ways of the world chapter 1-2

a

Austronesian migrations

Austronesian migrations

The last phase of the great human migration that established a human presence in every habitable region of the earth. These people settled the Pacific Islands & Madagascar in a series of seaborne migrations that began around 3500 years ago.

Brotherhood of the Tomol

A prestigious craft guild that monopolized the building and ownership of large ocean

Chumash culture

Paleolithic culture of Southern California that survived until the modern era.

Clovis culture

The earliest widespread and distinctive culture of N. America; named from the Clovis point, a particular kind of projectile point

Dreamtime

The native Australian Aborigines' belief about how they came to be

Flores Man

A recently discovered hominid species of Indonesia

"gathering and hunting peoples"

As the name suggests, people who live by collecting food rather than producing it. Recent scholars have turned to this term instead of the older "hunter

great goddess

According to one theory, a dominant deity of the Paleolithic era

Hazda

A people of northern Tanzania, almost the last surviving Paleolithic society

human revolution

The term used to describe the transition of humans from acting out of biological imperative to dependence on learned or invented ways of living (culture)

Ice Age

Any number of cold periods in the earth's history; the last Ice Age was at its peak around 20,000 years ago

Insulting the meat

A San cultural practice meant to deflate pride that involved negative comments about meat brought in by a hunter and the expectation that a successful hunter would disparage his own kill

Jomon Culture

A settled Paleolithic culture of prehistoric Japan, characterized by seaside villages and the creation of some of the world's earliest pottery

megafaunal extinction

Dying out of a number of large animal species, including the mammoth and several species of horses and camels, that occurred around 11,000

Neandethals

Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, a European variant of homo sapiens that died out in about 25,000 years ago

n/um

Among the San, a spiritual potency that becomes activated during "curing dances" and protects humans from the malevolent forces of gods or ancestral spirits

the original affluent society

Term coined by the scholar Marshall Sahlins in 1972 to describe Paleolithic societies which he had regarded as affluent not because they had so much but because they wanted or needed so little

Paleolithic

Literally "old stone age"; the term used to describe early Homo sapiens societies in the period before the development of agriculture

Paleolithic rock art

Art of any gathering/hunting society; usually used to describe the hundreds of paintings found in Spain and France that date to about 20,000 years ago; these painting usually depict a range of animals although human figures and abstract designs are also found; purpose of this art is debated.

Paleolithic "settling down"

The process by which some Paleolithic peoples moved toward permanent settlement in the wake of the last Ice Age; Settlement was marked by increasing storage of food and accumulation of goods as well as growing inequalities in society

San (or Ju/hoansi)

A Paleolithic people still living on the northern fringe of the Kalahari desert in southern Africa

shaman

In early societies, a person believed to have the ability to act as a bridge between living humans and supernatural forces, often by means of trances induced by psychoactive drugs

trance dance

In San culture, a nightlong ritual held to activate a human being's inner spiritual potency (n/um) to counteract the evil influences of gods and ancestors. The practice was apparently common to the Khoisan people of whom the Ju/hoansi are surviving remnant

Venus figurines

Paleolithic carvings of the female form often with exaggerated breasts, buttocks, hips, and stomachs, which may have had religious significance

Agricultural Revolution

Also known as the Neolithic Revolution, this is the transformation of human (and world) existence caused by the deliberate cultivation of particular plants and the deliberate taming and breeding of particular animals

Austronesian

An Asian

Banpo

A Chinese archeological site where the remains of a significant Neolithic village have been found

Bantu

An African

Bantu migration

The spread of Bantu

broad spectrum diet

Archeologists' term for the diet of gathering and hunting societies, which included a wide array of plants and animals

Cahokia

An important agricultural chiefdom of N. America that flourished around 1100 CE

Catalhuyuk

An important Neolithic site in what is now Turkey

chiefdom

A societal grouping governed by a chief who typically relies on generosity, ritual status, or charisma rather than force to win obedience from the people

diffusion

The gradual spread of agricultural techniques without extensive population movement

domestication

The taming and changing of nature for the benefit of humankind

end of the last Ice Age

A process of global warming that began around 16,000 years ago and ended about 5,000 years later, with the earth enjoying a climate similar to that of our own time; the end of the Ice Age changed conditions for human beings, leading to increased population and helping to pave the way for agriculture

Fertile Crescent

Region sometimes known as Southwest Asia that includes the modern states of Iraq, Syria, Israel/Palestine, and southern Turkey; the earliest home of agriculture

horticulture

Hoe

intensification

The process of getting more in return for less; for example growing more food on a smaller plot of land

Jericho

Site of an important early agricultural settlement of perhaps 2000 people in present day Israel

Mesopotamia

The valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in present day Iraq

native Australians

Often called "Aboriginals" the natives of Australia continued to live (and to some extent still do) by gathering and hunting despite transition to agriculture in nearby lands

pastoral society

A human society that relies on domesticated animals rather than plants as the main source of food; pastoral nomads lead their animals to seasonal grazing grounds rather than settling permanently in a single location

"secondary products revolution"

A term used to describe the series of technological changes that began ca. 4000 BCE, as people began to develop new uses for their domesticated animals, exploiting a revolutionary new source of power

stateless societies

Village

teosinte

The wild ancestor of maize