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History 2A
World history from 10,000BCE- 1000AD
78
History
Undergraduate 2
10/24/2011

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Term
State-level society
Definition
1) centralized political power
2) social differentiation
3) craft specialization
4) coercive military/police force
5) official religion
6) bureaucracy
7) writing system
8) urban centers controlling periphery
Term
Judeo-Christian view of history
Definition
divine creation, linear history, known trajectory, judgment day, punctuated by unique events, young earth, degeneration, predetermination, human progress denied
Term
Degeneration
Definition
the believe that humans are heading on a downward spiral since time of creation
Term
Psychic unity
Definition
the belief that all men are created equal, and that everyone has the innate capacity to use reason and progress. undermined by scientific racism in 1800s
Term
Functional redundancy
Definition
When everyone does the same thing in a society, all kinship groups are self-sufficient and have everything they need to sustain themselves and their families
Term
Agriculture
Definition
systematic human efforts to modify the environments of plants & animals to increase their productivity and usefulness
Term
Domestication
Definition
manipulation of plants and animals sufficient to cause genetic or morphological changes
Term
Cultivation
Definition
the intentional growing of plants from seeds, bulbs or shoots
Term
Jared Diamond
Definition
wrote the article, "The Accidental Conqueror" whose theory was that the Old World had a more advantageous situation than the New World, with easily domesticated plants/animals and such agricultural innovations traveled easier east to west rather than north to south (as in new world)
Term
Natufian culture
Definition
10,000-8,200BCE. Jordan valley, a marginal region that required inhabitants to grow cereal grains instead of foraging. No social stratification but didn't develop into a more complex society. Died out after 8200BCE
Term
Fertile Crescent
Definition
Palestine to Persian Gulf. Had big 4 in development of agriculture, etc. Wheat, barley, sheep & goats. Where Mesopotamia emerges
Term
Jericho
Definition
8000BCE. Called a super village, next to Spring of Moses. Walled village, had ancestor worship and sense of ethnic identity. Oldest dense accumulation of humans.
Term
Catal Huyuk
Definition
6500-5400BCE. Located in Southern central Turkey by a volcano, which supplied obsidian needed for tools. Gave them a trade advantage with other groups. Had cereal grains and domesticated animals. Egalitarian society (like others) and intense ritual activity. Usually precedes state.
Term
Yangshao culture
Definition
5000-3000BCE. Millet-based agriculture. In Yellow River valley of China. Same markers of pre-state-level society.
Term
Banpo site
Definition
village within Yangshao, had moat around village, possible for defense?
Term
Hemudu culture
Definition
5500-4000BCE. Located in South China. Significant because we have a lot of archaeological evidence saved by bacteria. Had wooden houses on stilts, impressive tools. Shows development of society
Term
Jomon period
Definition
10,000-350BCE. Exception to rule, dealt an impressive ecological card; had sea resources, timber, ideal climate so there was no need to develop agriculture or domesticate animals. Foraged for all their subsistence and thrived. Shows us that villages & agriculture are not directly correlated.
Term
Egalitarian society
Definition
society with little status differentiation (minus those of age and gender) so there is no ruling class or groups that can claim political power through superior control over resources. Generally seen in cases of hunter-gatherers.
Term
The Enlightenment
Definition
Occurred in 17th and 18th century. Put more focus on reason and the power of man rather than the power of God; more secular way of looking at history and the ancient world
Term
Lewis Henry Morgan
Definition
1818-81. Expert in Native American kinship systems, had three stages of humanity: savagery, barbarism, civilization. Associated certain characteristics and materials to each phase. Called a materialist approach. All about technology.
Term
Robert Carneiro
Definition
1927- . Had a coercive theory including warfare over resources and land in explaining rise of state-level society. Also included environmental conscription, which enabled one group to take over another within an enclosed space and make the loser subordinate.
Term
Social Darwinism
Definition
phrase coined by John Lubbock, using Darwin's theory of natural selection to explain rise of upper and middle classes (and capitalism) over the working class. Also enabled scientific racism to justify slavery (europeans better than other ethnic groups)
Term
Karl Marx
Definition
believed that socialism would take over through a violent revolution of the working class over the bourgeois class. Had a theory of history that used the idea of a class struggle.
Term
Infrastructure
Definition
Includes the forces of production (means of production & organization) and relations of productions (social organization, labor value, use of goods)
Term
Superstructure
Definition
reinforces existing relations of production. Mystifies contradiction of society, makes unnatural seem natural and normal so oppressed workers don't know the difference (can include religion)
Term
Marxist stages of history
Definition
tribal. asiatic. ancient. feudal. bourgeois. communist.
Term
Karl Wittfogel
Definition
Historian of China; had a theory about hydraulic societies vs. non-hydraulic. Impact and importance of irrigation on the rise of state-level society. Depended on the region and linked into a feedback loop that leads to the state
Term
Environmental conscription (Robert Carneiro)
Definition
prime land bounded by mountains, seas or deserts. promotes population growth and fission of different groups. Warfare was about land & resources, leads to a political revolution.
Term
Resource concentration
Definition
the concentration of resources in key areas is tantamount to circumscription.
Term
Social circumscription
Definition
high densities of population around a region are as constraining as mountains & deserts
Term
Cybernetics
Definition
Sees society as an organism that want to maintain homeostasis within a feedback loop. Can be things such as infanticide to keep population down or the runaway change could potentially permanently alter society
Term
Morphogenesis
Definition
when a society undergoes an irreversible change.
Term
Peer-polity interaction
Definition
When societies are in competition for trade and resources, both societies benefit from increased complexity; several states rise together (ex, China)
Term
Game theory
Definition
some cultures are dealt a "better hand" initially, or have a more effective "game plan" ideology. Both a materialistic and ideological theory.
Term
Uruk Period
Definition
3600-3100BCE. Had cities in a settlement hierarchy (big city with satellite villages), occupational specialization, monumental architecture. Beginning of state-level societies. Had central religion with a city god and a temple.
Term
Early Dynastic period
Definition
2850-2334BCE. King lists so we can see their political structure. We know they engaged in trade, diplomacy and warfare between multiple city-states.
Term
Akkadian Empire
Definition
2334-2193BCE. King was Sargon the Great. First empire in the world, was a different ethnic group than Sumerian kings.
Term
Imperial Ur Dynasty
Definition
2112-2004BCE. King, Ur-Nammu. North and East extension of Akkadian empire. Created provinces and established a system of taxation.
Term
Sargon of Akkad
Definition
2334-2279BCE. King of Akkadian empire. Conquered many cities, first "emperor"
Term
Naram-Sin
Definition
2254-2230BCE. Created the ideology of a god-king that his subjects could worship. Having a large amount of land gave him the feeling of having powers of a deity.
Term
Ur-Nammu
Definition
2212-2094BCE. Greatest king of Imperial Ur. set up taxation system, established mechanics of the empire.
Term
Hammurabi of Babylon
Definition
1792-1750BCE. Was a semitic-speaking amorite. Had a giant empire through military conquest. King of northern and southern Mesopotamia, which differed ethnically. Called himself a shepherd, not a god. Also had a centralized taxation system and military conscription.
Term
Law code of Hammurabi
Definition
Code of law for Babylonia. Gave examples and precedence for councils and judges to base decisions off of. Shows that the role of the written word was more about economic and political reasons than for cultural innovation.
Term
Mohenjo-Daro
Definition
Harappan city that was planned on a grid system, with water access and sewage for the people. Had no identifiable palaces or temples, shows that Harappan culture probably was not one of great status differentiation.
Term
Harappa
Definition
complex site in the Indus River valley, also with a citadel and subtowns.
Term
Dholavira
Definition
Site in Indus valley, buildings made of stone. Same town setup as Mohenjo-Daro. Large public places and reservoirs for water supply.
Term
Carnelian
Definition
precious red stone that comes from Indus Valley foothills, traded throughout the ancient world, we can tell that cultures interacted because of the presence of carnelian in Egyptian and Mesopotamian tombs.
Term
Lapis Lazuli
Definition
blue precious stone from Afghanistan. Also another marker of cultural diffusion via trade throughout the ancient world.
Term
Priest King Statue
Definition
found in a house in Mohenjo-Daro. Shows an elite individual, so perhaps there were some formations of classes in Harappan culture, but not large enough to permeate all of society, perhaps just luxury goods.
Term
Old Kingdom
Definition
2649-2152BCE. Capital at Memphis, burials at Sagaurra. This was the "Age of Pyramids" where the pyramids at Giza were constructed to pay tribute to the Pharaohs who were kings on earth and responsible for maintaining their lives.
Term
Middle Kingdom
Definition
2055-1650BCE. Capital at Thebes. Held crops in reserve and existed in the Delta region of Egypt. Engaged in conquest & trade in other parts of Africa & Middle East. Collapsed under ecological stress.
Term
Hyksos
Definition
1640-1550BCE. Outside group that took over region, brought with them the chariot, new tools and new ideas.
Term
New Kingdom
Definition
1550-1070BCE. Height of the Egyptian civilization. Expanded the empire and replaced pyramids with the Valley of Kings.
Term
Nagada culture
Definition
c.4000BCE.One of the proto-kingdoms of Upper Egypt. Had an elite cemetery so we know that there was wealth differentiation. Grew exponentially in 400 years, had painted pottery (craft specialization) and stone vases.
Term
Queen Hatshepsut
Definition
c. 1450BCE. First female pharaoh. Ruled Egypt until her son took over.
Term
Akhenaten
Definition
1353-1335BCE. Known as the heretic pharaoh because he changed the Egyptian religion to worship only one god, the physical sun disc. Seen as a power grab to take away influence of the priests. Had a strange physical appearance, portrayed as being exceedingly feminine.
Term
Tutankhamun
Definition
1333-1323BCE. Ruled as a young man, was adopted son of Akhenaten. Replaced sun disc religion with the old one.
Term
Ramses II
Definition
1279-1213BCE. Some of the best Egyptian monumental architecture. Shows the pharaoh's control over extensive resources.
Term
Shang Dynasty
Definition
1500-1045BCE. Established after defeating a wicked king from the Xia. Yin site of the capital. Taken over by Western Zhou.
Term
Queen Fu Hao
Definition
Shang Queen's tomb in China that has large amounts of human sacrifice and jewels, shows her influence in society and the Shang's control over resources.
Term
Piece-mold casting
Definition
way the Shang made their bronze vessels, which were used as a status marker- the more you were buried with, the closer you were in affiliation with the king.
Term
Oracle bones
Definition
used by kings in Shang, had Chinese characters written on them, used to ask questions of the ancestors. Part of the huge cult of ancestor worship in China, also not used to write history, but to show that the king was always right in his divinations.
Term
Western Zhou Dynasty
Definition
1045-771BCE. Took over Shang with Mandate of Heaven ideology. Had a feudal structure, not centralized. Believed in one heaven god, unlike Shang.
Term
Mandate of heaven
Definition
Justified regicide committed by Shang nobles that became the Zhou. Said that the ruler of Shang was unfit and immoral and that their god had given them the duty of ruling Earth. Justified inequalities.
Term
Olmec
Definition
1500-400BCE. Mesoamerica complex society. Lived in a region with tropical zones and sea access; needed to trade to get stone, salt and obsidian. Became a state-level society out of a need to trade.
Term
San Lorenzo site
Definition
1250-900BCE. Thought to just be a ceremonial center, not a real urban center. Had pyramids and a ball court. Giant stone heads that resembled the rulers. Shows impressive control of resources.
Term
La Venta site
Definition
900-400BCE. Site in the middle of a swamp. More giant heads, thrones and jade offerings. Had evidence of Olmec mythology and cosmology.
Term
Moche
Definition
AD 100-600. First state-level society in Northern Peru. Multi-valley state with a feudal hierarchy. Capital at Cerro Blanco, had satellite village at Sipan. Ruling ideology was that of King controlling sun and moon. Advanced metallurgists as well. Had "Huaca del sol"
Term
Lords of Sipan
Definition
Feudal nobles of Moche civilization, had elaborate burial tombs with gold, jewels, jade.
Term
Logogram
Definition
A sign for a complete word. Example: $ for "dollar" in English.
Term
Pictogram
Definition
A logogram that seems to depict a particular object in the form of a mnemonic.
Term
Rebus principle
Definition
Punning logogram in which a picture or something easy to draw is used to represent a word that is difficult to draw (Bee + leaf = belief)
Term
Syllabary
Definition
A phonetic system in which visual symbols represent each syllable of the language, usually a combo of vowels and consonants. i.e., cuneiform and linear B
Term
Alphabet
Definition
a set of phonetic signs in which vowels and consonants are represented by separate signs. Fewest symbols.
Term
Biscript
Definition
the same text written in 2 different languages. Also a triscript, like the Rosetta Stone.
Term
Determinative
Definition
a sign which helps to identify or classify the meaning of the word, but which is not intended to be read aloud.
Term
Rosetta Stone
Definition
1799. Found on accident by the French in Egypt. Had writing in hieroglyphics, Demotic and Greek.
Term
Jean-Francois Champollion
Definition
Deciphered the Rosetta Stone by comparing it to Coptic, which he knew already.
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