Description
Describe the key characteristics (such as agriculture or the written word) of complex human communities across the globe in the ancient world (pre-history) to 3200BCE. Use in-text quotations and use the textbook for the source.Cite your in-text quotations in the body of the essay and list your used sources on a reference page. Use APA in-text format for quotations.Minimum 500 words
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IN THIS CHAPTER
1-1 Prehistory: The Cosmos, Earth, and
the Roots of Humanity
According to most scientists, what were the
various stages of human evolution?
1-1a Perceptions of Cosmic Mysteries
1-1b Early Life and Evolutionary Change
1-1c Homo Erectus, Neanderthals, and
Migrations Out of Africa
1-1d The Evolution and Diversity of Homo
The human story was already very old when, at Abu
Hureyra (AH-boo hoo-RAY-rah) in the Euphrates (you-FRAY-teez)
River Valley of what is now Syria, a group of villagers became some
of the world’s first farmers, thus taking a large step in shaping world
history. People who hunted game and gathered vegetables and nuts
occupied Abu Hureyra 13,000 years ago, when the area was wetter
and blessed with many edible wild plants and herds of Persian gazelles.
But a long cold spell brought a drought; to survive, the Abu Hureyra
villagers began cultivating the most easily grown grains and later
raised domesticated sheep and goats. By 7600 BCE they had shifted
completely to farming and animal herding.
The Abu Hureyra farmers pursued a life familiar to rural folk for
millennia afterward and even similar to many places today. A village
was composed of several hundred people crowded into narrow lanes
and courtyards, with families dwelling in multiroom mud houses with
plaster floors. At night family members studied the sky and pondered
the mysteries of the universe. Men did much of the farm work while
women carried heavy loads on their heads, prepared meals, and ground
grain in a kneeling position—activities that were hard on arms, knees,
and toes. Work for both women and men called for muscle power and
strong arms, and many villagers suffered from arthritis and lower back
injuries. Abu Hureyra was abandoned in 5000 BCE.
Prehistory includes a vast span of time during which all living
creatures appeared and developed. Humans evolved physically,
mentally, and culturally over many millennia, learning to make simple
tools and then spreading throughout the world. Later most societies, like the Abu Hureyra villagers, made the first great historical
transition from hunting and gathering to farming and animal herding, profoundly changing the relationship between people and the
environment. The rise of agriculture all over the world made possible the emergence of larger societies with cities, states, and more
advanced technologies, which in turn stimulated long-distance trade
and the rise of social, cultural, and economic networks linking distant
societies. The ancient farmers, traders, and city folk laid the bedrock
for the world we live in today.
Sapiens
1-1e The Globalization of Human Settlement
1-2 The Odyssey of Early Human
Societies
How did hunting and gathering shape life
during the long Stone Age?
1-2a Hunting, Gathering, and Cooperation
1-2b Cultural Life and Violence
1-2c The Heritage of Hunting and
Gathering
1-3 The Agricultural Transformation,
10,000–4000 BCE
What environmental factors explain the
transition to agriculture?
1-3a Environmental Change and the Roots
of Agriculture
1-3b The Great Transition to Settled
Agriculture
1-3c The Globalization and Diversity of
Agriculture
1-3d Animal Domestication
1-3e Agriculture and Its Environmental
Consequences
1-4 The Emergence of Cities and States
How did farming and metallurgy establish
the foundations for the rise of cities, states,
and trade networks?
1-4a The Rise of New Technologies
1-4b Urbanization and the First Cities
1-4c The Rise of States, Economies, and
Recordkeeping
1-4d The Rise of Pastoral Nomadism
MEET THE PEOPLE The !Kung Hunters
and Gatherers
DISCOVER HISTORICAL VOICES Food
and Farming in Ancient Cultural
Traditions
9
Copyright 2021 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-208
Copyright 2021 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
10
1-1
CHAPTER 1
The Origins of Human Societies, to ca. 2000 BCE
Prehistory: The Cosmos, Earth, and the Roots of Humanity
TRANSITIONS
Q
According to most scientists, what were the various stages of human evolution?
Over the centuries most human
Some scholars have promoted a “big history”
CONNECTION to TODAY
societies, to explain their existence,
that places the development of human societHow do you think that early speculaies and networks in a much longer and more tions about the cosmos and the world crafted creation and origin stories and
comprehensive framework. They argue that we might have influenced the beliefs of cosmologies explaining the natural
and supernatural worlds. While varycannot comprehend the rise of complex societ- people in modern times?
ies without knowledge of pre-farming peoples,
ing greatly, these explanations usually
human ancestors, and, before that, the begininvolved myths or legends of some divine
ning of life on Earth and the formation of our planet within the
creator or creators. The earliest known creation story devellarger cosmic order. Recurring patterns of balance and imbalance
oped by a farming-based society, from Mesopotamia, claimed
and of order and disorder in the natural world, such as global
that heaven and Earth were formed as one in a primeval sea
warming and cooling, have always played a role in human history.
and were separated by the gods, powerful human-like beings
People have speculated about the origins of the cosmos, Earth,
unperceivable to mortals. Mesopotamian beliefs influenced the
life, and humanity for countless generations. Over the years their
seven-day creation story in the Hebrew book of Genesis.
views have been integrated into religions.
Many cosmological traditions, however, were very different. Ancient Hindu holy books describe a universe emerging
1-1a Perceptions of Cosmic Mysteries
out of nothingness: “There was neither nonexistence or existence then . . . neither the realm of space nor the sky which is
Human development on Earth constitutes only a tiny fraction
beyond. Darkness was hidden by darkness . . . emptiness.”1 Then
of the long history of the universe, which most astronomers
a great heat formed the cosmos and generated life. The Chinese
think began in a Big Bang explosion some 13.7 billion years ago.
believed that the universe was created out of chaos and darkAs the universe expanded, matter coalesced into stars, which
ness when the creator Pan Ku fashioned the sun, moon, and
formed into billions of galaxies. Our solar system emerged about
stars to put everything in proper order, producing a unifying
4.5 billion years ago out of clouds of gas. On earth the developforce in the universe, the “way,” or dao (DOW ). A related
ing atmosphere kept the surface warm enough for organic comChinese theory, fengshui (fung-SHWAY ), suggests that the
pounds to coalesce into life forms. This is the story presented by
earth itself contains natural forces that people must
modern science.
From the Rig Veda, quoted in Carolyn Brown Heinz, Asian Cultural Traditions (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland, 1999), 132.
1
6 million
BCE
HUMAN EVOLUTION
AND MIGRATIONS
5 million
BCE
4 million
BCE
3 million
BCE
2 million
BCE
1 million
BCE
500,000
BCE
400,000
BCE
300,000
BCE
6–5 million BCE Earliest protohumans
2.5 million BCE Homo habilis
2.2–1.8 million BCE Homo erectus
400,000–200,000 BCE Archaic Homo sapiens
TECHNOLOGICAL
DEVELOPMENTS
URBANIZATION
Copyright 2021 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-208
Copyright 2021 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
1-1 Prehistory: The Cosmos, Earth, and the Roots of Humanity
comprehend in order to properly situate buildings and graves,
ideas that were recently popularized, gaining a following in
some Western countries.
11
Life has a long history. Simple, single-celled life emerged by
perhaps 3.5 to 3.9 billion years ago and remained dominant
until about a half billion years ago, when complex life forms
proliferated in incredible variety. Animal life colonized the land
between 400 and 500 million years ago and evolved into many
species. Volcanic and earthquake activity influenced human
history, and sometimes intense volcanic eruptions dramatically
altered regional and even global climates. Warmer or cooler
climates helped shape human societies and sometimes undermined them. Most natural scientists, while still debating the
mechanisms, agree that living things change over many generations through evolution, modifying their genetic composition
to adapt to their changing biological and physical environment.
A half dozen massive species extinctions have occurred in
the past 400 million years. For example, 250 million years ago
gigantic volcanic eruptions produced enough climate-changing
gases to rapidly warm the planet and almost wipe out all life.
The best-known extinction involved the dinosaurs, which flourished for 150 million years before dying out about 65 million
years ago, probably from the cooling of the planet from increasing volcanic activity combined with the cataclysmic impact of
one or several large asteroids or comets smashing into the earth,
destroying food sources and killing off about 70 percent of all
species. This occurrence gave mammals a chance to rise, and one
group eventually evolved into humans. So far humans have been
lucky. Scientists estimate that 99 percent of all species eventually became extinct when conditions changed dramatically. Yet
species have died rapidly over the past two hundred years, most
likely because of environmental changes such as pollution, habitat removal, and global warming generated by human activity;
this trend is rapidly accelerating today.
Eventually evolutionary changes among one branch of
mammals led to the immediate ancestors of humans, which are
part of the primate order, the mammal category that includes
the apes. Over 98 percent of human DNA is the same as that
of chimpanzees and bonobos, although human-chimp lines
diverged sometime between five and six million years ago.
By using their superior brain to gain an evolutionary edge,
humans ultimately dominated other large animal species. They
formed complex social organizations that emphasized cooperation for mutual benefit, developed tools, mastered fire, and
learned how to use speech, all of which gave them great advantages. Ultimately they developed a more complex technology
to manipulate the physical environment in many ways to meet
their needs. Understanding human origins requires archaeologists and other scientists to sift through evidence from many
sources, including fossils, DNA, early tools and other artifacts,
caves, and campsites. New evidence is regularly discovered, fostering new understanding but also controversies. However, there
is much that scholars and scientists agree on.
Hominids (HOM-uh-nids), a family including humans
and their immediate ancestors, first evolved five to six million
years ago from more primitive primates in Africa, where the
span of human prehistory is much longer than anywhere else.
The most extensive fossil evidence comes from the southern
African plateau and the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, a wide,
deep chasm stretching from
Ethiopia south to Tanzania.
hominids A family including
Scientists vigorously debate
humans and their immediate
fossil and artifact remains and
ancestors.
whether teeth, skulls, and bones
200,000
BCE
10,000
BCE
1-1b Early Life and Evolutionary Change
100,000
BCE
50,000
BCE
40,000
BCE
30,000
BCE
20,000
BCE
5000
BCE
4000
BCE
3000
BCE
2000
BCE
1000
BCE
200,000–100,000 BCE Modern humans in Africa
120,000 BCE Modern humans in western Asia
70,000–35,000 BCE Modern humans in India, Southeast Asia, China, Europe
20,000–15,000 BCE Modern humans in Americas
2000 BCE Modern humans to western Pacific islands
1000 BCE Modern humans to New Zealand
9500–8000 BCE Neolithic Era; beginning
of agriculture in southwestern Asia
100,000–9500 BCE Paleolithic and Mesolithic Eras
7000–5000 BCE Agriculture in Nubia, China, Mexico,
New Guinea, Greece, India, Thailand
3000 BCE Introduction of bronze
3000–1000 BCE Agriculture in island Southeast Asia, tropical West Africa, North America
1500 BCE Introduction of iron
3500–3200 BCE First cities in western Asia
3100–2000 BCE First cities in India, Egypt, China, Peru
1600–1000 BCE First cities in Crete, Mexico
100 BCE First cities in West Africa
Copyright 2021 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-208
Copyright 2021 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
12
CHAPTER 1
The Origins of Human Societies, to ca. 2000 BCE
belong to ancestors of humans, other hominid species who died
out, or apes, but fossil discoveries and analyses of DNA sometimes recovered from them point to several stages and branches
in early human evolution. A common ancestral, apelike group
living in the woodlands and savannahs of East Africa developed
occasional and then permanent bipedalism (walking upright on
two feet), making more activity possible by leaving hands free for
holding food or babies, making and manipulating objects such
as tools, and carrying food back to camp. Bipeds, being higher
off the ground, could also scan the horizon for predators or prey.
Diverse hominid groups apparently coexisted at the same
time, but only one led to modern humans. Early hominids
known as australopithecines (aw-strah-lo-PITH-uhseens) lived in eastern and southern Africa four or five million
years ago, with brains about one-third the size of our brains.
Some 2.5 million years ago one branch of australopithecines
evolved into our direct ancestor. The earth cooled, fostering the
first of a series of Ice Ages, which covered large areas of northern Eurasia and North America with deep ice sheets and glaciers. As Africa and its hominid inhabitants experienced a drier
climate and more open habitats, the challenges posed by this
climate change encouraged increased intelligence. Our likely
ancestor Homo habilis (HOH-moh HAB-uh-luhs) (“handy
human”) had a larger brain size and ability to make and use
simple stone tools for hunting and gathering. Stone choppers
and later hand axes made possible a more varied diet, more
successful hunting, and larger groups that could cooperate to
share food. The other branches of australopithecines died out.
As hominid societies developed, males increasingly became
the hunters or scavengers for meat and females the gatherers
of nuts and vegetables, a subsistence model often known as
foraging. Although meat became a more crucial protein source,
gathering still probably brought more food than hunting or
scavenging. These early humans were most likely vegetarians,
like many primates today. Cooperation between the sexes and
group members was the key to survival and probably involved
communication through gestures and vocal cries.
australopithecines Early
hominids living in eastern and
southern Africa four to five million
years ago.
Homo habilis (“handy
human”) A direct ancestor of
humans, so named because of its
increased brain size and ability to
make and use simple stone tools for
hunting and gathering.
Homo erectus (“erect
human”) A hominid that emerged
in East Africa probably between 1.8
and 2.2 million years ago.
Neanderthals Hominids
who were probably descended from
Homo erectus populations in Europe
and who later spread into western
and Central Asia.
1-1c Homo Erectus,
Neanderthals, and
Migrations Out of
Africa
Probably between 1.8 and
2.2 million years ago, when
their environment fluctuated,
more advanced hominids,
called Homo erectus (“erect
human”), evolved from Homo
habilis in East Africa. They had
a brain about two-thirds the size
of ours and eventually developed
a more complex and widespread
tool culture including hand axes,
cleavers, and scrapers. They
spread to other parts of Africa,
preferring the open savannah.
Between one and two million years ago, as southern Eurasia
developed a warmer climate, some Homo erectus bands migrated out
of Africa, perhaps following game herds. They carried with them
refined tools, more effective hunting skills, and an ability to adapt
to new environments. This first great migration in human history
corresponded to the ebb and flow of the Ice Ages as well as the
periodic drying out of the Sahara region. Over thousands of years
these hominids came to occupy northern Africa, the Middle East,
South and Southeast Asia, China, Europe, and perhaps Australia.
One of the earliest and best studied non-African sites, perhaps 1.8 million years old, was found in the Caucasus (KAW-kuhsuhs) Mountains of western Asia. Bones and tools discovered in
Chinese caves and skulls from the Indonesian island of Java, then
connected to mainland Asia, have been dated at 1.6 to 1.9 million
years ago, and one recent but controversial find in China suggests
an even older date of 2.1 million. Fossils from frigid eastern Siberia
date back 300,000 years, indicating how adaptable and resourceful
the species had become. These hominids also lived in Spain by
800,000 BCE. However, their tool cultures differed somewhat from
those of Chinese Homo erectus, indicating cultural diversity and perhaps major variation from the Asian species. By 500,000 years ago
Homo erectus in China lived in closely knit groups, engaged in cooperative hunting, and used both wood and bamboo for containers
and weapons. Most lived in caves, but some built simple wooden
huts for shelter. Their hand axes were the Swiss army knives of their
time, with a tip for piercing, thin edges for cutting, and thick edges
for scraping and chipping. Scientists debate whether Homo erectus
could use speech or make art. Finding their fossils on Indonesian
islands suggest that they could build and sail primitive boats.
Discovering how to start and control fire was perhaps the
most significant human invention. Where or when people first
used fire or how many millennia it took for knowledge of fire to
spread widely remains unclear; Homo erectus probably controlled
fire at least one million years ago. Fire opened up many possibilities, providing warmth and light after sunset, frightening away
predators, and making possible a more varied diet of cooked food,
which fostered group living and cooperation as people gathered
together around campfires. Fire also enabled ancestral humans
to spread to cooler regions, such as Europe and northern Asia.
Beginning around 400,000 years ago, a vibrant new tool culture emerged that has been identified with the Neanderthals
(nee-AN-der-thals), hominids probably related to Homo erectus.
Earlier generations of scientists, obsessed with the question
of what separates humans from nature and makes us superior,
believed that Neanderthals were very primitive compared to modern humans, but we now know that they were just as evolved and
social as, and behaved in similar ways to, modern humans, and in
fact contributed genes to us. Neanderthals gradually inhabited a
wide region stretching from North Africa to western and Central
Asia and, by 200,000 BCE, Europe, especially Spain and
Germany. We might have cartoonish images of Neanderthals as
simple-minded brutes whacking each other with clubs, but their
cranial capacity equaled that of modern humans, and they had
larger bodies. Skillful hunters with deadly spears, they ate large
animals as well as plants and shellfish. Neanderthals maintained
social values, buried their dead, cared for the sick and injured,
and produced impressive cave art. Scholars debate whether they
possessed spoken language, but agree that they were capable of
Copyright 2021 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-208
Copyright 2021 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
1-1 Prehistory: The Cosmos, Earth, and the Roots of Humanity
communication, used tools, made bone flutes, wore jewelry, and
sailed boats to Mediterranean islands. Recent fossil discoveries in
Siberia and Tibet suggest that a species related to Neanderthals,
known as Denisovans (dun-EE-suh-vinz), may have once
been widespread in eastern Eurasia before the arrival of modern
humans, but their exact relationship to the Neanderthals and to
modern humans is a matter of debate. Recent genetic studies
suggest that Neanderthals and Denisovans also interbred with
at least three other unknown early human groups as they spread
across Eurasia.
Neanderthals had long lived in Palestine when modern
humans arrived there from Africa and apparently shared the territory for many centuries. Around 45,000 years ago some modern,
tool-using humans, known as Cro-Magnons (krow-MAG-nuns)
after a French cave where early fossils were found, began migrating
into Europe from Asia. Recent analyses have found that modern
humans in Europe and Asia (but not Africa) have a small number of
Neanderthal genes, suggesting some interbreeding. Many people in
eastern Asia and the Pacific islands also inherited 3 to 5 percent of
their DNA from Denisovans. A recent but disputed study suggests
that Denosovans may have mated with modern humans as recently
as 15,000 years ago. Recent finds also reveal some possible cases of
Neanderthal–Denisovan mixing. Modern humans inherited some
Neanderthal DNA that helps protect us from certain infections.
The last Neanderthals died out by 30,000 BCE. Whether and how
Neanderthals were ultimately annihilated, outnumbered, outcompeted, assimilated, or simply outlasted by the more resourceful and
adaptable modern humans, who had better technology and warmer
clothing, generates much debate among scholars.
1-1d The Evolution and Diversity of
Homo Sapiens
The transition from Homo erectus to archaic forms of
Homo sapiens (“thinking human”), a species physically close
to modern humans, began around 400,000 years ago in Africa.
By 200,000 years ago a more widespread, complex tool culture
indicated Homo sapiens occupation. Eventually members of
Homo sapiens were the only surviving hominids and humanity
became a single species, despite some superficial differences.
With a larger brain, Archaic (early) Homo sapiens were more
adaptive and intelligent, able to think conceptually. They lived
in fairly large organized groups, built temporary shelters, created crude lunar calendars, killed whole herds of animals, and
raised more children to adulthood. Possession of language
gave Homo sapiens an advantage over all other creatures, allowing them to share information over the generations, adjust to
their environment, and overcome challenges collectively.
Scientists debate precisely how and where Homo erectus
evolved into Homo sapiens, with some arguing that the evolution occurred in different parts of the Afro-Eurasian zone. The
most widely supported scenario based on rich finds, called the
African Origins theory, suggests that Homo sapiens evolved only
in Africa. Until recently, the oldest known fossils of our species in East Africa dated back about 195,000 years. But fossils
discovered in 2017 in Morocco, in far northeastern Africa thousands of miles from East Africa, are roughly 300,000 years old,
suggesting that, if other scientists confirm the finds as Homo
13
sapiens, not just East Africa but the whole African continent
might be considered the “cradle of humankind.” More discoveries in the future may well deepen our knowledge but also
complicate our understanding of the human past.
Whatever the case many Homo sapiens eventually left Africa,
perhaps in several dispersals or waves likely sparked by sporadic
climate change, and then spread throughout Afro-Eurasia, displacing and ultimately dooming the remaining Homo erectus,
Neanderthals, and Denisovans. The study of genetic codes
mostly supports the African Origins theory. But many mysteries
about hominid evolution remain. For example, scientists debate
whether a controversial 210,000-year-old skull found in Greece
is Neanderthal or Homo sapien, raising questions about human
migration from Africa. And 18,000-year-old bones of diminutive but tool-using hominids, 3 to 3.5 feet tall as adults, on the
small remote Indonesian island of Flores sparked debate as to
where these fossils fit into the human family tree. The Flores
people (nicknamed by observers “hobbits” because of their small
stature) may have been miniature versions of Homo erectus or
Homo sapiens or perhaps constituted some unknown, and more
primitive, human-like species. In 2019 another fossil discovery in
a Philippine cave adds to the mystery. What scientists have named
Homo luzonensus (“Luzon Man”), who seems to have had a mix
of human, Homo erectus, Homo floresiensis, and australopithecus
traits and may also have been small in size, lived there fifty thousand years ago and may or may not descend from Homo erectus or
perhaps Denisovans. No land bridges ever connected Luzon or
Flores to the Asian mainland, raising more questions as to how
they got to the islands. These finds confirm that human evolution
was highly versatile and diverse as groups adapted to unknown
conditions around the world.
However and wherever the evolution into Homo sapiens
occurred, all humans came to constitute one species that could
interbreed and communicate with each other. It remains
unclear whether a few differences in physical features, such
as skin and hair color and eye and face shape, developed earlier or later in Homo sapiens evolution. Recent studies suggest
that these appeared between 40,000 and 100,000 years ago.
In the past, some scholars attempted to explain these physical
differences through allegedly objective or scientific categories,
such as the nineteenth-century concept of “race,” or a large
group thought to share distinctive genetic traits and physical characteristics. Attempts to organize societies by such categories have produced horrible abuses, systematic inequalities,
and even genocide. But, by the late twentieth century, most
experts discarded “race” as a
scientific concept not only
Denisovans Hominids related
to Neanderthals who lived in
because of its inability to claseastern Eurasia.
sify human populations and its
harmful legacy, but also because
Cro-Magnons The first
modern, tool-using humans in
“race” is now viewed as a social
Europe.
construct—a subjective concept created by individuals and
Homo sapiens (“thinking
human”) A hominid who evolved
groups to describe their identiaround 400,000 years ago and from
ties and those of others. Such
whom anatomically modern humans
categories change with time
(Homo sapiens sapiens) evolved
and social context and are not
around 100,000 years ago.
scientific fact. Much genetic
Copyright 2021 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-208
Copyright 2021 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
CHAPTER 1
The Origins of Human Societies, to ca. 2000 BCE
SPL/Science Source
14
IMAGE 1.2 The Laetoli Footprints Some four million
years ago in Tanzania, three australopithecines walked across
a muddy field covered in ash from a nearby volcanic eruption.
When the mud dried, their tracks were permanently preserved,
providing evidence of some of the earliest upright hominids.
Q
What about our hominid ancestors do you
think scientists can learn from ancient footprints?
intermixing occurred over the millennia. Observable physical attributes such as skin color reflect a tiny portion of one’s
genetic makeup and thus cannot predict whether two groups
are genetically similar or different. For example, the earliest
hunter gatherers in Britain ten thousand years ago may have
had dark skin, but later arrivals, farmers from the Middle East,
intermarried with them. For all of these reasons, some argue
that there is no such thing as a pure “European,” or anyone else,
in the past or today. Scientifically speaking, humans are much
more similar than different.
Sometime between 135,000 and 100,000 years ago in
Africa, anatomically modern humans with slightly larger
brains, known as Homo sapiens sapiens, developed out of Homo
sapiens. With this biological change, language and culture
expanded in new directions and developed many variations.
Scholars debate whether creativity, intelligence, and even
language abilities were innate to Homo sapiens sapiens, as suggested by advanced stone tools and wall paintings in South
African caves from 75,000 to 100,000 years ago, or arose only
some 50,000 years ago, possibly as a result of a genetic mutation. With this great transition humanity reached its present
level of intellectual and physical development, establishing
the foundation for the constant expansion of information networks to a global level.
Modern human language development made possible
complex cultures with shared learning and became the main
method of communication for much of history. Five or six
thousand languages emerged around the globe. Some, such as
English and German, have a clear common ancestry, but scholars debate the relationships and origins of most of the world’s
languages. Human intellectual development also included
thinking in abstract, symbolic ways, revealed early in decoration
and art. Ocher (O-ker), for example, a natural red iron oxide,
was mined in various African locations and probably used for
body decoration. The first gorgeous cave and rock art appeared
at opposite ends of Eurasia, in southwestern Europe and
Southeast Asia, around forty thousand years ago, and over the
next ten thousand years became widespread in Africa, Eurasia,
and Australia. This shows that art was developing about the
same time across the Eastern Hemisphere. The art probably
had magical, religious, or ritual purposes, such as the celebration of spirits or valued animals. But some old cave paintings
in Europe represent star constellations, telling us about their
concept of time and interest in the seasons or the future.
1-1e The Globalization of Human Settlement
Pushed by changing environments sparking a quest for food
resources, beginning by around 120,000 years ago or perhaps
even earlier, and continuing until some 12,000 years ago, restless modern humans settled much of the world. As people
spread, genetic differences grew and Homo sapiens sapiens
proved able to adapt to many environments. Some had already
left Africa to settle in Palestine, where they likely encountered
and perhaps interbred with Neanderthals. Eventually modern
humans reached central and eastern Eurasia, from where some
moved on to Australia and the Americas.
With many traveling east along or near the Indian Ocean
coast, and others perhaps taking a northern route through
Central Asia, modern humans crossed to the eastern half of
Asia, arriving in India and Southeast Asia by 70,000 years
ago and maybe earlier, China between 70,000 and 120,000
years ago, Japan by 25,
