How Society Became Civilized

Paleolithic Age•2,600,000-2,400,000 B.C.C. – 10,000 B.C.E. •nomadic hunters and gatherers

• clan groups: 15-20

• clan leader

• moving with herds of game

• low birth rate

Who were the first people?• Hunters & Gatherers

who lived in nomadic communities.

• They learned to adapt to the land so that they could survive without having a permanent abode.

• They had no permanent source of food. They relied on instincts and each other to survive.

What is ‘Civilization’? • The word “civilization” comes from the Latin word

for townsman or citizen, civis. • To be “civilized” meant to be someone who was a

citizen and was being governed by the constitution and legal statues of a particular community.

The Rise of Civilization• The first known “Civilized

Society” was Mesopotamia and was established around 3,500 B.C.E.

• It rose up in modern-day Iraq between the Tigris and the Euphrates river.

• Mesopotamians were known for their cities, writing systems, arts, animal domestication, and the ability to create complex social structures.

Irrigation and WaterManagment• There came a time

when hunters and gatherers realized that they did not have to move all of the time to survive.

• This came when they realized the benefits of managing water supply.

• The idea that they could modify the land by making canals to help irrigate crops was one of the first steps to civilization.

Steps to becoming Civilized• Once they were able to

modify the land to manage water, agriculture occurred.

• They were able to grow crops that they wanted as well as domesticate animals.

• This gave them a surplus of food.

• This is the second step to civilization

Animal Domestication:

1. Animals are selectively bred in captivity

2. They are modified from their wild ancestors for use by humans who control the animal’s breeding and food supply

Ancient Species of Big Herbivorous Domestic Mammals:

1. Sheep2. Goat3. Cow4. Pig5. Horse

6. Arabian camel7. Bactrian camel8. Llama/alpaca9. Donkey10.Reindeer

11.Water buffalo12.Yak13.Bali cattle14.Mithan

13 are from Eurasia and 1 (llama/alpaca) from the Americas

Plant Domestication:

1. This involves selecting the best plants to seed for planting. This process would causing plants to change genetically over time from their wild ancestors.

2. The purpose of this is to make it more digestible and plentiful to humans

3. In particular, wheat, barley, and peas could be eaten, high yields, easily grown, grow quickly, easily stored, and were self pollinating.

Steps to becoming Civilized• Once crops were

domesticated and grown and beasts of burden were domesticated, the work had to be divided up.

• The division of labor was where tasks were assigned to those with the skills to do them.

• This helped to create more surplus of food.

Steps to becoming Civilized

• The division of labor, the third step of becoming a civilized society, happens when people begin to specialize in different jobs necessary to keep society running smoothly. Many of these jobs involve building infrastructure.

Steps to becoming Civilized• Infrastructure is the

basic, underlying framework or features of a system or organization.

• Most of these projects took years if not decades or centuries to construct.

Steps to becoming Civilized

• Step four is the development of this type of elaborate infrastructure.

Steps to becoming Civilized• The fifth and final step

encompasses a combination of many different events.

• Primarily, a large population of people living together requires a system of rules and laws

• Government is the result of this need

• Also, by creating a system of writing rules and regulations could be recorded and passed down to subsequent generations.

• Hammurabi’s Code is one of the first known forms of written rules, now known as laws.

Steps to becoming Civilized

• The creation of a writing system helped paved the way for more organized forms of government and religion.

• This helps to set up different systems for social, political, and cultural groups within a community.

Steps to becoming Civilized• The five steps to

becoming a civilized society are as followed:

• 1) Modifications (especially irrigation)

• 2) Domestication (Agriculture that leads to a surplus of food)

• 3) Division of Labor • 4) Infrastructure (cities)• 5) Government

Vocabulary

• Agriculture-

• Irrigation Systems

• Domestication

• the production of crops, livestock, or poultry

• Using the creation of artificial waterways to bring water to the land for the purpose of agriculture

• to convert (animals, plants, etc.) to domestic uses; tame.

Vocabulary

• Civilization-

• Fertile Crescent-

• Cuneiform-

• an advanced state of human society, that includes control over a water source, agriculture, division of labor, infrastructure, government, a system of writing, science, and art.

• an agricultural region extending from the Levant to Iraq with very rich soil caused by the period flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

• composed of slim triangular or wedge-shaped elements, as the characters used in writing by the ancient Akkadians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, and others.

Vocabulary

• Hieroglyphics-

• Social Hierarchy-

• Surplus-

• designating or pertaining to a pictographic script, particularly that of the ancient Egyptians, in which many of the symbols are conventionalized, recognizable pictures of the things represented.

• Social distinctions based on division of labor

• When you have more than what you need at the moment; having extra for later use