Apwh Chapter 2 Key Terms

Front 1

Agricultural Revolution

Back 1

Also known as the Neolithic Revolution, this is the transformation of human (and world) existence caused by the deliberate cultivation of particular plants and the deliberate taming and breeding of particular animals

Front 2

Austronesian

Back 2

An Asian-language family whose speakers gradually became the dominant culture of the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Pacific Islands, thanks to their mastery of agriculture

Front 3

Banpo

Back 3

A Chinese archeological site, where the remains of a significant Neolithic village have been found

Front 4

Bantu

Back 4

An African-language family whose speakers gradually became the dominant culture of eastern and southern Africa, thanks to their agricultural techniques and, later, ironworking skills

Front 5

Bantu Migration

Back 5

The spread of Bantu-speaking people's from their homeland in what is now Nigeria or Cameroon to most of Africa, in the process that started 3000 B.C.E and continued for several millennia

Front 6

Broad spectrum diet

Back 6

Archeologists' term for the diet of gathering and hunting societies, which included a wide array of plants and animals

Front 7

Cahokia

Back 7

An important agricultural chiefdom of North America that flourished around 1100C.E.

Front 8

Chiefdom

Back 8

A societal grouping governed by a chief who typically relies on generosity, ritual status, charisma rather than force to win obedience from people

Front 9

Diffusion

Back 9

The gradual spread of agricultural techniques without extensive population movement

Front 10

Domestication

Back 10

The taming and changing of nature for the benefit of human kind

Front 11

End of the last Ice Age

Back 11

A process of global warming began around 16,000 years ago and ended about 5,000 years later, with the Earth enjoying a climate similar to that of our own time; the end of the Ice Age changed conditions for human beings, leading to increased population and helping to pave the way for agriculture

Front 12

Fertile Crescent

Back 12

Region sometimes know as Southwest Asia that includes the modern states of Iraq, Syria, Israel/Palestine, and southern Turkey; the earliest home of agriculture

Front 13

Horticulture

Back 13

Hoe-based agriculture, typical of early agrarian societies

Front 14

Intensification

Back 14

The process of getting more in return for less; for example, growing more food on a smaller plot of land

Front 15

Jericho

Back 15

Site of an important early agricultural settlement of perhaps 2,000 people in present-day Israel

Front 16

Native Australians

Back 16

Often called "Aboriginal" (from the Latin ab origine, the people who had been there "from the beginning"), the natives of Australia continued (and to some extent still continue) to live by gathering and hunting, despite the transition of agriculture in nearby lands

Front 17

Pastoral Society

Back 17

A human society that relies on domesticated animals rather than plants as the main source of food; pastoral nomads lead their animals to seasonal grazing grounds rather than settling permanently in a single location

Front 18

Secondary Products Revolution

Back 18

A term used to describe the series of technological changes that began 4000 B.C.E., as people began to develop new uses for their domesticated animals, exploiting a revolutionary new source of power

Front 19

Stateless societies

Back 19

Village-based agricultural societies, usually organized by kinship groups; that functioned without a final government apparatus

Front 20

Teosinte

Back 20

The wild ancestor of maize

Front 21

Çatalhöyük

Back 21

An important Neolithic site in what is now Turkey (also known as

Front 22

Mesopotamia

Back 22

The valley of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in present day Iraq