Charlotte Werner
AP World History
Chapter 1
Pages 3-33

• Today every significant landmass on earth is occupied by human beings, but it was not always so. A mere half million years ago our species did not exist, and only 100,000 years ago that species was limited to Africa and numbered, some scholars believe, fewer than 10,000 individuals.
• The “Paleolithic” era literally means “the stone age.”
• But it usually refers more generally to the food-collecting or hunter-gatherer way of life. Before agriculture allowed people to grow food or raise animals.
• Lasting until 11,000 years ago, the Paleolithic era represents over 95 percent of the time that human beings have inhabited the earth, although it accounts
• It was during this time that Homo sapiens colonized the world, making themselves at home in every environmental niche, from the frigid Artic to the rain forests of Central Africa and Brazil, in mountains, deserts, and plains. It was an amazing achievement, accomplished by no other large species. Accompanying this global migration were slow changes in the technological tool kids of early humankind.
• In late 2009, almost all of the worlds 6.8 billion people lived from the food grown on farms and gardens from domesticated animals raised for their meat, milk, or eggs, but this was not always so. In fact, before 11,000 years ago, no one survived in this fashion. Then repeatedly and fairly rapidly, human communities arose.

 

CHAPTER 1: First Peoples Populating the Planet to 10,000 B.C.E.

• The Hazda people of northern Tanzania where questioned in 1997 about their interest in settled life of farming and cattle rising.
• With only about 1,000 people total, the Hazda represent one of the very last peoples on earth to continue a way of life that was universal among humankind until 10,000 to 12,000 years ago.
• They are one of the last hunter-gatherer peoples on earth and are likely to disappear soon.
• For 95 percent of the time that our species has been on earth, they have used the hunter-gatherer way of life.
• They scavenged for dead animals and gathered berries, nuts, roots, and grain.
• Rather than being hunter-gatherers, they were known as food collectors rather than producers.
• Because they also used stone tools rather than metal, they were considered Paleolithic people or stone-age peoples.
• History books usually neglect this aspect of history.
• The first 150,000 years or more of human history and experience was exclusively African. Around 250,000 years ago, in the grasslands of eastern and southern Africa, Homo sapiens first emerged, following in the footsteps of many other hominid species before it. Time and climate have erased much of the record of these early people and Africa has witnessed much less archeological research than have other parts of the world, especially Europe.
• Africa was the place of the “human rev.”
• Hunting and fishing not just scavenging.
• Use of ornaments for planned burials
• They began migrating out of Africa 100,000-60,000 years ago
• Adapted to every environment on earth and much of the difficulty came from last Ice Age.

Into Eurasia

• Human migration out of Africa led first to the Middle East and from their westward into Europe about 45,000 years ago and eastward into Asia.
• Among the most carefully researched was southern France and northern Spain. Colder Ice age climates around 20,000 years ago apparently pushed more northerly European peoples southward into warmer regions.
• They altered hunting habits
• Developed new technologies such as spear throwers
• Bow and arrow as well as many stone tools
• Left a record of their world in cave paintings, perhaps even early forms of writing in the paintings as well
• Examples of totemic thinking: the belief that particular groups of people were associated with, or descended from, particular animals. Did they represent a form of hunting magic intended to enhance the success of these early hunters?
• Developed new technologies in Ukraine and Russia.
• Bone needles, multilayered clothing, weaving, nets, storage pits, baskets, and pottery.
• Partially underground dwellings constructed from the bones and tusks of mammoths compensated for the absence of caves and rock shelters.
• Suggests a permanent settlement, which means they temporarily abandoned their nomadic lifestyle.
• Associated with these Eastern European peoples were numerous female figurines, the earliest of which was uncovered in 2008 in Germany.
• So-called Venus figurines depict exaggerated female form.

Into Australia

• Humans reached Australia about 60,000 years ago from Indonesia and also involved another new ideology—boats.
• Very sparse settlements only around 300,000 people settled in 1788.
• Over tens of thousands of years, over 250 languages were developed
• Collected a wide variety of bulbs, tubers, roots, seeds, and other cereal grasses; and hunted large and small animals, as well as birds, fish, and other marine life.
• Simple technology, hunting and gathering way of life
• Complex worldview
• The Dreamtime
• Recounted the beginning of time like how ancestral beings crisscrossed the land, creating its rivers, hills, rocks, and waterholes; how various peoples came to inhabit the land; and how they related to animals and to one another. In this view of the world, everything in the natural order is an echo of ancient happenings.
• This means that current peoples are intimately related to places and events in the past
• Major communication, migration, and exchange networks.
• Included stones, pigments, wood, pituri (psychoactive drug)
• Also included songs, dances, stories, and rituals.

Into the Americas

• Early settlement in Western America occurred much later than that of Australia.
• When it began is still under question and historians/experts still argue over this.
• Precisely the first migration was somewhere between 30,000 and 15,000 years ago
• The route of migration was by land across the Bering Strait or by sea down the west coast of North America. About how many migrations took place, and about how long it took for people to penetrate to the tip of South America.
• Evidence suggests that there was human activities in southern Chile by 12,500 years ago
• First widespread culture in the Americas was called Clovis.
• Name comes from the point where this was: Clovis Point
• Flourished around 12,000-11,000 years ago and was scattered all over North America.
• Scattered bands of Clovis people ranged over huge areas, camping along rivers, springs, and waterholes, where large animals congregated.
• Shown to have hunted very large animals such as mammoths and bison.
• Killing a single mammoth could provide food for many weeks or, in cold weather for much of the winter.
• The wide distribution of the Clovis people suggests a regional pattern of cultural change and at least indirect communication over a large area.
• Around 10,000 years ago people disappeared at the same time as the extinction of may animals including the mammoth.

Into the Pacific

• Last phase of the great human migration to the ends of the earth took place in the Pacific Ocean and was distinctive in many ways.
• Occurred only around 3,500 years ago
• From the islands of Bismarck and Solomon and the Philippines
• Very quick migration through the water and remarkable navigational skills over very long distances
• Spoke Austronesian languages (can be trace to southern China)
• They settled in every habitable piece of land in the Pacific basin within 2,500 years
• Both rapid and vast
• Settled on the island of Madagascar as well
• Made Austronesian the most widespread language family.
• Completed initial human settlement of the world ca. 900 c.e. With occupation of Aotearoa (New Zealand)
• Pacific settlers were undertaken by people with technology
• They took the agriculture with them unlike other migrations
• Carried both domesticated plants and animals in their canoes.
• Virtually everywhere they went two developments followed.
• Creation of highly stratified societies or chiefdoms, of which ancient Hawaiian society is a prime example
• Created deliberate colonization plan
• Massive environmental impact on previously uninhabited lands

The Ways We Were
First Human Societies

• Paleolithic societies were small
• Consisted of bands of 20-50 people in whom they were all closely-knit and personal in terms of kinship, etc.
• No anonymity or hiding in the crowd was possible in a society of relatives.
• The available technology only permitted a very low population density and ensured an extremely slow rate of population growth.
• Extremely small population of maybe 10,000 people 100,000 years ago and grew to 500,000 by 30,000 years ago and 6 million 10,000 years ago
• Paleolithic bands were seasonally mobile or nomadic
• And in regular patterns would exploit wild animals and plants
• Low productivity of a gathering and hunting economy normally did not allow the production of much surplus, and because the people were on the move so often, the transportation of goods was out of the question.
• Resulted in highly egalitarian societies, lacking the many inequalities of wealth and power that came with later agricultural and urban life.
• No formal wealth and power that came with later agricultural and urban life.
• No formal chiefs, kings, bureaucrats, soldiers, nobles or priests.
• Paleolithic people were freer of tyranny and oppression than any other human society, even if they were more constrained by the forces of nature.
• Didn't have people who specialized in any specific form of training so they possessed same skill set
• Male and female tasks often differed sharply
• Relationship between man and woman were far more equal than in later societies
• Primary food gatherers: women gathered the bulk of family income
• James Cook described the gathering and hunting peoples of Australia as tranquil and socially equal
• European settlers found physical competition among Australian males, wife beating
• Paleolithic societies had clearly defined rules and structures
• The men hunted, and the women were gatherers
• There were clear rules about distribution of meat from a kill
• There were clear rules about incest and adultery governed sexual behavior, while understandings about who could hunt or gather in a particular territory regulated economic activity.
• From this leaders arose to organize a task like hunts, without giving specific power/permanent power to any one being.

Economy and the Environment

• Gathering and hunting peoples were viewed as primitive and impoverished
• Modern studies point out that they worked fewer hours to meet their material needs than did people in agricultural or industrial societies and had more leisure time.
• Referred to as the original affluent society
• Life expectancy was dangerous and dependency on vagaries of nature rendered it insecure as well—life expectancy was VERY low (35 years old).
• There was also alteration to the natural environment substantially
• Fires were set deliberately to encourage the growth of certain plants
• Extinction of many large animals came shortly after humans arrived
• Gradual extinction of other hominids, like the Neanderthals (Europe) and Flores man (Indonesia)

 

The Realm of the Spirit

• Difficult to decipher the spiritual world of the Paleolithic peoples because bones tell us little about what they were actually thinking.
• Lack of written sources
• Art is subject to much interpretation for different people
• Contemporary gathering and hunting peoples may not reflect ancient experience
• Paleolithic peoples had a rich ceremonial life
• Led by part-time shamans (people essentially skilled at dealing with the spirit world)
• Frequent use of psychoactive drugs to contact these spirits
• Wide variety of beliefs
• Some societies were seemingly monotheistic
• Other societies saw several levels of supernatural beings
• Still believed in an impersonal force running throughout the natural order
• Could be accessed by shamans in a trance dance
• Venus figures make some scholars think that the Paleolithic region was a strongly feminine one with a Great Goddess
• Many peoples probably had a cyclical view of time.

 

Settling Down: The Great Transition

• Gradual change as populations grew, climates changed, and peoples interacted
• Collection of wild grains began in northeastern Africa around 16,000 years ago
• The last Ice Age ended 16,000-10,000 years ago
• It was then followed by a “global warming” period
• Richer and more diverse environment for human societies
• Population increase
• Began the start of settlements
• Settlements led to societal change
• Larger and more complex societies began
• Storage and accumulation of goods led to inequality between people
• Social classes
• Settling down began in many areas 12,000-4,000 years ago
• Jomon culture in Japan
• Scandinavia, Southeast Asia, North America, Middle East
• The process of settlement was a major turn in human history
• Placed greater demand on environment, led to agriculture

 

Comparing Paleolithic Societies

• Both the San and Chumash preserved ancient styles of life in modern times
• The San of Southern Africa
• Northern fringe of the Kalahari Desert (present-day Angola, Namibia, Botswana)
• 50,000-80,000 San still live in the region
• Part of the Khoisan language family, inhabited southern Africa at least 5,000 years
• Gathering and hunting way of life, with stone tools
• Remarkable rock art, going back 26,000 years
• Tradition went through 19th century
• Reflected the religious experience of trance healers
• Most of the Khoisan peoples were absorbed or displaced by Bantu-speaking peoples
• The San (Ju/’hoansi) still practiced their ancient life with few borrowings when anthropologists started studying them in the 1950s and 1960s
• Use some twenty-eight tools, including digging stick, leather garment for carrying things, knife, spear, bow and poisoned arrows, ropes, and nets
• Men hunt, women do most of gathering
• Adequate diet
• Short workweek, with even labor division between men and women
• Uncertain and anxious life, dependent on nature
• San society characterized by mobility, sharing, and equality
• Basic unit is band of 10–30 people, connected to other bands
• Many people claimed membership in more than one band
• Frequent movement to new territory
• No formal leaders, priests, or craft specialists
• Very complex social relations
• High value given to modesty, cooperation, equality
•  E.g., “insulting the meat”: a hunter is expected to disparage his accomplishment
• Complex system of unequal gift exchange
• Relative equality between the sexes
• Free sex play between teenagers
• Most marriages monogamous
• Frequent divorce among younger couples
• Frequent conflict over distribution of meat; rivalries over women
• Belief System:                                                                                
• Creator God, Gao Na, is capricious
• Lesser god Gauwa is destructive but sometimes assists humans
• Gauwasi (spirits of dead ancestors) are most serious threat to human welfare
• Evil influences can be counteracted with n/um, a spiritual potency that can be activated in “curing dances”
• State of warfare with the divine

 

The Chumash of Southern California

• Show a later Paleolithic stage than the San, with permanent villages
• Lived near present day Santa Barbara, California
• Richer environment than San
• 20,000 peoples when the Spaniards arrived in the 16th century
• Chumash created new society after 1150 c.e. In response to violence and food shortages
• Central technological innovation: the planked canoe (tomol)
• Ability to make own tomol led to social inequality
• Stimulated trade between the coast and the islands
• Made deep-sea fishing possible
• Living conditions were more elaborate than the San people
• Round, permanent, substantial housing for up to 70 people
• A market economy, despite being gathering and hunting peoples
• Use of money (stringed beads)
• Regulation of the money supply to prevent inflation
• Specialized production
• Payment for services of dancers, healers and buriers
• Some private ownership
• Beginning of social class distinctions (ex. Bearskin capes, burials)
• Emergence of a permanent, hereditary political elite class
• Chiefs (some were actually women) led in war and rituals, regulated trade
• Periodic feasts for the poor
• Chumash largely solved the problems of violence with in the region.

 

Reflections: The Uses of the Paleolithic

• The study of history is about those who tell it today, not just those in the past
• Views from the past reflect our own smugness and disillusionment
• Paleolithic era is sometimes regarded as a golden age
• Admired by feminists, environmentalists, ant materialists
• Scholars look up to the Paleolithic era in questioning explosive population and economic growth of recent past.
• Hunter gatherer peoples have looked to Paleolithic era in an effort to maintain or recover their identities
• Most important, and most basic question: What have we lost in the mad rush to modernity, and how can we recover it?
• Those who have looked to the Paleolithic era as backwardness and those who praise it, its simplicity and equality seek to use these ancient people for their own purposes.
• In our efforts to piece together the past, all of us—historians and students alike—stand somewhere
• None of us can be entirely detached when we view the past, but this is not necessarily a matter for regret.
• Passion is a good thing.
• Reminds us of kinship to finding our own way in this world.