Historical Terms – I

The Neolithic Revolution as the Basis for World History
Hunting and gathering: means of obtaining subsistence by humans before the mastery of sedentary agriculture; normally typical of band social organization.
Civilization: societies with reliance on sedentary agriculture, ability to produce food surpluses, and existence of nonfarming elites, along with merchant and manufacturing groups.
Paleolithic: the Old Stone Age ending in 12,000 B.C.E.; typified by use of evolving stone tools and hunting and gathering for subsistence.
Neolithic: the New Stone Age between 8000 and 5000 B.C.E.; period in which adaptation of sedentary agriculture occurred; domestication of plants and animals accomplished.
Nomads: cattle- and sheep-herding societies normally found on the fringes of civilized societies; commonly referred to as “barbarian” by civilized societies.
“Savages”: societies engaged in either hunting and gathering for subsistence or in migratory cultivation; not as stratified or specialized as civilized and nomadic societies.
Culture: combinations of ideas, objects, and patterns of behavior that result from human social interaction.
Homo sapiens: the species of humanity that emerged as most successful at the end of the Paleolithic
Neanderthals: species of genus Homo that disappeared at the end of the Paleolithic.
Band: a level of social organization normally consisting of between 20 and 30 people; nomadic hunters and gatherers; labor divided on a gender basis.
Agrarian revolution: occurred between 8000 and 5000 B.C.E.; transition from hunting and gathering to sedentary agriculture.
Natufian complex: pre-agricultural culture, located in present-day Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon; practiced collection of wild barley and wheat to supplement game; large settlement sites.
Matrilocal: a culture in which young men, upon marriage, go to live with the bride’s family.
Matrilineal: family descent and inheritance traced through the female line.
Shifting cultivation: the practice of farming temporarily, then abandoning a site, sometimes when productivity is diminished.
Pastoralism: a nomadic agricultural lifestyle based on herding domesticated animals; tended to produce independent people capable of challenging sedentary agricultural societies.
Huanghe (Yellow) River Basin: site of the development of sedentary agriculture in China.
Mesoamerica: Mexico and Central America; along with Peru, site of development of sedentary agriculture in Western Hemisphere.
Jericho: early walled urban culture based on sedentary agriculture; located in modern Israel, occupied West Bank near Jordan River.
Çatal Hüyük: early urban culture based on sedentary agriculture; located in modern southern Turkey; larger in population than Jericho, had greater degree of social stratification.
Bronze Age: from 4000 to 3000 B.C.E.; increased use of plow, metalworking; development of wheeled vehicles; writing