Important Terms from "Traditions and Encounters" chapters one-six
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| 4976599689 | Ice Age | Any period of time during which glaciers covered a large part of the earth's surface | 0 | |
| 4976599690 | ethnocentrism | Belief in the superiority of one's own ethnic group | 1 | |
| 4976599691 | nomadic | (of groups of people) tending to travel and change settlements frequently | 2 | |
| 4976599692 | cultural diffusion | The spread of cultural elements from one society to another | 3 | |
| 4976599693 | Homo sapiens | the only surviving hominid | 4 | |
| 4976599694 | Paleolithic | second part of the Stone Age beginning about 750,00 to 500,000 years BC and lasting until the end of the last ice age about 8,500 years BC | 5 | |
| 4976599695 | Neolithic Revolution | the shift from hunting of animals and gathering of food to the keeping of animals and the growing of food on a regular basis around 8,000 BC | 6 | |
| 4976599696 | Jericho | a village in Jordan near the north end of the Dead Sea | 7 | |
| 4976599697 | Catal Huyuk | One of first true cities in history, created in the Neolithic Era in 6500 to 5500 BC, from which were created agriculture, trading, temples, housing, and religions | 8 | |
| 4976599698 | Metallurgy | the science or art of metals. It includes the study of their properties and structure, the separation and refining of metals from their ores, the production of alloys, and the shaping and treatment of metals by heat and rolling. | 9 | |
| 4976599699 | Lucy | A forty percent complete skeleton discovery of an Australopithecus afarensis, or a species within the category of hominid. She was rediscovered on November 24, 1974 in Hadar, Ethiopia. | 10 | |
| 4976599700 | Gilgamesh | a legendary Sumerian king who was the hero of an epic collection of mythic stories | 11 | |
| 4976599701 | Hammurabi | Amorite ruler of Babylon (r. 1792-1750 B.C.E.). He conquered many city-states in southern and northern Mesopotamia and is best known for a code of laws, inscribed on a black stone pillar, illustrating the principles to be used in legal cases. (p. 34) | 12 | |
| 4976599702 | Nebuchadnezzar | A Babylonian king who conquered Jerusalem,and built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon | 13 | |
| 4976599703 | Mesopotamia | first civilization located between the Tigris & Eurphrates Rivers in present day Iraq; term means "land between the rivers;" Sumerian culture | 14 | |
| 4976599704 | fertile crescent | Found along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, this was the first early river civilization. The cities in this area were governed by city-states and used irrigation to produced their corps. | 15 | |
| 4976599705 | ziggurat | a rectangular tiered temple or terraced mound erected by the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians | 16 | |
| 4976599706 | Patriarchy | a form of social organization in which a male is the family head and title is traced through the male line | 17 | |
| 4976599707 | Cuneiform | an ancient wedge-shaped script used in Mesopotamia and Persia | 18 | |
| 4976599708 | Palestine | an ancient country is southwestern Asia on the east coast of the Mediterranean | 19 | |
| 4976599709 | Torah | (Judaism) the scroll of parchment on which the first five books of the Hebrew Scripture is written | 20 | |
| 4976599710 | Bible | The book that contains the writings or scriptures that Christians recognize as the written word of God. | 21 | |
| 4976599711 | Phoenicians | Sailing and trading people who had many colonies on the Mediterranean coast | 22 | |
| 4976599712 | Sargon of Akkad | an ancient Mesopotamian ruler who reigned approximately 2334-2279 BC, and was one of the earliest of the world's great empire builders, conquering all of southern Mesopotamia as well as parts of Syria, Anatolia, and Elam (western Iran). He established the region's first Semitic dynasty and was considered the founder of the Mesopotamian military tradition. | 23 | |
| 4976599713 | Hebrews | the ethnic group claiming descent from Abraham and Isaac (especially from Isaac's son Jacob) | 24 | |
| 4976599714 | Abraham | Founder of Judaism who, according to the Bible, led his family from Ur to Canaan in obedience to God's command. | 25 | |
| 4976599715 | Menes | king of upper egypt united the two kingdoms of upper and lower egypt | 26 | |
| 4976599716 | Hatshepsut | Queen of Egypt (1473-1458 B.C.E.). Dispatched a naval expedition down the Red Sea to Punt (possibly Somalia), the faraway source of myrrh. There is evidence of opposition to a woman as ruler, and after her death her name was frequently expunged. (p.66) | 27 | |
| 4976599717 | Nile River | the world's longest river (4180 miles) | 28 | |
| 4976599718 | Nubia | an ancient region of northeastern Africa (southern Egypt and northern Sudan) on the Nile | 29 | |
| 4976599719 | Pharaoh | a king of ancient Egypt, considered a god as well as a political and military leader | 30 | |
| 4976599720 | Hieroglyphs | pictures, characters, or symbols standing for words, ideas, or sounds; ancient Egyptians used instead of an alphabet like ours | 31 | |
| 4976599721 | Bantu | a family of languages widely spoken in the southern half of the African continent | 32 | |
| 4976599722 | Indra | chief deity of the Aryans; depicted as a colossal, hard-drinking warrior God of thunder and strength | 33 | |
| 4976599723 | Aryans | Indo-European speaking nomads who entered India from the Central Asian steppes between 1500 and 1000 BC and greatly affected Indian society. | 34 | |
| 4976599724 | Dravidians | one of the main groups of people in India; probably descended from the Indus River culture that flourished at the dawn of Indian civilization over 4,000 yrs. ago | 35 | |
| 4976599725 | Harappan | Civilization that developed along the Indus River (Present Day Pakistan), Controlled larges areas of land on both sides of the Indus River, Largest two settlements were _______ and Mohenjo Daro, Known for City planning, sewer systems, indoor plumbing, and fortresses around their cities | 36 | |
| 4976599726 | Mohenjo-daro | Largest city of the Indus Valley civilization. It was centrally located in the extensive floodplain of the Indus River. Little is known about the political institutions of Indus Valley communities, but the large-scale implies central planning. Not Harappa | 37 | |
| 4976599727 | Sanskrit | (Hinduism) an ancient language of India (the language of the Vedas and of Hinduism) | 38 | |
| 4976599728 | Vedas | sacred texts in the Hindu religion, they are a set of four collections of hymns and religious ceremonies transmitted by memory through the centuries by Aryan priests | 39 | |
| 4976599729 | Ganges River | Located in India, this river is considered sacred to Hindus and is used for spiritual cleansing, funeral rites, and other Hindu rituals. | 40 | |
| 4976599730 | Caste | a social class separated from others by distinctions of hereditary rank or profession or wealth | 41 | |
| 4976599731 | Brahmins | Priests, at the top of the caste system which the Aryans established | 42 | |
| 4976599732 | Jati | sub castes; were groups of people within each caste that worked together for one economic function | 43 | |
| 4976599733 | Sati | a ritual that required a woman to throw herself on her late husband's funeral pyre or burn herself. This was done gladly and if a woman didn't comply with this she would be disgraced. | 44 | |
| 4976599734 | Upanishads | A group of writings sacred in Hinduism concerning the relations of humans, God, and the universe. | 45 | |
| 4976599735 | karma | (Hinduism and Buddhism) the effects of a person's actions that determine his destiny in his next incarnation | 46 | |
| 4976599736 | Dharma | In Hinduism, the duties and obligations of each caste | 47 | |
| 4976599737 | Xia dynasty | This was the earliest known dynasty. There is no written evidence of this early time period, but artifacts have been found. The people of this time were farmers and made pottery. | 48 | |
| 4976599738 | Huang He | a major river of Asia in northern China | 49 | |
| 4976599739 | Shang dynasty | Second Chinese dynasty (about 1750-1122 B.C.) which was mostly a farming society ruled by an aristocracy mostly concerned with war. They're best remembered for their art of bronze casting. | 50 | |
| 4976599740 | Mandate of Heaven | People believed that heaven gave them the authority to rule. They also believed that heaven would take it away | 51 | |
| 4976599741 | Zhou dynasty | the imperial dynasty of China from 1122 to 221 BC; notable for the rise of Confucianism and Taoism | 52 | |
| 4976599742 | Period of the Warring State | Civil War broke out in during the Zhou Dynasty, beginning an age known in Chinese historical records as the "____________ of the ____________________ _____________________." | 53 | |
| 4976599743 | Oracle bones | cattle bones or tortoise shells on which Chinese priests would write questions and then interpret answers from the cracks that formed when the bones were heated | 54 | |
| 4976599744 | Steppe lands | -semiarid grasslands -stretch from Russia to the Great Wall of CHina | 55 | |
| 4976599745 | Book of Songs | The Oldest of the Five Classics, preserves 305 of the earliest Chinese poems. Poems deal with political themes, ritual, and romance. | 56 | |
| 4976599746 | Land bridges | long ago, after the Flood, little trails of land connecting the continents together | 57 | |
| 4976599747 | Olmecs | (1400 B.C.E. to 500 B.C.E.) earliest known Mexican civilization,lived in rainforests along the Gulf of Mexico, developed calendar and constructed public buildings and temples, carried on trade with other groups. | 58 | |
| 4976599748 | Maya | a member of an American Indian people of Yucatan and Belize and Guatemala who had a culture (which reached its peak between AD 300 and 900) characterized by outstanding architecture and pottery and astronomy | 59 | |
| 4976599749 | Tikal | the most important Maya political center between the 4th-9th centuries. It was a city that had temples, pyramids, palaces, and public buildings. | 60 | |
| 4976599750 | Chichen Itza | Originally a Mayan city; conquered by Toltecs circa 1000 and ruled by Toltec dynasties; architecture featured pyramid of Feathered Serpent (Quetzacoatl). | 61 | |
| 4976599751 | Popol Vuh | the most famous of the Maya books that recounts the Highland Maya's version of the story of creation. | 62 | |
| 4976599752 | Teotihuacan | first major metropolis in Mesoamerica, collapsed around 800 CE. It is most remembered for the gigantic "pyramid of the sun". | 63 | |
| 4976599753 | Temple of the Giant Jaguar | a stepped pyramid rising sharply to a height of 47 meters (154 feet); dominated the skyline and represented Tikal's control over the surrounding region | 64 | |
| 4976599754 | Chavin cult | a new religion that appeared in the Andes mountains after 1000 BCE; enjoyed enormous popularity during the 900 to 800 BCE; spread in the area of modern Peru; vanished about 300 BCE; no information survives on the significance of the cults | 65 | |
| 4976599755 | Mochica | Mochica is a society in the Andean valleys, near the Moche River, that left behind a remarkable artistic legacy. They made ceramics that represented gods and everyday life. | 66 | |
| 4976599756 | Austronesians | earliest inhabitants of New Guinea and Oceania; had remarkable seafaring skills and maritime technology; used canoes; later migrated to the Pacific Islands | 67 | |
| 4976599757 | Lapita | Society from New Guinea to Tonga (1500-500 B.C.E.) with agricultural villages, networks of trade and communication, and hierarchical chiefdoms. | 68 | |
| 4976829088 | ancestor veneration | religious practice based on the belief that deceased family members have a continued existence, that the spirits of deceased ancestors will look after the family, take an interest in the affairs of the world, and possess the ability to influence the fortune of the living. | 69 | |
| 4976846201 | pastoralism | branch of agriculture concerned with the raising of livestock. | 70 | |
| 4976885575 | migration | movement by people from one place to another with the intentions of settling or permanently in the new location | 71 | |
| 4976885576 | desertification | the process by which fertile land becomes desert, typically as a result of drought, deforestation, or inappropriate agriculture. | 72 | |
| 4976903671 | Sumeria | The first true civilization located in Mesopotamia. | 73 | |
| 4976915339 | urbanization | the process by which towns and cities are formed and become larger as more and more people begin living and working in central areas | 74 | |
| 4976933829 | dynasties | ruling families of the Pharoahs | 75 | |
| 4977000459 | Hittites | Rulers of Mesopotamia known for chariot warfare and iron weapons | 76 | |
| 4977004059 | Law book of Manu | Book demonstrating Aryan influence during the Vedic Age. It dealt with proper moral behavior and social relationships, including sex and gender relationships | 77 | |
| 4977012141 | fertility cults | veneration of gods and goddesses, whom they associated with creation and procreation | 78 | |
| 4977014799 | specialization of labor | specialized occupations in early society such as warriors, priests, farmers, artisans and scribes | 79 | |
| 4977035011 | Book of the Dead | The Book of the Dead is an ancient Egyptian funerary text, used from the beginning of the New Kingdom (around 1550 BCE) to around 50 BCE. | 80 | |
| 4977035012 | diaspora | A scattered population whose origin lies within a smaller geographic locale. It can also refer to the movement of the population from its original homeland. | 81 | |
| 4977069290 | animism | A belief system in which all things in the natural world are thought to be animated by spirits. | 82 | |
| 4977069291 | shamans | Religious leaders who were believed to be able to speak to spirits and heal the sick | 83 | |
| 4977087549 | social stratification | refers to a system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy. | 84 | |
| 4977087550 | civilization | Certain basic features of a society to include an economic system, government, social system, belief system, intellectual tradition and a high level of technological aptitude | 85 | |
| 4977093966 | Tigris and Euprhrates | Rivers in the area known as Mesopotamia or the Fertile Crescent | 86 | |
| 4977098888 | Code of Ur-Nammu | Oldest surviving collection of laws found in Sumeria around 2100 BCE | 87 | |
| 4977118109 | city-state | a city that with its surrounding territory forms an independent state. | 88 | |
| 4977121331 | Andean cultures | civilizations found in the peaks and valleys of the Andes mountains | 89 |
