Test Bank For A History of World Societies Combined Volume 10th Edition By John P. McKay

1.

What are some of the problems in using evidence from contemporary gatherer societies to study early humans?

2.

How did early Homo erectus spread out of East Africa into other parts of the world? Where did they go, and how early did they reach those places?

3.

What were the key features of Paleolithic food attainment and Paleolithic diets?

4.

What are some of the theories about gender relationships in Paleolithic societies? What changed in those relationships in the Neolithic period? What kinds of evidence are used in supporting or arguing against these theories?

5.

What is the relationship between pastoralism, disease, and humans?

6.

How did material goods create, define, and perpetuate social hierarchies in Neolithic societies?

1.

Answer would ideally include:

• Because the earliest humans did not leave behind written evidence, scientists have studied more recent societies that lived by similar gathering means. However, most evidence about recent gatherer societies was written by external sources and thus includes their biases and expectations, such as the inferiority of foraging as a lifestyle. Furthermore, few modern foragers or gatherers are truly isolated from the influence of other agricultural or industrial cultures. Also, this approach assumes that gatherer societies are somehow static and remain unchanged over many centuries, which ignores the evidence of how adaptable such societies really are.

2.

Answer would ideally include:

• Homo erectus migrated out of East Africa into central Africa, and then into northern Africa. This migration took place 2 million years ago. As early as 1.8 million years ago, Homo erectus had spread to Asia, reaching China and Java by 1.5 million years ago. These migrations took place over land, along coastline routes. Because sea levels were lower then, individuals could cross from the mainland of China to Java on foot. Homo erectus also moved northward from Africa, into Spain by 800,000 years ago and into Germany 500,000 years ago. In each of these places, they adapted hunting and gathering techniques to the local environment.

3.

Answer would ideally include:

• The Paleolithic diet consisted of a combination of plants and animal protein. Paleolithic peoples foraged for their food, engaging in what we would consider a combination of hunting, scavenging, and gathering. Most of what they ate were plants. Animal protein often came from scavenged foods like insects and shellfish rather than being hunted directly. It is unknown as to whether labor was divided between genders, but in today’s foraging societies, there is some division, with men engaging in hunting large animals and women responsible for gathering plants and small animals. It took between ten and twenty hours per week to gather food, but this number varied depending on environmental factors and group decisions. Because Paleolithic peoples had to forage for their diet, they expended energy and, in general, avoided diseases common in sedentary societies. Life spans were kept in check by accidents, injuries, and infections.

4.

Answer would ideally include:

• Studies of more recent foraging societies suggest that women were valued for their labor, which was recognized as equal to the work of men. Both men and women foraged for food, and both participated in hunting. Other scholars theorize that even in Paleolithic society one person may have emerged as a leader, perhaps based on personal skill, and that this person was almost always a man. It is more certain that by the Neolithic period, after the invention of plow agriculture, society became more hierarchical and men took on more of a public, elite status. Women were limited to the home or enclosed spaces, and land inheritance favored men over women. Evidence for gender roles in the Neolithic period comes from later written traditions.

5.

Answer would ideally include:

• Pastoralism is the herding and raising of livestock. It requires humans to live in close contact with their herd animals, thus exposing humans to various animal-borne diseases, such as smallpox. Initially, exposure to diseases may have caused higher mortality rates in pastoralist societies, but over time, humans would have developed some resistance to them. Foragers were not exposed to these diseases and thus did not develop any resistance to them. When a pastoralist society encountered a forager society, this might have led the former to expose the latter to deadly pathogens.

6.

Answer would ideally include:

• The possession of material goods—such as livestock, dwelling structures, plows, carts, and pots—indicated that some individuals had control over more labor. Labor was used to acquire material goods. The more material goods one had, the more labor one controlled. This indicated status; to control labor was to have a higher status than others. Having material goods gave one the ability to acquire yet more material goods and to continue to acquire status. Material goods, along with land, could also constitute an inheritance, and thus perpetuate status into the next generation.

1.

Period during which humans used tools of stone, bone, and wood and obtained food by gathering and hunting. Roughly 250,000–9,000 B.C.E. _________________

2.

Dramatic transformation in human history resulting from the change from foraging to raising crops and animals. _________________

3.

Period beginning in 9000 B.C.E. during which humans obtained food by raising crops and animals and continued to use tools primarily of stone, bone, and wood. _________________

4.

Members of the family Hominidae that contains humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans. _________________

5.

Die-off of large animals in many parts of the world about 15,000–10,000 B.C.E., caused by climate change and perhaps human hunting. _________________

6.

Divisions between rich and poor, elites and common people, that have been a central feature of human society since the Neolithic era. _________________

7.

A style of life in which people gain food by gathering plant products, trapping or catching small animals and birds, and hunting larger prey. _________________

8.

Idea that people, animals, plants, natural occurrences, and other parts of the physical world have spirits. _________________

9.

Differentiation of tasks by gender, age, training, status, or other social distinction. _________________

10.

Social system in which men have more power and access to resources than women and some men are dominant over other men. _________________

11.

Group of Homo erectus with brains as large as those of modern humans that flourished in Europe and western Asia between 150,000 and 30,000 years ago. _________________

12.

Crop raising done with hand tools and human power. _________________

13.

An economic system based on herding flocks of goats, sheep, cattle, or other animals. _________________

14.

Plants and animals modified by selective breeding so as to serve human needs; these animals will behave in specific ways and breed in captivity. _________________

15.

Spiritually adept men and women who communicated with the unseen world. _________________

1.

g. Paleolithic era

2.

h. Agricultural Revolution

3.

i. Neolithic era

4.

j. hominids

5.

l. megafaunal extinction

6.

e. social hierarchies

7.

g. foraging

8.

d. animism

9.

c. division of labor

10.

f. patriarchy

11.

b. Neanderthals

12.

k. horticulture

13.

a. pastoralism

14.

m. domesticated

15.

h. shamans

1.

What evidence and characteristics do scientists use to place animals, such as humans, in a particular classification, such as a kingdom, order, or family?

2.

How did climate affect the development of human cultures during the Pleistocene epoch?

3.

What are the advantages and disadvantages to Homo sapiens in having a larger forebrain?

4.

Historians used to call Paleolithic peoples hunter-gatherers but now prefer the term foragers. What does this terminology shift indicate about Paleolithic peoples’ daily lives?

5.

What kinds of animals were lost in the megafaunal extinctions at the end of the last Ice Age, and what role did humans play in those extinctions?

6.

What effect did the domestication of plants have on human population growth?

7.

What advantages did the domestication of dogs provide to both dogs and humans?

8.

What did humans learn about selective breeding from the domestication of sheep around 9000 B.C.E.?

9.

What kinds of goods were created and traded at Çatal Hüyük? What do these goods indicate about Neolithic culture?

10.

What kinds of religious rituals did Neolithic people develop? Who performed them?

1.

Answer would ideally include:

• In order to classify an animal, scientists originally used evidence from externally visible characteristics, such as body elements, how these elements are used, and what other animals that animal resembles. A final important division results from the ability to interbreed. Recently, scientists have added DNA testing and other genetic evidence.

2.

Answer would ideally include:

• The Pleistocene epoch, which began about 2.5 million years ago and ended 12,000 years ago, was the last major Ice Age. Glaciers and ice sheets covered much of the earth. Sea levels lowered, and what are now oceans were land masses that humans and other animals were able to cross, although they could not cross the ice sheets themselves. The ability to cross from one continent to another encouraged human migration into new environments; this in turn shaped how humans developed physically and culturally.

3.

Answer would ideally include:

• Having a larger forebrain gave Homo sapiens greater capacity for conscious thought, the ability to think reflectively and to create a symbolic language, greater intelligence overall, and the ability to manipulate their immediate world. Homo sapiens could understand and explain the surrounding world and organize socially. Larger brains were a disadvantage in that they required more energy (or food) and made childbirth more difficult for bipedal mammals. Infants were born earlier and required more care after birth.

4.

Answer would ideally include:

• Hunter-gatherer implies that the majority of food came from hunting and that the majority of time was spent hunting. In truth, Paleolithic peoples’ diet may have depended more on gathered foods than hunted meat. This would indicate that more time was spent gathering than hunting. Foraging goes a step further and indicates how flexible and adaptable Paleolithic peoples were in searching for food. Foragers gathered plants, scavenged, and hunted.

5.

Answer would ideally include:

• Most of the animals lost in the megafaunal extinction of 10,000 to 15,000 years ago were large mammals: wooly mammoths, mastodons, wooly rhinos, camels, horses, sloths, giant kangaroos, and wombats. Some animals became completely extinct, but others became extinct only in certain areas. Humans may have played a role in their extinction by hunting them, although a warming trend also contributed.

6.

Answer would ideally include:

• The domestication of plants increased human population growth by providing infants with an alternative food source (crops yielding soft cereals gave infants a food source beyond breast milk alone). Not having to breast-feed for as long allowed women to have more pregnancies as they lost the birth-control effect of breast-feeding. More food meant decreased child mortality and longer life spans generally, increasing periods of fertility and leading to higher population growth.

7.

Answer would ideally include:

• Dogs gained new food sources by sharing food with humans and safer surroundings as they came under the protection of humans. Humans gained assistance with hunting from the dogs’ abilities to smell and track prey and extra body warmth from the dogs. Both dogs and humans also gained companionship.

8.

Answer would ideally include:

• From observation and experimentation, humans learned that particular traits—such as size, temperament, strength, production of milk, and coat quality—could be manipulated by breeding those animals that had the desired characteristics. Humans learned that such characteristics were passed down from one generation of animals to the next.

9.

Answer would ideally include:

• The people at Çatal Hüyük made textiles, pots, figurines, baskets, carpets, beads, and other decorative goods. Çatal Hüyük traded obsidian—which was used for knives, blades, and mirrors—with other towns for sea shells and flint. They also traded copper, which was used for jewelry and tools. All of these goods, plus the diversity of agricultural goods, indicate that Neolithic culture was sophisticated and not that different from modern culture. People made practical tools and objects, such as pots, but also purely decorative objects, such as beads.

10.

Answer would ideally include:

• Neolithic societies had religious specialists—priests or shamans—who performed the rituals. Many of these involved giving the gods community-produced goods, whether agricultural, pastoral, or manufactured. In exchange for the goods, the gods were asked for favors, particularly concerning the fertility of the community, or were asked to ward off death and destruction.