Period 1 Overview and Chapter Hub
Content on this page
1. Introduction to WHAP
2. Period 1 Overview
3. Period 1, Chapter 1
2. Period 1 Overview
3. Period 1, Chapter 1
1. Introduction to WHAP
whap_day_one_thinking_like_an_historian.pptx |
2. Period 1 Overview
Technological and Environmental Transformations to 600 B.C.E.
*Read this before you read Chapter One of your textbook. Don't worry about spoiler alerts--this is not a mystery novel!
The earliest known humans lived in east Africa about 2.5 million years ago. The vast majority of humans' 2,000,000+ years of history is identified as "Paleolithic" (i.e. Stone Age). During this time period, two human species, Homo erectus and then Homo sapiens sapiens emerged. These early humans lived by hunting large animals and survived by gathering wild berries, roots, nuts, and other vegetation. Homo erectus came first (c. 500,000-750,000 years ago) and stood upright and learned simple tool use. Once Homo sapiens sapiens came along, for a long time, they lived concurrently with Homo erectus. Nevertheless, the smarter, more agile Homo sapiens sapiens displaced the Homo erectus about 40,000 years (for reasons not entirely known). Every human being on the planet today is descended from these early Homo sapiens sapiens.
Human beings aren't faster or stronger than many other mammals, and in many cases few of their senses are as keen. So how was it that human beings came to become the dominant species on Earth? Brainpower and the acquisition of language, walking upright, and opposable thumbs. As upright walkers, humans had an advantage over other animals: their hands were free to develop forms and abilities conducive to tool-making, which humans were able to do because of opposable thumbs and superior brainpower. The acquisition of language made it easier to disseminate knowledge of tool-making (and later other technologies and ideas). The first tools consisted of rocks, sticks, and bones. They were shaped as they were found. Rocks could be used for pounding or throwing. Sticks and bones could be used for hitting and stabbing. Eventually, people learned to manipulate such found-objects, tying stone or bone tips to sticks to create hammers, axes, spears, and eventually bows and arrows, etc (see in the Chapter 1 image gallery).
Agriculture began in Mesopotamia some 10,000 years ago and spread east and west along the same latitude range. It would be directly lead to the rise of the five early civilizations--four of which were along the fertile shores of great rivers (*rivers=silt and water, good for agriculture... go figure*). It would eventually spread to other latitudes, but during this period--yes, ALWAYS pay attention to periodization--it generally did not. Where agriculture spread, lifestyles changed dramatically. Agriculture changed human society in almost every way imaginable. I will list and briefly annotate a few of them. The order is largely irrelevant, and they are not exclusive. Keep in mind also that these changes took place slowly.
- Agriculture led to the decline of nomadism. Agriculture is a sedentary lifestyle, meaning that it required people to live in one place.
- Agriculture led to the ability to generate and keep a surplus of food.
- A surplus of food meant that fewer people needed to be involved in the act of growing food.
- So, agriculture led to economic specialization. Fewer people needed to produce food meant that some people--though not the majority by any means--could specialize in other things (e.g. various trades, war, eventually government, etc.). Before agriculture, virtually every able-bodied man and woman was involved in the process of hunting or gathering food, and people didn't stay in one place. So writing, metalworking, architecture, and many other things simply weren't possible.
- Agriculture led to new family forms. In many ways, sedentary agriculture promotes larger families--there's food to support it, and more hands means more work. Children were less of a burden, and they were better supported, nurtured, and disciplined because they would become an essential part of the family labor force.
- Many academics suggest that the end of hunting and gathering led to changes in gender-relations. Before agriculture, men and women were equally important as breadwinners (*irony--get it?*). Men hunted and hunting is manly. Women gathered, but what they gathered was so important that their labor was valued equally. However, agriculture is not manly--at least not in the same way as hunting is manly. The act of planting, tending to, and harvesting grain cannot match the visceral thrill of slaying and butchering a mighty beast. In fact, agriculture resembled gathering in a great many ways. Even today, in an age we frown upon overt sexism, it's an insult to say that a boy "throws like a girl." Some anthropologists have suggested that men compensated for doing a woman's work by dominating women. There are alternate theories, of course, but I find it interesting that the modern "equal rights movement" did not arise in society of farmers. It took the industrial revolution and another dramatic change in socio-economic lifestyle for sexism to recede.
- Agriculture led to new concepts of property and allowed some men to amass more wealth than others. Thus, agriculture led to economic stratification.
- Agriculture could support larger populations, and larger populations eventually formed formal governments to regulate society, trade, and provide for defense from other larger populations. Think about it, now that land-ownership was the hallmark of wealth, some people might want to steal and conquer. Theft had been economically irrelevant prior to agriculture. What? You're going to steal Gog's rock? Conquest had been silly because no one stayed in one place for very long. Sure, nomadic peoples might have sparred over an area IF they came into contact with each other, but the modern concept of conquest or of even maintaining a professional military did not exist before agriculture.