27 january 2009. western – or the “west,” may have multiple meanings. the term is often...

WANDERERS AND SETTLERS27 January 2009

DEFINING “WESTERN CIVILIZATION”

Western – Or the “West,” may have multiple meanings. The term is often associated with particular geographical, historical, religious, economic, political, cultural, etc. contexts (i.e. Europe/U.S.A., Rome/Greece, Christian, capitalist, monarchies/democracies, classical music/blue jeans/McDonald’s).

Civilization – has a political, economic, social, religious/intellectual, cultural system (but is often associated with “loaded” terms like progress, advanced state, development, superior sense of self and collective identity)

History – an account of past events, often written (can be oral/memory), that does more than just relay “facts” (names/dates/places) by attempting to given cause/effect relationships (the how and why)

WESTERN CIVILIZATION

Economic system Social system Political system Religious/Intellectual system Cultural system

How do these things define civilization?

AFRICAN GENESIS AS ETHNOGRAPHICAL HISTORY

Ethnography - The branch of anthropology that deals with the scientific description of specific human cultures. Early hominids had: 1) bipedalism 2) very

large brain 3) human larynx Did climate changes spur human

“evolution?” Homo habilis – 2 to 3 million years ago Homo erectus – 1.8 million years ago

HOMO SAPIENS

Between 160,000 and 200,000 years ago About 40,000 years ago, the first “modern”

human began to appear A new species, began displacing old human

populations and spread from Africa to the Americas, Australia and the Arctic

As challenges emerged they went through minor evolutionary changes in order to adapt

THE STONE AND ICE AGES

The appearance of the first “man-made” stone tools around 2 million years ago to the introduction of metal tools around 5,000 years ago is called the Paleolithic Age (Old Stone Age)

Periodic cold climate changes, known as ice ages, occurred frequently considering the expanse of time. The last Ice Age ended about 10,000 years ago

DURING THE ICE AGE

How might an Ice Age speed up social evolutions?

Climate change forced humans into small, highly mobile bands creating the “hunter/gatherer” society as did the genderization of roles create better efficiency

Because of the nomadic lifestyle, hunter/gatherers did not spend lots of energy on housing

“PRE-HISTORY” TO 4,000 B.C.E.

Prehistoric human societies existed at the mercy of environment and the constant search for food Development of hunter/gatherer societies Groups maintained their own territory; didn’t

roam randomly Develop early trade patterns

Tools for luxury goods like shells for jewelry Technological development

Better weapons Fire

Early Religious systems Ritual disfigurement of the deceased Burial rituals—do they believe in an afterlife?

Hierarchy?

CULTURE AND COMMUNITY

Early communities organized around kinship and “marriage”

Staying put led to greater “advances” in “arts,” “sciences,” and “religious developments”

VENUS OF WILLENDORF

24,000-22,000 B.C.E.

THE NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION

Neolithic means “New Stone Age” Discovery of agriculture and the domestication of animals

Called the Neolithic Revolution (10,000 – c. 4,000 B.C.E.) From nomadic existences to settled life Strong relationship between cultivating crops and

population increase First animal to be domesticated: sheep, 8500 B.C.E. Led to gender-based division of labor and emergence of

social hierarchy Invention of irrigation (~6,500 B.C.E.) facilitated the

establishment of settled agricultural communities in the Fertile Crescent

ÇATALHÖYÜK, A NEOLITHIC SETTLEMENT

ÇATALHÖYÜK

NEOLITHIC POLITICAL ORGANIZATION The Earliest Monarchies

Absolutism Essential duties:

symbolic father Dynasty building

peace-keeper Legal systems

warrior

NEOLITHIC POLITICAL ORGANIZATION Polytheistic Religion

Gods and goddesses representing earthly and celestial elements

Priest figures celebrated gods with ceremony

Communal feasts to celebrate gods Early calendars built around polytheistic

religion

SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF CIVILIZATION Famine/insufficient nutrition Plague Division of labor

Gender Social class

War

THE NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION

Neolithic means “New Stone Age” Discovery of agriculture and the domestication of

animals Called the Neolithic Revolution (10,000 – c. 4,000

B.C.E.) From nomadic existences to settled life Strong relationship between cultivating crops and

population increase First animal to be domesticated: sheep, 8500 B.C.E. Led to gender-based division of labor and

emergence of social hierarchy Invention of irrigation (~6,500 B.C.E.) facilitated the

establishment of settled agricultural communities in the Fertile Crescent

MESOPOTAMIA ~4,000 – 1,000 B.C.E. Most historians

trace the origins of “western civilization” to the land area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers Mesopotamia=la

nd between the rivers.

Geography allowed for the cultivation of surplus foods and so the Sumerians and Babylonians built large cities near the two rivers

Mesopotamia, 4000-1000 B.C.E. Includes Sumer, Akkadian Empire, Assyria,

and Babylonia Egypt, Canaanites, Hebrews, 3050-1000 B.C.E. Hittites, Minoans, Mycenaeans, 2200-1000 B.C.E. Greek Dark Age, 1000-750 B.C.E.

THE FIRST ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS

WHY IS MESOPOTAMIA IMPORTANT? The “West’s” first large-scale societal

structure and system Developed the wheel, writing, complex

math, complex metal working (bronze), and the first empire (Akkad)

What “cultural” developments arose from Mesopotamia? What of ourselves can we recognize in this society?

THE KEY TO WESTERN HISTORY

Writing (and so history) began in Sumer

Cuneiform (wedge-shaped) written language Pictographic Increasingly intricate

and abstract Expertise required Leads to advances in

math, science, engineering, metallurgy, etc.

CITIES, KINGS AND TRADE

Mesopotamia made up of small city-states

Agricultural expansion led to political centralization

Power in Mesopotamia held by king and religious elites

~2,350 B.C.E., Sargon, ruler of Akkad, was the first to unite the small city-states into one kingdom – Sumer (southern)

The Akkad kings toppledby the Babylonians ~ 2,000 B.C.E.

HAMMURABI AND THE FIRST LEGAL CODE

SUMERIAN SOCIETY 4 Main social distinctions in

Mesopotamia Nobles Free Clients of the nobility Commoners Slaves (society was not, however, organized

on the foundations of slavery) Society was generally organized around

religion pleasing of gods and goddesses The temple (ziggurat) was the meeting place

and temple

ZIGGURAT AT UR

THOUGHT AND RELIGION

Mesopotamian religion was polytheistic gods and goddesses representing

almost everything in the cosmos Gods and goddesses were human, with

supernatural powers, particularly in regards to the natural world

Such religious ideas spawned efforts to create myths about the origins of the world

The Epic of Gilgamesh is a Sumerian creation story

IN SUMMARY

Environment determined much of development possibilities

Power and authority centralized and out of this comes elite class and social hierarchies

Emergence of large-scale empires In this period Civilization then defined by urban

settlements, religious cultural foundations, writing, diversified agricultural economy, organized political structures

Such organization (political, social, and economic) appears in a form that seems to typify much of western civilization through the pre-modern era (until 1789 A.D. or C.E.)

THE GIFT OF THE NILE The most important geographical

feature of Egypt is the Nile River regular flooding of the Nile provided

irrigation and fertilization for Egyptian agriculture,

many natural resources to exploit, making Egyptians more self-sufficient (perhaps isolated, to some extent) than the Mesopotamians

Egyptian society unified by the Nile religion, ideology, daily ritual, based on the

idea that the Nile was a “gift” from the gods

THE NILE RIVER

DIVINE KINGSHIP Early Political unity of Egyptian

communities into a larger “Egypt” is called the Old Kingdom (~3,000-2,000 B.C.E.)

Further centralization of Egyptian authority in the form of pharaohship during the Middle Kingdom period (~2,000-1,500 B.C.E.)

Egypt would later be characterized by imperial expansion during the period of the New Kingdom (~1,600-1,200 B.C.E.)

DIVINE KINGSHIP Egyptians developed complex ideas

about the afterlife rooted in the natural world with emphasis on

cycles (i.e. regular flooding of the Nile). Evidence for this: great tombs and pyramids

The pharaoh was the “king” of Egypt a “god” on earth (the son of the sun-god

Re), the chief priest the embodiment of “Egypt” (as state,

geographical entity, etc.) the focal point of religion and politics All of Egypt belonged to the king and

everyone served him Power reflected in the structure of the tombs

and pyramids A royal administration kept track of

Egypt’s natural resources and controlled Egypt’s economy

EGYPTIAN SOCIETY AND CULTURE Maat – authorized order of the universe (truth,

balance, order, law, morality, justice) The Egyptians have advanced writing system—

hieroglyphics used it to communicate in various forms (not just a religious

function, or learned only by elite scribes) the basis of advances in chemistry, medicine, mathematics,

engineering and architecture A heterogeneous population, the Egyptians were

divided into 3 broad groups: King and high-level officials at the top Low-level officials, priests, professionals, artisans, and

wealthy farmers in the middle Peasants, who made up the bulk of the population, at the

bottom (slavery existed, but was not foundational for the Egyptian economy)

EGYPTIAN DECLINE Invasion from Africa and the Near East

shattered Egyptian power Libyans in the north and the Nubians to the south

The spread of Egyptian culture came not from its own imperial ambitions rather from the borrowing/embracing of Egyptian

ideas by invaders Egypt never recovered, never really re-unified

under the kind of power displayed during the Old and New Kingdoms

The decline led to the success of other societies Phoenicians, Syrians and Hebrews and the prosperity

of smaller, independent city-states that fragmented out of the Egyptian Empire’s dissolution