Week 5
Other names for hunting and gathering
foraging
procurement (as against production)
simple appropriation of nature
What are the 4 major turning points in history?
1 animals to humans
2 hunting and gathering to agriculture
3 non-state early farmers to state societies
4 traditional agrarian societies to modernity
Some groups transition from migratory to sedentary life in 3 steps. What are these steps?
stage 1 (migratory) hunting and gathering
stage 2 migratory agriculture
moving your village every 8-10 years or so
evidence from medieval deserted villages
pollen studies for the continuity/discontinuity of cultivation
why? because of lack of fertilizer
stage 3 sedentary agriculture
two-crop rotation
2 possible reasons for over taxation
sheer ignorance (of peasant conditions)
* newly invading groups
Stalin and Ukraine
greed, rapacity, ruthlessness
+ tax-farming
roving bands and their depredations in the countryside
the state growing heavier and more expensive
warfare, especially protracted warfare
exceptional or emergency taxes becoming more and more frequent
Stages in the domestication
and use of the horse
initially hunted
then domesticated, and bred for its flesh, blood,
and eventually milk
then the invention of the wheel
the solid disc-wheel the ox cart
the light spoked wheel war chariots (c.1500
BC)
then learning to ride horses
saddle, bridle, reins
later, the stirrup
finally, mounted archery (a complete weapon
system)
Briefly describe the periodization, livelihood, materials, technology, and social organization of hunters and gatherers
periodization, time-frame: prehistory
livelihood: hunting and gathering
materials, technology: the Stone Ages
social organization: tribal society; in time, chiefs and chiefdoms
When and where did the agricultural revolution start?
Around 12-10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent which is a cluster of sites around the upper Tigris and Euphrates
Jared Diamond discusses two factors that lead to population growth with the development of agriculture. What are they?
capacity to feed higher populations & higher rate of childbirth
3 possible reasons for over taxation
sheer ignorance (of peasant conditions)
* newly invading groups
Stalin and Ukraine
greed, rapacity, ruthlessness
+ tax-farming
roving bands and their depredations in the countryside
the state growing heavier and more expensive
warfare, especially protracted warfare
exceptional or emergency taxes becoming more and more frequent
Who were the Scythians?
steppe group
mounted archery
don't know much about them
possibly the same as the sakas
seem to have almost come out of nowhere and disappeared relatively quickly
How do we know about pre historic hunters and gatherers?
1. archeology: lots of animal bones and a significant amount of stone tools found together
2. cave paintings (Stone Age art)
some 340 caves in France and Spain
Maltravieso (64,000 ya), Chauvet (30,000 ya),
Lascaux (15,000 ya), Altamira (10,000 ya)
(also South Africa)
simple hand stencils, then figurative art
magnificent animals
puny, matchstick humans
3. modern hunters and gatherers
4. myths and legends
the Orkhon-Yenisei inscriptions
When was the holocene interglacial and how does Michael Cook describe it?
11,700
A window of opportunity opens before us and we jump through that window of opportunity, so that there comes about a sudden and enormous acceleration
Describe the process of settling- forming villages?
finding a likely spot
soil, water, a nearby wood or forest
self-defence (whether there is a state or not)
maybe a hilltop position
a cluster of cottages
clearing the land (burn-and-slash methods)
Describe William H. McNeill’s conceptualization:“macro-parasitism”
a biological metaphor
what is a parasite?
host animal
parasite
what is a successful parasite?
does not kill its host animal
(or does not kill it too quickly)
what is an unsuccessful parasite?
kills its host animal before it itself has time to
reproduce
Describe how shamanism is both a belief system and a principle of social organization
what the clan is or believes:
descent from a common ancestor
the (past) clan ancestor/totem
and the (present) clan chief
the clan chief, magician, medicine man, witch-doctor or shaman
what he can do (how he can change shape
and travel between two worlds)
Describe a neolithic settlement
Çayönü Tepesi or Çatalhöyük
Çayönü Tepesi. Neolithic settlement in southeastern Turkey, c.8,630 - 6,800 BC. Forty kilometres north-west of Diyarbakır, at the foot of the Taurus mountains, near Boğazçay (a tributary of the upper Tigris/Dicle River.Excavated for 16 seasons over 1964-1991, first by Robert John Braidwood and Halet Çambel, then by Mehmet Özdoğan and Aslı Erim Özdoğan. Covers the periods of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA), the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB), and the Pottery Neolithic (PN). An analysis of blood found at the site suggests that human sacrifice was practiced.
Çayönü is possibly the place where the pig (Sus scrofa) was first domesticated. Genetic studies of emmer wheat, the precursor of most current wheat species, show that the slopes of Mount Karaca (Karaca Dağ), which is located in close vicinity to Çayönü, was the location of first domestication.
Robert Braidwood wrote that "insofar as unit HA can be considered as representing all of the major pre-historic occupation at Cayonu, cultivated emmer along with cultivated einkorn was present from the earliest sub-phase."
Çatalhöyük (from Turkish çatal "fork" + höyük "tumulus").
A very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic proto-city settlement in southern Anatolia,
which existed over approx. 7100 - 5700 BC, and flourished around 7000 BC.
In July 2012, it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Çatalhöyük is located overlooking the Konya Plain,
southeast of the present-day city of Konya (ancient Iconium) in Turkey,
approximately 140 km from the twin-coned volcano of Mount Hasan.
There is an eastern mound and a smaller western mound.
The whole settlement was built on alluvial clay which may have been favorable for early agriculture.
What does Jared Diamond call the worst mistake in the history of the human race and why?
Agriculture
Possible reasons:
Inequality
height
quality vs quantity
malnutrition starvation epidemics
Includes an agrarian society that is taxed
must have a military, fortifications for the city like a city wall, palace
Possibly a bureaucracy, marketplace, or place of worship