Key Terms UNIT ONE

Unit ONE Key Terms

prehistory vs. history	Prehistory – no written documents; History: written proof of history
The Third Wave by Alvin Toffler	In the book Toffler describes three types of societies, based on the concept of 'waves'—each wave pushes the older societies and cultures aside. The First Wave is the settled agricultural society which prevailed in much of the world after the Neolithic Revolution, which replaced hunter-gatherer cultures. The Second Wave is Industrial Age society. The Second Wave began in Western Europe with the Industrial Revolution, and subsequently spread across the world. Key aspects of Second Wave society are the nuclear family, a factory-type education system and the corporation. Toffler writes: The Third Wave is the post-industrial society. Toffler says that since the late 1950s most countries have been transitioning from a Second Wave society into a Third Wave society. He coined many words to describe it and mentions names invented by others, such as the Information Age.
features of civilization	Social etiquette, religion, education, literature
stages of hominid development	Austrolopithecus, homo habilis, homo erectus, homo sapiens
“Out of Africa” thesis vs. multiregional thesis	Humans originated from Africa and proliferated vs. originated from Africa but multiple geographical locations first 100 million years
Paleolithic Era	Old Stone Age
Neolithic Era	New Stone Age
family units, clans, tribes	A group of people sharing common ancestry
foraging societies	Nomadic, small communities and population, no political system, economic distribution is more equal
nomadic hunters/gatherers	Move place to place according to environment; adapts to environment
Ice Age	Period of time where Earth was covered partly in ice
civilization	Changes when agriculture started
Neolithic Revolution	Farming uses; start of agriculture
Domestication of plants and animals	Farming system where animals are taken to different locations in order to find fresh pastures
nomadic pastoralism	Slash-and-burn; once land is depleted, moved on to let soil recover
migratory farmers	Farmers that migrate instead of settling after using up the land.
partrilineal/patrilocal	Live with husband’s family. Traced through father’s lineage
irrigation systems	replacement or supplementation of rainfall with water from another source in order to grow crops
metalworking	craft and practice of working with metals to create parts or structures. It requires skill and the use of many different types of tools
ethnocentrism	to look at the world primarily from the perspective of one's own culture
foraging	Looking for food
sedentary agriculture	Domestication of plants and animals
shifting cultivation	process by which people take an area of land to use for agriculture, only to abandon it a short time later
slash-and-burn agriculture	Trees cut down, plots made for agriculture
matrilineal	System in which one belongs to mother’s lineage
cultural diffusion	spread of ideas and material culture, especially if these occur independently of population movement
independent invention	Creative innovations of new solutions to old and new problems
specialization of labor	specialisation of co-operative labour in specific, circumscribed tasks and roles, intended to increase efficiency of output.
gender division of labor	Labor divided between man and woman, hunting and gathering etc.
metallurgy and metalworking	the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements and their mixtures, which are called alloys. craft and practice of working with metals to create parts or structures
Fertile Crescent	a region in the Middle East incorporating present-day Israel, West Bank, and Lebanon and parts of Jordan, Syria, Iraq and south-eastern Turkey.
Gilgamesh	Gilgamesh became a legendary protagonist in the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Hammurabi’s Law Code	First set of defined laws within a civilization.
Egypt	the civilization of the Lower Nile Valley, between the First Cataract and the mouths of the Nile Delta, from circa 3300 BC until the conquest of Alexander the Great in 332 BC. As a civilization based on irrigation, it is the quintessential example of a hydraulic empire.
Egyptian Book of the Dead	common name for the ancient Egyptian funerary texts. Constituted a collection of spells, charms, passwords, numbers and magical formulas for use by the deceased in the afterlife, describing many of the basic tenets of Egyptian mythology. They were intended to guide the dead through the various trials that they would encounter before reaching the underworld. Knowledge of the appropriate spells was considered essential to achieving happiness after death.
pyramids	tombs for egyptian kings.
hieroglyphics	system of writing used by the Ancient Egyptians, using a combination of logographic, syllabic, and alphabetic elements.
Indus valley civilization	an ancient civilization thriving along the Indus River and the Ghaggar-Hakra river in what is now Pakistan and western India. The Indus Valley Civilization is also sometimes referred to as the Harappan Civilization of the Indus Valley, in reference to its first excavated city of Harappa
early China	Xia, Shang, Zhou, Warring States Period, Qin, Han
Bantu and their migrations	To the 10th century, the wave reached the east African interior. Bantu-speaking herders in the north and farmers in the south mixed with older populations in the region. Others were moving to the African coast. Thus creating coastal trading ports.
Olmec	Cultural tradition that arose at San Lorenzo and La Venta in Mexico (1200 BCE); featured irrigated agriculture, urbanism, elaborate religion, beginnings of calendrical and writing systems.
Maya	Classic culture emerging in southern Mexico and Central American contemporary with Teotihuacán; extended over broad religion; featured monumental architecture, written language, calendrical and mathematical systems, highly developed religion.
Andean societies	developed in the second millennium BCE in the central Andes and the central Pacific coast of South America. While oldest artifacts carbon date around 9750 BCE, evidence of a significant economic surplus begins around 2000 BCE. The Andean civilizations included the urbanized cultures of Chav�n, Moche, Ica-Nazca, Chimu, Tiwanaku, Aymara, Chachapoya, and other Pre-Inca cultures. The semi-urbanized Inca conquered greater Peru in the 15th century. Then, in the 16th century, the European fiefdom of Spain conquered Peru.
Mississippian culture	The Mississippian culture was a Mound-building Native American culture that flourished in the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States in the centuries leading up to European contact. The Mississippian way of life began to develop around 900 A.D. in the Mississippi River Valley (for which it is named). Cultures in the Tennessee River Valley may have also begun to develop Mississippian characteristics at this point. The Mississippian (archaeological) Stage is usually considered to come to a close with the arrival of European contact, although the Mississippian way of life continued among their descendants. There are many regional variants of the Mississippian way of life, which are treated together in this article.
Anasazi	Ancestral Puebloans were a prehistoric Native American civilization centered around the present-day Four Corners area of the Southwest United States.
cultural diffusion versus independent innovation	spread through cultures vs. independent inventing
aristocracy	system of government with "rule by the best"
oligarchy	Political regime where most political power effectively rests with a small segment of society (typically the most powerful, whether by wealth, military strength, ruthlessness, or political influence).
theocracy	form of government in which a religion or faith plays a dominant role.
trade routes	sequence of pathways and stopping places used for the commercial transport of cargo.
Polynesian migrations	most likely began from the islands of Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, spreading east, south, and north, covering millions of square miles of ocean sparsely dotted with islands.Polynesians migrated throughout the Pacific in sailing canoes, ultimately forming a triangle, whose points are Aotearoa (New Zealand) to the southwest, Rapa Nui (Easter Island) to the east, and the Hawaiian Archipelago to the north.
Eurasia’s great age of migrations	Increase in migrations from Eurasia.
polytheism	belief in, or worship of, multiple gods or divinities.