1-Study Guide
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ale-melendez on December 14, 2011
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Mr Mulaire's Semestral exam december 2011
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90 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Domesticated Animals | These are animals bred in captivity and modified from their wild ancestors and relatives for use by humans. Domesticated animals include cows, pigs, sheep, horses, goats, camels, llamas, alpacas, donkeys, reindeer, yaks, cattle, mithans, and water buffalo. There are also smaller domesticated animals such as dogs and cats, but these animals generally do not perform work related duties for humans. Large domesticated animals helped the growth of food production and influenced the creation and spread of some infectious diseases. Domesticated animals are different from tamed animals as tamed animals are born in the wild and are not modified from their ancestors to fulfill certain tasks. An example of a tamed animal used by humans is an elephant. |
| The Americas | Diamond uses this term to refer to the combined continent of North and South America. He suggests that this continent had disadvantages relative to Eurasia because of the relative lack of plants and animals that could be domesticated, as well as a north−south axis of orientation, which inhibited the spread of technology and innovations |
| Atahualpa | An Inca emperor in the 1500's, he was the monarch of the largest and most advanced state in the Americas at this time. Atahuallpa's troops, although greater in number, faced the disadvantages of a lack of horses, more advanced weaponry, and less knowledge about the Spanish and their intentions. Atahuallpa was captured by Pizarro and held for eight months. He was finally killed after the Spanish received a ransom of gold. |
| Oceania/Australia | This continent is located in the Pacific Ocean. Until modern times, all native peoples were nomadic or semi−nomadic and used primitive tools and weapons. |
| Austronesians | These ancient peoples, ultimately of South Chinese origin, settled the islands in the Pacific, replacing many of the native peoples between 3500 B.C and 500 B.C. They brought with them domesticated chicken, dogs and pigs, along with red−slipped pottery. |
| Africa | This continent lies south of Eurasia. Humans have lived in Africa for longer than anywhere else in the world. Development was inhibited by its north−south axis, the lack of big animals that could be domesticated, and the relative lack of domesticated wild plants. |
| Bands | Bands were the tiniest societies, consisting of five to eighty people, were often nomadic, based on kin relationships, had egalitarian decision−making, and often lacked most institutions and economic specialization. |
| Alphabet | The writing strategy employed by most people today. It ideally provides a unique symbol or letter for each basic sound within a language. |
| Eurasia | Diamond uses this term to refer to the large continent of Europe and Asia. Peoples on this continent were able, due to its environment, to develop early food production and animal domestication. These developments ultimately led to the advantages of "guns, germs, and steel" which allowed the peoples of this continent to conquer or absorb the peoples of other continents. |
| Infectious disease epidemic | Epidemics are acute illnesses that spread quickly and are generally confined to humans, although most originally developed from animal diseases. Epidemics have included all of the following infectious diseases: smallpox, influenza, measles, plague, malaria, cholera, and tuberculosis. Over time, groups develop resistance and/or immunities to these diseases. Diamond argues that Eurasians spread many infectious diseases to peoples in the Americas and Australia, killing many of the native peoples. This gave Eurasians an advantage over those peoples. |
| Kleptocracy | Kleptocracies are societies in which the net wealth is transferred from the masses to the upper classes. Kleptocracies are found in chiefdoms and states, where societies can do good by providing services for its citizens or by transferring the wealth and redistributing too few resources to the people. Kleptocracies can be reinforced through violence, by redistributing the tribute received in popular ways, or by constructing an ideology or religion that justifies the system. |
| The Phaistos Disk | A circular disk of hard clay found on the island of Crete in 1908. The disk is covered with writing that appears to be a form of syllabary, which has still not been deciphered. The disk contains 241 signs or letters on a curved line in five coils. The signs were punched into the clay using some sort of stamp. It is estimated to date from 1700 B.C., which would make it the earliest printed document. |
| Polynesian Islands | They are islands in the Pacific Ocean, including Easter Island, Tonga, Hawaii, and so on. These islands varied greatly in their ecology and climate. Diamond argues that this, in turn, led to differences in the island societies' social complexity, technological developments, and the timing of food production. |
| Chiefdoms | The societies were larger in size than tribes. Chiefdoms generally ranged from several thousand to several tens of thousands. Chiefdoms consisted of one or more fixed villages, a centralized leadership, and a monopoly of force. The society was stratified and had a redistributive economy. |
| Fertile Crescent | Named for the crescent−like shape of its uplands, this area is located in Southwest Asia, or in today's Middle East in parts of Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria, and Jordan. The area appears to have been the earliest site of developments ranging from food production to cities, writing, and "civilization." |
| Logograms | This writing strategy uses one written sign to stand for a whole word. This system was more commonly used before the spread of alphabets and includes Egyptian hieroglyphs, Sumerian cuneiform, many signs in the Chinese language, and the predominant Japanese writing system. |
| Francisco Pizarro | He was a Spanish conquistador who conquered the Inca Emperor Atahuallpa and his troops in the Peruvian highlands. Diamond discusses in Chapter 3 the advantages that Pizarro had over the Incas, including horses, a greater knowledge of the opposition due to previous writings, and better weaponry. The Spanish also carried with them the germs for many infectious diseases that would further kill many Native Americans. |
| Sedentary living | This refers to societies and people who reside in permanent dwellings year around. As groups developed food production, they often left their previous nomadic lifestyle for a sedentary lifestyle. This also allowed individuals to possess more goods and possessions, as they no longer needed to be able to carry everything they owned. |
| States | The system of political, economic, and social institutions that is most familiar to us today as they rule most of the world. States have literate elites and masses in some cases, centralized control and decision−making, economic specialization, and social stratification. |
| Tribes | Tribes are a slightly larger societal group than bands, consisting of several hundred people. Tribes often live in fixed, sedentary villages, dominated by kin−based clans. Decision−making is often egalitarian or "big−man" and the economy is based on reciprocal exchanges. |
| Yali's question | Diamond's friend Yali, a local New Guinean politician, asked Diamond one day, "Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?". This question formed the foundation for Diamond's thoughts on this subject and the formation of his theory. |
| Syllabaries | This is a writing system that uses a sign for each syllable. This system was common in ancient times and included the Linear B writing of Mycenaean Greece. |
| New Guinea | Lies north of Australia near the equator. Humans have been living in New Guinea for 40,000 years. The island has a great diversity in environments and habitats. Possible independent food production arose here around 7000 B.C. |
| The Great Leap Forward | when people stopped hunting and started living sedentary lives. It started in 15 thousand years ago |
| When did the history of humans begin? | 3 million years ago |
| Homo Sapiens | Wise human beings |
| Neanderthals | the first homo sapiens to bury their dead. They made clothes from animal skins and lived in caves & tents |
| Homo Erectus | also known as "Upright Man". They had a larger vaiarity of tools than other early humans. They were the first hominids to migrate to Europe and Asia. Homo Erectus were also the first to use fire |
| What are today's modern humans called? | Homo sapiens sapiens |
| Why is it important that Humans began to occupy Australia and New Guinea when they were joined together as a single continent? | If they had not been joined as one continent, the early humans would've needed to develop technology to travel across the sea. Because of this union, it was easy for them to walk from one place to the other without the complication of miles and miles of water. |
| Australia/New Guinea/Americas had a number of species of large mammals, including giant kangaroos and a marsupial "leopard," all of which disappeared after the arrival of humans. One explanation for this disappearance is ... | Overhunting |
| From 1200 B.C. to around A.D. 1000, the diverse islands of Polynesia were settled. What did the new inhabitants of all these islands share? | Culture, language, technology and domesticated plants |
| Some societies were able to use domesticated plants and animals while others were not. As a result, different population densities occurred from society to society. Hunter−gatherers tended to have.... | lower population density, less food ,less belongings and less technological advances |
| When did humans first colonize the Americas? | 14,000 to 20,000 years ago |
| The Moriori lived on ... | sparsely populated islands as small bands and tribes of nomads |
| the Maori lived ... | on New Zealand and were able to build civilizations |
| The conquest of the Americas by Europeans was one of the biggest population shifts of modern times. The first encounter between Inca emperor Atahuallpa and Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro in the Peruvian highlands illustrates the factors that helped determine the outcome in many similar situations across the globe. How would you summarize Pizarro's encounter with the Inca's? | He had horses, steel swords, armors and guns that helped him and his men be successful in battle. They also had the surprise attack and the germs that helped them be extremely victorious. Without these factors, Atahuallpa's people would've beaten the conquistadors with ease. |
| Larger size and higher density generally meant a more complex and specialized society, which in turn influenced technology, economic, and social organization | More intensive agriculture = more crops grown = more leisure = more time for social activity = greater technological advances = growth in economy. |
| The link between intensive agriculture and population densities | If there is more food in a certain area, people settled there don't have to worry about the lack of it and can reproduce more and have less deaths. |
| Pizarro's military advantages | Horses, steel swords, armor |
| What are the two other factors that influenced the outcome of the battle between Pizarro and Atahuallpa? | Writing and germs |
| Atahuallpa's troops used what kind of weapons? | They used wooden and stone tools , clubs, armor, bronze and sling shots. |
| The Spanish army reaped great advantages from the use of horses in their conquests. How did horses help the Spaniards? | They were taller and faster so it would be harder for the opponent to hurt them. It also made it easier for the Spanish to stab people that were on the ground or get a better view of what was going on. Maneuver ability |
| Spain possessed a written language, while the Incas did not. Writing allowed... | For transmission of information that eventually helped Spain build colonies in America. Communication with greater detail and accuracy |
| The ability to store food and its effect on society | They were able to feed the people that no longer produce food that eventually lead to division of labor, growth of population, trade, etc. |
| The presence of domesticated animals allowed Greater population by... | Transportation, muscle work, provided milk, eggs, wool, fur, fertilizer, meat and helped people develop immunities to germs carried out by the animals. |
| The sedentary life available through food production/agriculture allowed for a growth in population, shorter birth intervals, the storage of food surpluses. | Division of labor, growth of societies, trade, development of new technology, etc. |
| List some direct contributions of plants and animals to wars of conquest. | Societies that had a wider variety of domesticated plants and animals were more likely to be successful because they were immune to more diseases, they were larger in numbers, they had better technology and they could grow with ease in climates like their own. They could also ride those animals. |
| Five areas in which food production rose independently before the introduction of crops and animals from elsewhere. | a. The Fertile Crescent b. China c. Mesoamerica d. Easter US e. The andes of south america |
| Independent food production and animal domestication appears to have begun between 8500 and 8000 B.C. Where did this happen? | In the Fertile Crescent |
| What are "Founder Crops"? | The first crops domesticated by humans |
| The four other areas where food production may have risen independently | a. New Guinea b. Ethiopea c. Tropical West Africa d. Africa's sahel zone |
| Define hunter-gatherers and early food producers | Hunter-gatherers lived a nomatic lifestyle. They were always on the move in search of food. |
| When did Production start in the eastern United States? | In the late 6,000 B.C |
| Why did a transition to food production begin in the Fertile Crescent around 8500 B.C. and not at an earlier time? | People didn't have to make the switch |
| When were plants such as olives, figs, dates, pomegranates, and grapes domesticated? | They were domesticated in 4,000 B.C |
| Which were the earliest crops domesticated? | wheat, barely and peas |
| Factors that influenced groups to turn towards food production | The increased availability of domesticatable plants made food productions more pleasing when other methods of getting food were starting to fail. More technologies made it easier to store food and domesticate plants. |
| Ancient hunters and gatherers were drawn to certain plants because of their... | Adaption, taste, size and reproducibility |
| Examples of people failing to domesticate an available plant | a. Sorhgum in Africas sehal zone b. Flax in wertern Europe c. Grapes and fig palm in north afirca |
| the Fertile Crescent's advantages in the domestication of plants. | The abundance and the ancestors of the plants |
| How did they choose to use certain plants for domestication and not others and why were some plants domesticated before others? | Some plants were more adaptable than others but the only way to know was through trial and error |
| The eight "founder crops" | Emmer Wheat, Einkorn wheat, Barley, Lentil, Peas, chickpea , biter vetch, Flax, |
| According to Jared Diamond, why were some ancient peoples able to domesticate plants while others were not likely to have done so? | Geographic Luck |
| Of the 8 founder crops, how many were widely available outside the Fertile Crescent? | 2 |
| Wheat | was frist domesticated over 13,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent |
| Bergmann Bayard Mars | The first semiautomatic gun ever Invented in 1904 by Bergman Bayard for Military use |
| Steel and Writing | emerged 5,000 years ago independently in several different places around the world. They helped the Europeans conquer the world by protecting them (armors), transmitting ideas(writing) and providing weapons to defeat their enemies faster and easier (swords) |
| Hunger-gatherer | a person that moves from place to place in search of food, also known as nomad. |
| What is the stone age? | The time in which people started to use stones as weapons and tools. |
| Why was the ability to make fire so important? | Early hominids moved from the tropics into colder regions so they needed to adjust to harsh conditions. Fire gave warmth and protected early humans by enabling them to scare away wild animals. |
| How could early humans travel from Africa to Australia without a boat? | The spread of the first modern humans was a slow process. Groups of people, probably in search of food, moved beyond their old hunting grounds at a rate of two or three miles per generation. |
| Why do you think Cro-Magnon man paint on cave walls? | This might be a way of keeping records. Historians believe that the paintings were part of a magical or religious ritual intended to ensure success in hunting, others believe that they may have been for their own sake. They beautified caves and must have been pleasing to the eyes of early humans. |
| Bronze Age | the period from around 3000 to 1200 B.C. characterized by the widespread use of bronze for tools and weapons |
| Domestication | Adaptation for human use |
| Civilization | a complex culture in which large numbers of people share a number of common elements such as social structure, religion, and art. |
| Homo Sapiens Sapiens | "wise, wise human being" a species that appeared in Africa between 150,000 and 200,000 years ago; they were the first anatomically modern humans |
| Anthropology | The study of human life and culture based on artifacts and human fossils |
| Archaeology | the study of past societies through an analysis of the items people left behind them |
| Prehistory | the period before writing was developed |
| Neanderthals | type of Homo sapiens that live in Europe and the Middle East between 100,000 and 30,000 B.C. |
| Paleolithic Age | From the Greek of "Old Stone", the early period of human history, from approximately 2,500,000 to 10,000 B.C, during which humans used simple stone tools; sometimes called the Old Stone Age. |
| Hominids | humans and other humanlike creatures that walk upright |
| Fossils | a remnant or impression of an organism from a past geologic age that has been preserved in the earth's crust |
| Artisans | skilled craftspeople who make products such as weapons and jewelry |
| The defining characteristics of the Palaeolithic Age | an early period of human history (approximately 2,500,000 to 10,000 B.C) in which humans used simple stone tools. Paleolithic is Greek for "old stone". |
| Four outcomes of the settlement of humans in villages and towns. | People saw the need to build houses for protection and other structures for the storage of goods. • Development of trade. • Division of labor • Food plants were cultivated |
| The Bronze Age (what is it/when did it occur?) | the period from around 3000 to 1200 B.C. characterized by the widespread use of bronze for tools and weapons. |
| Early trade among different groups of people. | Now that specialists started to emerge, cities could trade things these specialists made for food, or other specialist-made things. A trader would go out until he found other traders, but he had to be careful, because he might be ambushed and lose his goods. |
| The Neolithic Age | Neolithic is Greek for "new stone" it is the shift from hunting of animals and gathering of food to the keeping of animals and the growing of food on a regular basis -what we call systematic agriculture. |
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