Perspective on Civilization Lecture 2 UPDATED

Perspective on Civilization
Paleolithic and Neolithic
Ages
Prepared by Raizza P. Corpuz

INDIVIDUAL WORK: STATE THE MAIN DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN Paleolithic and Neolithic Ages
OPEN NOTES : 2 Major Differences
1. MAKE A CHART
2. MAKE A COMPARISON
Through or Based on
: 1. Environmental Impact
2. Political Patterns
3. Social and Economic Patterns

Distinction between Paleolithic and
Neolithic Ages
Paleolithic Neolithic
FOOD: Men hunted for food , and women
gathered food from around the area
FOOD: People learned how to grow their own
food , and people domesticated animals .
Farming and herding was an important part of
the Neolithic Age .
SHELTER: There were no permanent homes .
Because people hunted and gathered , they had
to move to where the food was . Therefore ,
homes were temporary
SHELTER: They had permanent homes .
Homes were usually made from timber or
bricks .
CLOTHING: Clothing was made primarily from
fur .
The climate during the time was cold , so
people dressed to stay warm .
CLOTHING: Animal skins .
In some places , people were able to make fabric
.

TOOLS: Simple shaped stone tools like cutters
and hand axes . Also , they used spear tips and
sticks
TOOLS: More advanced shaped tools like bows
and arrows and harpoons . Also , they used
spear tips

Periods of Stone Age
1. Paleolithic period (Old Age)
First stone tools invented
2. Mesolithic period (Middle Age)
Tools, bow and arrows to hunt deer.
3. Neolithic period (New Age)
The start of farming

• The Palaeolithic period lasted for such a long time that it is
known to be 99% of human history.
•Paleo = Old
•Lithos = Stone

The Stone Age refers to the materials
used to make man-made tools. In the
Stone Age, man made tools out of
stone.
Hunters & Gatherers: They did not
plant crops. They gathered wild fruits,
nuts, berries, and vegetables.

The Neolithic Era
The Neolithic Era (New Stone
Age) began when humans
invented agriculture and
started making tools out of
metal instead of stone.

• Neolithic people learned
how to farm and
domesticate animals.
• Domesticate means to train
a wild animal to be useful to
humans.
Sheep were among the first
animals to be domesticated
by humans!

• Growing crops and
domesticating animals is called
agriculture and this began in the
Neolithic Era.
• These people farmed in Europe,
Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
Humans domesticated wheat. They
would harvest it, grind it up, and use
that to make other foods!

• A lot of Neolithic people began
living in the Fertile Crescent.
• The Fertile Crescent was a place
where the land was fertile (good
for growing plants).
Sometimes historians call the
Fertile Crescent the “Cradle of
Civilization”

• Neolithic people were not
nomadic.
• They settled down in towns and
built houses because they were
able to farm and needed to be
close to their fields.

• They began to form villages around the fields they
farmed and they learned how to make many new
things like: jewelry, pottery, bigger houses, better
clothing, and stronger tools.
Neolithic Homesite

• Once people began building
houses and living in towns life
got easier.
• They divided up the work; some
people farmed, some took care
of animals, some built houses,
some made tools, some made
clothing, some made pottery,
and others traded.
Wall painting from a Neolithic
village of a man with cattle and
deer.

• After starting agriculture
Neolithic people began to focus
on making their lives comfortable
and beautiful.
• They began decorating their
clothing, pottery, and jewelry;
some women even began
wearing makeup!

• Trade began during the Neolithic Era.
• Trade is buying and selling/exchanging goods.
• Neolithic people began to trade for things they wanted, so some
people became traders.
• They wanted resources they did not have.

• These resources could be used
to make things in their own
villages.
• These traders would meet with
traders from other villages and
exchange or sell goods for things
their village did not have.
Carvings of bull’s heads found in a Neolithic
village

Thus,
• Overall, life during the
Paleolithic Era was tough.
• Paleolithic people moved around
a lot, depended on wild animals
and plants for food, and did not
have permanent homes.
• Life improved greatly during the
Neolithic Era when people began
farming, settling down in
permanent homes, and trading.

Neolithic Agrarian Attributes
•They were primarily rural societies.
•They were based primarily on peasant agriculture or livestock breeding.
•Most people maintained life in balance with their natural environment.
•Their religion was based heavily on gods and spirits that controlled their natural
environment.
•Their religion emphasized ritual and sacrifice as ways to control the deities.
•They relied on religious specialists to communicate with the gods.
•They believed time to be cyclic.
•Their social values emphasized kinship and the clan.
•Significant advancements in new technologies and expansion of populations

Socio-Economic Perspective
(Agriculture)
The emergence of farming and the far-reaching social and cultural
changes (Hunting and Gathering)
• The advent of farming was a slow, fragmented process.
• happened independently in several different parts of the world at
different times. It occurred as a result of people making thousands
of minute decisions about food production without anyone being
conscious that humans were "inventing agriculture."
• And even though some people started farming, others continued for
thousands of years to live entirely on wild resources or to combine
crop growing with hunting and gathering.

Agrarian Societies
• what we call agrarian societies, involved a complex interplay of
plants, animals, topography, climate, and weather with human
tools, techniques, social habits, and cultural understandings.
• The fundamental technological element of this interplay
was domestication, the ability to alter the genetic makeup of
plants and animals to make them more useful to humans.
• Scholars have traditionally labeled the early millennia of
agriculture the Neolithic era (meaning "new stone age"), because
humans developed a more varied and sophisticated kit of stone
tools in connection with the emergence of farming.

Political Economic Perspective
Development of Agriculture: The Neolithic Revolution
Surplus and Specialization
• Potential for expansion of villages were resources is available
• Increase in agricultural productivity means carrying out the
large number of area of land was greater
• -Population increase
• Significant labor force- development of growing settlements
and political organization
• -Existence of Extra Supply food created the opportunity for
greater variation in economic activity
• -division of labor

The Urban and Legal Revolution
• Neolithic economic patterns became the standard for many
millennia the so called TRADITIONAL ECONOMIES:
1. Large populations involved in agricultural production
supplemented by relatively small numbers of artisan and
traders the basic economic questions of what and how
guided by knowledge of which crops and livestock were best
suited for local conditions
2. The decision of production emerged from the leadership
elite of kings, nobility and priesthood.
3. Exchange good and services

QUESTION for ANALYSIS:
What is the role of WOMEN IN
PALEOLITHIC & NEOLITHIC TIMES
By the Perspective of :
1: Review of Linda Owen’s Distorting the
Past
2. Article about Women in Paleolithic and
Neolithic Times

END
REFERENCES:
• Some Excerpt (www.slideshare.net)
• World History (Internet) Undergraduate History
• Distorting the Past, Linda Owen
• Marvin Perry History of the World

Perspective on Civilization Lecture 2 UPDATED

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Perspective on Civilization Lecture 2 UPDATED