Transcript Birth of Civilization: Chap. 1

What Makes Us Human?
 Culture

The life ways of a group, including behaviors, objects, ideas,
religion, passed down from generation to generation.
 Language

The ability to communicate both written and verbally.
 Ability
to reason - Higher level of thinking.
 Empathy 
to identify with and understand another person’s
feelings or difficulties.
EVOLUTION
• Walking upright helps hominids travel distances easily.
• Hominid:
Humansdevelopment
and other creatures
that walk into
upright.
The gradual
of something
a
• They also developed opposable thumb which made it easy to use tools.
• These early hominids
evolved
into or
thebetter
modernform.
human species- Homo
more
complex
Sapiens.
Paleolithic Period
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Greek for “old Stone” the earliest period in a cultural
development.
Lasted from approximately one million years ago to 10,000
BCE.
Humans lived by:
 Hunting & Fishing
 Collecting wild plants.
 Considered Hunter-gathers.
Nomads: Never settled in one place & followed their food.
Paleolithic Period Continued
 Art:
Cave Paintings, sculpture made of
mammoth Ivory, animal horns & animal
bones.
 Making and controlling fire.
 Acquiring language.
 Developing religious & magical beliefs(honor when burying dead).
 Evolution of the Human species from an
apelike creature to true Homo Sapiens.
Paleolithic Art
What can this art tell us
about early humans?
Ending of the Paleolithic
Period
 Fire
and the use of tools made it possible
for humans to spread beyond Africa.
 By 12,000 B.C.E., human societies spread
to Europe, Asia, North America, South
America, and Australia.
 While most human societies at the end of
the Paleolithic period migrated in pursuit of
game, some groups were more sedentary.
 More stable groups began the switch from
hunter-gatherer to Farmer.
Vocabulary Chapter 1
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Hominid - Humans and other creatures that walk upright.
Paleolithic Age (Old Stone) - Greek for “old Stone” the
earliest period in a cultural development.
Nomad - Never settled in one place & followed their food.
Neolithic Revolution – The switch early humans made from
hunter-gatherer to an agrarian society.
Agrarian – Based on agriculture
Domestication – to tame (an animal), to live in close
association with human beings as a pet or work animal.
Civilization - an advanced state of human society, in
which a high level of culture, science, industry, and
government has been reached.
Polytheism – belief in more than one god.
Neolithic Period
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Greek for “New Stone Age” also referred to as the
Neolithic Revolution.
Started around 10,000 BCE lasting to approximately
3100 BCE.
Humans started domesticating animals and plants for
food.
 They were transitioning from a hunter-gatherer
society to an agrarian community.
Domesticated animals improved the supplies of
available protein, provided hides and wool for
clothing.
Neolithic Period Continued
 Humans
began to use new methods in
farming.
 Slash & Burn: cut trees or grasses and
burned them to clear a field. Ashes then
fertilized the soil.
 Humans began to build permanent
settlements while some were still nomadic.
 Began to use clay pottery, woven baskets
for storing, transporting, & cooking food.
 Art: Wall paintings, sculpture, and
introduction of pottery and clay.
The
Neolithic
Period
Neolithic Period Continued
 This
Neolithic Revolution took place at different
times in different parts of the world.
 The rate at which people and cultures evolved
was based on different crops and different
environments, and what materials were
available.
 Unlike the Paleolithic Age when more than one
human species existed the only human species
that reached the Neolithic period were Homo
Sapiens.
 This period is known as the beginning of
civilization.