Upgrade to remove ads
Only $2.99/month

WHAP Unit 1 Key Terms

Terms in this set (40)

Paleolithic rock art
The hundreds of Paleolithic painting discovered in Spain and France, dating to about 20,000 years ago; these paintings depict a range of animals, although human figures and abstract designs are also found.
Venus figurines
Paleolithic carvings of the female form, often with exaggerated breasts, buttocks, hips, and stomachs, which may have had significance.
Dreamtime
A complex worldview of Australia's Aboriginal people that held that current humans live in an echo of ancestral happenings
Clovis culture
The earliest widespread and distinctive culture of North America; named from the Clovis point, a particular kind of projectile point
Megafaunal extinction
The dying-out of a number of large animal species, including the mammoth and several species of horses and camels; occurred around11,000-10,000 years ago at the end of the Ice Age. The extinction may have been caused by excessive hunting or by the changing of climate of the era
Austronesian migrations
The last phase of the great human migration that established a human presence in every habitable region of the earth. Austronesian-speaking people settled the Pacific island and Madagascar in a series of seaborne migrations that began around 3,500 years ago
"the original affluent society"
a theory postulating that hunter-gatherers were the original affluent society who practiced of a refined mode of subsistence.
Shamans
In many early societies, a person believed to have the ability to act as a liaison between living humans and supernatural forces, often by means of trances induced by psychoactive drugs
Trance dance
In San culture, a nightlong ritual held to activate a human being's inner spiritual potency to counteract the evil influences of gods and ancestors. The practice was apparently common to the Khoisan people, of whom the Jo/'hoansi are a surviving remnant
Paleolithic settling down
The process by which some Paleolithic peoples moved toward permanent settlement in the wake of the last Ice Age. Settlement was marked by increasing storage of food and accumulation of goods, as well as growing inequalities in society
San culture
A Paleolithic people still living on the northern fringe of the Kalahari desert in southern Africa
"insulting the meat"
A San cultural practice meant to deflate pride that involved negative comments about the meat brought in by a hunter and the expectation that a successful hunter would disparage his own kill.
Chumash culture
Paleolithic culture of southern California that survived until the modern era.
Brotherhood of the Tomol
a prestigious craft guild that monopolized the building of large oceangoing canoes, or Tomols among the Chumash people.
End of the last Ice age
a process of global warming that began about 16,000 years ago.
"broad spectrum diet"
Archeologists' term for the diet of gathering and hunting societies, which included a wide array of plants and animals.
Fertile crescent
A geographical area of fertile land in the Middle East stretching in a broad semicircle from the Nile to the Tigris and Euphrates
Teosinte
a wild grass found in the highlands of Mexico, is the wild ancestor of maize
Diffusion
Is the process by which a characteristic spreads
Bantu migration
(1500BCE to 500CE) As the Bantu people migrated, they spread the Bantu family of languages and culture. The changes instigated by the Bantu migration increased the vitality of sub-Saharan Africa.
Peoples of Australia
Often called "Aboriginals", the natives of Australia continued (and to some extent still continue) to live by gathering and hunting, despite the transition to agriculture in nearby lands.
Banpo
A Chinese archaeological site, where the remains of a significant Neolithic village have been found.
"secondary products revolution"
A term used to describe the series of technological changes that began c.a. 4000 B.C.E., as people began to develop new uses for their domesticated animals.
Pastoral societies
Based on the domestication of animals and use their products as main source of food. Groups move where there is food but they are more settlers than nomads. Independent and warlike.
Catalhuyuk
Good example of agricultural village society. Social structure, buried dead, many people, well built houses, specialization.
"stateless societies"
Village-based agricultural societies, usually organized by kinship groups,that functioned without a formal government apparatus.
Chiefdoms
A society that is led by a ruler of decent, but seldom used force to lead their people. They relied on generosity, charisma, and leadership to rule.
Norte Chico
Norte Chico is a region along the central coast of Peru, home of a civilization that developed in the period 3000-1800 B.C.E.
Indus Valley civilization
Home of a major civilization that emerged in what is now Pakistan during the third millennium B.C.E., in the valleys of the Indus and Saraswati rivers, and that is noted for the uniformity of its elaborately planned cities over a large territory.
Olmec civilization
An early civilization that developed along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico around 1200 B.C.E.
Mesopotamia
first civilization located between the Tigris & Euphrates Rivers in present day Iraq; term means "land between the rivers;" Sumerian culture
Uruk
one of the most important cities (at one time, the most important) in ancient Mesopotamia.
Mohenjo Daro/ Harappa
major cities of theIndus Valley civilization; flourished around 2000 B.C.E.
Code of Hammurabi
A series of laws publicized at the order of King Hammurabi of Babylon. Not actually a code, but a number of laws that proclaim the king's commitment to social order.
Patriarchy
Literally "rule of the father"; a social system of male dominance.
Rise of the state
process in which first civilization assume control over society and defending the state from outside threats
Epic of Gilgamesh
perhaps, the oldest written story on Earth. It comes to us from Ancient Sumeria, and was originally written on 12 clay tablets in cuneiform script. It is about the adventures of the historical King of Uruk (somewhere between 2750 and 2500 BCE)
Egypt: "the gift of the Nile"
the Nile was considered a gift because the Egyptian civilization depended on the resources of the great river.
Nubia
A civilization to the south of Egypt in the Nile Valley, noted for development of an alphabetic writing system and a major iron working industry by 500 B.C.E.
Hyksos
A pastoral group of unknown ethnicity that invaded Egypt and ruled in the north from 1650 to 1535 B.C.E. Their dominance was based on their use of horses, chariots, and bronze technology.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE...