CHAPTER 1
The Neolithic Revolution and the Birth of Civilization
Introduction: definitions of civilization
Elements: urban, monumental building, writing, specialized occupations
Connotation v. denotation
I. Human Life in the Era of Hunters and Gatherers.
Homo sapiens by 10,000 B.C.E.
larger brain, tools, weapons
A. The Spread of Human Culture
Developments by 12,000 B.C.E.
Hunting-gathering, art
B. Human Society and Daily Life at the End of the Paleolithic Age
Variety
Bands of hunter-gatherers, agricultural settlements
Gender division of labor
Men: hunting, fishing, defending
Women: gathering, making medicine
C. Settling Down: Dead Ends and Transitions.
Central Russia
c. 18,000 to 10,000 B.C.E.
Hunting mammoths, gathering wild plants
Trading
Social stratification
Eventual disappearance
Natufian Complex
Jordan River Valley, 10,500 to 8000 B.C.E.
Barley, wheat
Hunting-gathering
More densely-populated
Building
Society: stratified, matrilineal, and matrilocal
Abandoned after 9000 B.C.E.
D. A Precarious Existence
II. Agriculture and the Origins of Civilization: The Neolithic Revolution
Sedentary agriculture
Animals domesticated
Development of towns
Causes?
Climatic shifts
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The Domestication of Plants and Animals
Plants: slow development
Animals: from 12,000 B.C.E.: dogs, sheep, goats, pigs
A. The Spread of the Neolithic Revolution
Hunting-and-gathering persists
Pastoralism
Sub-Saharan Africa: root and tree crops
Northern China: millet
Rice
Southeast Asia, to China, India, islands
Mesoamerica, Peru
Maize, manioc, sweet potatoes
B. The Transformation of Material Life
Population
Before agriculture: 5-8 million
By 4000 B.C.E., 60 or 70 million
C. Social Differentiation
Specialized occupations
Regional exchange of goods
Communal ownership
Women lose political and economic roles
III. The First Towns: Seedbeds of Civilization
A. Jericho
Jordan River
urbanized by 7000 B.C.E..
cultivation of wheat, barley
also hunting, trading
Building
wall and ditch, brick houses, plaster hearths, stone mills
Rule by elite
B. Çatal Hüyük.
c. 7000 B.C.E., southern Turkey
Large complex
Agriculture, commerce
Shrines
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C. The 4th Millennium B.C.E.: Another watershed
Innovations: plow, wheel
Copper, stone, and bronze
States: larger, centralized
Trade networks
Writing facilitates trade, holding power, cultural exchange
KEY TERMS
Hunting and gathering: means of obtaining subsistence by humans before the mastery of
sedentary agriculture; normally typical of tribal social organization.
Civilization: societies with reliance on sedentary agriculture, ability to produce food surpluses,
and existence of nonfarming elites, along with merchant and manufacturing groups.
Paleolithic: the Old Stone Age ending in 12,000 B.C.E.; typified by use of evolving stone tools
and hunting and gathering for subsistence.
Neolithic: the New Stone Age between 8000 and 5000 B.C.E.; period in which adaptation of
sedentary agriculture occurred; domestication of plants and animals accomplished.
Nomads: cattle- and sheep-herding societies normally found on the fringes of civilized societies;
commonly referred to as “barbarian” by civilized societies.
“Savages”: societies engaged in either hunting and gathering for subsistence or in migratory
cultivation; not as stratified or specialized as civilized and nomadic societies.
Culture: combinations of ideas, objects, and patterns of behavior that result from human social
interaction.
Homo sapiens: the species of humanity that emerged as most successful at the end of the
Paleolithic.
Neanderthals: species of genus Homo that disappeared at the end of the Paleolithic.
Band: a level of social organization normally consisting of between 20 and 30 people; nomadic
hunters and gatherers; labor divided on a gender basis.
Agrarian revolution: occurred between 8000 and 5000 B.C.E.; transition from hunting and
gathering to sedentary agriculture.
Natufian complex: preagricultural culture, located in present-day Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon;
practiced collection of wild barley and wheat to supplement game; large settlement sites.
Matrilocal: a culture in which young men, upon marriage, go to live with the bride’s family.
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Matrilineal: family descent and inheritance traced through the female line.
Shifting cultivation: the practice of farming temporarily, then abandoning a site, sometimes
when productivity is diminished.
Pastoralism: a nomadic agricultural lifestyle based on herding domesticated animals; tended to
produce independent people capable of challenging sedentary agricultural societies.
Huanghe (Yellow) River Basin: site of the development of sedentary agriculture in China.
Mesoamerica: Mexico and Central America; along with Peru, site of development of sedentary
agriculture in Western Hemisphere.
Jericho: early walled urban culture based on sedentary agriculture; located in modern Israel,
occupied West Bank near Jordan River.
Çatal Hüyük: early urban culture based on sedentary agriculture; located in modern southern
Turkey; larger in population than Jericho, had greater degree of social stratification.
Bronze Age: from 4000 to 3000 B.C.E.; increased use of plow, metalworking; development of
wheeled vehicles, writing.
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