Chpt. 1, Human Origins Flashcards
Oceania
the thousands of islands sprinkled throughout the Pacific which form no continent but are often referred to as this (along with the continent of Australia)
Stone Age
the first period of world history, which lasted from 2.5 million to 5,000/6,000 years ago, and is typically subdivided into the Paleolithic (“early Stone Age), Mesolithic (a transitional period from 12,000-8,000 BC), and the Neolithic (8,000-5,000 BC)
attributes of early humans
used fire, simple tools, and had social organization based on kinship groups, in which extended family clustered together; they often practiced nomadism, following their favorite game animals on seasonal rounds of migration
animism / totemism
belief systems in which all things in the natural world, including beasts, trees, and even mountains, possess some form of spirit
shaman
a religious leader in an animistic/totemistic society
gender division of labor
men hunted large animals, fought, and performed heavy labor; women gathered plants and hunted small game, hauled back food that men had hunted and prepared; this division continued after the Stone Age and gave rise to gender inequality
Neolithic Revolution
a transformation in which the majority of people on earth began using agriculture
pastoralists
nomadic peoples have lived on the edge of the civilizations that developed; they played a key role in cultural diffusion, helping to spread new technologies, especially military technologies
Bronze Age
the age during which man discovered the use of bronze; it began circa 3,000 BC
metallurgy
the science of extracting and refining metal from raw ore
anthropology
this is the study of humans as a species; the study of ancient humans is a subsection of this
artifacts
objects created by humans
radiocarbon dating; aka carbon 14 method
is measures the amount of radiocarbon remaining in a fossil skeleton, and because the radiocarbon declines at a constant rate, it allows scientists to determine the fossil’s age
thermoluminescent dating
measures radioactivity released from electrons in heated flint and clay, allowing for the dating of objects made from these materials
tree-ring dating; aka dendrochronology
it is the counting of the number of rings in the cross-section of a tree to determine it’s age; every 2 rings = 1 year
DNA dating
obtaining samples of the genetic material DNA from donors and comparing it to DNA from a long time ago; based on the rate of change in DNA, age can be calcutated
Australopithecenes
an early hominid that was close in appearance to modern humans; in 1977, Mary Leakey found a striking example in Tanzania of the footprints of two of them walking side by side
Lucy
a name given to the oldest known hominid, she is a female whose fossilized skeleton was discovered by Donald Johanson in Ethiopia in 1914
Homo habilis
the first to be classified in the “Homo” genus, it was in turn replaced by an upright hominid, Homo erectus
Java Man and Peking Man
found in Indonesia and China respectively, they are examples of Homo erectus; artifacts were found near them, including a hand ax and tools used for butchering large animals
Homo sapiens (wise human)
about 100,000 years ago, this human appeared; it had a greater capacity for intelligence than it’s predecessors, and is still in existence today
multiregional model
this model is an alternative to the “out of Africa” thesis; under this theory, Homo erectus evolved into Homo sapiens in each region of subsequent migration, but separately; it also states that modern Homo sapiens (Cro-Magnons) displaced older humans (Neanderthals) in Europe,
two of the earliest human towns
Jericho (in modern-day Palestine) and Catal Huyuk (in present-day Turkey); both of these areas became trading centers
metalworking
the craft of shaping metal into tools
major river systems to know
the Nile, Congo, Tigris, Euphrates, Indus, Ganges, Huang He (Yellow), Yangzi (Yangtze), Volga, Danube, Rhine, Mississippi-Missouri, and Amazon
Sahara
the world’s largest desert, it is located in northern Africa
Out of Africa thesis
Homo sapiens evolved around 150,000 years ago and migrated out from East Africa’s Rift Valley
