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Chapter 1: F ir st Peoples; F ir st Farmers 

  Hadza: one of the very last peoples on earth to continue hunting & gathering

  northern Tanzania

  grass huts, small mobile camps

  Agricultural/Neolithic Revolution: around 12,000 years ago

  urban-based civilizations: 5,500 years ago

  200,000 to 250,000 years ago:  Homo sapiens first emerged in eastern/southern Africa

  inhabit new environments: forests, deserts (v. grasslands)

  technological innovation: stone blades, bone tools, grindstones)

  hunting & fishing (v. scavenging of dead animals)

  settlements: planned around seasonal movement of game

  larger networks of human communication

   body ornaments, symbolic behavior   100,000 to 60,000 years ago: migrate out of Africa

  into Eurasia, Australia, Americas, then Pacific islands

  during the last Ice Age (created land bridge)

  100,000 years ago: to middle East

  45,000 years ago: Europe/Asia

  colder Ice Age climates (20,000 years ago): pushed northern European people southward

  reinder & horse hunting

  spear throwers, bow & arrows, stone tools

  cave paintings

  Venus figurines: female figurines w/ exaggerated breasts, buttocks, hips, and stomachs

  all across Eurasia

  60,000 years ago: from Indonesia to Australia

  use of boats

  technological simplicity, traditionalism

  Dreamtime: complex outlook on the world

  extended ceremonies, evocative rock art

  everything in natural order was a vibration of ancient happenings  exchanged stones

  30,000 to 15,000 years ago: from eastern Siberia to the Americas

  distinctive projectile point: Clovis point, widely distributed

  Clovis culture: around 13,000 years ago, hunted large mammals

  abruptly disappeared, creation of greater diversity of cultures

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  3,500 years ago: from Bismarck/Solomon Islands near New Guinea & Philippines

  waterborne: canoes & navigation

  speaking Austronesian languages: trace back to southern China

  to Hawaii, Easter Island, Madagascar, New Zealand

  undertaken by agricultural people

  creation of chiefdoms (e.g. Hawaii)

  quick extinction of animals (e.g. flightless bird mao of New Zealand)

  commonalities b/n Paleolithic societies:

  small bands: 25-50 people due to technology

  seasonally mobile/nomadic

  little surplus, no accumulation of goods

  highly egalitarian societies; no specialists, chiefs

  gender based division of labor: male as hunters, female as gatherers

  gender equality: e.g. the San of southern Africa  values: sharing, distributing meat

  leaders arose to organize a task, but not permanent

  worked few hours, wanted little

  setting fires in Australia: fire-resistant eucalyptus trees

  extinction of large animals

  disappearance of other hominids (e.g. Neanderthals)

  rock art deep inside caves: ceremonial space

  no full-time religious specialists/priests, part-time shamans

  strongly feminine dimension (e.g. Venus figurines)

  cyclical view of time: based on cycle of female fertility

  after 25,000 years ago: miniaturization of stone tools (micro blades)

  16,000 years ago: gathering of wild grains (in addition to roots, berries nuts) from

northeaster Africa

  16,000-10,000 years ago: Ice Age came to end, richer/diverse environment

  human populations grew

  settling down in permanent villages  inequality

  Jomon of Japan:

  settled down in villages by sea

   pottery, canoe, bowls

   broader range of food sources

  Jomon figurines: female figurines, ritual function w/ fertility

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  San & Chumash: maintain hunting & gathering in modern era

  San, Ju/’hoansi: Kalahari Desert (near South Africa)

  stone tools

  rock art: reflected religious experience of trance healers

  Khoisan language family

  from agriculture: drums, iron arrowheads

  mobility, sharing, equality, modesty, cooperation

  “insulting the meat” 

  owner of arrow killing animal had right to distribute meat

  small mobile bands: 10-30 people, kinship

  unequal exchange of gifts to establish social relations

  creator god: Gao Nao

  gauwasi: ghosts of dead ancestors, malevolent

  n/um: spiritual potency in stomach, activated during “curing dances” 

  war with the Gods (blamed for disease, conflict, death)  Chumash: southern California

  larger permanent villages, more complex societies

  richer & more varied environments

  1st

millennium C.E.: growing populations, overhunting, food shortage, violence/wars

  1150 C.E.: creation of tomol (planked canoe), brought inequality

  Brotherhood of the Tomol: elite craft guild

  stimulated trade, market economy

  economic specialization, impulse toward private accumulation

   permanent/hereditary social elite