Human Development to c. 600 BCE

First Humans

First Humans

-First appeared 200k-100k BCE East Africa in small hunter-gatherer, egalitarian but patriarchal groups w/ no permanent homes

-Search for food = new environments, genetics, (stone) tools, cultures

-100k-60k years ago = movement beyond EAf

-10k BCE = humans on all continents but Antarctica

Agricultural Revolution

-8K BCE Ice Age = Global Warming = Plant & Animal Domestication (began in Middle East) = Agricultural Surplus led to:

-Growing population & permanent cities

-Non-agricultural jobs: gov & tax records led to writing

-Tech: wheel, irrigation, stone to metal tools

-Stricter social classes & patriarchy

First Civilizations were often found

near river valleys with fresh water & fertile soil

City-State

Independent state with a city and its peripheries

Mesopotamia

-Developed in modern Iraq (Tigres & Euphrates Rivers)

-Polytheistic & patriarchal cultures usually based in city-states w/ ziggurats (religious temples)

-Sumer: city-state that created the first written language (Cuneiform)

Egypt

-Developed in Nile River Valley

-Centralized under 1 pharaoh & were less patriarchal, pyramids demonstrated pharaoh’s power

-hieroglyphs & mathematics

Indus

-South Asia, little known due to indecipherable language

-Mohenjo-Daro & Harappa traded w/ Mesopotamia

-Tech: indoor plumbing & planned urban layout

China & Huang He River

-Highly patriarchal

-Centralized

-Focused on ancestral ties

South & Middle America

-Olmec (Mesoamerica) & Chavin (Andes) were non-river valley civilizations

-extensive trade

Religion

-Started as animistic (deities = site) & polytheistic

-Became more abstract (deities moved w/ ppl) & monotheistic

Hinduism

-3500 yrs ago, Aryans moved from North Himalayas to Pakistan & India (poly to mono)

-The Vedas: soul reincarnates until liberated, strict caste system w/ no social mobility

Zoroastrianism

-Developed in Persia (mono)

-Focused on human free will & the eternal battle b/w the forces of good & evil

Judaism

-4k yrs ago by Abraham in Jerusalem (mono)

-Old Testament: Devotion to Yahweh = Yahweh’s chosen ppl