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What IS World History???
• A connectedness (maybe of people,
cultures)
• However, not necessarily people
individually. Focus here is NOT on
individuals – this is concept based, not
content based
• West & Rest??? What does that mean?
– Do we focus on the East at all
• Focus on people, not the person
Chapter 1
From Human Prehistory to
Early Civilizations
Chapter Outline
1. Human Life in the Era of
Hunters and Gatherers
2. Human Life before
Agriculture
3. The Neolithic
Revolution – 8000 to
3500 B.C.E.
• Introduction:
Chapter 1
– Definitions of Civilization
• Elements:
– urban, monumental
building, writing,
specialized
occupations (division
of labor), SURPLUS
1. Human Life in the Era of
Hunters and Gatherers.
–
2 to 2.5 million years for
human species
•
•
1/4000th of earth’s existence
What have we accomplished
in that short amount of time?
(Broad accomplishments)
–
–
–
Homo sapiens by 10,000 B.C.E.
•
•
–
larger brain
tools, weapon
Developments by 12,000
B.C.E.:
•
•
–
Spread to every landmass
Taken control of other
species
Hunting-gathering
Art
Spread to Europe, Asia,
Australia, the Americas
Chapter 1
1. Human Life in the
Era of Hunters and
Gatherers
– What are drawbacks
of humans?
•
•
•
•
Unusually aggressive
against own kind
Human babies are
dependent for a long
time (affect women?)
Back problems
We know we’re going
to die….
Chapter 1
The Spread of Human Populations, c. 10,000 B.C.E.
Chapter 1
2. Human Life Before
Agriculture (cont’d)
2. Human Life Before Agriculture
– Paleolithic Culture
• Old Stone Age – 2 Million + to
14,000 Y.A.
– Simple tool use
– Fire = 750,000 Y.A.
• Homo sapiens sapiens
– c. 240,000, Y.A
– Africa
• Constraints on this society?
• What was greatest achievement
of Paleo peoples?
– Late Paleolithic
Developments
• Variety
– Bands of hunter-gatherers
– Agricultural settlements
• Gender division of labor
– Men: hunting, fishing,
defense
– Women: gathering,
making medicine
• Spread
– from Africa c. 750,000 Y.A.
– Why move?
» Find food
» Fire and skins
allowed this
3. The Neolithic Revolution –
8000 to 3500 B.C.E.
–
–
–
–
Sedentary agriculture
Animals domesticated
Development of towns
Increase in worldwide
population
Chapter 1
The Spread of Agriculture
• 6-8 million during early
Neolithic to 100 million
3000 years later
– Causes?
• Climatic shifts from Ice
Age’s end
– More people = more
food
– Retreat of big game
animals; yield
declines
•
The Domestication of
Plants and Animals
– Plants
• slow development;
probably accidental
planting
– Animals
• from 12,000 B.C.E.:
dogs, sheep, goats,
pigs
Farming initially developed in Mid-East, in
Fertile Crescent
arc of territory from Turkey to
Iraq and Israel
Chapter 1
• Was this change from H/G to Agricultural a relatively slow or
fast change? Was it really a “revolution?”
– Slow, but WHY?
• Knowledge spread slowly
• People may not have wanted to change
– New system was difficult to learn
– Requires more regular work
– Role of the “man” diminishes….
• Revolution?
– Not so much; took a 1000 years to develop, and several thousand more to
spread. Why, then, do we use the term?
» Magnitude of the change involved
– Why did it eventually succeed?
• Support more people per square mile; build houses
• As farmers cleared land, H/G were driven out or converted
• Disease
– Denser pop in settled societies, so diseases set in
» H/G lack resistance
• Ag sets basis for more rapid change in societies
– Greater wealth & larger pop freed people for other specializations
• Remember, we’re still in “pre-history” at this point. Why?
– Writing not invented
Chapter 1
3. The Neolithic Revolution –
8000 to 3500 B.C.E.
– The Spread of the Neolithic
Revolution.
• Hunting-and-gathering
persists
• Pastoralism
– Sub-Saharan Africa
• root and tree crops
– Northern China
• Millet
– Rice
• Southeast Asia, to China,
India, islands
– Mesoamerica, Peru
• Maize, manioc, sweet
potatoes
– Bronze Age
• Metal tools date to 4000 BCE,
w/ copper, then bronze (3000
BCE)
The Spread of Agriculture
Chapter 1
4. Civilization
– Settlements, villages
•
•
slash and burn agriculture (some
people still moved around)
Irrigation – what did this do?
– Çatal Hüyük
•
•
•
c. 7000 B.C.E., southern Turkey
Large complex - roofs
Agriculture, commerce
– Produce everything it consumes
– SOME trade conducted, but for what
reason?
» Economic or peace?
•
•
•
Shrines
Occupations
by 3000 B.C.E., civilization
– Aspects of civilizations?
•
•
•
•
cities
writing
political organization
surplus
– Writing
•
Cuneiform
– Nomads & Civilizations
•
Distinction???
Chapter 1
• What does it mean to be a “civilization?”
– Surplus
• Forms a div of labor and a social hierarchy involving
significant inequalities
– Formal political organizations as opposed to
dependence on tribes
– Depend on cities
• Amass wealth and power; rapid exchange of ideas which
encourages intellectual thought and artistic expression
– Writing
• Starts w/ cuneiform
• Can organize more elaborate political structures b/c of
sending messages and keeping records
• Record past and build on it
– Division of Labor
Chapter 1
• Are civilizations a “good” thing?
– Distinctions based on social class and
wealth increase
• Firmer class or caste divisions
• Greater separation b/t ruler and the ruled
– Frequently warlike
– Greater inequality b/t men and women
• Civilization have patriarchal societies
Chapter 1
4. Civilization (cont’d)
– Tigris-Euphrates
Civilization
• Develops from
scratch; no
examples to follow
– Mesopotamia
– Sumerians
•
•
•
•
Tigris
from 3500 B.C.E.
alphabet
Ziggurats
religion
– Priesthood
– polytheism
• City-states
– Very defined
boundaries
– Akkadians
– Babylonians
• Hammurabi code
– Indo-Europeans
• from 2100 B.C.E.
Euphrates
Chapter 1
4. Civilization (cont’d)
– Egyptian Civilization
• Formed by 3000 BCE
• Less open to invasion
• Pharaoh
– Immense power
– Gov’t control of economy
» Due to complexity of Nile
– pyramids
» from 2700 B.C.E.
• Kush
– Indian and Chinese River Valley
Civilizations
• Indus River
– 2500 BCE
– Harappa, Mohenjo Daro
– Indo-Europeans invade and
destroy, so we still no little
• Huanghe (Yellow) River
– P'an Ku
– ideographs
– Shang dynasty
» from 1500 B.C.E.
Huang He
Indus River
Chapter 1
5. The Heritage of the River
Valley Civilizations
– Decline by 1000 B.C.E.
– Invasions
– Legacy?
• China
– great continuity
– Zhou
» from 1000 B.C.E.
– Mesopotamia
• more rupture
• view of nature persists
• Phoenicians
– alphabet from 1300 B.C.E.
– enduring culture
• Jewish monotheism
– Most were polytheistic
– Distinction: firm belief that
single God guided
destinies of their people
– Concept of God became
less humanlike, more
abstract
» Jewish God orderly
and just
– Was a way of life, not just
rituals….
6. The First Civilizations
– Division
•
among peoples
– Contacts
•
increase with time
Chapter 1
• What was legacy of River Valley
Civilizations?
– Monuments
• Pyramids
– Invention of wheel, taming of horse, usable
alphabets, writing implements, math concepts,
functional calendars
• So, beside these vital achievements, what
legacies were left behind for later ages?
– India - ???
– China – Zhou & continuity
– Meso & Egypt
Change Over Time
•
A Pattern of Division Among the
World’s Peoples:
– Diffusion of Homo sapien
sapiens set initial stage
– Small groups spread to almost
every corner of world, but
maintain little contact
– Separate languages and culture
develop widely
– Rise of ag stimulates new links
– Spread of farming and new tech
begins to cut into local isolation
– Trade soon enters
– Some routes travel great
distances
– Basic Theme of World History:
• Steadily proliferating contacts
against a background of often
fierce local identity
•
Rise of Civilization
– Further reduces local
autonomy
• Kings and priests try to spread
trade contacts and cultural
forms
• War to gain new territory
– Integrating force at larger
regional level, but smaller
identities persist, esp. in the
Mid East
– Civilization and considerable
diversity coexisted hand in
hand
• Egypt and Mesopotamia
Compare/Contrast
• Egypt
– Not isolated, but
more self contained
– What else? Pg. 27
• Mesopotamia
– Flat, w. few natural
barriers to recurrent
invasions from the
north
– What else? Pg. 27