Key Concept 1.1 Big Geography & the Peopling of the Earth
Key Concept 1.2 The Neolithic Revolution and Early Agricultural Societies
Key Concept 1.3 The Development and Interactions of Early Agricultural, Pastoral, and Urban Societies
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| 1272938662 | What is the evidence that explains the earliest history of humans and the planet? What are the theories that interpret this evidence? | The term "Big Geography" draws attention to the global nature of world history. Throughout the Paleo¬lithic period, humans migrated from Africa to Eurasia, Australia, and the Americas. Early humans were mobile and creative in adapting to different geographical settings from savannah to desert to Ice Age tundra. By analogy with modern hunter/forager societies, anthropologists infer that these bands were relatively egalitarian. Humans also developed varied and sophisticated tech-nologies. | 1 | |
| 1272938663 | Where did humans first appear on Earth, and what were their societal structure(s), technology, and culture? | Archeological 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. | 2 | |
| 1272938664 | Describe earliest humans' technology & tools | Humans used fire in new ways: to aid hunting and foraging, to protect against predators and to adapt to cold environments. Humans developed a wider range of tools specially adapted to different environments from tropics to tundra. | 3 | |
| 1272938665 | What were the earliest humans' religious beliefs and practices? | Religion was most likely animistic. | 4 | |
| 1272938666 | How did the earliest humans' society help them procure enough supplies to survive? | Economic structures focused on small kinship groups of hunting/foraging bands that could make what they needed to survive. However, not all groups were self-sufficient; they exchanged people, ideas and goods. | 5 | |
| 1272963696 | How did human societies change during the Neolithic Revolution? What were the long-term demographic, social, political, and economic effects of the Neolithic Revolution? | In response to warming climates at the end of the last Ice Age from about 10,000 years ago, some groups adapted to the environment in new ways while others remained hunter/foragers. Settled agri-cul¬ture appeared in several different parts of the world. The switch to agriculture created a more reliable, but not necessarily more diversified, food supply. Agriculturalists also had a massive impact on the environment, through intensive cultivation of selected plants to the exclusion of others, through the construction of irrigation systems and through the use of domesticated animals for food and for labor. Populations increased; family groups gave way to village and later urban life with all its complexity. Patriarchy and forced labor systems developed giving elite men concentrated power over most of the other people in their societies. | 6 | |
| 1272963697 | How did pastoral societies resemble or differ from early agricultural societies? Where did pastoralism persist even after the Neolithic Revolution? | Pastoralism emerged in parts of Africa and Eurasia. Pastoral peoples domesticated animals and led their herds around grazing ranges. Like agriculturalists, pastoralists tended to be more socially stratified than were hunter-foragers. Because pastoralists were mobile, they rarely accumulated large amounts of material possessions, which would have been a hindrance when changing grazing areas. Pastoralists' mobility allowed them to become an important conduit for technological change as they interacted with settled populations. | 7 | |
| 1272963698 | How did the Neolithic Revolution affect human societies economically & socially? | Beginning about 10,000 years ago, the Neolithic Revolution led to the development of new and more complex economic and social systems. | 8 | |
| 1272963699 | Why did the Neolithic Revolution start (at all)? Where did the Neolithic Revolution first transform human populations? (Plural answer) | Possibly as a response to climatic change, permanent agricultural villages emerged first in the lands of the eastern Mediterranean. Agriculture emerged at different times in Mesopotamia, the Nile River valley and sub-Saharan Africa, the Indus River valley, the Yellow River or Huang He valley, Papua-New Guinea, Mesoamerica and the Andes. | 9 | |
| 1272963700 | Where did pastoralism persist even after the Neolithic Revolution? | Pastoralism developed at various sites in the grasslands of Afro-Eurasia. | 10 | |
| 1272963701 | What various crops & animals were developed or domesticated during the Neolithic Revolution? | Different crops or animals were domesticated in the various core regions, depending on available local flora and fauna. | 11 | |
| 1272963702 | What labor adjustments did hu¬mans make in order to facilitate the Neolithic Revolution? | Agricultural communities had to work cooperatively to clear land and to create the water control systems needed for crop production. | 12 | |
| 1272963703 | What were the environ¬ment¬al effects of the Neolithic Revolution? | These agricultural practices drastically impacted environmental diversity. Pastoralists also affected the environment by grazing large numbers of animals on fragile grasslands, leading to erosion when over-grazed. | 13 | |
| 1272963704 | What effects did pastoralism & agriculture have on the food supply? | Agriculture and pastoralism began to transform human societies. Pastoralism and agriculture led to more reliable and abundant food supplies which increased population. | 14 | |
| 1272963705 | What were the social effects of the increased food supply caused by increase of agri¬culture? | Surpluses of food and other goods led to specialization of labor, including new classes of artisans and warriors, and the development of elites. | 15 | |
| 1272963706 | What technological innovations are associated with the growth of agriculture? | Technological innovations led to improvements in agricultural production, trade, and transpor-tation, including pottery, plows, woven textiles, metallurgy, wheels and wheeled vehicles. | 16 | |
| 1272963707 | What is a 'civilization,' and what are the defining characteristics of a civilization? | From about 5,000 years ago, urban societies developed, laying the found¬ations for the first civilizations. The term civilization is normally used to designate large societies with cities and powerful states. While there were many differences between civilizations, they also shared im¬por¬tant fea¬tures. They all pro¬duced agricultural surpluses that permitted signif¬icant specialization of labor. All civilizations contained cities and generated complex institutions, such as political bureaucracies, including armies and religious hierarchies. They also featured clearly stratified social hier¬archies and organized long-distance trading relationships. Economic exchanges intensified within and between civilizations, as well as with nomadic pastoralists. | 17 | |
| 1272963708 | How did civilizations develop and grow more complex before 600 BCE? What were the effects of this increasing complexity? | As populations grew, competition for surplus resources, especially food, led to greater social stratifi-cation, specialization of labor, increased trade, more complex systems of government and religion, and the development of record keeping. As civilizations expanded, they had to balance their need for more resources with environmental constraints such as the danger of under¬mining soil fertility. Finally, the accumulation of wealth in settled communities spurred warfare between communities and/or with pastoral¬ists; this violence drove the development of new technologies of war and urban defense. | 18 | |
| 1272963709 | Where did the earliest civilizations develop, and why did they develop in those locations? | Core and foundational civilizations developed in a variety of geographical and environmental settings where agriculture flourished. NOTE: Students should be able to identify the location of all of the following: • Mesopotamia in the Tigris and Euphrates River valleys • Egypt in the Nile River valley • Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa in the Indus River valley • The Shang in the Yellow River or Huang He valley • The Olmecs in Mesoamerica • Chavín in Andean South America. | 19 | |
| 1272963710 | What is a "state?" Who ruled the early states, and which segments of society usually supported the ruler? | The first states emerged within core civilizations. States were powerful new systems of rule that mobilized surplus labor and resources over large areas. Early states were often led by a ruler whose source of power was believed to be divine or had divine support, and who was supported by the religious hierarchy and professional warriors. | 20 | |
| 1272963711 | Why were some early states able to expand and conquering neighboring states? | As states grew and competed for land and resources, the more favorably situated had greater access to resources—including the Hittites' access to iron, produced more surplus food and experienced growing populations. These states were able to undertake territorial expansion and conquer surrounding states. | 21 | |
| 1272963712 | Give four examples of early empires in the Nile & Tigris/Euphrates River Valleys. | Early regions of state expansion or empire building were Mesopotamia and Babylonia—Sumerians, Akkadians and Babylonians—and Egypt and Nubia along the Nile Valley. | 22 | |
| 1272963713 | What role did pastoral civilizations play vis a vis empires? | Pastoralists were often the developers and disseminators of new weapons and modes of transportation that transformed warfare in agrarian civilizations. • compound bows • chariots • iron weapons • horseback riding | 23 | |
| 1272963714 | What methods did rulers use to unify their populations? | Culture played a significant in role in unifying states through law, language, literature, religion, myths and monumental art. | 24 | |
| 1272963715 | What architectural forms did early civilizations produce? | Early civilizations developed monumental architecture and urban planning. • ziggurats • temples • streets and roads • pyramids • defensive walls • sewage and water systems | 25 | |
| 1272963716 | Which social strata encour¬aged the development of art in ancient civilizations? | Elites, both political and religious, promoted arts and artisanship. • sculpture • painting • wall decorations • elaborate weaving | 26 | |
| 1272963717 | What forms of writing developed in ancient civilizations? | Systems of record keeping arose independently in all early civilizations. • cuneiform • hieroglyphs • pictographs • alphabets • quipu | 27 | |
| 1272963718 | What was the relationship between literature and culture? | Literature was also a reflection of culture. • the Epic of Gilgamesh • Rig Veda • Book of the Dead | 28 | |
| 1272963719 | What pre-600 BCE religions strongly influenced later eras? | New religious beliefs developed in this period continued to have strong influences in later periods, including the Vedic religion, Hebrew monotheism and Zoroastrianism. | 29 | |
| 1272963720 | How "big" were the pre-600 BCE trading regions? | Trade expanded throughout this period, with civilizations exchanging goods, cultural ideas and technology. Trade expanded from local to regional and transregional, including between Egypt and Nubia, Mesopotamia and the Indus valley. | 30 | |
| 1272963721 | How did social and gender identities develop pre-600 BCE | Social and gender hierarchies intensified as states expanded and cities multiplied. | 31 |
