Global History to 1500, Chapter 1

Agricultural/Neolithic Revolution

The new stone age, referring to the introduction of agriculture between roughly 4000 and 12000 years ago in societies that have long survived with gathering and hunting economy

Paleolithic era

The long period during which human societies sustained themselves through gathering, hunting, and fishing without practice of agriculture. Such ways of living persisted well after the advent of agriculture in many places

Venus figurines

Paleolithic carvings of the female form, often with exaggerated breasts, buttocks, hips, and stomachs

Dreamtime

A complex worldview of Australia’s Aboriginal people that held that living humans exist in a vibration of echo of ancestral happenings

Clovis culture

The earliest widespread and distinctive culture of North America, dating to about 13,000 years ago; named for a particular kind of projectile point, initially found near the city of Clovis, New Mexico

megafaunal extinction

The dying out of a number of large animal species, often associated with the arrival of humans. Example include the mammoth and several species of horses and camels in North America and the Mao bird in New Zealand. Historians debate the relative importance of excessive hunting and changes in the climate.

Austronesian Migrations

The last phase of the great human migration that established a human presence in every habitable region of the earth. Austronesian-speaking people settled the Pacific islands and Madagascar in a series of seaborne migrations that began around 3,500 years ago

the original affluent society

Term coined to describe Paleolithic societies, which are regarded as affluent not because they had so much but because they wanted or needed so little.

shamans

Persons believed to be especially skilled at dealing with the spirit world, often through trances induced by psychoactive drugs.

Gobekli Tepe

A ceremonial site in southeastern Turkey comprising twenty circles made up of large carved limestone pillars. The site which dates to almost 12,000 years ago, was built by gathers and hunters who lived at least part if the year in settled villages.

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.

Fertile Crescent

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

Maize

An ancient version of corn, first domesticated in southern Mexico by 4000 to 3000 BCE. The ancestor of corn was a mountain grass that looks nothing like todays corn. Selective adaptation of this plant over thousands of years allowed for the development of sustainable agriculture in Mesoamerica and elsewhere.

Bantu migrations

Gradual movements of Bantu-speaking peoples, beginning in 3000BC, from their homeland in what is now Southern Nigeria and the Cameroons into most of Eastern and Southern Africa by 400CE. The agricultural techniques and ironworking technology of Bantu-speaking farmers gave them an advantage over the gathering and hunting peoples they encountered.

Banpo

An early agricultural village in northern China dating to around 6,000 years ago. It consisted of approximately forty-five thatched buildings that housed an estimated 500 people. Archeological evidence suggests that millet, pugs, and dogs had been domesticated, and diets were supplemented with wild plants, animals, and fish.

Secondary Production Revolution

The series of technological changes that began 4000BCE as people in the Eastern Hemisphere began to use their domesticated animals in new ways, such as for their milk, wool, and manure. Also involved learning to ride horses and camels and using animals to pull carts, plows, and chariots

Pastoral societies

Based on an alternative kind of food-producing economy focused on the raising of livestock, pastoral societies emerged in the Afro-Eurasian world where settled agriculture was difficult or impossible. Pastoral peoples often led their animals to seasonal grazing grounds rather than settling permanently in a single location

Catalhuyuk

An early agricultural village and archeological site in what is now Turkey; flourished between 7400 and 6000BCE. With a settled population of several thousand people, the village displayed few signs of class or gender inequality.

Chiefdoms

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.