UGC 111: Chapter 1-4
33 Cards in this Set
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Hominins
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Forerunners of humans after genetically splitting from the chimpanzees
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Australopiths
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Prehuman species that existed before those classed under the genus homo
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Bipedalism
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The first human characteristic of hominins, specifically, the ability to walk for short periods or distances on their hind legs, although knuckle-walking and tree climbing continued to be practiced
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Oldowan
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The earliest stone-carving technique which consisted of splitting a stone into two thereby producing sharp edges on both fragments
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Paleolithic
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Old Stone Age, 2.5 million - 11,500 years ago
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Acheulian
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A technique which consisted of flaking a hard piece of rock (preferably flint, chert, or obsidian) on both sides into a triangle shaped hand axe, with cutting edges, a hand-held side, and a point
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Levallois
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A stone technique where stone workers first shaped a hard rock into a cylinder or cone
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Aboriginals
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The original settlers of Australia, who arrived some 60,000 years before European settlers at the end of the eighteenth century CE
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Dreamtime
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In the Australian Dreamtime, the shaman constructs an imaginary reality of the tribe's origins and roots, going back to the imaginary time when the world was created and the creator devised all customs, rituals, and myths
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Neanderthals
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The species assumed to have descended from successors of Homo Erectus in Africa half a million years ago
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Animism
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The idea of a shared life force in the world which later became prominent in Africa and the Americas
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Agrarian-urban society
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A type of society characterized by intensive agriculture and people living in cities, towns, and villages
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Agrarian Society
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At minimum, people engaged in farming cereal grains on rain-fed or irrigated fields and breeding sheep and cattle
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Neolithic Age
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Period from ca. 9600-4500 BCE when stone tools were adapted to the requirements of agriculture, through the making of sickles and spades
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Assembly
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Gathering of either all inhabitants or the most influential persons in a town; later, in cities, assemblies and kings made communal decisions on important fiscal or juridical matters
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Sharecroppers
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Farmers who received seed, animals, and tools from landowners in exchange from up to two thirds of their harvest
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Nomads
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People whose livelihood was based on the herding of animals such as sheep, goats, cattle, horses, and camels; moving with their animals from pasture to pasture according to the seasons, they lived in camps
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City, city-state
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A place of more than 5,000 inhabitants with nonfarming inhabitants (craftspeople, merchants, administrators), markets, and a city leader capable of compelling obedience to his decisions by force
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Empire
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Large, multiethnic, multilinguistic, multireligious state consisting of a conquering kingdom and several defeated kingdoms
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Palace-state
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A city or fortified palace with surrounding villages
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Bronze Age collapse
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Around 1200 BCE, resulting from the collapse of the Hittite Empire and the weakening of the Egyptian New Kingdom; chariot warfare had become unsustainable in these early kingdoms
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Iron Age
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Around 1500-1200 BCE, smiths were able to produce sufficiently high temperatures to smelter iron bloom, a mixture of iron and a variety of impurities
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Republicanism
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A system of government in which, in the place of kings, the people are sovereign, electing representatives to executive and legislative offices
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Democracy
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A system of government in which most or all of the people elect representatives and in some cases decide on important issues themselves
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Topography
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The physical features - mountains, rivers, deserts, swamps, etc. - of a region
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Cesspits
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Deep holes or trenches used to deposit human waste and refuse; in the case of Harappa, they were flushed with water into city sewers and drains, ultimately leading to the adjacent river
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Phallic stones
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Of or referring to the male sex organ; Indian religions use a host of phallic images, or lingams, in shrines, rituals, and festivals to symbolize the male, or active forces of both natural and supernatural creation
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Caste
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A system in which people's places in society - how they live, the work they do, and who they marry - are determined by heredity
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Millet
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A species of grass cultivated for its edible white seeds and as hay for animal feed
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Social Stratification
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Groups or classes within a society arranged in a hierarchy, for example, peasants, merchants, officials, ministers, rulers
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Client States
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States that are dependent on or partially controlled by more powerful ones
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Feudalism
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A system of decentralized government in which rule is held by landowners who owe obligations of loyalty and military service to their superiors and protection to those under them (we will see systems like this in Europe and Japan as well)
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Hegemony
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A system of state relations in which less powerful states directly or implicitly agree to defer to the lead of the most powerful state
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UGC 111: Chapter 1-4