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 CHART2. 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 NeolithicFOOD: 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.

IN SUMMARY:

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 PerspectiveDevelopment of Agriculture: The Neolithic RevolutionSurplus 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