Unit 1: Technological & Environmental Transformations

Homo sapiens emerge in Eastern/Southern

Africa 250,000 yrs ago

• stayed 150,000 yrs
• "human revolution" culture over biology
• inhabited "untouched" regions
• stone n bone tech. innovation
• hunting/fishing; not just scavenging
• patterns of exchange
• ornament use; maybe burials
• beginning migrations 100,000-60,000 y.a.
• adapted to nearly every environment
• took place during last Ice Age

Into Eurasia...

• 51,000 y.a. migrated to Middle East
• southern France/Northern Spain best evidence of early settlements in Europe
• settlers in N. Europe forced southward to warmer seas
• new hunting habits/technologies developed
• hundreds of cave paintings left (animals, abstracts)
• developments of new tech. in Ukraine/Russia
• needles, multilayered clothing, baskets
• underground dwellings made from mammoth
• semi-permanent settlements
• Venus figurines

Into Australia...

• reached 60,000 y.a. from Indonesia
• very sparse settlement
• 250 languages develop
• still completely a gathering/hunting economy when Europeans arrive in 1788
• Complex worldview: DREAMTIME
• Major communication/exchange networks
• stones, pigment, wood, pituri
• also songs, dances, stories, rituals

Into the Americas...

• when is debatable (30,000-15,000 y.a.)
• mode of migration still debatable
• Bering Strait or West Coast by sea
• how many migrations also debatable
• evidence in S. Chile by 12,500 y.a.
• Clovis culture
• flourished 12,000-11,000 y.a.
• hunted mammoth/bison
• disappeared along with mammoth
• Next stage: much more diversity with end of the last Ice Age

Into the Pacific...

• last phase of great human migration; 3,500 y.a.
• migration by water from Bismarck, Solomon and Philippine Islands
• very quick over long distances
• spoke Austronesian languages
• settled every habitable area in Pac Basin in 2,500 yrs
• also settled Madagascar
• made Austronesian most widely spread language
• completed initial settlement of world by ca. 900 c.e. with settlement of New Zealand
• Pacific settlers
• took agriculture with them, unlike other migrations
• followed a deliberate colonization plan
• created highly stratified societies/chiefdoms
• massive environmental impact

The San of Southern Africa...

• Northern fringe of the Kalahari Desert
• 50,000-80,000 still live in the region
• part of the Khoisan language family
• gatherer/hunters with stone tools
• remarkable rock art
• most San absorbed or displaced by Bantu
• San (ju'hoansi) still practiced ancient life even when archeologists studied them in 1950's/60's
• used tools (digging), leather bag to carry things, nets, knife, spear, bow and poison arrows
• men hunt/ women mostly gather
• adequate diet
• short work week/ equal division labor
• uncertain/anxious way of life depend. nature
• Mobility, sharing and equality
• 10-30 people bands; many bands connected
• frequent movement to new territory
• no formal leaders or chiefs
• very complex social relations
• modesty, cooperation, equality valued alot
• complex system of unequal gift exchange

The San continued...

• relative equality between the sexes
• free sex play between teenagers
• most marriages monogomous
• frequent divorce among young couples
• frequent conflict over meat distrib./women
• belief system
• Creator God, Gao Na, is capricious
• lesser god Gauwa, destructive but helpful
• gauwasi (spirits of dead) most serious threat
• evil influences can be counteracted with n/um, activated by "curing dances"
• state of warfare w/ the divine

The Chumash of Southern California...

• show a later Paleolithic stage than the San, w/ permanent settlements
• near present day Santa Barbara, CA
• richer environment than San
• perhaps 20,000 when Spanish arrived in 1500's
• created new society after 1150 c.e. in response to violence/food shortages
• Central tech innov = tomol (planked canoe)
• led to social inequality
• stimulated trade between coasts/islands
• made deep sea fishing possible
• living conditions more elaborate than San
• round, perm., substantial houses (70 people)
• market economy in gath/hunting society
• beginning of class distinctions (burials)
• emergence of perm. hereditary political elite
• Largely solved problems of violence in region

The First Human Societies

• societies were small; bands of 25-50 people
• very low population density
• very slow pop. growth
• 10,000 people in the world 100,000 y.a.
• 500,000 people 30,000 y.a.
• 6 million people 10,000 y.a.
• Paleolithic bands were seasonal nomads
• moved in regular patterns for plants/animals
• movement restricted accum. of goods
• societies highly egalitarian
• perhaps most free people in human existence
• no specialists; same set of skills for most all
• men = to women mostly
• James Cook said, "tranquil and socially equal
• Paleolithic societies had clearly defined rules
• men hunted, women gathered
• distribution of meat from a kill
• incest and adultery forbidden

Economy and the Environment

• gathering/hunting societies used to be regarded as "primitive" and impoverished
• worked fewer hours
• wanted or needed little
• life expectancy was low though (35 yrs)
• alteration of natural environments
• deliberately set fires to encourage growth of certain plants
• extinction of many large animals after human arrival
• gradual extinction of other hominids; Neanderthals, Flores man

The Realm of the Spirit

• Difficult to decipher Paleolithic spiritual world
• lack of written sources
• art subject to interpretation
• contemporary gath/hunters may not reflect ancients
• Paleolithic peoples had rich, ceremonial life
• led by part-time shamans
• frequent use of psychoactive drugs
• apparent variety of beliefs
• some societies seemingly monotheistic
• several levels of supernatural beings
• still others believed in an impersonal force running throughout the natural world
• probably had cynical view of time

Settling Down: the great transition...

• gradual change as pop. grew, climate changed and people interacted
• collection of wild grains began in Africa 16,000 y.a.
• last Ice Age ended 16,000-10,000 y.a.
• global warming followed
• richer and more diverse environ.
• population rise
• beginnings of settlement
• settlement led to societal change
• larger/more complex societies
• storage and accum. of goods led to inequality
• settling down occurred in many areas
• Jomon culture in Japan
• Scandinavia, Southeast Asia, Middle east, N. America
• Bows and arrows invented

Settlement major turning point

Terminology: Chapter One

Paleolithic

->Old Stone Age

Paleolithic Rock Art

paintings discovered in Spain & France 20,000 years ago usually depicting a range of animals, human figures & some abstract figures, the purpose of which is still debatable

Venus Figurines

Paleolithic carvings of the female form, often with exaggerated breasts, hips, stomach, & buttocks believed to have a religious significance

Dreamtime

A complex worldview of Australia's Aboriginal people that held that current humans live in a vibration or echo of ancestral happenings

Clovis culture

The earliest widespread and distinctive culture of North America, named from the Clovis point, a kind of projectile point

megafaunal extinction

Dying out of a number of large animal species, like the mammoth & horse/camel species, which may have been cause by excessive hunting or climatic change 10-11,000 years ago at the end of an Ice Age

Austronesian migrations

The last phase of the great human migration that established a human presence on every habitable place on Earth. Austronesian speaking peoples settled the Pac-islands and Madagascar 3500 years ago through numerous sea-borne migrations.

"the original affluent society"

Term coined by scholar Marshall Sahlins to describe Paleolithic people as "affluent" not because they had so much but because they needed so little.

shamans

In early human societies, a person believed to have the ability to act as a bridge between humans and supernatural forces, often induced by trances and the use of psychoactive drugs

trance dance

In San Culture, a night-long ritual held to activate a human's inner spiritual potency (n/um) to counteract the evil influences of the gods and ancestors. Common to the Khoisan people, of which a remnants exist in the Ju/'hoansi people

Paleolithic settling down

San culture

A Paleolithic people still living in the northern fringe of the Kalahari Desert in South Africa.

The process by which some Paleolithic peoples moved toward permanent settlement in the wake of an Ice Age. Settlement was marked by increased storage of food, accumulation of goods as well as growing inequalities in society.

"insulting the meat"

A San cultural practice meant to deflate pride that involved negative comments about the meat brought in by hunter and the expectation that a successful hunter would disparage his own kill.

Chumash culture

Paleolithic culture of southern California that survived until the modern era.

Brotherhood of the Tomol

A prestigious craft guild that monopolized the building of large oceangoing canoes, or tomols, among the Chumash people

Neanderthals

A European form of Homo sapiens that died out around 25,000 years ago

Human Revolution

The term used to describe the human transition from acting out of a biological imperative to dependence on learned ot invented ways of living (culture)

Ice Age

Any of a number of cold periods in the Earth's history, the last was at its peak 20,000 yrs ago

Hadza

A people of northern Tanzania, almost the last surviving Paleolithic society.

Flores man

A recently discovered Hominid species of Indonesia

Terminology: Chapter Two

Fertile Crescent

Region sometimes known as Southwest Asia that includes the modern states of Iraq, Syria, Israel/Palestine, and southern Turkey. The earliest home of agriculture.

Agricultural Revolution

Also known as the Neolithic Revolution, the transformation of human existence caused by the deliberate cultivation of particular plants and the deliberate taming and breeding of particular animals.

End of the last ice age

A process of global warming that began around 16,000 years ago and ended about 5,000 years later, with a climate similar to our own today. End of the Ice Age led to increased population and agriculture.

"broad spectrum diet"

Archeologists term for the diet of gathering and hunting societies, which included a wide array of plants and animals.

Bantu

The African-language family whose speakers gradually became the dominant culture of eastern and southern Africa, thanks to their agricultural techniques, and later their iron-working skills.

teosinte

The wild ancestor of maize.

diffusion

The gradual spread of agricultural techniques without extensive population movement.

Bantu migration

The spread of Bantu-speaking peoples from their homeland in what is now southern Nigeria or Cameroon to most of Africa, in a process that started ca. 3000 BCE and continued for several millenia.

peoples of Australia

Often called "aboriginals" from the latin "ab origine" meaning from the beginning are Australian natives that have continued gathering and hunting to some extent despite the dawn of agriculture

banpo

A Chinese archeological site, where the remains of a significant neolithic village have been found

"secondary products revolution"

A term used to describe the series of technological changes that began ca. 4000BCE, as people began to develop new uses for their domesticated animals, exploiting a new revolutionary source of power.

pastoral societies

A human society that relies on domesticated animals rather than plants as the main source of food, pastoral nomads lead their animals to seasonal grazing grounds rather than settling permanently in a single location.

Catalhuyuk

An important Neolithic site in what is now Turkey.

stateless societies

Village based agricultural societies, usually organized by kinship groups, that functioned without a formal government apparatus.

chiefdoms

A societal grouping governed by a chief who typically relies on generosity, ritual status, or charisma rather than forcing obedience from the people.

Mesopotamia

The valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in present-day Iraq.

Jericho

Site of an important early agricultural settlement of perhaps 2,000 people in present-day Israel.

Intesification

The process of getting more in return for less; like producing more food on smaller piece of land.

Horticulture

Hoe-based agriculture, typical of early agrarian societies.

Cohokia

An important agricultural chiefdom of North America that flourished around 1100 CE.

• Norte Chico/Caral
• Mohenjo Daro/Harappa
• Epic of Gilgamesh
• Indus Valley civilization
• Code of Hammurabi
• Egypt: “the gift of the Nile”
• Olmec civilization
• patriarchy
• Nubia
• Uruk
• rise of the state
• Hyksos

Group focus questions:

• Analyze the factors of the formation of the first civilizations.
• Compare/contrast the roles of the first cities to those of today.
• Explain the reasons for the rise of social inequality. Do those reasons persist to the present day?
• Explain the reasons for the rise of gender inequality. How did patriarchy differ in Egypt and Mesopotamia?
• Analyze the sources of state authority in the First Civilizations. Evaluate the strength of those sources in today's society?

• Create a graphic organizer of the 6 first civilizations surrounding a definition of civilization
• Sequence the origins of the first civilizations in cornell note format attending to features such as the role of cities, erosion of equality, the rise of the state and writing and accounting

Name

Birth (When and where?)

Categorized?

2-3 events

Artifact...inferences

Key Concept 1.2:

The Neolithic Revolution and Early Agricultural Societies

• Review chronology and historical methods of time
• Apply chronology to the People of the Earth by humans
• Give examples of how humans have adapted to various environments

First Farmers: The Revolutions of Agriculture

10,000 b.c.e - 3,000 b.c.e.

Agricultural Revolution

in World History

For your groups section of notes, please complete the following...

• Turn the title of your section/subsection into a question
• Skim the section to determine the historical context
• Read and take notes while avoiding copying the text word for word
• Include a graphic organizer to establish connection, comparison, etc...
• Write a reflective summary that encapsulates the main ideas of your section

Rules for Honors Seminar

 Be courteous at all times

 Listen while others are talking

 Support all comments with evidence from the source

 Avoid raising your hand to talk – instead jump in at an appropriate time

 When disagreeing with a previous comment, disagree with the idea rather than

attack the person

 Address the group when talking, not the teacher

I am responsible for...

 Asking questions about what I have read, heard, and seen.

 Asking for clarification of any passage I have read but which I do not understand.

 Being courteous and respectful of my peers.

 Pausing and thinking before I respond to the facilitator's questions or to a comment

made by a peer.

 Giving my opinions clearly.

 Making judgments that I can defend with textual evidence

 Explaining to others how I have inferred an idea by exploring the passage that has

led me to this conclusion.

 Locating facts and examples in the text that can be cited as evidence for a particular

argument.

 Listening attentively and patiently as peers share their ideas.

 Listening critically to others' opinions and taking issue with inaccuracies or illogical

reasoning.

 Clarifying information and lending support to a peer's argument.

 Moving the seminar forward to new concepts.

 Maintaining an open mind to a diversity of opinions.

 Listening acutely to a peer's entire position before taking issue with it.

 Searching for connections with previous readings or prior studies.

 Avoiding repetitiveness by developing stronger listening skills.

 Being willing to change my opinion if more information is given or if my reasoning

has been flawed.

 Seeing the relevance of the reading to my world.

 Being prepared by having read my text thoroughly and reflectively.

 Having marked key issues from my text so I can identify the evidence.

 Exhibiting mature behavior with patience and self-control.

Four Types of Questions:

1. World Connection Question: Write a question connecting the text to the real world.

2. Close-Ended Question: Write a question about the text that will help everyone in the class

come to an agreement about events or characters in the text. This question usually has a

“correct” answer.

3. Open-Ended Question: Write an insightful question about the text that will require proof and

group discussion and “construction of logic” to discover or explore the answer to the

question.

4. Universal Theme/Core Question: Write a question dealing with a theme(s) of the text that

will encourage group discussion about the universality of the text.

Key Concept 1.1:

Big Geography & the Peopling of the Earth

Comparing Paleolithic Societies:

San vs Chumash- preserving ancient way into

modern times

vs.

The Ways We Were

Out of Africa to the Ends of the Earth:

First Migrations

gathering and hunting

4. How might our attitudes toward the modern world influence our assessment of Paleolithic societies?

Assumptions could include...

• Urbanized civilized culture we live in is superior to primitive world of Paleolithic societies
• Paleolithic and even those after being overly superstitious, unevolved, unable to control and understand the workings of nature

Criticisms of modernity could include...

• inequality among genders
• damage of humans to the environment in an effort to control the uncontrollable

3. Which statements in this chapter seem to be reliable and solidly based on facts, and which ones are more speculative in nature?

Chapter is solidly based when it discusses subjects explored through material remains...

• arrival of humans in regions
• material life of the Paleolithic
• evolution of technologies (emergence of smaller stone blades)

Same goes for exploring through contemporary groups...

• San
• Chumash

More speculative....

• Earliest emergence of humans due to lack of evidence
• Meaning of artistic expression/beliefs
• Caves in France/spiritual practices

2. In what ways did the various Paleolithic Societies differ from one another, and how did they change over time?

While ALL shared a gathering/hunting lifestyle, as they spread across the globe...

• Canoe technology was required to traverse the Pac Islands
• Cold and lack of caves required multi-layered clothing and underground dwellings made of bone and tusks in E. Europe
• After the end of the last Ice Age (16,000-10,000 y.a.) many plants and animals thrived leading to permanent settlements which became larger and more complex with stored goods leading to inequality, while others stayed nomadic with relative egalitarianism

• means of life for 95% of human history
• food collection, NOT production
• Paleolithic, old stone age
• first 200,000 years of human experience
• studied thru archeology
• settled the planet
• first to reflect on issues of life/death

1. What is the significance of the Paleolithic Era in world history?

• Paleolithic humans created a way of life that endured for 95% of the time we inhabited the Earth...not challenged until 10,000 years ago
• Spread across the globe successfully
• Reflected on the great questions of life and death
• Changes they wrought provided the foundation on which all subsequent human history was constructed

Key Concept 1.3:

The Development & Interaction of Early Agricultural, Pastoral & Urban Societies

Reflective Journal Quickwrite:

• Would you rather be a member of the San or Chumash? Why?

Big Picture Questions

Summer Assignment

CHAPTER ONE

First Peoples: Populating the planet...

to 10,000 b.c.e.

A. Chronological Reasoning- After reading chapter one answer the following questions.

1. What is the significance of the Paleolithic Era in world history?

2. In what ways did the various Paleolithic Societies differ from one another, and how did they change over time?

3. Which statements in this chapter seem to be reliable and solidly based on facts, and which ones are more speculative in nature?

4. How might our attitudes toward the modern world influence our assessment of Paleolithic societies?

• Review chronology and historical methods of time
• Apply chronology to the People of the Earth by humans
• Give examples of how humans have adapted to various environments

Hadza of Tanzania

• Characteristics
• Use of related vocab
• 1 cultural image
• 1pol/social image

• Identify and locate the six first civilizations
• Classify the first six civilizations in Cornell note format
• Reflect on the characteristics of each civilization by attending to similarities and differences

• Characteristics
• 1 cultural image
• 1 pol/social image

Mesopotamia

China

Olmec Civilization

Accelerating

Global Change &

Realignment

1900 to present

Coca-cola

Superpowers/Capitalism

Global

Interactions

1450ce-1750ce

Spirits/Coffee

Colonization &

SciRev/Enlightenment

Regional &

Transregional

Interactions

600 ce-1450 ce

Spirits

Islam/Trade

Organization &

Reorganization of

Human Societies

600 bce-600 ce

Wine

Empires/Religion

Industrialization &

Global

Integration

1750 ce-1900 ce

Tea

Indus/Imperialism

Technological &

Environmental

Transformations

To 600 bce

Beer

Agricultural Rev

In Chinese civilization, animal bones that were heated and then the cracks interpreted as prophecies which were written on the bone providing our earliest written records of their civ.

Oracle bones

A king of Egypt. Literally means "the palace" which came into use in the New Kingdom but is generally used to refer to all leaders of Egypt.

Quipu

A civilization in the area of present-day Lebanon, creators of the first alphabetic writing system.

Pharoah

Phoenicians

A series of knotted cords, used for accounting and perhaps as a form of writing in the Norte Chico civilization.

An advanced civilization that developed on the island of Crete around 2500 BCE.

An Indo-European civilization that developed in Anatolia in the 18th Century BCE.

Minoan Civilization

The ideological underpinning of Chinese emperors, this was the belief that a ruler held authority by command of divine force as long as he ruled morally and benevolently.

Hittites

• Wine was a social status identifier since higher quality wine could only be bought by the wealthy
• Women were mostly servants of symposiums
• Slaves never partook

Shifts from religion to science lead to education equaling status, revolutionary ideas cause the dawn of indiv rights and greater gender equality

• Slavery
• Colonization
• colonization in India led to the perfection of sugar production which led to the creation of rum under harsh circumstances in the Americas, leading to a greater need for slaves
• Wealth in the US was often linked to spirits

Mandate of Heaven

S

• Agric (irrigation projects) lead to social gender inequality
• ...Though beer was an everyone drink

Salinization

The buildup of minerals in soil, decreasing its fertility, can be caused by long-term irrigation.

Hieroglyphs

Chapter 3: Key Terms

Ancient Egyptian writing system, literally "sacred carvings"

Hebrews

Sanxingdui

A smaller, earlier civilization whose development of a monotheistic faith that provided the foundation of Judaism, Christianity and Islam assured them a significant place in world history.

An ancient city of China that developed independently from the Shang Dynasty.

• The drinking of wine as a social event took place among civilians participating in a direct democracy

• Because beer was used as currency, it created a need for writing...literacy was rare and bestowed power and therefore allowed those that control beer to be in power

Hatshetsup

P

Emergence of European nations as colonial and imperial powers, revolutionary ideas lead to independence of many nations

British naval superiority could be contributed to the dissemination of grog which used limes (limeys) that provided vitamin C and prevented scurvy

Taxation of spirits (rum in the Molasses Act) helped foster discontent of the British Crown which led to the American Revolution

Whiskey Rebellion

Shang Dynasty

Ancient Egypt's most famous queen who reigned from 1472-1457 BCE.

After taking notes on chapter 3 at any time...

chart the 12 key terms to the right according to the following categories...

cities

A period of Chinese history from 1766 to 1122 BCE.

Harappa

A major city of Indus Valley Civilization, flourished around 2,000 BCE.

Son of Heaven

Agricultural

Columbian Exchange (slavery, disease, goods, old world pop boom)

Title of the ruler of China, first known from the Zhou Dynasty. It acknowledges the rulers heritage as intermediary between heaven and Earth.

• Higher quality wines came from different regions
• Development of democracy occurred hand in hand with the isolated development of Greeks on the mountainous terrain of the Peloponnese

• Agricultural Revolution
• Settlement of people
• Increase of disease as result of crowded cities

Chapter 3: Terminology

Developed in Arab world

I

Hyksos

larger populations

A pastoral group of unknown ethnicity that invaded Egypt & ruled in the north from 1650 to 1535 BCE, whose dominance was based on the use of horses, chariots, & bronze technology.

TERM

Description

Significance

Norte Chico/Caral

Sentence

connecting to

another term

Norte Chico is a region along the central coast of Peru, home of a civilization that developed from 3000-1800 BCE. Caral was the largest of some twenty urban centers that developed at the time.

divisive social structure

Nubia

led by powerful rulers

A civilization to the south of Egypt in the Nile Valley, noted for development of an alphabetic writing system and a major iron making industry by 500 BCE

• Beer was used in religious rituals
• Beer was thought to be civilizing
• Civilized living was a central theme in the Epic of Gilgamesh

Indus Valley civilization

• Wine in Greece and Rome considered intellectual
• Rise of Greek Pantheon (Bacchus)
• Rise of philosophy
• Responsible/civilized drinking
• Applied to Christianity later on

Spirits were often linked to the opening and closings of business deals in Africa

Pirates, Aztec rituals, banned by Muslims

C

Characteristics of Civilization

Egypt:

"the gift of the Nile"

Emergence from dark age to rebirth, sci rev and enlightenment (coffee houses)

ideology shifts in the nature of man as good, equal and free

Home of a major civilization in what is now Pakistan that emerged during the third millennium BCE, around the valleys of the Indus & Saraswati Rivers, & that is noted for the uniformity of its elaborately planned cities over a large territory.

"Gift of the Nile" because the region would not have been able to sustain a significant human population without the rivers annual inundation, which provided rich silt deposits making it possible for agriculture.

Olmec Civilization

control through coercion

An early civilization that developed around the coast of the Gulf of Mexico around 1,200 BCE.

Epic of Gilgamesh

Mojenjo/Daro Harrapa

• Ag. Rev. led to large scale barter & trade
• Writing was developed in an effort to improve trade efficiency
• The development of currency/taxes

• Mediterranean Trade
• Economic dependence on grapes as a result for the demand of wine
• Wine even used for basic necessities

specialization

The most famous literary work from ancient Mesopotamia, it tells the story of one man's quest for immortality.

E

Triangle Trade, Columbian Exchange, access to the east

Europeans dependence on Arab world shifted to self-reliance with colonies in the Americas

Financial revolution- coffeehouses some of the first stock exchanges

writing systems

Uruk

A process of centralization that took place in the First Civilizations, growing out of the greater complexity of urban life in recognition for the need of coordination, regulation, adjudication & military leadership.

Rise of the State

An early civilization that developed around the coast of the Gulf of Mexico around 1,200 BCE.

Code of Hammurabi

A major city of the Indus Valley civilization, flourished around 2,000 BCE.

A series of laws publicized at the order of King Hammurabi of Babylon. Not really a code, but a number of laws that proclaim the kings commitment to social order.

patriarchy

architecture

Patriarchy

Literally "rule of the father," a social system of male dominance.

beliefs

Indus Valley

Egypt- "gift of the Nile"

Norte Chico

• Characteristics
• 1 cultural image
• 1 pol/social image

• Characteristics
• 1 cultural image
• 1pol/social image

• Characteristics
• 1 cultural image
• 1 pol/social image

Topic:

Compare/contrast Mesopotamia

and Egypt

Egypt

Mesopotamia

Cultural

Technological & Environmental

Transformations

Environmental

• Origins of Civilizations
• All had roots in Agr. Rev.
• Some emerged from earlier competing chiefdoms (social class/econ. specialization already exist)
• Need to organize large-scale organization proj.
• Powerful states useful in protecting interests of the elite upper class
• Warfare and trade also factors
• Robert Carneiro:
• High pop.dens--->
• competing societies for a

limited amount of land--->

• agric. innovations (plow/irrig)
• winners absorb losers and become the elite

Roles of cities:

Political and admin. centers

Centers of culture

• art, architecture, literature, rituals, and ceremonies

Marketplaces for both local and long-distance exchange

Centers of manufacturing activity

Rise of Social Inequality:

• Accumulation of wealth
• Avoidance of labor by the elite
• Seen in the houses, clothes, burials & legal codes of early civilizations
• Resulted from need to control/organize large portions of the population

Patriarchy:

• plow based agric. demanded male strength
• growing pop. led to more women at home w/ child
• Men are out defining politics
• Women assoc. w/ nature; reprod.
• Military increased male status

Sources of authority:

• Authority required to regulate dense pop. in complex city organizations
• Force used to compel obedience
• Often associated with divine sanction
• Writing & accounting helped:
• define elite status
• convey prestige in lit
• Strengthen state thru laws
• propaganda
• Perception of power thru:
• architecture
• lavish lifestyle
• grandiose ceremonies

Political

To c. 600 BCE

Interaction

& Exchange

photo (cc) Malte Sörensen @ flickr