History Exam 1

Creation Narratives

Narratives constructed by different cultures that draw on their belief systems and available evidence to explain the orgins of the world and humanity

Hominids

Gorillas, Chimpanzees, and humans

Hominins:

Scientific classification for modern humans and our non-extinct ancestors, including australopithecines and others in the genus Homo such as Homo habilis and Homo erectus. Researches once used the term homind to refer Homo sapiens and extinct homin species, but the meaning of homind has been expanded to include great apes

Evolution

Process by which species of plants and animals change over time, as a result of the favoring, through reproduction, of certain traits that are useful in that species’ environment.

Australopithecines

Hominin species, including anamensis, afarensis (Lucy), and africanus, that appeared in Africa beginning around 4 million years ago and, unlike other animals, sometimes walked on two legs. Their brain capacity was a little less than one-third of a modern human’s. Although not humans, they carried the genetic and biological material out of which modern humans would later emerge.

Homo habilis

Species, confined to Africa, that emerged about 2.5 million years ago and whose toolmaking ability truly made it the forerunner, though a very distant one, of modern humans. “skillful human.”

Homo erectus

Species that emerged about 1.8 million years ago, had a large brain, walked truly upright, migrated out of Africa, and likely mastered fire. “standing human.”

Homo sapiens

The first humans; emerged in Africa as early as 315,000 years ago and migrated out of Africa beginning about 180,000 years ago. They had bigger brains and greater dexterity than previous hominin species, whom they eventually eclipsed.

Hunting and Gathering

Lifestyle in which food is acquired through hunting animals, fishing, and foraging for wild berries, nuts, fruit, and grains, rather than planting crops, vines, or trees. As late as 1500 CE, as much as 15 percent of the world’s population still lived by this method.

Domestication

Bringing a wild animal or plant under human control.

Settled Agriculture

Humans’ use of tools, animals, and their own labor to work the same plot of land for more than one growing cycle. It involves switching from a hunting and gathering lifestyle to one based on farming.

Pastoralism

A way of life in which humans herd domesticated animals and exploit their products (hides/fur, meat, and milk). Pastoralists include nomadic groups that range across vast distances, as well as transhumant herders who migrate seasonally in a more limited range.

River Basin

Area drained by a river, including all its tributaries. River basins were rich in fertile soil, water for irrigation, and plant and animal life, which made them attractive for human habitation. Cultivators were able to produce surplus agriculture to support the first cities.

Bronze

Alloy of copper and tin brought into Europe from Anatolia; used to make hard-edged weapons.

Urban-rural Divide

Division between those living in cities and those living in rural areas. City dwellers had specialized jobs and mass-produced goods, while those in the countryside cultivated land and herded livestock.

City

Highly populated concentration of economic, religious, and political power. The first cities appeared in river basins, which could produce a surplus of agriculture. The abundance of food freed most city inhabitants from the need to produce their own food, which allowed them to work in specialized professions.

City-State

Political organization based on the authority of a single, large city that controls outlying territories.

Social Hierarchies

Distinctions between the privileged and the less privileged.

Scribes

Those who mastered writing and used it to document economic transactions, keep lists, and record religious and literary texts; from the very beginning, they were at the top of the social ladder, under the major power brokers.

3 great river-basin societies

Egypt, Mesopotamia, Indus Valley and Harappan Society

Pastoral Nomads

Pastoral peoples who move with their herds in perpetual motion across large areas, like the steppe lands of Inner Eurasia, and facilitate long-distance trade.

Transhumant Herders

Pastoral peoples who move seasonally from lowlands to highlands, in proximity to city-states, with which they trade the products of their flocks (milk, fur, hides) for urban products (manufactured goods, such as metals).

Indo-European Migration

The migrations, tracked linguistically and culturally, of the peoples of a distinct language group (including Sanskrit, Persian, Greek, Latin, and German) from central Eurasian steppe lands into Europe, Southwest Asia, and South Asia.

Chariot

Horse-drawn vehicle with two spoked and metal-rimmed wheels. Made possible by the interaction of pastoralists and settled communities, the chariot revolutionized warfare in the second millennium BCE.

Territorial State

A kingdom made up of city-states and hinterlands joined together by a shared identity, controlled through the centralized rule of a charismatic leader, and supported by a large bureaucracy, legal codes, and military expansion.

Hyksos

Chariot-driving, axe- and composite-bow-wielding, Semitic-speaking people (their name means “rulers of foreign lands”), who invaded Egypt, overthrew the Thirteenth Dynasty, set up their own rule over Egypt, and were expelled by Ahmosis to begin the period known as New Kingdom Egypt.

Amorites

Name, which means “westerners,” used by Mesopotamian urbanites to describe the transhumant herders who began to migrate into their cities in the late third millennium BCE.

Hammurabis Code

Legal code created by Hammurabi (r. 1792–1750 BCE). The code divided society into three classes—“free,” “dependent,” and “slave”—each with distinct rights and responsibilities.

Hitties

An Anatolian chariot warrior group that spread east to northern Syria, though they eventually faced weaknesses in their own homeland. Rooted in their capital at Hattusa, they interacted with contemporary states both violently (as at the Battle of Qadesh against Egypt) and peacefully (as in the correspondence of the Amarna letters).

Vedic Peoples

Indo-European nomadic group who migrated from the steppes of Inner Asia around 1500 BCE into the Indus basin, on to the Ganges River valley, and then as far south as the Deccan plateau, bringing with them their distinctive religious ideas, Sanskrit, and domesticated horses.

Oracle Bones

Animal bones inscribed, heated, and interpreted by Shang ritual specialists to determine the will of the ancestors.

Microsocieties

Small-scale, fragmented communities that had little interaction with others. These communities were the norm for peoples living in the Americas and islanders in the Pacific and Aegean from 2000 to 1200 BCE.

Historiography

-Investigates old claims about the past and makes new claims about the past

-In modern times, it strives for objectivity, but always falls short

-Different in every time and place

Modern Historians

Highly trained professionals who rely on primary and secondary sources to construct arguments and make claims about the past

Common Western Historiographical Assumptions

-past merits consideration and study

-historical truth exists and is knowable

-goal of history is to get to truth

-there is only one truth or one true history

Greeks and Romans

-differentiates between myth and history

-somewhat rationalist approach (Gods existed but didn’t really get involved)

-history based personal experience, eye-witness, and written documents

-focus on war and politics

-focus on telling truth before telling a good story but still had biases

Herodotus

-Mediterranean traveler

-somewhat rationalist approach/fairly unbiased

-”great grandfather”

-considered 1st European historian

-could see that other cultures did things better

Thucydides

-wrote a history of war between Athens and Sparta

-”history is war and politics”

-Gods not a factor

-telling truth before good story, still had biases

Tacitus

-Roman aristocrat

-served the Roman Empire: governor, officer, priest

-wrote books “The Annuals”

-highly critical of emperors and empire itself

-one of oldest non-Christian references to Jesus of Nazareth

Abrahamic Religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam

-all monotheistic

-all have scriptures with beginning of time to end

-all represent divine truth

Flavius Josephus

-Jewish rabbi, general, and historian from Jerusalem

-fought Rome later became supporter

-wrote “History of the Jewish War and Jewish Antiquities”

-major source for Jewish history

-perhaps earliest Christian reference to Jesus

Medieval European History

-written by Christian monks

-focused on religion, religious people, and religiosity of others

-goal was to show God’s plan

Gregory of Tours

Good medieval Christian historian, told truth based on what God intended

Textual Criticism

Looking at internal and external elements of texts (looking for signs of forgery)

-led to Protestant Reformation

Protestant Reformation

Challenged the Catholic monopoly on Christian faith in the West

Modern Natural Science

Discovery of natural laws led people to believe that history followed similar laws = scientific history

Edward Gibbon

-didn’t base history on religion

-argued Rome was crushed under weight of own success

-work on Rome still influential

19th Century Nationalism

-discreet groups of people make up nations

-language, dress, food, experiences, religion unite people as nations

Jules Michelet

-resurrection of the past

-historian should have empathy

-argued against Joan of Arc being a witch or madwoman

-fired for refusing to take loyalty oath

Thomas Carlyle

-”great man” theory -all that matters are great men of history

Leopold von Ranke

-history as it really happened

-goal: history with scientific objectivity

Benefits of Nationalist and Scientific Historiography

-turned from historical literature to evidence

-nationalist history help untied French, German, and Italians into modern nation states

Consequences of Nationalist and Scientific Historiography

-accepting nationalist history as scientific truth led to conflict amog nations -WWI and WWII

-facist movements

-nationalist fostered “us vs. them”

Karl Marx’s View of History

-”its all about the money”

-materialist

-focuses on class strugle

Karl Marx’s Contributions

-shifted historical focus making people of other classes important and matter

-created field of economic history

Postmodernism

-challenges idea of one objective truth
-levels the playing field for multiple perspectives

Critiques of Postmodernism

-makes history meaningless and useless

-goes in circles

Michel Foucault

History is not simple

Lucy

-”first Australopithecus”

-first because she was oldest and most complete

Turkana Boy

-homo erectus

-8 or 9 years at death

-abnormal spine = major disability -one of the most complete early hominid fossils
-found in Kenya and dated to about 1.6 million years ago

Homo Neanderthalensis

-used tools similar to modern humans

-lived by foraging, like stone-age

-very dense and larger in width

The Fertile Crescent

Early domestication of animals and plants leading to agriculture development

Hunting → Herding Sheep

-sheep thrive in variety of climates

-provide meat, wool, hides, and milk

-first to domesticate along with dogs

Early Crops of Fertile Crescent

-changed the way people lived and allowed them to settle down

-figs, millet, wheat, barley, olives, peas, and lentils

Catal Huyuk

-neolithic settlement in modern Turkey

-one of earliest settlement with research

-diverse economy

-entry through roof

-walls decorated and had hearth

Sumer and Sumerians

-land of competing city states in modern Iraq

-legendary city of Gilgamesh

Ubayd Culture

-formed foundation of Sumerian culture

-striped wheel-turned pottery found in Iraq to Mediterranean

Domestication and Cultivation of Rice

-requires lots of water

-grows in only wet areas

-labor intensive

Domestication and Cultivation of Millet

-grows in dry climates (northern China)

-reliable and less labor

Yangshao Culture

-located in “Yellow River” basin

-Yangshao = “painted pottery” - stored millet

Longshan Culture

-several sites in Yellow River Valley

-Longshan = “black pottery”

-pottery was very thin yet almost strong as metal

-very high value found only in graves of elites

-Taosi site = evidence of engineers, builders, and scientists in Neolithic China

Uruk

-one of earliest Sumerian city

-excavated by German archaeologists

-brick walled city

Ziggurats at Uruk

-massive temple/pyramid structures

-each city state has its own God

Cuneiform

-”wedge shaped”

-among oldest writing system in world

-allowed record keeping and expression of abstract ideas

-allowed greater communication

-SCRIPT not a language

Sumerian Innovation

-Counting system based on number 60

-the wheel

-beer

360s while driving wheeled vehicles and drinking beer = Sumerians

Sargon of Akkad

-legend says was son of priestess and was found in basket on the river (orphan)

-became king of city state of Kish then founded his own city, Akkad

-established dynasty ruled for century

-Akkadian language replaced Sumerian language, but Sumerian survived in sacred literature

Enheduanna

-daughter of Sargon of Akkad

-high priestess of the Temple of Inanna

-first known female poet in history

-harmonized her Akkadian Gods with those of Sumeria

-composed hymns, psalms, prayers, and poems

Ancient Egypt

-located NE Africa

-Nile River: flows S to N, desert on all sides

-polytheistic

-The Egyptian Book of the Dead - about religion more than scripture

-emphasis on afterlife

Narmer

-first king to unite upper and lower Egypt

-first king of first dynasty of Old Kingdom

-Narmer pallet = makeup pallet

Holy Family

Osiris: husband of Isis and father of Horus

-died and became God of underworld

Isis: wife or Osiris and mother of Horus

Horus: symbolized by falcon, identified with pharaonic power

Pharaoh as the God, Horus

-pharaohs job was to prevent chaos

-whom who couldn’t stop chaos was not a God

-sinful to disobey pharoah

Sneferu and Sons

-ruled over stable and prosperous Egypt

-military leader

-engaged in international trade

-built first true pyramid

Great Pyramids of Giza

-begun by Sneferus son. Khufu

-intended to serve as royal tomb and symbol of pharaonic power