Social Science

Myth

  • Serves a purpose (origin story or explains something)

  • Doesn’t necessarily have to be false (ex Rosa Parks, Boston tea party are real people and events but they’re myths)


Cognitive Revolution

  • 70,000 to 40,000 years ago

  • Transition in which humans developed their current cognitive abilities (abstraction, intellect, reasoning)


Neolithic Revolution

  • 12,000 to 10,000 years ago

  • Agricultural revolution (transition from hunter gatherer to farmers)


Karl Marx

  • 1818-1883

  • German philosopher, political theorist, and socialist


Emile Durkheim

  • 1858-1917

  • French sociologist, established the acetic discipline of sociology 


Max Weber

  • 1864-1920

  • German sociologist 

  • Authored books like the spirit of capitalism and the protestant ethic 

  • Relationship between religion and capitalism


Man the Hunter (Conference/Book)

  • 1960s book 

  • The ideology of the man being the dominant/ superior one, the hunter

  • Sexist and devalued women’s work


Frederick Engels

  • 1820-1895

  • Helped write the communist manifesto with Karl Marx

  • Abolishment of private property


Animism

  • Belief that everything (animals, plants, rocks, water) has a spirit and that humans can communicate to them and coexist


Magic

  • Through the use of spells and transactional

Totemism

  • An idea or belief can be placed upon an object and have that object be a representative of that belief/ ideal (ie flags, totems, cross)


Seneca Iroquois

  • Native Americans living in present day New York

  • Studied as part of experiments in the 1800s to figure out how hunter gatherer societies were like


Dunbar's Number

  • How many relationships a person can have and keep track of

  • Brain size increases number increases but for humans it’s about 150


Mesopotamia

  • 10,000 years ago

  • Between the rivers (fertile crescent)


Ur

  • A city state within mesopotamia

  • Influential state and revered the moon goddess nana 


Royal Game of Ur

  • First board game 


Hammurabi's Code

  • Strict law code with punishments like an eye for an eye


Hammurabi

  • 1810-1750 BC

  • King of babylon and has a strict law code


Enheduanna

  • ~2300 BC

  • Daughter of Sargon, placed as high priestess of Ur and first author 

  • Frequently wrote about inanna


Innana/Ishtar

  • Goddess of love, war, fertility

  • Falls in love with a human shepard and later kills him


Sumer

  • ~6000-5000 BC

  • The earliest recorded civilization in southern mesopotamia 


Marduk

  • Ancient god of mesopotamia; god of creation 

  • Patron deity of babylon 


Plows

  • Farming tool 

  • Required strength (strengthened gender roles)


Slaves

  • Usually taken from defeated tribes or city states

  • Lowest status in a social hierarchy 


Economic Determinism

  • Marxist interpretation where economic factors determine everything else


Primitive Communism

  • Most things were shared because teamwork and they didn’t value individual possessions

  • Shared meats and living quarters


Economic Surplus

  • Allows for leisure, education, and political participation (allen)


Production Surplus

  • Allows for economic and social diversification 


Social Stratification

  • Splitting of people into groups like nobles, merchants, peasants, and slaves


Environmental Determinism

  • Geography has an effect on human development and activities

    • Varying beliefs in the temperament of gods between Egypt and Sumer (bc of the river)


Cuneiform

  • Wedge shaped characters used in mesopotamia (pictora)


Partial script (writing)

  • Capable of partially covering the vernacular language


Full script (writing)

  • Can cover the vernacular language


Comparative Method

  • Analyzing and comparing similar aspects of subjects to understand

Labor Surplus

Production Surplus

Marxist Theory of History

  • Idea history is marked by class struggle moving through stages

  • Feudalism, capitalism, finally socialism


Hatshepsut

  • 1507-1458 BC

  • One of the first female pharaohs 

  • Known for expanding trade and commissioning monumental architecture


King Cyrus

  • 600-530 BC

  • Founder of the persian empire and known for military conquest

  • Religious and cultural tolerance


Cyrus Cylinder

  • 539

  • Cylinder talking about the fall of babylon and how great Cyrus was


Poleis

  • Independent city states in greece like Athens and Sparta 

  • Each had individual government and society


Persian “Immortals”

  • Elite military of 10,000 who were always kept at full strength 

  • Casualties were quickly replaced on the front lines


Hoplites

  • Heavily armed greek infantry soldiers (citizens)


Phalanx

  • Military formation where hoplites stood close together shoulder to shoulder and with shields


Zoroastrianism

  • One of the oldest monotheistic religions

  • Founded by zoroaster in Persia 


Battle of Marathon

  • 490 BC 

  • Major battle in the greco persian war where the Athenians defeated the larger Persian army


Athens

  • Major city state in Greece known for the development of democracy, philosophy, and arts


Archon

  • High ranking official in athens 

  • Evolved through time (changed in number of seats and how long each could be an archon for) 

  • Ended as a group of nine each serving one year terms


The Assembly (Ekklesia)

  • The democratic body of athens in which citizens voted on laws and policies


Direct Democracy

  • People assembles and voted on major decisions


Metic

  • Those who live in athens but were not athenian citizens

  • Could not participate in governmental affairs


Socrates

  • 470-399 BC

  • Wrote nothing but taught students 

  • Was made to poison himself because he was charged with hearsay and poisoning the youths


Plato

  • 420- 348 BC

  • Wrote many dialogues: many included a character named socrates 

  • Founder of the academy 


Aristotle

  • 384-322 BC

  • Student of plato


Draco

  • Chosen as a law giver in 624-623 BC

  • Published first written code for Athens


Solon

  • 594-593 BC

  • Opened membership to all citizens

  • Economic reforms (no more debt slavery)

  • Restoration of morality


Cleisthenes

  • 570-508 BC

  • Athenian reformer credited with creating democracy


Areopagus

  • Council of former archons in athens hat met on the hill and functioned as a court


Greco-Persian Wars

  • 499-449 BC

  • Conflict between Greece and Persia including battles like Marathon


Sparta

  • Greek city state known for it’s military style oligarchical government 


Delian League

  • 478 BC

  • City states led by Athens against Persia but then became the Athenian empire


Pericles

  • 495-429 BC

  • Son of war hero of greco- persian war 

  • Limited citizenship to ppl with 2 athenian parents

  • Commissioned the parthenon


Peloponnesian War

  • 431- 404 BC

  • Conflict between Athens and sparta and their allies

  • Led to Athens downfall 


Perioikoi

  • Free non citizens of sparta who can engage in trade and craftsmanship but not politics


Sciritae

  • Elite class of spartan warriors made up of the perioikoi class


Helots

  • Enslaved people in Sparta

  • Agricultural laborers (essential to Spartan economy)


Humanism

  • People has a unique nature fundamentally different from other animals (Sapiens)

  • Type of religion that worships humans

  • Human potential


Liberal Humanism

  • Belief in individual freedom, reasoning, and pursuit of knowledge


Socialist Humanism

  • Advocates for social justice, equality, and justice

  • Mix of socialism and humanism


Evolutionary Humanism

  • Progress adapts over time and changes as we change

  • Different changes in each era