c. 8000 BCE – c. 600 BCE

KEY CONCEPT 1.1.1BIG GEOGRAPHY AND THE PEOPLING OF THE EARTH

Key Concept 1.1.1 Big Geography and the Peopling of the Earth

The term Big Geography draws attention to the global nature of world history. Throughout the Paleolithic period, humans migrated from Africa to Eurasia, Australia, and the Americas. Early humans were mobile and creative in adapting to different geographical settings from savanna to desert to Ice Age tundra.

By making an analogy with modern hunter- forager societies, anthropologists infer that these bands were relatively egalitarian. Humans also developed varied and sophisticated technologies.

Peopling of the EarthI. Archeological evidence indicates that during the

Paleolithic era, hunting-foraging bands of humans gradually migrated from their origin in East Africa to Eurasia, Australia, and the Americas, adapting their technology and cultures to new climate regions.

Peopling of the Earth

A. Humans used fire in new ways: to aid hunting and foraging, to protect against predators, and to adapt to cold environments.

B. Humans developed a wider range of tools specially adapted to different environments from tropics to tundra.

Clovis PointsClovis points are the characteristically-fluted projectile points associated with the North American Clovis culture. They date to the Paleoindian period around 13,500 years ago. Clovis fluted points are named after the city of Clovis, New Mexico, where examples were first found in 1929.

Check for Understanding• How many new technologies can you identify in use in this image? Explain why early humans would have needed these tools.

C. Economic structures focused on small kinship groups of hunting- foraging bands that could make what they needed to survive. However, not all groups were self-sufficient; they exchanged people, ideas, and goods.

A hunter-forager society is a nomadic society in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies, which rely mainly on domesticated species.

Foraging is the ancestral subsistence mode of homo sapiens. As The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunter-Gatherers says: "Hunting and gathering was humanity's first and most successful adaptation, occupying at least 90 percent of human history. Until 12,000 years ago, all humans lived this way.” Following the invention of agriculture, hunter-gatherers have been displaced by farming or pastoralist groups in most parts of the world. Only a few contemporary societies are classified as hunter-gatherers, and many supplement, sometimes extensively, their foraging activity with farming and/or keeping animals.

Contemporary Hunter-GatherersBy making an analogy with modern hunter- forager societies, anthropologists infer that these bands were relatively egalitarian.

Exit Ticket• List THREE innovations of early humans, and describe, in two to three sentences, how these technologies aided human expansion. (Hint: “Blender” is not one of these innovations!)