Chapter 1 Targets

Question 1

Austronesian migrations:

Answer 1

The last phase of the great human migration that established a human presence in every habitable region of the earth.

Question 2

Austronesian-speaking people:

Answer 2

settled the Pacific islands and Madagascar in a series of seaborne migrations that began around 3,500 years ago.(pron. aws-troe-NEEZH-an).

Question 3

Brotherhood of the Tomol:

Answer 3

A prestigious craft guild that monopolized the building and ownership of large oceangoing canoes, or tomols (pron. toe-mole), among the Chumash people (located in what is now southern California).

Question 4

Chumash culture:

Answer 4

Paleolithic culture of southern California that survived until the modern era.

Question 5

Clovis culture:

Answer 5

The earliest widespread and distinctive culture of North America; named from the Clovis point, a particular kind of projectile point.

Question 6

Dreamtime:

Answer 6

A complex worldview of Australia’s Aboriginal people that held that current humans live in a vibration or echo of ancestral happenings.

Question 7

Flores man:

Answer 7

A recently discovered hominid species of Indonesia.

Question 8

“gathering and hunting peoples”:

Answer 8

As the name suggests, people who live by collecting food rather than producing it. Recent scholars have turned to this term instead of the older “huntergatherer” in recognition that such societies depend much more heavily on gathering than on hunting for survival.

Question 9

great goddess:

Answer 9

According to one theory, a dominant deity of the Paleolithic era.

Question 10

Hadza:

Answer 10

A people of northern Tanzania, almost the last surviving Paleolithic society. (pron. HAHDzah)

Question 11

“human revolution”:

Answer 11

The term used to describe the transition of humans from acting out of biological imperative to dependence on learned or invented ways of living (culture).

Question 12

Ice Age:

Answer 12

Any of a number of cold periods in the earth’s history; the last Ice Age was at its peak around 20,000
years ago.

Question 13

“insulting the meat”:

Answer 13

A San cultural practice meant to deflate pride that involved negative comments about the
meat brought in by a hunter and the expectation that a successful hunter would disparage his own kill.

Question 14

Jomon culture:

Answer 14

A settled Paleolithic culture of prehistoric Japan, characterized by seaside villages and the creation of some of the world’s earliest pottery. (pron. JOE-mahn)

Question 15

megafaunal extinction:

Answer 15

Dying out of a number of large animal species, including the mammoth and several species of horses and camels, that occurred around 11,000–10,000 years ago, at the end of the Ice Age. The extinction may have been caused by excessive hunting or by the changing climate of the era. (pron. meg-ah-FAWN-al)

Question 16

Neanderthals:

Answer 16

Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, a European variant of Homo sapiens that died out about 25,000 years ago.

Question 17

n/um:

Answer 17

Among the San, a spiritual potency that becomes activated during “curing dances” and protects humans
from the malevolent forces of gods or ancestral spirits.

Question 18

“the original affluent society”:

Answer 18

Term coined by the scholar Marshall Sahlins in 1972 to describe Paleolithic societies, which he regarded as affluent not because they had so much but because they wanted or needed so little.

Question 19

Paleolithic:

Answer 19

Literally “old stone age”; the term used to describe early Homo sapiens societies in the period before the development of agriculture.

Question 20

Paleolithic rock art:

Answer 20

While this term can refer to the art of any gathering and hunting society, it is typically used to describe the hundreds of Paleolithic paintings discovered in Spain and France and dating to about 20,000 years ago; these paintings usually depict a range of animals, although human figures and abstract designs are also found. The purpose of this art is debated.

Question 21

Paleolithic “settling down”:

Answer 21

The process by which some Paleolithic peoples moved toward permanent settlement in the wake of the last Ice Age. Settlement was marked by increasing storage of food and accumulation of goods as well as growing inequalities in society.

Question 22

San, or Ju/’hoansi:

Answer 22

A Paleolithic people still living on the northern fringe of the Kalahari desert in southern Africa. (pron. ZHUN-twasi)

Question 23

shaman:

Answer 23

In many early societies, a person believed to have the ability to act as a bridge between living humans
and supernatural forces, often by means of trances induced by psychoactive drugs.

Question 24

trance dance:

Answer 24

In San culture, a nightlong ritual held to activate a human being’s inner spiritual potency(n/um) to counteract the evil influences of gods and ancestors. The practice was apparently common to the Khoisan people, of whom the Ju/’hoansi are a surviving remnant.

Question 25

Venus figurines:

Answer 25

Paleolithic carvings of the female form, often with exaggerated breasts, buttocks, hips, and stomachs, which may have had religious significance.

Question 26

What is the significance of the Paleolithic Era in World History?

Answer 26

There were about 8 Ice Ages, the human migrations happened, and art and social structures were developed. The first tools were also developed. This era is also admired by feminists and environmentalists.

Question 27

In what ways did various Paleolithic societies differ from one another, and how did they change over time?

Answer 27

They differed in technology, environment, how they adapted to their environment, their social organization, their religion/culture, their government, and in their diet. Over time, their differences became more distinct.

Question 28

What statements in this chapter seem to be reliable and solidly based on facts, and which ones are more speculative and uncertain?

Answer 28

I think that the statements based on archaeological findings are the most reliable, and that anything based on art or speculation should be viewed skeptically.

Question 29

How might our attitudes toward the modern world influence our assessment of Paleolithic societies?

Answer 29

The luxuries of today can make us think that Paleolithic societies were basic, barbaric, or primitive.

Question 30

What was the sequence of human migration across the planet?

Answer 30

Africa, Middle East, Eurasia, Australia, America, Pacific

Question 31

How did Austronesian migrations differ from other early patterns of human movement?

Answer 31

They happened only about 3,500 years ago. These migrations happened quickly and they were waterborne. The people who did them carried agricultural technology as well as domesticated animals or plants.

Question 32

In what ways did a gathering and hunting economy shape other aspects of Paleolithic societies?

Answer 32

Gathering and hunting doesn’t produce much surplus, so people couldn’t really settle down. Paleolithic societies were egalitarian and there weren’t any
specialists (people who excelled at a specific special craft). Paleolithic societies were also very gender-equal.

Question 33

Why did some Paleolithic peoples abandon earlier, more nomadic ways and begin to live a more settled life?

Answer 33

Climatic (Global) Warming allowed many plants and animals to flourish, so humans didn’t need to search for them as much. The increased food supplies allowed people to settle down.

Question 34

What are the most prominent features of San life?

Answer 34

They were a seminomadic hunting and gathering society. They had adequate food and short work-weeks. They were based on mobility, sharing, and equality.

Question 35

In what ways, and why, did Chumash culture differ from that of the San?

Answer 35

The Chumash settled in more complex societies. They could live in one place because they were on the coast of the Pacific. They also had Tomol boats. The San were seminomadic and they had only stone age technologies.