1. 1.1
The Epic of Prehistory

2. History As Progress? What do you think?
Why Man Creates by Saul Bass (1968)

3. Human Life in the Era of Hunters and Gatherers
Human Life in the Era of Hunters and Gatherers- 99.5% of human existance
The Neolithic Revolution
Civilization
The Heritage of the River Valley Civilizations

4. Human Life in the Era of Hunters and Gatherers

5. Becoming Human
According to Scientists, human characteristics can be traced back to early hominids nearly 2.5 million years ago
Process of evolution continues at sub-glacial speed- hard to fathom
Controversy abounds, even among scientists… inconsistencies even within your text!
We will be concerned about this in the most general sense…

6. Challenges and Advantages to Evolving Species
Some human characteristics that would play a key role in development of a species
Drawbacks
Long gestation and long child dependencies
Back problems due to upright posture
Violent to own kind- territorial
Advantages
Opposable thumbs- manipulative
Larger brain capacity
Omniverous
Communication
Cognition-

7. Human Life in the Era of Hunters and Gatherers
Homo sapien sapiens by 100,000 years ago
Larger brain
Perhaps bread with homo sapien neanderthalis
Tools, weapons
Development of art and religion in the late Paleolithic
Lascaux, France Cave Art
Why art?

8. Lascaux Cave

9. Getting Ahead Through Evolution

10. Human Life in the Era of Hunters and Gatherers
Paleolithic Culture
Developments by 12,000 B.C.E.
Hunting-gathering
Art
Spread to Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas
Ice ages force humans to migrate
Lower sea levels and ice bridges promoted human migration
Over-hunting may have contributed to mass extinction of some mega fauna e.g. wooly mammoth)

11. The Spread of Human Populations, c. 10,000 B.C.E.

12. Human Life in the Era of Hunters and Gatherers
Human Society and Daily Life at the End of the Paleolithic Age
Variety
Bands of hunter-gatherers
Agricultural settlements
Gender division of labor
Men: hunting, fishing, defense
Women: gathering, making medicine

13. Human Life in the Era of Hunters and Gatherers
Settling Down: Dead Ends and Transitions
Central Russia
c. 18,000 to 10,000 B.C.E.
Hunting mammoths, gathering wild plants
Trading
Social stratification
Eventually disappeared

14. Human Life in the Era of Hunters and Gatherers
Natufian Complex
Jordan River Valley, 10,500 to 8000 B.C.E.
Barley, wheat
Hunting-gathering
More densely populated
Building
Society: stratified, matrilineal, and matrilocal
Abandoned after 9000 B.C.E.

15. The Neolithic Revolution – 8000 to 3500 B.C.E.
Sedentary agriculture
Plants and Animals domesticated
Development of towns
Causes?
Climatic shifts- necessity?
Accidental discovery of gatherers?
A regional development established independently in a few locations and diffused globally
Agricultural economies would grow to dominate much of the earth through the18th century

16. The Neolithic Revolution – 8000 to 3500 B.C.E.
The Domestication of Plants and Animals
Plants
Slow development
Animals from 12,000 B.C.E.:
dogs, sheep, goats, pigs
Some regions gave up agriculture and returned to hunting and gathering

17. The Spread of Agriculture

18. The Neolithic Revolution – 8000 to 3500 B.C.E.
The Spread of the Neolithic Revolution
Hunting-and-gathering persists
Pastoralism
Sub-Saharan Africa
Root and tree crops
Growing trade would expand variety of plants domesticated
Animal domestication also brought animal born epidemics to agricultural societes
Influenza: Pigs and chickens
Small Pox- Cows
More densely populated agricultural societies would often convert or replace pastoral or hunting and gathering peoples

19. The Neolithic Revolution – 8000 to 3500 B.C.E.
The Spread of the Neolithic Revolution
Northern China
Millet
Rice
Southeast Asia, to China, India, islands
Mesoamerica, Peru
Maize, manioc, sweet potatoes

20. The Neolithic Revolution – 8000 to 3500 B.C.E.
The Transformation of Material Life
Population
Preneolithic: 5-8 million
By 4000 B.C.E., 60 or 70 million
Agriculture and later industry would impact growth

21. The Neolithic Revolution – 8000 to 3500 B.C.E.
Social Differentiation
Specialized occupations
Regional exchange of goods
Communal ownership
Women lose political and economic roles
Growing economic inequality and concentration of wealth

22. Growing affluence and the Neolithic Revolution
Conventional wisdom- People naturally turned to agriculture as it promoted a better and easier life than hunting and gathering.
What are some problems with this point of view?- Reading and small group discussion