Issue 29:APWH:Early Humans & Development of Agriculture
Human Migration out of Africa
-Longest period of Human History: All humans lived in small bands as hunter-gathers.
-Small groups of Homo Sapiens spread out of East Africa through the Middle East to Asia and Europe about 100,000 years ago
-Groups passed through New Guinea and Australia: Sea levels were lower because of Ice Age glaciers.
-Groups enter America through Ice Age lang connection with Siberia.
-15,000 years ago, human lived in almost all of the habitable regions of the world.
Tools of Paleolithic Humans
-Spears, arrows, bladed tools ie. Axes and knives
-Harpoon and needles
-Fire
1. Protect people from dangerous animals at night
2.Helped keep people warm esp. with animal fur and hides
3. Cooking
-Spoken language developed as another important innovation of Paleolithic humans.
-Coordination of a band of people for hunting big game… ie.mastodons
Paleolithic Society
-Early humans travel in nomadic groups-few dozen hunter-gatherers.
-Formed around kinship and fairly self-sufficient.
-Believed that small bands of people exchanged ideas, valuable possessions and mates with each other
The Neolithic Revolution: An Experiment with Seeds leads to farming
-8000BCE: Neolithic Revolution
-Discovery of Agriculture most likely made by women who were experimenting with seeds they gathered.
-First farmers:Slash-and-Burn agriculture
Definition of Slash-and-Burn: Slash the bark and Burn the trees to the ground.
Problem of Slash-and-Burn: Although land initially very fertile, it lost much of that fertility after a few years and caused them to migrate to new areas, helping to facilitate the spread of agriculture to new areas.
-Breeding of Animals: Domestication
-Different crops were domesticated in different regions of the world
-Grains like wheat and barley first grown in fertile crescent of SW Asia.
-Rice and Soybeans: First grown in East Asia along Yangzi and Huang He River.
-Yam and Sorghum: Sub-Saharan Africa
-SE Asia: Taro and Bananas
-Maize, beans and potatoes grown in Americas
More Stability=More People
-Farming a lot more work: More Stable
-Avg. Hunter and Gatherer work only 4 hours a day to find food
-With Stability came Population increase.
-Hunter and gatherers had small families
-Moving had stop: family could be larger.
Think about it: When they moved around, mothers are like holding their infant children as they moved. Can’t have too many children. Also their lifespans are shorter.
Life in Neolithic Village
-Not everyone had to be a farmer
-Job Specializations
-Metalsmith, Miller, Brewer, Trader, Priest--Provide for famer and farmer provide for them.
-Beginning of Privately owning land-wealthier class emerged.
-Ownership of land=economic power
-Hand kept in families’ hand and passed down from generation to generation.
-Wealthiest desired luxury items which can be traded with other communities
-Neolithic people- Nature=Life or Death
-Learn changes of seasons based on position of sun, moon and stars.
-Religious Main Goal: PRESERVE FERTILITY: Both their and their land.
-Beliefs center on life cycle of birth, growth, death, regenerate life.
-Clay figurines of gods and goddesses
-Consequence of gender roles:
Men:
Working on fields
Herding Animals
Outside of home
Women:
Care for children
Weaving cloth
making cheese from milk
Inside of home
-Male became more dominant.
Early Inventions in Metal and Transportation
-Neolithic villages, three main craft induestries developed and became essential elements
-Pottery, Metallurgy, Textile
-Earliest metal: Copper-Jewelry and Simple tools
-Heated to become more workable and made into knives, axes, hoes and weapons
-Foundation for later development of tools and weapons made from bronze and iron
-3000BCE: Mesopotamian metalworkers discover mixure, or alloy of copper and tin
-Much harder than Copper alone.
-BRONZE: Made into weapons such as swords, spears, axes, shields, armor and tools such as bronze-topped plows that significantly changed warfare and agriculture.
-Copper farily common ore. Tin more significantly rare.
-Long Distance Trade needed for Tin
-1000BCE Iron discovered
-Metal workers if Carbon added, it became stronger.
-Iron more common than Tin, more affordable to lower classes: Resultant changes in warfare and in some places like Greece, politics.
-Exact origin of Wheel is unknown
-Sumerians used wheeled carts for several centuries before they were more formally organized around 3200BCE.
-Wheel allowed for transport of heavier loads and much longer-distance travel and trades.
Alternative Way of Life: Not Everyone is Farmer
Pastoral Nomadism: Depend on herd for survival and traveled to find grassland or steppe land require for herd to graze.
-NOT FARMING: Developed fighting skills using both offensive and defensive military tactics to defend their herds
