Deck 1: B: First Peoples; First Farmers Most of History in a Single Chapter to 4000 B.C.E

Question 1

How did different environmental conditions influence the emergence of agriculture in different parts of the world?

Answer 1

•Fertile Crescent (southwest Asia: Iraq,Syria,Israel/Palestine,Jordan,southern Turkey)
oA cold and dry spell (11,000 to 9500 B.C.E. )diminished the food supply.
oThe solution was to domesticate plants and animals.
oA wide variety of wild plants and animals were concentrated in a small area,creating favorable conditions for the shift to agriculture.
oThe east/west orientation facilitated the rapid spread of agricultural practices across similar environments.
•Northeastern Africa (Sudan)
oGrassland vegetation and rainfall created good conditions for farming.
oHowever,conditions were less favorable than those found in the Fertile Crescent,resulting in scattered farming practices spread over sub-Saharan Africa.
oAnother result was less productive agriculture.
oThe east/west orientation facilitated the rapid spread of agricultural practices across similar environments.
•Americas
oAgriculture developed in separate locations throughout the Americas.
oThere were very few animals that could be domesticated.
oNo domesticated animals meant no ready supply of meat,manure,power to pull carts,and the like.
oThe north/south orientation of the Americas meant that agricultural practices spread slowly because they had to adapt to different climatic and vegetation zones.
oThe relative isolation of agricultural regions also meant that crops spread less successfully.

Question 2

What does the surviving evidence reveal about the religious beliefs and practices of Paleolithic humans?

Answer 2

•our understanding of Paleolithic religious beliefs is somewhat limited because bones and stones tell us little about what Paleolithic peoples thought and because the art they left behind is subject to many interpretations.
•Paleolithic peoples possessed a rich ceremonial life,as can be seen in their cave paintings and burials.
•No full-time religious specialists existed,but part-time shamans with special skills in dealing with the spirit world emerged as the need arose.
•Some Paleolithic societies were monotheistic;others worshipped several levels of supernatural beings.
•others believed in an impersonal force suffused throughout the natural order that could be accessed by shamans during a trance dance.
•The prevalence of Venus figurines and other symbols all across Europe has convinced some scholars,but not all,that Paleolithic religious thought had a strongly feminine dimension.
•It seems likely that many Paleolithic peoples had a cyclical view of time that drew on the changing phases of the moon and the cycles of female fertility.

Question 3

What was the relationship between pastoral societies and agricultural village societies?

Answer 3

•Conflict
oPastoralists were attracted to the wealth and sophistication of agricultural societies.
oPastoralists wanted access to the richer grazing land controlled by agricultural societies.
oPastoralists wanted the food crops and manufactured goods produced by agricultural societies.
•Peaceful exchange of technologies,ideas,products,and people

Question 4

How did the Agricultural Revolution affect the environment?

Question 5

What kinds of uniquely human activities show up early in the African archeological record,supporting the theory that humans originated on that continent?

Question 6

In what ways were chiefdoms different from agricultural village societies?

Question 7

What was the chronological sequence of human settlement of the planet?

Question 8

Why did some areas of the world not experience the Agricultural Revolution?