AP World History Chp 1: Palaeolithic and Neolithic Era

2.5 million - 10,000 BC Also called old stone age

- Longest portion of humans on earth - Threatened their sources of food because they thrived so much

- Hunter-gatherers - Mobile - Small size/less children - Relative gender equality - Relative class equality/social equality - Awareness of natural environment

- Prevented individuals from accumulating private property and basing social distinctions on wealth - Due to interdependence of the sexes with food production, it probably did not encourage sex inequality

- Natufian society in eastern Mediterranean - Jomon society in central Japan - Chinook society in the Pacific north-west region of North America

- 13,500 BCE, Natufians collected wild wheat and took animals - 10,000 to 300 BCE, Jomon settlers harvested wild buckwheat and developed a productive fishing economy - Chinook society emerged after 3,000 BCE and flourished until 1950 CE

- Named after the Neander valley in western Germany - Earliest evidence of reflective thought - Not homo sapiens, did not interbreed - Had developed a capacity for emotions and feelings

- distinguished themselves as creative and quite intelligent - Development of language - Producing stone blades - Learned how to catch fish - Developed sharp tools such as sewing needles - Invented spear throwers and bow and arrows - Also made ornamental objects and made paintings EXP. Venus figurines, cave paintings

10,000 BC - 4,000 BC Also called new stone age

- Agricultural society - Grew crops, raised animals - Villages - Made first steps towards a calendar

- Settled down (one of the earliest was Jericho) - Food surplus - Population growth - Specialisation of labor (pottery, textiles, metalwork) - Trade - Social classes - Gender inequality - Religions

- Workings of the natural world influenced religion - Reflected the natural world of early agricultural society

- Gave rise to cities - Were larger and more complex than villages - Fostered more intense specialisation

4,000 BCE - 3,000 BCE

- Civilisations implies that the other societies were inferior and more primitive

1. Cities 2. Some form of government (can include military, bureaucracy) 3. Specialised labor 4. Social classes 5. Trade (economy, interactions with others) 6. Writing 7. Organised religion 8. Art and architecture