Transcript Introduction Ancient World History Origins to 1500

Introduction
Ancient World History
Origins to 1500
The Big questions
• How & why did the first civilizations arise?
• What role did cross-cultural contacts play in
their developments?
• What was the nature of the relationship
between these permanent settlements and
nonagricultural peoples living elsewhere in
the world?
• What brought the demise of these early
civilizations, and what legacy did they leave
for their successors in the region?
Extra Credit
• Based on what you have learned in this class,
write a letter to a future employer that
explains how religion, language, philosophy,
material culture, non-material culture, and/or
interaction with the environment have shaped
the origins and evolution of world civilizations.
• Please provide at least two concrete
examples.
Chapter 1
Part I
Early Humans & The
Agricultural
Revolution
I. The First Humans
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A. The Emergence of Homo sapiens
Hominids
Australo Pithecines
Homo Habilis
Homo Erectus
Homo Sapiens
Neanderthals
Homo Sapiens Sapiens
Out of Africa/Multiregional Theory
New Research
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Nova – Becoming Human Part I
“Tumai” & Michel Brunett
Salam
Bi-Pedalism
Australopithicas Aferensis
The Molecular Clock
How did the discovery of Salam and Tumai
change our understanding of our early evolution?
• Why did early hominids develop into bi-pedal
animals?
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Figure 1-1 p4
Paleolithic – “Old Stone”
2,500,00 – 10,000 B.C.E.
• B. The Hunter-Gatherers
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Seasonal Rounds
Horticulture
20-30/band – social institution (not nuclear family)
Women gathered plants and engaged in hunting &
fishing
• Stone tools
• Fire – 50,000 yrs. ago
• Social Advancement
• Cooperation & Communalism/Gender equality
How did early people
communicate?
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C. The Neolithic Revolution, c. “New
Stone” 10,000-4000 B.C.E.
• Agricultural Revolution
– The systematic growing of foods developed
independently throughout the world.
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New type of polished stone axes
Shift to agriculture
Domestication of animals – meat milk and fibers
Seasonal patterns shifted to sedentary living for some
groups of people
• This led to a increase in the population
Mesolithic – Middle Stone age
10,000 – 7,000 B.C.E.
• Transition from food gathering society and
economic system
• To systematic agricultural society or
Pastoralism
– Women’s status relatively high
– Practices that elevated women’s role continued
– Women’s work valued as men’
• Textile producers
– Female spirituality elevated
Agricultural Revolutions
8,000 – 5,000 B.C.E.
Figure 1-2 p6
Neolithic Farming Villages
After 10000 BCE
• Eurasian Villagers & Pastoralists
• Earliest of these societies found in Middle
east/North Africa
• Institution of the family elevated
• Parents and children became the major social group
• Pastoralist lifestyle - women had fewer children
• New sedentary lifestyle – women had more children
and for longer periods
• Some communities were matrifocal, others
increasingly patrifocal
Linear Potter Culture – W. Eurasia
Statue from Ain
Ghazal in
Jordan,
6500 B.C.E.
Oldest human
figurine known
Catal Huyuk
 Catal Huyuk in modern
Turkey was larger, 32
acres, 6000 people by
6700-5700
o Fruits, nuts, wheat, cattle
o Artisans
o Figures of gods and
goddesses
o Female statuettes
o Evidence of role of
women/female in
spirituality
Women in modern Algeria harvesting
grain, 4 B.C.E.
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Consequences of Neolithic Revolution
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Development o of trade
Specialization of crafts
Division o f labor/not necessarily of value
Pottery & Baskets
New tools
Gender divisions of labor
Beginning of development of Practice of
patriarchy- society dominated by men
 Beginning of decline of status of women
Bronze Age
3,000 – 1200 B.C.E.
• 4000-3000 technical development began to
transform Neolithic towns
 Copper works after 4000
 Copper and tin = bronze 3000
• Bronze Eventually replaced by iron
• Walled cities and armies developed to
protect new communities
Women’s Status
• 40,000 yrs ago to 1000
B.C.E
– Flexible Gender Roles
– Little emphasis on the
control of women’s sexual
conduct
– Equal regard for women’s
work
– Prominent role for female
Spirituality
Austria
4 types of Communities after 1000BCE
in Eurasia
• Hunter Gatherers/Seasonal Rounds
– Women enjoyed equality with men
• Pastoralists & villagers
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Some degree of inequality
Gender roles flexible
Women’s work held in high regard
Cult leaders, priestesses, mother godess
• Urban Dwellers
– Cities that developed after 3500 BCE new degree of
inequality for women
II. The Emergence of Civilization
• A. Early Civilizations Around the World
Civilization
• Civilization – complex culture in which large
numbers of people share a variety of
common elements
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An urban focus
New political and military structures
New social structure based on economic power
The development of more complexity in a material
sense
• Distinct religious structure
• Development of writing
• New significant artistic and intellectual activity
“Civilization” & Women’s Status
• After 1000 BCE in Eurasian Civilizations
– Decline of women’s status and equality
– Gender roles became rigid
– Men controlled political power of states
– Women’s sexual morality became an issue of
public concern
– Stringent laws enforced single women’s virginity
or wife’s fidelity to her husband
• Sexual double standard imposed by law made by men
• Creation of “Women’s work” or domesticity
Figure 1-3 p10
Figure 1-4 p17
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City States of Mesopotamia
Figure 1-3 p10