Western CIV Flashcards
Vocab
institution
A long lasting pattern of organization in a community
Nomad
A member of a group that has no permanent home, wandering from place to place in search of food and water
Bronze age
A period in human history beginning around 3000 B.C. in some areas, during which people began using bronze rather than stone.
Slash and burn farming
A farming method in which people clear fields by cutting and burning trees and grasses, the ashes of which serve to fertilize soil.
Hunter gatherer
A member of a nomadic group whose food supply depends on hunting animals and collecting plant foods
Artifact
A human made object such as a tool weapon or piece of jewelry
Hominid
a member of a biological group including human beings
Paleolithic Age
A prehistoric period that lasted from about 2,500,000 to 8000 B.C., during which people made use of crude stone tools and weapons - also called the Old Stone Age.
Neolithic Age
A prehistoric period that began about 8000 B.C. and in some areas ended as early as 3000 B.C., during which people learned to polish stone tools, make pottery, grow crops, and raise animals - also called the New Stone Age
Technology
The way in which people apply knowledge, tools, and inventions to meet their needs
Homo Sapiens
The biological species to which modern human beings belong.
Domestication
The taming of animals for human use.
Civilization
A form of culture characterized by cities, specialized workers, complex institutions, record keeping, and advanced technology.
Specialization
The development of skills in a particular kind of work, such as trading or record keeping.
Artisan
A skilled worker, such as a weaver or a potter, who makes goods by hand.
Scribe
One of the professional record keepers in early civilizations.
Cuneiform
A system of writing with wedge-shaped symbols, invented by the Sumerians.
Barter
A form of trade in which people exchange goods and services without the use of money.
Ziggurat
A tiered, pyramid-shaped structure that formed part of a Sumerian temple.
Fertile Crescent
An arc of rich farmland in Southwest Asia, between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea.
Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
rivers of the Fertile Crescent that frame the Mesopotamian Civilization
Mesopotamia
region of Fertile Crescent where the first civilization arose and first empire arose
City-state
A city and its surrounding lands functioning as an independent political unit.
Dynasty
A series of rulers from a single family
Cultural diffusion
The spreading of ideas or products from one culture to another.
Polytheism
believes in many gods
Empire
A political unit in which a number of peoples or countries are controlled by a single ruler.
Hammurabi
Babylonian emperor who created the first written set of laws
Babylon
city in Mesopotamia that became an important capital
Delta
A marshy region formed by deposits of silt at the mouth of a river.
Narmer (Menes)
pharaoh given credit for uniting Upper and Lower Egypt
Pharaoh
A king of ancient Egypt, considered a god as well as a political and military leader.
Theocracy
rule by religion
Pyramid
A massive structure with a rectangular base and four triangular sides, like those that were built in Egypt as burial places for Old Kingdom pharaohs.
Mummification
A process of embalming and drying corpses to prevent them from decaying.
Hieroglyphics
An ancient Egyptian writing system in which pictures were used to represent ideas and sounds.
Papyrus
A tall reed that grows in the Nile delta, used by the ancient Egyptians to make a paper-like material for writing on.
Nile River
river whose regular flood cycles helped build Egyptian civilization
- According to Jared Diamond, what are the three major elements that separate the world’s “haves” from the “have nots”?
The three major elements that separate the world are guns, germs and steel.
- Jared Diamond refers to the people of New Guinea as “among the world’s most culturally diverse and adaptable people in the world”, yet they have much less than modern Americans.Diamond has developed a theory about what has caused these huge discrepancies among different countries, and he says it boils down to geographic luck. Give several examples from the film to support Diamond’s theory.
The roots of inequality decreased new guineans to develop. The new guineans don’t have nutritious foods low levels of protein.
- For thousands of years, people have been cultivating crops. Describe the process used to domesticate crops and create plants that yielded bigger, tastier harvests.
They would start planting crops outside then harvest them then put them in areas in there homes where insects couldn’t get them. Then the animals would eat the remains of the plants and the animals poop would fertilize the plants for next season.
- According to Diamond, livestock also plays a significant role in a civilization’s ability to
become rich and powerful. How did the domestication of animals help people? Give several examples.
Help them stay in one area and help them do the cycle of life the animals help give clothing and milk or protein and the animals would eat the leftover cereal crop and the animal poop used to fertilize the crop.
- List the animals that can be domesticated and where they can be found.
Goats,sheep,pigs,cow,horses,donkey, camel, ox, buffalo
Found in europe and asia.
- Looking at the list of animals and locations from question 5, discuss how Diamond’s theory
about geographic luck applies here.
If you can find good animals for farming and you can tame them and get protein and use them other than just killing them.
- How did the movement of the early civilizations of the Fertile Crescent (Middle East) further
support Diamond’s idea that geography played a key role in the success of a civilization?
It helped them because they destroyed and over exploited their environment after they over exploited the environment they lost their grass and farms forcing them to move when they moved they had to find another fertile area.
- Do you agree with Jared Diamond when he says of a civilization’s ability to gain power,
wealth, and strength, “…what’s far more important is the hand that people have been dealt, the raw materials they’ve had at their disposal.” Why or why not?
Yes, because people in new guinea had a ruff coming up with all the geographic let downs, the middle east and europe had better geographic areas for farming and had better animals to help people harvest crops. Then the people in the middle east and people in the europe had surpluses of food giving them enough food for people to explore and invent and figure out more advanced stuff. The new guineans did not have access to all of those.
