UNIT 1: Foundations

8000 B.C.E. – 600 C.E.

Is America Civilized? (Activator)

• Come up with reasons why America might be considered Civilized.

• Also come up with reasons why America might not be considered Civilized.

TOPIC 1Locating world history in the environment and time

ENVIRONMENT

Five Themes of Geography

Relative location – location compared to others Physical characteristics – climate, vegetation and

human characteristics Human/environment interaction – how do humans

interact/alter environ Leads to change

Movement – peoples, goods, ideas among/between groups Regions – cultural/physical characteristics in common with surrounding areas

East Africa

750,000 years ago started to move moving in search of food

Role of Climate

End of Ice Age 12000 BCE – large areas of N. America, Europe, Asia became habitable big game hunters already migrated

Geographical changes3000 BCE Green Sahara began to dry up, seeds to

forests Effect on humans – nomadic hunters didn’t move so

much Settle near abundant plant life – beginning of

civilization Sedentary life w/ dependable food supply

milder conditions, warmer temperatures, higher ocean levels

Demography

Major population changes resulting from human and environmental factors 2 million people during Ice Age

allowed for growth big game gone more usable land available 50-100 million by 1000 CE Regional changes altered skin color, race type, quantity of body hair

Time

Periodization in early human history Early Hominids – humans 3.5 million years ago

Australopithecus – Lucy – found in Africa Bipedalism sizable brain Larynx – voice box

3 million – homo habilis – handy human – crude stone tools 1 million - homo erectus – upright human

First to migrate Clothed selves – skins/furs

100,000 to 250,000 – homo sapiens – wise human social groups permanent, semi-permanent buildings

100,000 to 200,000 – homo sapiens, sapiens Out of Africa – started in Africa and migrated Multiregional thesis – all developed independently

Stone Age

First period of prehistory - Tool use separates hominids from ancestors Paleolithic – Old Stone Age – 10,000 to 2.5 million years ago

Crude tools – clubs, axes, bones for shelter, protection, food, cloth Natural shelters – cave/canyons Began tent like structures/huts Wooden/stone structures by Mesolithic 1 million years ago – fire Warfare – rocks, clubs – food preparation tools used for combat

Weapons found in bones

Clothes from hides/furs and later plant fibers Dying cloth for color

Families, clans, tribes Select sexual partners – not seasonal Long term sexual bonds – emotions + child rearing Family units created clans

Neolithic – New Stone Age – 5,000-10,000 years ago

Paleolithic Age: Old Stone Age

Cooperative Hunting

Very Primitive Stone Tools

Natural Shelters like caves. Homo Erectus learns to make fire.

Organized into clans by family groups

Pleistocene Ice Age

• The end of the Pleistocene corresponds with the retreat of the last continental glacier. It also corresponds with the end of the Paleolithic age used in archaeology.

What is the most common source of change: connection or diffusion versus independent invention?

Connection/diffusion – due to interaction vs. invented something new or used it in a new way Diffusion – ironwork – Assyrians to Kushites Invention – Nok people of Nigeria – smelting iron

Farming of certain crops – diffusion – Middle East > India > Europe > Nile

Others independent – sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, China, Americas After emergence of civilization, diffusion takes over – exchange of techniques, seeds, crops

WHAT IS CIVILIZATION?

What are the issues involved in using "civilization" as an organizing principle in world history?

Westerncentric meaning

food producing w/ surplus increase in population specialization of labor social hierarchy growth of trade centralization of

religious/political authority monumental buildings written records technical innovation – the

arts

World historians more broad view – importance of

human creativity/connectivity Interaction of human beings in

creative manner What is a civilization (for our

purposes) Food surplus Advanced cities Advanced technology Skilled workers Complex institutions –

government, religion System of writing/record

keeping

Which of the following best explains life in communities prior to the Agricultural Revolutions?

A. Agriculturalists and pastoralists competed and often fought over land.

B. The only role for women was to bear and raise children.

C. Groups were defined by the geographic region of origin.

D. The foraging lifestyle supported only small, nomadic groups of people

E. Specialization of labor resulted in important technological advances.

Answer D

• Though large enough to defend themselves, hunter-gatherer communities rarely exceeded around fifty people so as to not exhaust the food supply in their area.

Which one of the following reasons do most historians cite as the cause of the Agricultural Revolutions?A. People migrated to regions that could finally

support agriculture.

B. A cooling period around 6000 B.C.E. allowed people to settle in one place year round.

C. Climate change drove people to abandon foraging in favor of agriculture.

D. Foraging groups grew so large that they could no longer function as nomadic societies.

E. Major river valleys stopped flooding, which allowed people to settle along their banks.

Answer C

• Global warming ended the last Ice Age around 9000 B.C.E. As the climate changed in different regions, people adapted to the environment. As a result, people created settled communities in those regions best suited for agriculture.

Discussion Questions

• Compare and contrast life in foraging societies with life in agricultural societies after the Agricultural Revolutions.

• Characteristics of pastorialism/nomadic societies.• Describe hominid evolution.