*History 8 Neolithic Revolution Concepts

Back to History 8

Work must be supported with citation of source. Manual may be noted with CF Manual and page number(s). Any information from class notes may be cited as Class notes (date of lecture). Name of Video. You may not use Wikipedia as a source. Please sign your entry.

1. Describe the physical and social changes brought about by the end of the Younger Dryas.

• • The social changes brought about by the Younger Dryas were:
• They lived in the same place all year.
• They had permanent dwellings.
• They cultivated crops of oats, wheat and barley.
• They owned domesticated animals such as sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs.
• Settlements of villages were created.
• Homo Sapiens were now producing their food, instead of hunting for it. They had domestication.
• There was specification differentiation and stratification within societies.
• The Neolithic people settled near rivers where the soil was rich for farming and animal domestication.
• pg. 52 and 53

Augie Avery

2. Describe the role of women in horticultural societies.

• The women planted and harvested the foods such as nuts, berries,and fruits.
• They also dug for roots and tubers.
• The women decided where the pack would go, or whether they would settle.
• they took care of the children and the animals, while the men were out hunting.
• they cultivated the fields.
• They harvested grains and cereal.

info gotten from our Manual and the video in class on 10/16/12, and what Ms. Beniretto (classnotes or video notes?) RB said in class on 10/16/12

-Emma Boehme

3. Where and why did the switch from hunting/gathering to plant cultivation and animal husbandry occur. What social change happened?

The switch from hunting/gathering to plant cultivation and animal husbandry occurred in a place where both the Paleolithic hunting and gathering and Neolithic gardening ways of life could exist together at the same time. (The Fertile Crescent RB) These places had lands of river masses with rich alluvial soils. The switch occurred because food became available in relative abundance for the first time in thousands of years, and there was no longer a need to travel long distances to find food. Another reason why the switch from hunting/ gathering to plant cultivation and animal husbandry occurred was because of the animals that began appearing in the lives of people. Goats, sheep, cattle, and pigs were all easy to manage within close proximity to their dwellings because the animals had temperaments and dispositions(which had been domesticated RB). The transition to horticulture resulted in the settlement of villages around garden plots, and hunting expeditions rarely happened from the settled home basis. One of the social changes that occurred was the control that the men took over of land and animals. The men had a dominant position in society over women which was very different to the previous lifestyle of these people. Women used to own and manage the garden plots, and they also had political power and authority in their society. Furthermore, the community was no longer working for a few hours a day, but they worked all day long in organized schedules. Another large social change that developed during the switch is the transformation of Homo sapiens from a mere consumer of natural goods to becoming a producer. The development of "agriculture drastically changed the role of humanity within its environment," along with changing man kind. It involved the rise of more complex human communities and settlements and a demographic increase. This significant switch made the "urban revolution" that was soon to follow very possible.

Sources: CF Manual 52 and 53 and Class Notes on 10/15/12. http://www.ranprieur.com/readings/origins.html

-Camila Chabayta

4. What was the role of irrigation in the urban revolution?

Irrigation is the process in which people supply dry land with water, usually in the form of a ditch. The people needed to use irrigation in order to figure out where to settle down because they needed a water source in the dry land that they lived in. Irrigation had an important role in the urban revolution. In order to make a village, an irrigation project must be conducted. A lot of laborers had to be assembled to make sure that everyone in the village would have enough access to the water. This created mental growth because of the increase in political and economic organization. Laws were now being made to help conduct the project. By using irrigation, the people produced more with certainty, and they also had a new way of organization and economics which would help in the future.

Sources: History 8 Manual pgs. 53-54 -By Ellie Davidson

5. Sedentary life had some challenges:

• • a. Disease

When many people, animals, and trash are grouped together in a small area, diseases spread from one to the next very easily. Hunter-gatherers could easily find a new site when their temporary shelters became contaminated, but sedentary farmers could not. They had permanent dwellings and crops that rooted them to the spot. Therefore, large numbers of the human population were infected with diseases like smallpox, influenza, tuberculosis, measles, malaria, and cholera.

Helen Dodd

Sources:

Manual page 54, [1]

• • b. Property

With settled agriculture comes some sort of feeling of property ownership. This distinguishes one plot of land or garden from another. Once there was ownership over material items, people felt the need to make improvements or better their instruments and tools so they could pass on the finest equipment to their ancestors. When ownership of property is introduced, more rules and government are required. This caused the enforcement of new laws, broadening their small government. These new agricultural habits opened up new possibilities like the opportunity for trade.

Helen Dodd

Sources:

Manual page 54, [2]

• • c. security

As the Neolithic Revolution continued, a new problem arose: security. People now had objects that they wanted to protect, and so a secure system was necessary. Theft was now possible, so people needed a way to be sure their items wouldn't be stolen. Walls and other barriers were made in order to give the people a sense of ownership. Soldiers also emerged in society, and tried to keep things better, eventually leading to the legal system. Metal weapons were also invented in order to help people guard their possessions, and used by soldiers to help others protect their possessions. People were now making items they needed not for practical use, but instead for luxury, and these were usually the items stolen. Security was a huge issue in the Neolithic Revolution, and this was something brand new for it's time.

• • d. economics

Economics also began, causing a new type of life for people. The markets were organized into groups such as land, labor, and money. Money was used to buy and sell products. This way of life is known as capitalism, and it was a huge breakthrough in society. This type of culture is known as material culture, which includes human products like technology. This is also known as an economy. Economies caused the rise of social classes. Your social class was determined by your job or craft (farmer, weaver, priest...). Certain jobs such as priests were usually higher class, whereas farmers made up the lower class. You were also able to tell somebody social class by what they wore or looked like. Someone wearing beautifully died fabrics and lived in a larger home would be part of the upper class. These classes could lead to things such as theft because some people now rose above others.

-Julia Giordano -pages 54-55 Manual -Website: Watkins, Jeffery. "Neolithic Revolution." Regents Prep: Global History: Economic

    Systems. Regents Prep, 2003. Web. 19 Oct. 2012.
    <http://www.regentsprep.org/regents/global/themes/economic/neo.cfm>. 

-Image:Town. Agriculture And The Origins Of Civilization. History World International,

    n.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2012. <http://www.google.com/
    imgres?imgurl=http://history-world.org/
    agriculture.jpg&imgrefurl=http://history-world.org/
    agriculture.htm&usg=__5MrNJFtj-JEXtGUq__J0wFIJ-yU=&h=290&w=277&sz=50&hl=en&start=
    4&zoom=1&tbnid=sYpk3dffonWh_M:&tbnh=115&tbnw=110&ei=NF-BUILQJMWQ2QWsoIHQCA&prev=/
    search%3Fq%3Dneolithic%2Brevolution%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%
    3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1>.

6. Explain the causes of the agrarian transformation.

There were many factors in the agrarian transformation starting with climate change that occurred 15,000 years ago. The glaciers melted causing water levels to rise and plants to begin to grow again. Humans living in the fertile crescent found a large amount of eatable plants as well as lots of animals because of this. Among the large amounts of eatable plants were grains, which lead to major cultural change among the humans. Due to the large quantity of grains, and the fact that grains don't decay, the humans no longer needed to be nomadic, they had a prominent food source. The humans settled around the area, building shelters and staying there for generations.

Nyla Jennings- First Farmers Video Notes Manual Page 52

7. Describe the process of the domestication of plants and animals.

During the Neolithic Revolution, humans moved from a hunter gatherer society to start to domesticate plants and animals. The process started about 14,000 years ago, when the Ice Age started to end and food became more abundant. Groups of humans were able to live in the same place throughout the entire year, because they had grown the ability to garden and herd animals. They Natufians had already discovered that they could eat grains, and they had the technology like the sickle to harvest that, but they had to take the grains that they harvested with them, which burdened them. Finally, the Natufians started to live in small villages with houses of sticks and stones so they could eat their grain in thin bread-like pancakes. However, they still were following the migration patterns of animals for meat. A shift occurred when a drought and famine hit the Fertile Crescent where the Natufians lived. Suddenly, the animals the Natufians had once hunted became scarcer and the Natufians had to make a change in their hunting patterns. They moved and adapted to the temperaments of goats, which they herded and became the first domesticated animals. The Natufians had now domesticated both plants and animals, which happened because they had to adapt to climate change to be able to domesticate animals, and because they had to adapt to the burden of carrying grain.

John Kennedy

8. Identify and explain two other forms of lifeways at this time.

9. Name and explain the distinguishing characteristics of culture. Be sure to include culture's essential feature?

10. What are systems of meaning? What is the purpose of language and art?.

Language and other forms a of communication, such as art, or gestures allow people the ability to create, explain, and document new pieces of ideas and emotions. Since their birth, people contain the ability to use language. Language is the system that helped to set, store, communicate, and organize. A system of meaning is a set of relationships between a set of variables (words, shape, symbols, numbers) and the meanings which are attached to them. A set of meaning is much like the connotation of a word; they both give a frame of reference based on our knowledge about words. Relationships are based on the decisions of the humans who created the language. because of this, there is no particular reason why a long, coiled animal should be regarded as a snake. Meaning Systems are not universal or necessary. For example: A native American may not have known the established meaning of the Earth as 17th century Europeans did, however, they thrived on the Earth the same. The Europeans partly saw the world has a scientific wonder and partly as a moneymaking tool. Native Americans saw the world as a loved one and cherished it and all its facets. Both the groups succeeded in their natural habitat, using their own systems of meaning. Another Example: (^__^) Was that figure a smiley face or something else to you? Perhaps you saw a smiley face, but ancient Homo Sapiens may have seen words in their language or small bird. THe above figure could be anything. However, the established system of meaning, even for things that are symbols and not a language, suggests that the figure was a smiling Homo Sapien.

All Notes are taken from Page 59 and 60 of the CF Manual.

Julian Chazz Nicholas Peavy

11. Why is culture learned?

12. What important principles follow from the definition of culture given in the manual?

13. What is the first purpose of a myth?

The first purpose of a myth was to explain the inexplicable. Since the dawn of the human race, myths have been created to explain certain mysteries such as: Where do we come from, what happens when we die, or why are there seasons. Many ancient societies used myths to explain certain things, because they did not have scientific evidence.

Picture:http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/s/stoneage.html

Cite: Manual page: 61

-Sam Schneider

14. Why is mythology a universal need?

  Mythology was a universal need for multiple reasons. The first reason is many of the ancient humans wondered why things happened, and how they did. Examples of this are: 1) Why does the tide come in and out? 2) Why does the sun rise and set every day, in the same direction?. The most simple and obvious answers to these questions were that some more ultimate being caused them to happen. They simply could not explain these phenomena any other way.
  Another reason mythology was needed was to justify actions. If a person in power wanted to do something, they could simply say that in the myths, a great hero did something like this, or somebody was praised and brought plentiful rain for doing another thing.
  The final reason that mythology was a universal need is because a way was needed to express things. Although the myths were not completely real, most contained at least a grain of truth. However, these "truths" became part of religion, music dancing, magic, and rituals. 

Austin Schultz

Information from History CF Manual

15. What is the second purpose of a myth?

16. What role does mythology play in morality of a culture?

17. Define religion and its characteristics, elements and functions in a society?

As societies develop, they begin to institutionalize their beliefs and morality into religion. Religion helped answer the questions: Why was the world created? How should people live? Why is there suffering? What happens after death? Any answers to these questions posed by religion cannot be tested by scientific means or proved or disproved.

Religion held communities together because it gave members a shared code of behavior and a shared way of understanding the world. Religion reduces people’s fears by giving them something beyond themselves to rely on. Archeologists suggest that public buildings were built for religious purposes, a place where they community could come together for worship.

Later on, the Ghassoulian, a very highly evolved town, the town was held together by religion. Priests rose above others and told others what the gods wanted, and by having this power of communicating with the gods, the priests were at the top of the social ladder. The religious beliefs of Neolithic people were as follows: They buried the dead in graves, along with their weapons, pottery, food and drink in the belief that these things were required after death. They worshipped totems, or images of plants and animals as their ances­tors and protectors. They worshipped forces of nature like sun, moon and stars and believed that they had special powers. They worshipped clay figurines of "Mother Goddess" in the belief that fertility of the land would increase.

Sources: History Manuel, History Class Notes. Link: http://www.preservearticles.com/201107058834/the-religious-beliefs-of-the-people-in-neolithic-age.html

Sophie Worscheh

18. What were some of the problems of complex societies?

19. From the first source reading,summarize Impact of containers

20. Summarize Impact of domestication of animals

21. From the second source reading, summarize Impact of methods of water management

22. Summarize Impact of growth, populations and food production.

23. Define and give the characteristics of the Fertile Crescent.

24. Summarize Impact of record keeping

25. Summarize Impact of water in Mesopotamia and Babylon

26. Summarize Impact of water in Egypt

27. Summarize Impact of water in Indus River Valley