Anthro Final Flashcards
(128 cards)
1
Q
Chiefdoms
A
multi-village territorial units with a centralized decision-making chief oriented group
2
Q
Tikal, Lowland Guatemala
A
- part of Mayan empire
- area of lowland, densely-forest Mayan temples and civilization
- featured stelae (stone carvings) with engravements
3
Q
San José Mogote in Oaxaca, Mexico
A
- part of Aztec empire at one point
- first pottery using village in the Valley of Oaxaca
- permanent wattle-and-daub style houses with grain storage rooms, then sodality houses, then complex temple
- first occupied 3.4kya
- complex temple burnt down
4
Q
Teotihuacan
A
- first generation state in Central Mexico (Aztec)
- 100k+ residents, many pyramids, big city!
- peaked in 1400s-1500s as largest city in Americas
- lots of violence: 2,000 sacrificed at one temple, Street of Dead with lots of pyramids burned down
5
Q
Moche, Peru
A
- important for Inca Empire (1200s-1500s)
- state organization starting 350 BCE in Peru
- controlled much of Pacific coast
- big city with urban housing districts, plazas, storehouses, workshops, large monuments
- largest “pyramid” – “Huaca del Sol” – and fancy grave inside
6
Q
Mesoamerican and South American States
A
- appear to have developed in the context of interacting (competitive) polities: “chiefdoms”
- supported by agricultural economies
7
Q
State def.
A
a governmental entity that persists by politically controlling a territory
8
Q
Chaco Canyon
A
- key site of Southwestern US constructed 1050-1100 CE
- “Great Houses” several hundred rooms each
- abruptly abandoned
9
Q
Ohio Valley Adena & Hopewell
A
- key site of Early to Middle Woodland period (1000 BCE to 200 CE)
- egalitarian-ish social organization
- dispersed communities of forager-farmers
10
Q
Cahokia, Illinois
A
- key site from 1100 CE
- 10k population, one of earlier urban sites worldwide
- huge urbanized mound serving as cultural center (800,000 ft2 tall)
- the beginnings of Mississippian culture
11
Q
Mississippian period & “culture”
A
- 1000s - 1500s
- sedentary, large villages and towns, some hunting-gathering
- maize was big deal
- chiefdom system came into play
- Cahokia, Illinois big deal
12
Q
Anthropocene
A
proposed new geological epoch marked by global influence
13
Q
Debate about Anthropocene
A
it is hard to pinpoint exactly when it started: Agriculture (8kya)? Industrial Revolution (1800s)? Nuclear Age (1940s/1950s)?
14
Q
Fossil Fuel Society
A
- began with 3rd century Egyptians burning wood to make steam
- hundreds of thousands of kilocalories of energy produced daily in some Western nations
- Fossil Fuels are a new human method of energy capture
15
Q
Empire
A
large states with heterogeneous ethnic & cultural compositions formed through conquest/coercion to extract wealth (food, resources, human labor)
16
Q
Complex societies
A
- Big populations, high density
- Permanent & sedentary towns & cities
- Civic organizations (politics, economy, religion)
- Complex social stratification: social classes, specialist occupations, control and extraction of produce
17
Q
Cultural Evolution
A
when new forms of social or sociopolitical organizations appear (idea of Lewis Henry Morgan)
18
Q
Lewis Henry Morgan
A
- cultural evolution (when new forms of social or sociopolitical organizations appear)
- savagery (food from wild resources) –> barbarism (sedentary agriculture) –> civilization (urban/state – civic society)
19
Q
Vere Gordon Childe
A
- materialist & marxist thinker
- idea that prehistoric changes were on par with recent changes (one couldn’t have happened without effects by earlier social, technological and productive changes)
20
Q
Social Evolution
A
idea that prehistoric changes were on par with recent changes (one couldn’t have happened without effects by earlier social, technological and productive changes) (as elaborated by Vere Gordon Chile)
21
Q
Elman Service
A
Defined types of societies with more emphasis on political organization
band –> tribe –> chiefdom –> state
22
Q
1st - Neolithic revolution
A
switch from hunter-gatherering to farming
23
Q
2nd - Neolithic revolution
A
switch from farming to states and cities (Urban Revolution)
24
Q
Mesopotamia key aspects
A
- Began 7,000 BCE as small farming communities
- Fertile fields and wide, barren plains
- Seasonal rains and mountain streams
- Timber, stone, and metals
- Major rivers for urban-sponsored irrigation
- Minimal natural mineral resources
25
Ubaid Period
- Mesopotamian era 5,900 - 4,200 BCE
- Cereal cultivation and small scale farming
- Temples as institutions of community focus,
used for pilgrimages, religious rites, royal patronage, AND economic functions
26
Uruk Period
- Mesopotamian era 4,200 - 3,000 BCE
- People lived in urban and literate communities
- major urbanizing centers (world’s first cities) based on surplus agriculture and temple management
- Surplus in cereals, flour, fish, wool & textiles
27
Ziggurat
a rectangular stepped tower, often surmounted by a temple, common later in the Early Dynastic Period of Mesopotamia
28
Uruk city
- First city in the world
- Founded during Uruk Mesopotamian era in 3,500 BCE
- Had large scale temples with homes for religious officials, craft production areas, stone & metal working houses
29
Early Dynastic Period
- Mesopotamian era 2900 to 2350 BCE
- Warfare highly important, leading to the rise and fall of several successive polities
- Heavy focus on the military
- Development of military and macro-states
30
Ur
* Major late military, political, & economic rival of Uruk
* Bible states Ur as the birthplace of Abraham
* Renowned for its cemetery with 2500 simple burials
31
Writing system
- 5,000 clay tablets excavated in Uruk
- Pictographic symbols, plus numbers and time related signs
- Cuneiform writing system for about 3,000 years
- Tablets talk about administration, showing scenes of control, order and hierarchy
- Sumerian Kings List
32
Liangzhu site
- Neolithic Era 5,500-3,900 BCE
- Earliest major walled settlement
- Thick ahh walls, moats and canals
- Along Yellow River in China
33
Taosi site
- 4,100 - 4,000 BCE
- Longshan culture developed along the Yellow river
- THEY DESTROYED TS Sacked and razed, wall destroyed, burials desecrated, mutilated skeletons
34
Erlitou
- Part of urban, Dynastic era of 4,000-1,500 BCE
- Part of Xin dynasty
- Resources traded from Indian Ocean
- Miillet and rice farmed
- Pigs, cattle, sheep raised
- Existed along Yellow River in China
35
Zhengzhou and Anyang cities
- Part of Shang Dynasty (first one with writing in China_
- Dogs and humans sacrificed
- State buildings constructed
- Rulers buried elaborately
36
Cultivars
Wild plants fostered/managed by human efforts to make them more productive
37
Management
Manipulation and some degree of control of a wild species. Activities can be defined as any technique that may propagate or protect a species, reduces competition for a species, insures the appearance of a species at a particular time or place, modifies the range and/or distribution of a species, etc.
38
Cultivation
intentional preparation of the soil for planting wild or domesticated plants
39
Domestication
A state of interdependence between humans and selected plant or animal species. Intense selection activity can induce permanent genetic change in the plant or animal population under selection
40
Cultigen
A plant that is dependent on humans; a domesticate
41
Agriculture
Cultural activities associated with planting, herding, and processing domesticated species; farming. A wholesale change toward a new cultural system
42
"Big five" domesticated mammals
cow, sheep, pigs, goats, and horse
43
Main New World Domesticated animals
llama and guinea pig
44
6 traits that made animals susceptible to domestication
- Easily supplied diet by humans
- Fast growth rate and short birth spacing
- Calm disposition
- Willingness to breed in captivity
- Willingness to follow the leader dominance hierarchies
- Calm in enclosures or when faced with predators
45
Evolution (biological) defintion
a change in the relative frequencies of alleles (specific forms of genes) in a breeding population through time (or from generation to generation)
46
Major societal groupings throughout history
Foraging, faming and fossil-fuel
47
First domesticators
Natufian villages of 40-150 people 12,500 years ago in the Eastern Mediterranean
48
Broad Spectrum Revolution
- likely occurred due to changing environments
- diverse cultural adaptation
- wider range of food and plant species we ate
- human population growth
- setting: one of open woodlands & grasslands
49
Hunter-gatherer energy production
5,000 kilocalories per day
50
Holocene
Geological epoch in which we live now, which began 11,700 years ago
51
Hunter-Gatherers
- Small populations, less dense grouping
- Very mobile (seasonal range)
- Little investment in shelters or storage features
- Gathering a diverse range of plants
- Targeting of smaller mammals, birds, fish, shellfish, repetitive
- Kinship main organizing force
- Social status based on age, gender, achievements etc.
Holocene specific:
- Broad Spectrum of resources used
- Specialization of labor
- Cultural adaptation
52
Collectors
- Large population size
- Division of labor (specialization)
- Less mobile (small task groups sent out to collect resources)
- Greater investments in shelters & store facilities
53
Average farming society energy produced
10,000-30,000 kilocalories per day
54
Ohalo II
- Important hunter-gatherer site in Israel from 19,000 BCE
- Encampment with simple structures
- Exploiting wild emmer, barley, pistachio, grape, olives - - Upper Paleolithic blade toolkit, plus “bowls” and pestles
55
Guila Naquitz
- Stratified dry cave site in Mexico
- High seasonal variability: subsistence strategies influenced settlement systems
- Dry season was more forager (highly mobile exploiting scarce resources), wet season more collector (groups of families sticking together)
56
Fertile Crescent
Southwest Asian site of the first forms of domestication of plants and animals; Agriculture/farming
57
Natural Selection
Based on concept of ‘selective breeding’ - selection of certain beneficial traits so they will be emphasized in offspring
58
Natufian Culture
- 13,000-9,000 BCE in Eastern Mediterranean
- More and larger (up to 5x) sites
- Population increase
- Permanent settlements, storing cereals in storage pits
- Sickle blades to cut cereal stems
- Floated between hunter-gatherer and farmer
- Some lived in caves some lived in huts
- Very complex burials, use of animals bones
- Ate gazelle, snakes, lizards, tortoise and birds
59
Ain Mallaha
- Natufian village: one of the earliest villages in the world! (13,000-9,000 BCE)
- Round houses, with stone foundations and hearths
- Up to 200-300 residents in village
- Collective burials placed in floors of houses
60
Abu Hureyra
* Natufian village long occupied (13,000-9,000 BCE)
* Gathering & possibly cultivation of “wild” plants, hunting of wild animals like gazelle
* Farming of domesticated plants, later herding of sheep & goats, then pigs and cattle
* Circular huts, like Ain Mallaha
* Small village, 100-200 people
* Shift from circular to rectangular houses
61
Stratified Tell
mound composed of mud brick and refuse, accumulating over generations as buildings were built, demolished, rebuilt etc. thus mounding up over centuries and millennia
62
Early Indus Valley Settlements
- Small, rectangular houses made of mud brick
- Social differentiation based on one's profession
- Artistic depictions of figurines, sculptures, bone carvings, pottery, animals!
- Seals to officiate things
63
Plant Domestication in Mesopotamia
Wheat and barley 10,000 BCE
64
Plant Domestication in China
Rice, foxtail, broomcorn in 8,000 BCE
65
Plant Domestication in North America
Maize, corn, beans, pepo squash, sunflower, marsh elder, chenopod between 10,000 and 4,000 BCE (pepo squash first)
66
Plant Domestication in South America
Potatoes, quinoa, cotton, yams, peppers, arrowroot between 8,000 and 5,000 BCE
67
Plant Domestication in Indonesia
Bananas, yams, taro in 7,000 BCE
68
Plant Domestication in Africa
African rice, pearl millet, and sorghum between 4,000 and 2,000 BCE
69
Traits of animal domestication
- Animal species outside natural range (herding)
- Morphological changes
- Abrupt population increase
70
Pleistocene-Holocene transition
- Began 11.7kya
- Cultural diversification due to rapid climate change (less ice, more grasslands
71
Pleistocene-Holocene cultural periods
Paleolithic in Europe
Archaic in Americas
Epipaleolithic in Asia
Later Stone Age in Africa
72
Last Glacial Maximum
- 28,000-15,000 yrs ago
- Due to maximum extent of ice sheets, worldwide sea levels dropped 400 feet
- The Bering Land Bridge connecting Asia and Alaska
- Cold & dry grasslands with some shrubs
73
The first people to travel to America
- Came 30,000 to 12,000 years ago via Bering Land Straight
- Communities of mobile hunter-gatherers/foragers
- Small bands of families (15-35 individuals)
- Several waves of migrations
74
Clovis Stone Tool Industry
- 13,500 - 12,800 years ago
- Large fluted spear points
- Used by early Native Americans to hunt megafauna
75
Migration Hypothesis #1
- Bering Land Bridge + Ice-Free Corridor Route
- Go through central Alaska and travel through central Canada
76
Migration Hypothesis #2
- North Pacific Coast Route
- More likely
- Populations of hunter- gatherer-fishers from Northeast Asia/Siberia moved into the Americas by traveling down the ice- free Pacific coastline
77
Monte Verde, Chile
- Up to 12 temporary tent-structures with wood frames and hide walls
- Large round structure with a patio and sand/gravel foundation
- 20-30 people
78
White Sands, New Mexico
- 21-23 kya (oldest dated site in Americas)
- Collections of pollen and small seeds
79
Paisley Caves, Oregon
- 14.5 kya
- Pre-Clovis
80
Santa Rosa Island, SoCal
Island-coastal adapted cultures by 13,000+ years ago
81
Pre-Clovis
There is now good evidence for earlier arrival of “pre-Clovis” Native Americans
82
Diuktai Cave, Siberia
Pre-Colvis site 16.8kya with diverse tool kit
83
Types of evidence used for Clovis and pre-Clovis
Human footprints, tools, settlements evidenced by radiocarbon dating
84
Post Last Glacial Maxim
- Started 15kya
- Canadian Ice sheet over Canada shrinks
- By 13 kya, the ice-free corridor was habitable by human groups
- Expanded forest tundra and grasslands in North America
85
Behaviorally modern humans
- Anatomically, people started looking like us 300kya
- Culture (learned behavior) 50kya
86
Mousterian Tool Industry
- Middle Paleolithic, 250-40 kya
- Scrapers, backed knives and sharper points
87
Tool Timeline
Oldawan, Achedean, Mousterian and Upper Paleolithic
88
Upper Paleolithic Tool Industry
- Post 50kya
- Retouched blades, bladelins/microlith stone tools, cores
- Bone needle to sew clothes
89
African Middle Stone Age
- 280-50kya
- Stone points used in spears, found in South Africa cave
- Bone harpoons
90
Flake
a type of stone tool that was used during the Stone Age that was created by striking a flake from a prepared stone core
91
Fluting
process of striking the base of the blade towards the tip
92
Denisovans
- Distant cousins of modern humans, found in Asia
- Much genetically closer to Neanderthals
- Lived 50-200kya all over Eurasia
- Genetic adaptation to high altitude in the Ethiopian highlands
93
Morphology of early anatomically modern humans
- No retromolar space
- Chin
- Small nose
- Canine fossa
- Vertical forehead
- Smaller browridges
- Smaller face
- Rounded occipital
94
Homo luzonensis
- Fossils found in Callao Cave, Luzon in the Philippines
- Older than 50kya
- Mix of australopith-like and modern-like traits
- Short stature
95
Upper Paleolithic Material Culture/Symbolic Behavior: “the full package”
- Started by Upper Paleolithic humans 50kya
- Abstract & realistic art incases and body decoration
- Carved figurines
- Beads made of ostrich eggshell, bones/ivory/teeth
- Musical instruments (bone pipes, flutes etc.)
- Practiced ritual burials
- Ex. Siberian site of Sungir, with jewelry, tools & sculpture found in burial site (dated to 15kya)
Plus practical stuff:
- Microlithic stone tools (especially blades and burins)
- Grinding and pounding stone tools
- Improved hunting and trapping tools (spear throwers, bow and arrows, boomerangs, nets etc.)
- Increase in long distance transfer of raw materials
96
AMH vs Neandertals: subistinence and material culture
- Modern human & Neanderthal DNA 99.5-99.99% identical
- AMHs exploited more prey types
- We have more complex shelters (mammoth bone hut)
- Evidence of sewn clothes
97
Demographers have calculated the minimal # of individuals needed to create & maintain a viable breeding population and gene pool and that number isssssss......
500
98
Jebel Irhoud
- One of the earliest Homo sapiens sites
- Lived in Morocco 300kya
99
Skhul
Site in Israel of 10 AMHs from 130-100kya with deliberate burials
100
Qafzeh
Site in Israel of 14 AMHs from 120-90kya with deliberate burials
101
African replacement (Out-of-Africa II)/Assimilation Hypothesis
- Theory that modern homo sapiens evolved in African and then expanded out, also breeding with archaic homo species outside Africa
- Evidenced by Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes
- Neanderthals and AMH split about 600kya
102
Multiregional Evolution
- Theory that modern homo sapiens migrated out of Africa and then evolved simultaneously but separately with some gene flow between populations
- Neanderthals and AMH split about 600kya
103
Homo naledi
- Hominim species found in Rising Star Cave, South Africa (15 individuals)
- 236-335 kya
- Some homo features: humanesque skull, versatile hands, long legs and humanesque feet
- Some austrolopith features: small brain, primitive shoulders, flared pelvis and curved fingers
104
Kebara
Israeli site from 60kya with evidence of symbolic burial
105
La Chappelle-aux-Saints
French cave site with adult Neanderthal man withe evidence of deliberate burial with 60kya
106
La Ferrassie
Site of deliberately buried Neanderthal in France from 50kya
107
Neanderthal traits (just get gist)
- Adapted for cold
- Large brains
- Big noses: to warm air and take in a high volume of air
- Cranium circular from rear
- Thinner bones
- No saggital keel
- Receding frontal bone
- Mid-facial prognathism
- Occipital bun
- Heavily muscled
- Thicker limbs
- Barrel-shaped chest
- Bowed femora
- Weighed 30% > AMHs
* Limb proportions like modern Arctic people
108
Significant sites of Neanderthals
- La Chappelle-aux-Saints, France
- La Ferrassie, France
- Neander Valley, Germany
- Engis, Belgium
- Forbes' Quarry, Gibraltar
109
Neanderthal Subsistence strategy
* Successful big-game hunters: horses, mammoths, deer, bison, elephants, etc.
* Attacked from close-range with spears
– “Rodeo rider” type head & neck injuries
* Also gathered plants where and when available, processed & cooked them
* Some use of aquatic resources (shellfish, crab, etc.)
110
Neanderthal Material and Living Culture
- Necklace made from perforated teeth, ivory and eagle talons
- Pigments for art? (potential use of materials for symbolic/artistic purposes)
- Mousterian tools
- Used tar as glue maybe
- Lived in caves with hearths (controlled use of fire)
111
Microliths
small and precise stone tools
112
Island Dwarfism (insular)
idea that small islands lead to small animals getting larger and large animals getting small due to resource availability
113
Kabwe
- 125-600 thousand year old Homo heidelbergensis skull found in Zimbabwe
- Mix of ancestral (H. erectus-like) traits & derived (H. sapiens-like) traits
114
Bodo
- 600 thousand year old Homo heidelbergensis skull found in Ethiopia
- More primitive than Kabwe (higher facial prognathicism, slight sagittal keel, flat & receding forehead (like Kabwe), thick, but not continuous supraorbital torus)
115
Sima de los Huesos
- Pit of Bones in Atapuerca, Spain from 500-400kya
- Homo antecessor
- Mix of features but lean more toward Neanderthal-like anatomy rather than an AMH
116
Middle Pleistocene Homo nicknames
Aka “archaic Homo sapiens” aka “The Muddle in the Middle”
117
Time period that Neanderthals and Denovians (last living ancestors of AMH) lived in
Middle Pleistocene 800-100kya
118
Homo antecessor
- Earliest hominins in Europe (1.2-0.8 mya)
- Found in Sima de los Huesos
- Animal bones with cutmarks (chopping the meat up?)
119
Homo cepranensis
Early hominin found in Italy (1.2-0.8 mya)
"Cerano Man"
120
Out-of-Africa I
- Homo Erectus leaves Africa 2-1.8 mya
- Likely increasing population and adapting to exploit different habitats
121
Middle Pleistocene Homo in Asia
Mix of homo Erectus features and AMH, more modern looking than in Europe
122
Zhoukoudian, China
Limestone cave system has homo erectus, “Peking Man" from 780 – 250 kya
123
Homo erectus morphology (get gist)
- Low forehead
- Big brain
- Long & low braincase
- Occipital crest
- Angular torus
- No chin
- Less facial prognathism
- Saggital keel
- Small teeth
- Large & continuos supraorbital torus
124
Homo erectus in Africa aka homo ergaster
- Found at Koobi Fora & West Turkana, Kenya & Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania & Drimolen and Swartkrans, South Africa
- Dates from 1.9-0.9 mya
- Turkana (Nariokotome) boy (1.6 million year old skull in West Turkana, Kenya)
125
Dmanisi, Georgia
- 1.7 million year old skull found
- Similar to African Homo erectus, but more ancestral traits
- Small brain and short
126
Homo erectus tools and material culture
- Tools lasted more than a million years
- More big game hunting: megafauna
- Biface handaxes
- Controlled use of fire (burnt wood and charred bones found)
127
Bifaces tools
stone-tools that are flaked on both sides, such as hand axes, picks & cleavers
128
Presence of homo in Indonesia
Homo erectus lived there 1.3-1.45 mya
- Got there via low sea levels during glacial periods opening Sunda Shelf between continental Asia and Java
Homo florensis/the hobbit lived here 100-60kya
- Had tiny brains, thick bones, no chin and was 3 feet tall
- Hunted wide range of animals like giant rat
