Bonobos
Closely related to the Chimpanzee, have a Matriarchal social construct. High status females first, low status females, then babies, then males. They have constant sex. Not as violent or territorial as chimps. kinship based on their mothers.
Cultural Evolution vs. Genetic Evolution
The difference between the physical evolution of humans from ape to australopithecus to homo Erectus to Neanderthals to humans today Vs. the developing new technologies and customs to take on the challenges a population is faced with.
Radiocarbon Dating
a chemical analysis used to determine the age of organic materials based on their content of the radioisotope carbon-14
The "Genetic Clock
Calculates the random mutation rate on the Y chromosome and can calculate how many decades back a person has a relative (for males) for females works for mitochondrial DNA.
Homo Neandertalensis
350,000-28,000ya. Larger brain than Modern Man, short and powerful limbs, no language, buried dead, hunted large animals, used Sophisticated tools, believed spirituality and after life for they buried their dead and showed signs of healed bones. They show
Diversity at Origins Principle
The Idea that at the root of a cultural development, people, or technology will have more diversity. Example Dialects of languages are more diverse where they originated.
Co-evolution
Joint evolution of two or more non-interbreeding species with close ecological relationships, and where the evolution of one species is partly dependent on the evolution of the other.
The Cave Paintings of Lascaux
Pantings that represent large animals and hunting them These paintings are estimated to be 17,300 years old. This shows that pre humans had some form of "culture" they appreciated art.
The Killing Fields
The idea that human populations, when they entered a new area, would kill off all of the big game population. Since humans originated from Africa, the most big game is found there now (diversity at origins).
Paleolithic (50,000-10,000 B.C.E.)
Old stone age. Rudimentary stone tools.
a prehistoric period of human history distinguished by the development of the most primitive stone tools discovered. A hunter gatherer society. humans began to produce the earliest works of art and engage in religio
Neolithic Revolution (c.10-8,000 B.C.E.)
Connected to a profound change in the environment 10,000 years ago. New stone age. Better stone tools were used at this time. Happened at the same time as the Holocene. Also hunter gatherers were killing it at this point.
The Holocene
The name scientist gave for the time period after the ice age, or around 9,000 B.C.E. It was given a special name because of the intense warmth that it brought.
Sedentarization
The settling of people through agriculture and domesticated animals. From hunter gatherer to civilization"Natufian Culture" When sedentarization occurs, culture arises.
Jericho (circa 10,000 B.C.E)
first permanent human settlement, high concentration of people. Had a huge wall around it with a town of several hundred people inside.
Domestication
The process of changing plants or animals to make them more useful to humansOccurred when people began to settle and sedenterized and caused their environment to adapt to the presence of humans, animal like dogs and lives stock or also through practices l
Dogs (circa 13,000 B.C.E.)
Came from the area near the boarder between China and Mongolia. Through scavenging food from humans, these animals co-evolved from wolves to become domesticated and live with human populations.
Sheep (8-10,000 B.C.E.)
Because humans had dogs, they had the means to herd and domesticate these animals. They were used for their fur and as food.
Gracilization
Developed thinner skeletons, this is due to domestication. We were domesticated and have developed thinner skeletons, along with our domesticated animals.
The East-West Axis of Migration
Easier to trade technology, religion, and culture along this axis, for the climate does not change drastically.The movement of civilizations along the same latitude for then there would be less of a climate change making the journey much easier rather tha
Pottery
Allows Agriculture to work, keeps grain dry and allowed for storing extra. keeps pests out of goods. Important technological advancement, and we have artifacts of this still today because they were made of kiln fired clay.
Phonetic Writing
A system of writing that is centered off an alpha bet that represents the sounds that make up the language
Alphabet
A system of characters that represent the ideas or sounds of a language; a form of translating language to writing.
Phoenicians were famous for producing one of the first of these.
One Hundred Schools of Thought
Philosophical revolution in china, happens during a breakdown in the unity of the Chinese as the land needed more bureaucrats, language and philosophy spread.
Bronze
Made of a mix of copper and tin. Extremely valuable for weapon making and kept a hard edge better than stone. Lead to trade and communication between peoples, but also resulted in deforestation and produced massive amounts of slag.
Sargon of Akkad (2350 BCE)
King/Ruler who establishes dominance over his neighbors, forms a protection bracket - attacks towns then requests taxes from those towns to protect them. Controls trade routes, collects taxes but not in a regulated way.
Cyprus
An island in the eastern Mediterranean
Had the greatest wealth of copper mines, 200,000 tons of copper over the life of the ancient mines. As a result of copper production, massive deforestation resulted.
Rio Tinto
River in spain (red river), in roman period this was a mine and now it is a big desolate waste . It made led contamination go up by 4 times.
Shows environmental effects of trade and technology.
Mycenean Greeks
Bronze Age peoples who settled on the Greek mainland around 2000 B.C.
mountainous environment; independent kingdoms; engaged in trade; linear script b, form of writing; collapse civilization around 1200 bce; mass migrations and
Forests
These were cut down to produce boats and for fuel to produce bronze. Environmental impact.
World Systems
independent system of countries linked by political and economic competition. highly structured. has 3 tiers: core regions, semiperipheral regions, and peripheral regions
Innovation at the Periphery
Advances coming from the margins of empires (Sargon of akkad is an example). The Indo-europeans show this. Few resources away from central, but innovations at the margin produced spoked wheeled chariots.
This allowed rulers to pop up anywhere.
East-West Axis of Migration
The climate is relatively constant on this, and in turn technology is often traded between cultures on this, and people migrate on this.
Historical Linguistics
It is the study of language change. It is used...
-to describe changes in particular languages
-to reconstruct the pre-history of languages and determine their relatedness, grouping them into language families
-to develop general theories about how and wh
Sintashta (c.2,000 B.C.E.)
We find graves with charriots a and slag here: people were making charriots and bronze here. They were the missing link that can move so quickly and conquer whoever they face.
The Indo-European Technological Complex: Horses, Bronze, chariots, compressed bow
The technological package that allowed Indo-Europeans to trade, move quickly across the land, and to be a force int the Indo-European world.
The Bantu Technological Complex: Cattle, Yams, Iron
The technological package that allowed Bantu Africans to move and live a sedentary lifestyle.
The Austronesian Technological Complex: Outrigger canoes, taro, chickens, pigs
The technological package that allowed Austronesians to live, move, and civilize.
Easter Island
Big empty island with huge sculptures. Rongo rongo writing found here. No population now. The people who lived here wanted huge stone monuments but needed trees to make them: they cut down all of their trees and had to leave.
Phoenicians (1400 to 100 BCE)
Originally from down in the Arabian Peninsula, they migrated north. Belonging to the Semitic language family. Bordered by mountains and sea. Used forests as a trade good.
Murex Snail
A snail that when crushed would produce a purple dye. This became a very valuable trade good, Phonecians eventually killed off most of these snails along their coast. Shows environmental damage from trade. Extinct in the Mediterranean.
Cosmopolitanism
Citizen of the world. Don't belong to a certain city. This idea came about when travel and trade started interconnecting the different cultures of the day.
The 'Axial Age'
An age in which we start to see the evolution of classical civilization along the east west line of migration.
tension between sedentary and nomadic society.
Ethical and reflective though arises.
Croesus of Lydia (595-546 B.C.E.)
Stamped out Regulated gold pieces that had significant market value; he monopolized minting coins and his coins were legitimate.
From this he became very rich.
Achaemenid Empire (558-330 B.C.E.)
The Persian empire that stretches over all of the akkadian empire and much more. Captured by Cyrus the great, Cambyses, and Darius.
Persian Royal Road
Major road of the Persian empire; it stretched from Lydia to Susa and allowed for the king to travel and communicate quickly with his empire.
Zarathustra (6th Century B.C.E.?)
New religion that becomes the preferred religion of the Persian empire. Based on the worship of fire and started by Zarathustra.
Qanat
Underground canal used in water systems of ancient Persians.
Barbaroi
People who didn't speak Greek, believed to be inferior to Greeks by Greeks, "barbarian" developed from this word. Persians.
Panhellenism
Idea that Greeks everywhere belonged to a single cultural group (despite city-state) sharing the same heritage, language, customs and religion.
Way of thought among the Greek that all city-states would unite in defense of a common enemy (ex. Persian Empir
Pederasty
Old man having a relationship with a young man to introduce him into the hoplite armies, sexual acts strengthen their bond and in turn the bond in the hoplite force.
Helots
Spartan slaves. A system of forced servitude in which Spartans forced those around them to produce food. Within Sparta they conquer territory and force those who they conquer to produce food. - This lead to a strong emphasis on their military.
The King's Peace (386 B.C.E.)
Sparta goes to the Persian King and asks for peace. This peace is for both sides to recover from the war.
Sarissa
long spears which could be used from farther away but took two hands to hold, used by Phillip II, Longer spears, used by the Macedonians.
Mercenaries
Hired warriors. Philip II Hired these warriors through money he made through trade. This caused him to have a massive army.
War Elephants
The "Tanks" of Hellenistic armies, Imported from India. Became a sign of the powerful empires. Huge advance in Military Technology.
Augustus
Takes over Rome and makes a "dictatorship" out of it, he provides coherency to rome, and in turn brings peace
Pax Romana
Roman Peace, political unity brought on by Agustus. No civil wars riots, ect... This is due to the economic integration of the empire.
Transportation Costs
Water transportation is a lot less expensive than land transportation. winds and slaves propel boats.
Land travel is expensive.
Hadrian's Wall
A wall built during the period of Hadrian, this signifies where the ability of rome to regulate its trade stops: about taxing trade.
Well-Field System
System developed by the Zhou dynasty to allow pesants to own land but they first had to work on the land of the land lord
peasant families farmed outer plots for themselves and inner plots for their landlords
Canals
Faster and cheaper way to move troops and transport goods than roads.
Qin Shihuangdi
Ruler of China who united China for the first time. He built road and canals and began the Great Wall of China. He also imposed a standard system of laws, money, weights, and writing.
(r.221-210 BCE) The first emperor of the Qin Dynasty who believed stron
Xiongnu
Nomadic people with fast horses who fought Han's because they were expanding onto their territory. They were a mobile nomadic people
Confucianism
The system of ethics, education, and statesmanship taught by Confucius and his disciples, stressing love for humanity, ancestor worship, reverence for parents, and harmony in thought and conduct.
Buddhism
the teaching of Buddha that life is permeated with suffering caused by desire, that suffering ceases when desire ceases, and that enlightenment obtained through right conduct and wisdom and meditation releases one from desire and suffering and rebirth
Gautama Buddha (563-483 BCE)
Lived in india. Brought up in the Warrior Elite class, he saw no suffering or pain; when he did it was quite a shock and shook him to his core. He could not live the way he once did and turned to Astetysism, and after this found the Middle Way. He had a m
The Middle Way
Between the Lavish lifestyle Gautama Buddha was brought up in and the extreme Astetysism he turned to.
Bodhgaya
The Bodi tree at Bodhgaya was the tree the Buddha sat under in his moment of clairvoyance; the tree is now 1400 years old and a cutting of the original tree.
Sarnath
Stupa, Its a buddhist temple, which is essentially a mound that buddhists walk around on.
The Mauryan Empire (321-185 BCE)
First had a skirmish with Alexander the great, and later conquered all of India. Massive empire of about 60 million people.
Ashoka the Great (273-232 BCE)
Brutal and treacherous Leader of the Manryan Empire, A ruler who after the battle of Kalinga (in which about 100,000 people were killed) had a moment of clarity, and "denounced" violence. Adopted Buddhism as the official Religion of the empire.