Amsco Book CH 1-Student
Amsco Book CH 1-Student
Amsco Book CH 1-Student
Environmental
Transformations,
toc.600B.C.E.
Period Overview
From their origins in East Africa, nomadic humans slowly migrated across the
earth, hunting and foraging for food. The development of farming and herding
around 8000 B.C.E. (10.000 years ago) was revolutionary. With a more
dependable food supply, villages grew into cities, people specialized in jobs,
powerful states emerged, and people developed the first writing systems. Trade
expanded, spreading new goods and ideas more rapidly than before. By 600
B.C.E., Mesopotamia, India, Egypt, China, Mesoamerica. and the Andes had
impressive civilizations that would provide the core of later civilizations in their
regions.
Key Concepts
1.1 Big Geography and the Peopling of the Earth
I. Archeologica] 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.
1.2 The Neolithic Revolution and Early Agricultural Societies
I. Beginning about 10.000 years ago. the Neolithic Revolution led to the development
of new and more complex economic and social systems.
II. Agriculture and pastoralism began to transform human societies.
1.3 The Development and Interactions of Early Agricultural. Pastoral, and Urban Societies
I. Core and foundational civilizations developed in a variety of geographical and
environmental settings where agriculture flourished, including Mesopotamia in
the Tigris and Euprates River Valleys. Egypt in the Nile River Valley. MohenjoDaro and Harappa in the Indus River Valley. Shang in the Yellow River or Huang
He Valley, Olmecs in Mesoamerica, and Chavfn in Andean South America.
II. The first states emerged within core civilizations in Mesopotamia and the Nile
Valley. III. Culture played a significant role in unifying states through laws, language,
literature, religion, myths, and monumental art.
Source: AP World History Curriculum Framework. 2016-2017
From Hunter-Foragers to
Settled Societies
"Civilizations take ages to be born, to settle, and to grow.
Fernand Braudel, A History of Civilizations
A,
During one cooler period, so much water froze into ice that the ocean
levels fell as much as 400 feet below today's level. The level was low enough
that land connected northeastern Asia and what is now Alaska. This land,
now submerged under the Bering Strait, provided a bridge between Asia and
the Americas. Nomadic hunters followed herds of animals that wandered
across this land. When temperatures increased and ocean levels rose, these
people, the first Americans, were cut off from their Asian ancestors. Over
time, they slowly moved farther south along the coast.
By 10,000 B.C.E., possibly far earlier, humans lived on every continent
except Antarctica. In each region, people developed distinctive cultures.
Source: iStockpholo
The oldest known paintings were created about 40.000 years ago..
prepared food and looked after the children. Anthropologists believe that the
women breast-fed their children for as long as five years, a practice that provided high nutrition for the children as well as a very rudimentary form of
family planning. (Test Prep: Write a paragraph connecting early hunter-forager
groups with such groups in Russia. Read about the Slavic peoples on page 137)
Religion and Art Paleolithic people developed a system of religious
beliefs centered around the worship of gods they associated with the forces of
nature. The belief that animals, rivers, and other elements of nature embody
spirits is called animism. The first religious leaders were probably shamans,
people believed to have special abilities to cure the sick and influence the
future. Ritual sacrifices to these gods and evidence of burial practices suggest
a belief in the afterlife that dates back 100,000 years. Evidence of artistic
expression has been found in the form of cave paintings, which date back to
32,000 years ago, and musical instruments, such as flutes, dating to 30,000
years ago. Paleolithic art may have been connected to religious ceremonies.
Neolithic Revolution
Around 10,000 years ago (8000 B.C.E.), as the climate was warming up
from an Ice Age, a collection of social and political developments coalesced
into what is called the Neolithic Revolution, a set of dramatic changes in how
people lived based on the development of agriculture. These changes are
sometimes called the Agricultural Revolution. This "revolution" did not
happen instantaneously, nor did it occur everywhere at the same time, nor did it
affect everyone directly. For example, the Neolithic Revolution in China dates
to 5000 B.C.E., whereas in the Middle East, it can be dated to around 8000
B.C.E. It can be characterized by several major developments:
1. agriculture
2. pastoralism
3. specialization of labor
4. towns and cities
5. governments
6. religions
7. technological innovations
Agriculture Taking advantage of a warmer global climate following the
end of the last Ice Age, some hunter-forager cultures learned to grow crops by
putting seeds of wild plants into the ground. They gave up their nomadic way
of life to stay in one place and take up agriculture, the practice of raising crops
or livestock on a continual and controlled basis. As they learned to plant, tend,
and harvest crops, people found they often had a surplus, or more than they
needed for themselves. The development of agriculture occurred first in lands
just east of the Mediterranean Sea. It also occurred independently at several
other places and from these places spread throughout the world.
These early farmers domesticated the crops that were already growing
wild in their region: wheat and barley in Southwest Asia, millet in Northern
China, rice in Southeast Asia, and maize (corn) in Mesoamerica. As cultivation
of these crops spread, the natural diversity of plants in a region decreased.
With that change came reductions in the diversity of insects and animals that
depended on the other crops.
The availability of these farmed crops also made the diets of people less
diversified. Usually people in an area would grow just one or two crops, and
they would eat foods prepared with those crops at every meal. People continued
to hunt animals and to gather wild fruits and nuts when seasonably available,
but overall the farmers' diets lacked the variety of full-time hunter-foragers. By
cultivating just one or two plants, they eliminated other plants that had been
part of people's diets.
Pastoralism Even before people settled down as farmers, people in Africa,
Europe, and Asia had begun to tame wild animals so they could be brought
up to live with humans, a process called domestication. The first animal that
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people domesticated was the dog. Initially, humans employed dogs to assist
with hunting and to provide warnings about the approach of dangerous
animals. Goats were domesticated next. They provided both meat and milk.
Other animals were domesticated soon aftercattle, horses, sheep, pigs, and
chickensthat provided labor or food. As people began to keep larger herds
of animals, they began to lead them from one grazing land to another. Their
way of life is called nomadic pastoralism, or simply pastoralism, because it
was based on people moving herds of animals from pasture to pasture. Like
hunters and foragers, pastoralists were mobile. Like farmers, pastoralists
controlled their food supply. Pastoralism first emerged in grassland regions
of Africa and Eurasia.
Domestication of Plants and Animals
Area
18,000
to
15,000
B.C.E.
Europe
Dogs
Middle
East
15,000
to
12,000
B.C.E.
12,000
to
9,000
B.C.E.
Cattle
Barley
Wheat
Africa
Asia
Americas
9,000
to
6,000
B.C.E.
6,000
to
3,000
B.C.E.
Sheep
Pigs
Goats
Cattle
Wheat
Goats
Sheep
Cattle
Rice
Pigs
Sorghum
Millet
Cattle
Maize
Beans
Squash
3,000
to 1
B.C.E.
Rice
10,000 years, pastoralists have played an important role in spreading ideas and
trading goods among people. (Test Prep: Create a chart comparing Paleolithic
pastoralists with later pastoralists such as the Mongols. See page 241.)
Specialization of Labor The growth of agriculture and pastoralism
reduced plant and animal diversity, but the surpluses of food they produced
led to dramatic changes. For the first time in history, some workers were free
to focus on tasks other than producing food. Some people became artisans,
people who made objects people needed, such as woven clothe or pottery.
Others became merchants, people who buy and sell goods for a living. Still
others became soldiers, religious leaders, or politicians. This process of
allowing people to focus on limited tasks is called the specialization of labor.
The impact of specialization of labor was far-reaching. Freed from work
on the farms, artisans made weapons, tools, and jewelry. A merchant class,
engaged with trading these objects, emerged. The surplus of food and goods,
combined with the needs of religious ceremonies and a rudimentary system
of taxation, led to the invention of writing, which was first used to keep
records about trades and tax payments. People later began to use writing to
communicate with one another, to record descriptions of events, and to write
down religious stories. The development of writing marked the transition from
prehistory to history.
Growth of Villages, Towns, and Cities The food surplus encouraged
both a growth in population and an opportunity to do work not related to
producing food. Permanent dwellings and villages and towns multiplied as
tribes abandoned their nomadic lifestyles and, eventually, some cities emerged.
With the change in food production came social stratification. This means that
some people accumulated wealth in the form of jewelry and other coveted
items and by building larger and better decorated houses. The idea of private
property became increasingly important. People with more wealth or more
power to control the surplus formed an elite. In general, the elites were men.
One of humankind's first cities was Jericho, which was built on the west
bank of the Jordan River. The oldest evidence of human settlement there dates
from about 9000 B.C.E. Another ancient city, Catal Huyuk, in present-day
Turkey, was founded in 7500 B.C.E. along a river that has since dried up. The
city existed for about 2,000 years, but its well-preserved remains have helped
modern people understand life long ago. Although both cities were significant
population centers, and while Jericho has tremendous significance in the JudeoChristian tradition, neither city became a major site of an emerging civilization.
Governments The surplus of food also led to the creation of governmental
institutions. People had to work together to clear land and, in many places,
provide irrigation to water the crops. To coordinate these efforts required a
government. And if the community produced a surplus, powerful leaders were
required to supervise how it was used, and soldiers were needed to protect it
from other groups. Priests were needed, not only to supervise religious
ceremonies, but also to explain how the behavior and rulings of leaders were
based on religious doctrine.
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STATE-BUILDING
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
overfarming overgrazing
CULTURE
artifacts
Homo sapiens sapiens
Paleolithic Period
Neolithic Revolution
monotheism
Bronze Age
civilization
core and foundational
hunter-forager
agriculture
surplus
domestication nomadic
pastoralism
kinship group
clan
tribe
patriarchal
artisans
merchants
social stratification
priests
priestesses
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