ones are more speculative and uncertain?
10. How might our attitudes toward the modern world influence our assessment of
Paleolithic societies?
Chapter 2: First Farmers: The Revolutions of Agriculture, 10,000 BCE3000 BCE
Chapter 2 Outline
I.
Opening Vignette
A. In the past two centuries, there has been a dramatic decline in the number of farmers
worldwide.
1. United States an extreme case: only around 5 percent of Americans, many of them over 65 years
old, were still on farms in 2000
2. great increase in the productivity of modern agriculture
B. The modern retreat from the farm is a reversal of humanity’s first turn to agriculture.
II. The Agricultural Revolution in World History
A. Agriculture is the second great human process after settlement of the globe.
1. started about 12,000 years ago
2. often called the Neolithic (New Stone Age) or Agricultural Revolution
3. deliberate cultivation of plants and domestication of animals
4. transformed human life across the planet
B. Agriculture is the basis for almost all human developments since.
C. Agriculture brought about a new relationship between humans and other living things.
1. actively changing what they found in nature rather than just using it
2. shaping the landscape
3. selectively breeding animals
D. “Domestication” of nature created new mutual dependence.
1. many domesticated plants and animals came to rely on humans
2. humans lost gathering and hunting skills
E. There was an “intensification” of living: getting more food and resources from much less land.
1. more food led to more people
2. more people led to greater need for intensive exploitation
III. Comparing Agricultural Beginnings
A. The Agricultural Revolution happened independently in several world regions.
1. Fertile Crescent of Southwest Asia
2. several areas in sub-Saharan Africa
3. China
4. New Guinea
5. Mesoamerica
6. the Andes
7. eastern North America
8. all happened at about the same time, 12,000–4000 years ago
9. scholars have struggled with the question of why agriculture developed so late in human
history
B. Common Patterns
1. Agricultural Revolution coincided with the end of the last Ice Age
a. global warming cycle started around 16,000 years ago
b. Ice Age was over by about 11,000 years ago
c. end of Ice Age coincided with human migration across earth
d. extinction of some large mammals: climate change and hunting
e. warmer, wetter weather allowed more wild plants to flourish
2. gathering and hunting peoples had already learned some ways to manage the natural world
a. “broad spectrum diet”
b. development of sickles, baskets, and other tools to make use of wild grain in the Middle
East
c. Amazon: peoples had learned to cut back some plants to encourage growth of the ones
they wanted
d. Australians had elaborate eel traps
3. women were probably the agricultural innovators
4. gathering and hunting peoples started
to establish more permanent
villages
a. especially in resource-rich areas
b. population growth perhaps led to a “food crisis”
5. agriculture developed in a number of regions, but with variation
a. depended on the plants and animals that were available
b. only a few hundred plant species have been domesticated
c. only fourteen large mammal species were domesticated
C. Variations
1. the Fertile Crescent was the first to have a full Agricultural Revolution
a. presence of large variety of plants and animals to be domesticated
b. transition to agriculture triggered by a cold and dry spell between 11,000 and 9500
B.C.E.
c. transition apparently only took about 500 years
d. much more societal sophistication (mud bricks, monuments and shrines, more elaborate
burials, more sophisticated tools)
2. at about the same time, domestication started in the eastern Sahara (present-day Sudan)
a. the region was much more hospitable 10,000–5,000 years ago
b. domestication of cattle there about 1,000 years before Middle East and India
c. in Africa, animals were domesticated first; elsewhere, plants were domesticated first
d. emergence of several widely scattered farming practices
e. African agriculture was less productive than agriculture in the Fertile Crescent
3. separate development of agriculture at several places in the Americas
a. absence of animals available for domestication
b. only cereal grain available was maize or corn
c. result: replacement of gathering and hunting with agriculture took 3,500 years in
Mesoamerica
d. Americas are oriented north/south, so agricultural practices had to adapt to distinct
climate zones to spread
IV. The Globalization of Agriculture
A. Agriculture spread in two ways:
1. diffusion: gradual spread of techniques and perhaps plants and animals, but without much
movement of human population
2. colonization or migration of agricultural peoples
3. often both processes were involved
B. Triumph and Resistance
1. language and culture spread with agriculture
a. Indo-European languages probably started in Turkey, are spoken today from Europe to
India
b. similar process with Chinese farming
c. spread of Bantu language in southern Africa
d. similar spread of Austronesian-speaking peoples to Philippines and Indonesian islands,
then to Pacific islands
2. the globalization of agriculture took about 10,000 years
a. did not spread beyond its core region in New Guinea
b. did not spread in a number of other regions
c. was resisted where the land was unsuitable for farming or where there was great natural
abundance
3. by the beginning of the Common Era, gathering and hunting peoples were a small minority
of humankind
C. The Culture of Agriculture
1. agriculture led to much greater populations
2. changes in world population
a. 10,000 years ago: around 6 million people
b. 5,000 years ago: around 50 million people
c. beginning of Common Era: around 250 million people
3. farming did not necessarily improve life for ordinary people
a. meant much more hard work
b. health deteriorated in early agricultural societies
c. new diseases from interaction with animals
d. the first epidemics appeared due to larger communities
e. new vulnerability to famine, because of dependence on a small number of plants or
animals
4. new constraints on human communities
a. all agricultural people settled in permanent villages
b. the case of Banpo in China (settled ca. 7,000 years ago)
5. explosion of technological innovation
a. pots
b. textiles
c. metallurgy
6. “secondary products revolution” started ca. 4000 B.C.E.: a new set of technological changes
a. new uses for domesticated animals, including milking, riding, hitching to plows and
carts
b. only available in the Eastern Hemisphere
7. deliberate alteration of the natural ecosystem
a. removal of ground cover, irrigation, grazing
b. evidence of soil erosion and deforestation in the Middle East within 1,000 years after
beginning of agriculture
V. Social Variation in the Age of Agriculture
A. Pastoral Societies
1. some regions relied much more heavily on animals, because farming was difficult or
impossible there
2. pastoral nomads emerged in central Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, the Sahara desert, parts of
eastern and southern Africa
3. relied on different animals in different regions
a. horses were domesticated by 4000 B.C.E.; encouraged the spread of pastoral peoples on
Central Asian steppes
b. domesticated camels allowed human life in the inner Asian, Arabian, and Saharan
deserts
4. no pastoral societies emerged in the Americas
B. Agricultural Village Societies
1. most characteristic form of early agricultural societies, like Banpo or Jericho
2. maintenance of equality and freedom (no kings, chiefs, bureaucrats, aristocrats)
3. Çatalhüyük, in southern Turkey
a. population: several thousand
b. dead buried under their houses
c. no streets; people moved around on rooftops
d. many specialized crafts, but little sign of inherited social inequality
e. no indication of male or female dominance
4. village-based agricultural societies were usually organized by kinship, group, or lineage
a. performed the functions of government
b. the Tiv of central Nigeria organized nearly a million people this way in the late
nineteenth century
5. sometimes modest social/economic inequality developed
a. elders could win privileges
b. control of female reproductive powers
C. Chiefdoms
1. chiefs, unlike kings, usually rely on generosity, ritual status, or charisma to govern, not
force
2. chiefdoms emerged in Mesopotamia sometime after 6000 B.C.E.
3. anthropologists have studied recent chiefdoms in the Pacific islands
4. chiefdoms such as Cahokia emerged in North America
5. distinction between elite and commoner was first established
VI. Reflections: The Legacies of Agriculture
A. Agriculture is a recent development in world history.
1. was an adaptation to the unique conditions of the latest interglacial period
2. has radically transformed human life and life on the planet more generally
B. One species, Homo sapiens, was given growing power over other animals and plants.
C. Agriculture also gave some people the power to dominate others.
KEY TERMS
Agricultural Revolution: Also known as the Neolithic Revolution, this is the transformation of human
(and world) existence caused by the deliberate cultivation of particular plants and the deliberate taming
and breeding of particular animals.
Austronesian: An Asian-language family whose speakers gradually became the dominant culture of
the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Pacific islands, thanks to their mastery of agriculture.
Banpo: A Chinese archeological site, where the remains of a significant Neolithic village have been
found. (pron. bahn-poe)
Bantu: An African-language family whose speakers gradually became the dominant culture of eastern
and southern Africa, thanks to their agricultural techniques and, later, their ironworking skills.
(pron. BAHN-too)
Bantu migration: The spread of Bantu-speaking peoples from their homeland in what is now
southern Nigeria or Cameroon to most of Africa, in a process that started ca. 3000 B.C.E. and
continued for several millennia.
broad spectrum diet: Archeologists’ term for the diet of gathering and hunting societies, which
included a wide array of plants and animals.
Cahokia: An important agricultural chiefdom of North America that flourished around 1100 C.E.
(pron. cah-HOKE-ee-ah)
Çatalhüyük: An important Neolithic site in what is now Turkey. (pron. cha-TAHL-hoo-YOOK)
chiefdom: A societal grouping governed by a chief who typically relies on generosity, ritual status, or
charisma rather than force to win obedience from the people.
diffusion: The gradual spread of agricultural techniques without extensive population movement.
domestication: The taming and changing of nature for the benefit of humankind.
end of the last Ice Age: A process of global warming that began around 16,000 years ago and ended
about 5,000 years later, with the earth enjoying a climate similar to that of our own time; the end
of the Ice Age changed conditions for human beings, leading to increased population and helping
to pave the way for agriculture.
Fertile Crescent: Region sometimes known as Southwest Asia that includes the modern states of
Iraq, Syria, Israel/Palestine, and southern Turkey; the earliest home of agriculture.
horticulture: Hoe-based agriculture, typical of early agrarian societies.
intensification: The process of getting more in return for less; for example, growing more food on a
smaller plot of land.
Jericho: Site of an important early agricultural settlement of perhaps 2,000 people in present-day
Israel.
Mesopotamia: The valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in present-day Iraq.
native Australians: Often called “Aboriginals” (from the Latin ab origine, the people who had been
there “from the beginning”), the natives of Australia continued (and to some extent still continue)
to live by gathering and hunting, despite the transition to agriculture in nearby lands.
pastoral society: A human society that relies on domesticated animals rather than plants as the main
source of food; pastoral nomads lead their animals to seasonal grazing grounds rather than settling
permanently in a single location.
“secondary products revolution”: A term used to describe the series of technological changes that
began ca. 4000 B.C.E., as people began to develop new uses for their domesticated animals,
exploiting a revolutionary new source of power.
stateless societies: Village-based agricultural societies, usually organized by kinship groups, that
functioned without a formal government apparatus.
teosinte: The wild ancestor of maize. (pron. tay-oh- SIN-tay)
Questions
1. What accounts for the emergence of agriculture after countless millennia of
human life without it?
2. In what different ways did the Agricultural Revolution take shape in various parts
of the world?
3. In what ways did agriculture spread? Where and why was it sometimes resisted?
4. What was revolutionary about the Agricultural Revolution?
5. What different kinds of societies emerged out of the Agricultural Revolution?
6. How did chiefdoms differ from stateless agricultural village societies?
Big Picture Questions:
7. The Agricultural Revolution marked a decisive turning point in human history.
8. What evidence might you offer to support this claim, and how might you argue
against it?
9. How did early agricultural societies differ from those of the Paleolithic era? How
does the example of settled gathering and hunting such as the Chumash
complicate this comparison?
10. Was the Agricultural Revolution inevitable? Why did it occur so late in the story
of humankind?
11. “The Agricultural Revolution provides evidence for ‘progress’ in human affairs”
How would you evaluate this statement?
Chapter 3: First Civilizations Cities, States, and Unequal Societies
3500 B.C.E.–500 B.C.E.
Chapter 3 Outline
I.
Opening Vignette
A. The contrast between “artificial” life as a “civilized” city dweller and the spacious freedom
and imagined simplicity of earlier times still resonates today.
B. “Civilizations” are a relatively recent phenomenon in human history, made possible by the
surpluses produced by the Agricultural Revolution.
C. The distinctive features of civilizations are:
1. cities with monumental architecture and populations in the tens of thousands
2. powerful states that could compel obedience and wage large-scale warfare
3. much greater inequality in economic function, wealth, and social status
II. Something New: The Emergence of Civilizations
A. Civilization was a global phenomenon
1. six major civilizations and some smaller manifestations
2. scattered around world
3. developed after 3500 B.C.E.
B. Introducing the First Civilizations
1. one of the earliest civilizations emerged in Sumer (in southern Mesopotamia) between 3500
and 3000 B.C.E.
a. first written language
b. appearance of Egyptian civilization in Nile River Valley (northeast Africa) and smaller
Nubian civilization to its south at about the same time
2. Norte Chico (central coastal Peru), emerged between 3000 and
1800 B.C.E.
a. twenty-five urban centers
b. Norte Chico differed in several ways from Mesopotamia and Egypt
c. unusually self-contained; only import was maize, derived from Mesoamerica
3. Indus Valley civilization in Indus and Saraswati river valleys of present-day Pakistan arose
between 3000 and 2000 B.C.E.
a. elaborately planned cities and standardized weights, measures, architectural styles, and
brick sizes
b. written script that remains thus far undeciphered
c. unlike other civilizations, it generated no palaces, temples, elaborate graves, kings, or
warrior classes
d. scholars remain uncertain as to how society was organized; theories include a series of
small republics, rule by priests, or an early form of the caste system
e. environmental degradation led to the collapse of this civilization by about 1700 B.C.E.,
but several aspects of its culture shaped later Indian societies
4. around 2200 B.C.E., a First Civilization took shape in China
a. from the start, China was defined by the ideal of a centralized state
b. the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties enlarged the Chinese state
c. ruler was the “Son of Heaven,” an intermediary between heaven and earth
d. early written language with oracle bones as early documents
e. China has maintained impressive cultural continuity into modern times
5. the Olmec produced a First Civilization much later (around 1200 B.C.E.) on coast of Gulf of
Mexico, near present-day Veracruz
a. cities arose from competing chiefdoms and produced elaborate ceremonial centers
b. created the first written language in the Americas by about 900 B.C.E.
c. culture influenced later civilizations in Mesoamerica, including the Maya and
Teotihuacán
6. other smaller civilizations also flourished
a. Nubian civilization south of Egypt was distinctive and independent
b. city of Sanxingdui in China arose separately from the more well-known Shang Dynasty
C. The Question of Origins
1. First Civilizations had their roots in the Agricultural Revolution
2. First Civilizations tended to develop from earlier, competing chiefdoms that already had
some social rank and economic specialization
3. process was gradual and evolutionary
4. why did some chiefdoms develop into civilizations and others did not?
a. one argument: the need to organize large-scale irrigation projects (archeologists have
found that these projects appeared long after civilizations began)
b. another argument: the needs of elite groups, warfare, and trade all played roles as well
c. Robert Carneiro’s argument: population density created competition, especially when
agricultural land was limited
5. the creation of the First Civilizations was quick by world history standards but was an
unconscious undertaking for those involved
6. all First Civilizations relied on highly productive agriculture
D. An Urban Revolution
1. cities were one of the most distinctive features of First Civilizations
2. the scale, layout, and specialized industries of cities would have impressed visitors from
villages
3. cities lay at the heart of all First Civilizations because they were:
a. political/administrative capitals
b. centers of cultural production—art, architecture, literature, ritual, and ceremony
c. places of local and long-distance exchange
d. centers of manufacturing activity
4. cities produced new societies with greater specialization and inequality
III. The Erosion of Equality
A. Professional and craft specialization marked early urban life.
B. Hierarchies of Class
1. first Civilizations had vast inequalities in wealth, status, and power
2. civilizations multiplied and magnified inequalities that already existed in complex
gathering and hunting societies and agricultural chiefdoms
3. these new levels of inequality represent one of the major turning points in the social history
of humankind
4. upper classes:
a. enjoyed great wealth
b. avoided physical labor
c. had the finest in everything
d. occupied the top positions in political, military, and religious life
5. free commoners formed the vast majority of the population and included artisans of all
kinds, lower-level officials, soldiers and police, servants, and farmers
a. their surplus production was appropriated to support the upper classes
b. some members of these classes recognized and resented their situation
6. slaves were at the bottom of social hierarchies everywhere
a. slavery and civilization seem to have emerged together
b. first-generation slaves were prisoners of war, criminals, and debtors
c. worked in fields, mines, homes, and shops
d. more rarely, they were sacrificed
e. slavery varied from place to place
f. most ancient slavery differed from the recent American variety
C. Hierarchies of Gender
1. civilizations everywhere undermined the earlier and more equal relationships between men
and women
2. women in horticultural societies remained relatively equal to men
3. but patriarchy gradually emerged in First Civilizations
a. more intensive agriculture with animal-drawn plows and large dairy herds favored male
labor over female
b. patriarchy also developed in civilizations without plow agriculture, such as
Mesoamerica and the Andes
c. David Christian: the declining position of women was a product of growing social
complexity
d. the association of women with nature because of their role in reproduction may also
have played a role
e. warfare may also have contributed to patriarchy
f. private property and commerce also may have played a role
i. need to restrict female sexual activities to assure inheritance by father’s offspring
D. Patriarchy in Practice
1. Gerda Lerner: emergence of patriarchy in Mesopotamia
a. written law codes codified patriarchal family life
b. regulation of female sexuality was central
c. women in Mesopotamia were sometimes divided into two sharply distinguished
categories, depending on protection of one man
d. powerful goddesses of Mesopotamia were gradually replaced by male deities
2. Egyptian patriarchy gave women greater opportunities than in most First Civilizations,
including ability to:
a. own property and slaves
b. administer and sell land
c. make their own wills
d. sign their own marriage contracts
e. initiate divorce
3. royal women occasionally wielded political power as regents for their sons or, more rarely,
as queens in their own right
4. Egyptian statues and love poetry suggest affection between sexes
IV. The Rise of the State
A. States were central to the organization and stability of First Civilizations.
B. Coercion and Consent
1. the state fulfilled a variety of roles in coordinating and regulating the First Civilizations,
including:
a. organizing irrigation systems
b. adjudicating conflicts
c. defense
2. the state served the needs of the upper classes by:
a. protecting the privileges of the elites
b. requiring farmers to give up a portion of their product to support city people
c. demanding labor on large public projects
3. the state frequently used force to secure its will
4. force was not always necessary because the state often claimed that its authority was
normal, natural, and ordained by the gods
a. rule by divine right
b. deference to religion restrained or even undermined the right to rule, as in the rule of
Chinese emperors by the Mandate of Heaven
C. Writing and Accounting
1. writing provided support for the state and emerged in all of the First Civilizations except
the Andes (though some scholars now regard their knotted strings, or quipus, as a kind of
writing)
2. writing sustained the First Civilizations by:
a. defining elite status and conveying prestige on those who wrote
b. allowing some commoners to join the elite through literacy
c. providing a means for propaganda
d. providing a means to keep accurate accounts and complex calendars
e. giving weight to regulations and laws
3. writing also served functions beyond the state
a. fostered literature, philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, and history
b. sometimes threatened rulers
D. The Grandeur of Kings
1. source of state authority
2. monumental residences and temples
3. luxurious dress
4. elaborate burials
V. Comparing Mesopotamia and Egypt
A. Environment and Culture
1. both depended on rivers, but were very different
a. erratic and destructive flooding in Mesopotamia
b. Nile flooded more predictably and less destructively
2. Mesopotamia was less geographically isolated than Egypt
a. Mesopotamia was vulnerable to external attack
b. Egypt was usually protected from external attack
3. many scholars see a relationship between physical setting and culture
a. more negative Mesopotamian worldview seems to reflect its precarious and violent
environment
b. Egyptian worldview reflected the more stable, predictable, and beneficent environment
in which it took shape
4. environmental impact of rising population
a. in southern Mesopotamia, deforestation, soil erosion, and salinization of the soil
weakened Sumerian city-states, leading to foreign conquest and the northward shift of
Mesopotamia’s cultural centers
b. Egypt built a more sustainable agricultural system that contributed to the remarkable
continuity of its civilization
B. Cities and States
1. the political systems of Mesopotamia and Egypt differed sharply
2. Mesopotamia for its first thousand years was organized into a dozen or more separate citystates
a. each city-state was ruled by a king
b. 80 percent of the population lived in city-states for protection
c. environmental devastation and endemic warfare ultimately led to conquest by outside
forces after about 2350 B.C.E.
d. these outside powers built large territorial states or bureaucratic empires encompassing
all or most of Mesopotamia
3. Egypt
a. around 3100 B.C.E., several earlier states or chiefdoms merged into a unified territory
that stretched some 1,000 miles along the Nile
b. for 3,000 years, Egypt maintained its unity and independence with few interruptions
c. most Egyptians lived in agricultural villages, perhaps because of greater security
d. the pharaoh, a god in human form, was the focus of the Egyptian state
e. from 2200 to 2000 B.C.E., anarchy; when state was restored, pharaohs never regained
their old power
C. Interaction and Exchange
1. Egypt and Mesopotamia frequently interacted
2. Egypt’s agriculture benefited from interaction
3. Mesopotamian models may have influenced Egypt’s step pyramids and system of writing
4. Egypt’s “divine kingship” seems to have been derived from central or eastern Sudan
5. both Mesopotamia and Egypt carried on extensive long-distance trade
a. Mesopotamian sea trade with the Indus Valley civilization as early as 2300 B.C.E.
b. Mesopotamian trade with Anatolia, Egypt, Iran, and Afghanistan
c. Egyptian trade in the Mediterranean and Middle East
d. Egyptian trade in Nubia and along the East African coast
6. Mesopotamian and Egyptian cultural influences moved along trade routes
a. Hebrews migrated from Mesopotamia to Palestine and Egypt early in their history
b. Phoenicians (in present-day Lebanon) were commercially active in the Mediterranean
basin
c. some Indo-European peoples settled in north-central Anatolia
d. sustained contact between Nubia and Egypt
e. in the Mediterranean basin
7. Mesopotamia and Egypt were also influenced by their neighbors
a. Indo-Europeans brought horseand-chariot-based armies to Mesopotamia; Indo-European Hittites conquered the
Babylonian empire in 1595 B.C.E.
b. the Hyksos invaded using chariot-based armies and ruled Egypt between 1650 and 1535
B.C.E.
c. Mesopotamians and Egyptians adopted chariot technology
d. arrival of the Hyksos spurred further innovations in Egypt
8. by 1500 B.C.E., Egypt had become an imperial state
a. rule over non-Egyptian peoples in both Africa and Asia
b. regular diplomatic correspondence with Middle Eastern empires
VI. Reflections: “Civilization”: What’s in a Word?
A. Some scholars have reservations about the use of the word “civilizations” to describe the
cultures studied in this chapter.
B. Modern assessments of the First Civilizations reveal a profound ambiguity.
1. they gave us inspiring art, profound reflections on life, more productive technologies,
increased control over nature, and writing
2. but they also produced massive inequalities, state oppression, slavery, large-scale warfare,
the subordination of women, and epidemic disease
3. some scholars prefer more neutral terms, such as complex societies, urban-based societies,
or state-organized societies.
C. Scholars object to the term “civilization,” because it implies more clear-cut boundaries from
other societies than was actually the case.
1. aside from elites, most of the people living in the First Civilizations probably defined
themselves more by occupation, clan, village, city, or region than as a member of some
larger “civilization”
2. First Civilizations lacked clear borders
3. unclear line between civilizations and other kinds of societies
D. This book continues to use the term because:
1. it is so deeply embedded in our way of thinking about the world
2. no alternative concept has achieved widespread usage
3. we need to make distinctions among different kinds of human communities
E. But in using this term, we must remember:
1. historians use “civilization” as a purely descriptive term designating a particular type of
human society—one with cities and states—without implying any judgment or assessment,
any sense of superiority or inferiority
2. it is used to define broad cultural patterns in particular geographic regions while
recognizing that many people living in those regions may have been more aware of
differences and conflicts than of those commonalities
KEY TERMS
Code of Hammurabi: A series of laws publicized at the order of King Hammurabi of Babylon (d.
1750 B.C.E.). Not actually a code, but a number of laws that proclaim the king’s commitment to
social order. (See the excerpt of the code in Document 3.2, pp. 118–121.)
cradle of civilization: Commonly used term for southern Mesopotamia (in present-day Iraq).
cuneiform: Wedge-shaped writing in the form of symbols incised into clay tablets; used in
Mesopotamia from around 3100 B.C.E. to the beginning of the Common Era.
Egypt: “the gift of the Nile”: Egypt is often known as “the gift of the Nile” because the region would
not have been able to support a significant human population without the Nile’s annual
inundation, which provided rich silt deposits and made agriculture possible.
Epic of Gilgamesh: The most famous extant literary work from ancient Mesopotamia, it tells the story
of one man’s quest for immortality.
Harappa: A major city of the Indus Valley civilization; flourished around 2000 B.C.E. (pron. hahRAHP-uh)
Hatshepsut: Ancient Egypt’s most famous queen; reigned 1472–1457 B.C.E. (pron. hat-shep-soot)
Hebrews: A smaller early civilization whose development of a monotheistic faith that provided the
foundation of modern Judaism, Christianity, and Islam assured them a significant place in world
history.
hieroglyphs: Ancient Egyptian writing system; literally, “sacred carvings”—so named because the
Greeks saw them prominently displayed in Egyptian temples.
Hittites: An Indo-European civilization established in Anatolia in the eighteenth century B.C.E.
Hyksos: A pastoral group of unknown ethnicity that invaded Egypt and ruled in the north from 1650
to 1535 B.C.E. Their dominance was based on their use of horses, chariots, and bronze technology.
(pron. HICK-sose)
Indus Valley: home of a major civilization that emerged in what is now Pakistan during the third
millennium B.C.E., in the valleys of the Indus and Saraswati rivers, noted for the uniformity of its
elaborately planned cities over a large territory.
Mandate of Heaven: The ideological underpinning of Chinese emperors, this was the belief that a
ruler held authority by command of divine force as long as he ruled morally and benevolently.
Mesopotamia: The “land between the rivers” of the Tigris and Euphrates, in what is now Iraq.
Minoan civilization: An advanced civilization that developed on the island of Crete around 2500
B.C.E.
Mohenjo Daro: A major city of the Indus Valley civilization; flourished around 2000 B.C.E. (pron.
moehen-joe DAHR-oh)
Norte Chico/Caral: Norte Chico is a region along the central coast of Peru, home of a civilization
that developed in the period 3000–1800 B.C.E. Caral was the largest of some twenty-five urban
centers that emerged in the area at that time.
Nubia: A civilization to the south of Egypt in the Nile Valley, noted for development of an alphabetic
writing system and a major ironworking industry by 500 B.C.E.
Olmec civilization: An early civilization that developed along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico around
1200 B.C.E.
oracle bones: In Chinese civilization, animal bones that were heated and the cracks then interpreted
as prophecies. The prophecies were written on the bone and provide our earliest written sources
for ancient China.
patriarchy: Literally “rule of the father”; a social system of male dominance.
pharaoh: A king of Egypt. The term literally means “the palace” and only came into use in the New
Kingdom, but it is generally employed in reference to all ancient Egyptian rulers.
Phoenicians: A civilization in the area of present-day Lebanon, creators of the first alphabetic writing
system.
pyramid: Monumental tomb for an Egyptian pharaoh; mostly built during the Old Kingdom (2663–
2195 B.C.E.). Pyramids are also found in Meroë to the south of Egypt.
quipu: A series of knotted cords, used for accounting and perhaps as a form of writing in the Norte
Chico civilization.
rise of the state: A process of centralization that took place in the First Civilizations, growing out of
the greater complexity of urban life in recognition of the need for coordination, regulation,
adjudication, and military leadership.
salinization: The buildup of minerals in soil, decreasing its fertility; can be caused by long-term
irrigation.
Sanxingdui: An ancient city of China that developed independently from the Shang dynasty. (pron.
sahnshing-dwee)
Shang dynasty: Period of Chinese history from 1766 to 1122 B.C.E. (pron. shahng)
Son of Heaven: Title of the ruler of China, first known from the Zhou dynasty. It acknowledges the
ruler’s position as intermediary between heaven and earth.
Teotihuacán: The largest city of ancient Mesoamerica; flourished around 500 C.E. (pron. teh-o-teeWAH-kahn)
Uruk: The largest city of ancient Mesopotamia. (pron. OOH-rook)
Xia dynasty: A legendary series of monarchs of early China, traditionally dated to 2200–1766 B.C.E.
(pron. shah)
Zhou dynasty: Period of Chinese history from 1122 to 256 B.C.E. (pron. joe)
ziggurat: A Mesopotamian stepped pyramid. Unlike an Egyptian pyramid, a ziggurat was a solid
structure of baked brick, an artificial hill at the summit of which stood a temple.
CHAPTER QUESTIONS
1. When and where did the First Civilizations emerge?
2. What accounts for the initial breakthroughs to civilization?
3. What was the role of cities in the early civilizations?
4. In what ways was social inequality expressed in early civilizations?
5. In what ways have historians tried to explain the origins of patriarchy?
6. How did Mesopotamian and Egyptian patriarchy differ from each other?
7. What were the sources of state authority in the First Civilizations?
8. In what ways did Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations differ from each
other?
9. In what ways were Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations shaped by their
interactions with near and distant neighbors?
Big Picture Questions
10. What distinguished civilizations from other forms of human community?
11. How does the use of the term “civilization” by historians differ from that of popular usage?
How do you use the term?
12. “Civilizations were held together largely by force.” Do you agree with this assessment, or
were there other mechanisms of integration as well?
13. In the development of the First Civilizations, what was gained for humankind, and what was
lost?