Culture Hearths & World Religions Steven A. Stofferahn Department of History Geography and History of the World Seminar Indiana State University July 2007

Culture Hearths GHW 1.1 DEFINITION Culture Hearth: - heartland - source area - innovation center - place of origin of a major culture * “civilization incubator”

Culture Hearths GHW 1.1STANDARD Use maps, timelines, and/or other graphic representations to identify the location, distribution, and main events in the development of culture hearths in various regions of the world.

Culture Hearths GHW 1.1EXAMPLE Primary Culture Hearths of the World

Culture Hearths GHW 1.1EXAMPLE Primary Culture Hearths of the World: Fertile Crescent (8000 BCE) India (7000 BCE) Huang Ho (5000 BCE) West Africa (2000 BCE) Mesoamerica & S. America ( BCE)

Culture Hearths GHW 1.1EXAMPLE Fertile Crescent: - Neolithic Revolution ca BCE - several early settlements: Jericho et al. - organized societies appear concurrently: Mesopotamia: Sumer (3200) Unification of Egypt (3100)

Culture Hearths GHW 1.1EXAMPLE India: - early agricultural sites date from 7000 BCE - Harappan society arises ca dependent upon rich floodplains of Indus - develop cotton textiles & dyes by impt. trade contacts w/ Fertile Crescent - Aryan migration into India ca. 1500

Culture Hearths GHW 1.1EXAMPLE Huang Ho (Yellow River): - Neolithic Revolution ca BCE - rich soils but floods = need for dikes, dredging - small societies flourish, BCE - emergence of centralizing hereditary monarchies: Xia (ca ) & Shang (ca ) - major influence of Indo-Europeans: bronze, chariots - Zhou dynasty ( ): classical Chinese civilization

Culture Hearths GHW 1.1EXAMPLE West Africa: - early Sudanic agricultural influence - incremental Bantu migrations, BCE - spread across central and southern Africa - enabled by agricultural surpluses & iron - diffusion: - W. African yams & grains - 90 million Bantu-speakers today

Culture Hearths GHW 1.1EXAMPLE Mesoamerica & South America: - migrations to W. hemisphere ca. 13,000 BCE(?) - early agriculture in Mesoamerica by maize cultivation begins ca no large domestic animals (hence no wheel) - only small villages; no large cities until later - Olmec rulers (fl ) compel building of large ritual centers, drainage projects, & artistic objects (heads) - Olmec destroy own civilization; Maya inherit later

Culture Hearths GHW 1.2STANDARD Ask and answer geographic and historical questions about the locations and growth of culture hearths. Assess why some of these culture hearths have endured to this day, while others have declined or disappeared.

Culture Hearths GHW 1.2EXAMPLE Keys to Success: - geographical integrity - ecological sustainability - agricultural surpluses - internal order

Culture Hearths GHW 1.2EXAMPLE Egypt: Gift of the Nile ( BCE) - regular flood cycle - natural frontiers - Nile-as-highway - breadbasket - awe and wonder  pharaohs

Culture Hearths GHW 1.2EXAMPLE Egypt: 2 nd Pyramid of Giza ( Khafra, )

Culture Hearths GHW 1.2EXAMPLE Common Factors of Decline: - increased contacts with hostile neighbors - ecological degradation & exhaustion - over-attractive agricultural hearths (?) - internal disorder  all in evidence in Egypt by 1200 BCE

Culture Hearths GHW 1.3 STANDARD Analyze agricultural hearths and exchanges of crops among regions. Evaluate the impact of agriculture on the subsequent development of culture hearths in various regions of the world.

Culture Hearths GHW 1.3EXAMPLE Columbian Exchange: DEFINITION the radical s global diffusion of: - people - animals - ideas * plants & food crops * pathogens

Culture Hearths GHW 1.3EXAMPLE Columbian Exchange: DEMOGRAPHICS New World: disaster - smallpox, measles, influenza, et al. - 90% mortality - s.16-18: 100 million dead - adult losses = esp. devastating

Columbian Exchange: SMALLPOX

Culture Hearths GHW 1.3EXAMPLE Columbian Exchange: DEMOGRAPHICS Old World: boon - new crops = population explosion - s.16-18: growth of 475 million! - European pol & econ expansion  WORLD HEGEMONY

Culture Hearths GHW 1.4STANDARD Detect the factors that explain how the local and regional human and physical environments of selected culture hearths were modified over time in terms of such features as urban development and agricultural activities.

Culture Hearths GHW 1.4EXAMPLE The Reinvention of Ancient Athens

Culture Hearths GHW 1.4EXAMPLE Peisistratus ( BCE) - popular tyrant of Athens - land redistribution and 5% income tax - reshapes Athenian agriculture & economy: OLIVE OIL and CERAMICS - Athens becomes a major commercial hub - leads to Athens’ hegemony in the Greek world

Questions ~ Discussion

World Religions GHW 2.1STANDARD Map the spread over time of world religions from their points of origin and identify those that exhibit a high degree of local and/or international concentration.

World Religions GHW 2.1EXAMPLE Spread of World Religions (500BCE-600CE)

World Religions GHW 2.1 DEFINITION RESTRICTED: - localized identity - circumscribed recruitment base - serving particular local social need  Hinduism: varnas  Judaism: chosen people  Shinto: kami as distinctly Japanese

World Religions GHW 2.1 DEFINITION UNIVERSAL: - universal identity - open recruitment base - addressed to universal questions  Buddhism: human suffering  Christianity & Islam: salvation

World Religions GHW 2.1EXAMPLE Spread of Islam ( CE)

World Religions GHW 2.1EXAMPLE Spread of Islam (632CE-present) Historical Maps Online: - antiquarian but still useful - University of Pennsylvania collection

World Religions GHW 2.1EXAMPLE Spread of Islam (632CE-present) Online Lesson Plans with Activities: - Council on Islamic Education - based on Frontline documentary

World Religions GHW 2.1EXAMPLE Spread of World Religions: FILMS Buddhism: “Ashoka” Christianity: “From Jesus to Christ” Islam: “The Message”

World Religions GHW 2.2STANDARD Differentiate among selected countries in terms of how their identities, cultural and physical environments and forms of government are affected by world religions.

World Religions GHW 2.2EXAMPLE Spain: Crucible of Competing Cultures (c.200 BCE – 1492 CE) Romans (paganism) Visigoths (Arianism)  Mozarabs Umayyads (Sunni Islam) Almoravids (puritanical Islam) Jews (influential minority) Northern Christians (militant Catholicism) The Reconquista and the Legacy of 1492

World Religions GHW 2.2EXAMPLE Spain: Crucible of Competing Cultures (c.200 BCE – 1492 CE) MUSICAL COMPARISON: Mozarabic chant (“Vox clamantis”) vis-à-vis Qur’anic recitation

World Religions GHW 2.3STANDARD Compare and contrast different religions in terms of perspectives on the environment and attitudes toward resource use, both today and in the past.

World Religions GHW 2.3EXAMPLE R. Foltz, Worldviews, Religion, and Environment (2003) - stereotype: West/Christianity to blame for ecological crisis E / indigenous societies more in tune with nature - reality as somewhat more complex:  Japan & Shinto: reverence or CONTROL? bonsai tree as symbol  current ecological disasters in Asia?

World Religions GHW 2.4STANDARD Analyze and assess the rise of fundamentalist movements in all the world’s major religions during contemporary times (1980-present), and describe the relationships between religious fundamentalism and the secularism and modernism associated with the Western tradition.

World Religions GHW 2.4EXAMPLE Bernard Lewis, The Crisis of Islam (2003) Islamism: - response to perceived humiliations 1683, 1798, 1917, 1948, 1967, 1991, 2003(?) - incomprehensible to the West - primarily internally focused

World Religions GHW 2.4EXAMPLE Karen Armstrong, The Battle for God (2001) Fundamentalism: - a 20 th -century phenomenon - strong current in all major religions - painful response to modernity - ironically dependent on modernity Armstrong’s own plea for rapprochement

Questions ~ Discussion

Resources

Culture Hearths & World Religions Steven A. Stofferahn Department of History Geography and History of the World Seminar Indiana State University July 2007