Premodern Roots Of Cultural Diversity

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Australopithecus

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Hominid species that appeared 3 million years ago and, unlike other animals, walked on two legs. Their brain capacity was a little less than one-third of a modern human’s or about the size of the brain capacity of today’s Africa apes. Although not humans, they carried the genetic and biological material out of which modern humans would later emerge

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out of Africa thesis

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thesis that states that modern human beings are all descendants of recent migration out of Africa

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Temple Grandin

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an expert on animal behavior who was diagnosed in early childhood with autism, and has argued that mental differences reflected in that diagnosis actually make it easier for her than for most humans to understand the way many animals think. Argued that dogs and humans coevolved

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Bipedalism

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walking on two legs, thereby freeing hands and arms to carry objects such as weapons and tools; one of several traits that distinguished hominids

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Homo erectus

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species that emerged 1.5 million years ago and had a large brain and walked truly upright

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Neanderthal man

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members of an early wave of hominids from Africa who settled in western Afro-Eurasia 150,000 years ago. They used tools, buried their dead, hunted and lived in caves, but replaced by Cro-Magnon Homo sapiens

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“Neolithic Revolution”

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the shift from hunting and gathering social organization to pastoralism and agriculture. Cause of the rise of civilizations

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Pastoralism

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the herding of domesticated animals. Lifestyle complimented settled farming

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Çatal Hüyük

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settlement in Anatolia (modern-day turkey) that was a result of the Neolithic Revolution and was an example of the beginning of complex social organization

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Jericho

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one of the earliest agricultural settlements as a result of the Neolithic Revolution

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Direct evidence

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historical evidence in the form of physical objects

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Indirect evidence

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historical evidence in the form of an account by an author

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Mesopotamia

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civilization between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Arguably the oldest civilization

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Sumerians/Akkadians

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two cultural and linguistic groups of Mesopotamia. Sumerian city-states until the Akkadians united Mesopotamia

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Sargon I of Akkad

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Akkadian king who united Mesopotamia

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Lugal

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high kings in Mesopotamia

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Hammurabi’s Code

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compilation of Mesopotamian laws ordered by Hammurabi

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Epic of Gilgamesh

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a Mesopotamian composition based on oral tales about Gilgamesh, a historic but mythologized king of Uruk

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Hieroglyphs/hieratic script

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Egyptian writing used in temple, royal, or divine context

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Ma’at

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Egyptian idea of stability and order

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Amun-Re

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Egyptian king of the gods

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Menes and Memphis

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Menes was the mythological king who brought the Upper and Lower Kingdom

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ka and ba

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spiritual forces pertaining to the Egyptian afterlife

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Isis/Osiris

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Osiris was the Egyptian god of regeneration and the underworld. Isis was his wife

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Precepts of Ptah Hotep

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a guide for young people on good behavior written by Ptah Hotep, an Egyptian official

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Theocracy

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rule by the gods, common in African models

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Hatshepsut

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Egypt’s most powerful women ruler who was co-regent with her son. She is given credit for an increase in trade activity

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Harappa & Mohenjo-Daro

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the two largest cities in the Indus River Valley during the Harappan culture

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Indo-Aryans

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nomadic people who occupied the Indus River Valley after the Harappan

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Rig Veda

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“verses of wisdom,” a collection of over 1000 poems about various deities and heroes

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Varna

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color that symbolically represented the early caste system in Vedic culture

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Brahmins

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the priest class in Vedic culture

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Jati

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hierarchical and segregated social relations in Vedic culture

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Transhumant migrants

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nomads who entered settled territories in the second millennium BCE and moved their herds seasonally when resources became scarce

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Horse drawn chariots

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horses were domesticated on the steppe north of the Caucasus Mountains and invented the chariot which were breakthroughs for nomadic pastoralists

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Territorial State

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political form that emerged in the riverine cities of Mesopotamia, which was overwhelmed by the displacement of nomadic peoples. These states were kingdoms organized around charismatic rulers who headed large households; each had a defined physical border

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Indo-European languages

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language family with the largest numbers of speakers and includes English, Irish, German, Norwegian, Portuguese, French, Russian, Persian, Hindi and Bengali. Originated by the nomadic pastoralists of the Eurasian steppes.

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The battle of Qadesh

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the greatest battle of ancient times between the Hittites and the Egyptians

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Longshan Culture

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culture which developed out of the Yellow River valley

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The Yellow River (Huang He)

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river valley in which the Longshan Culture developed

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Mandate from Heaven

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ideology established by Zhou dynasts to communicate the moral transfer of power. Originally a pact between the Zhou people and their supreme god, it evolved in the first century BCE into Chinese political doctrine

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Oracle Bones

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a way of divination in ancient China through writing a question on a turtle bone, burning it, then reading the cracks

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Shang dynasty

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Chinese civilization that developed out of the previous river villages

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Tsu-Tsung-Xing

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three major categories of the Chinese patrilineal system

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Wet-Rice agriculture

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labor-intensive production of rice

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Legendary Sage Kings

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legendary kings that paved the way for the first Chinese dynasty

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Esther

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Xerxes second wife who persuaded him not to kill all the Jews in the Persian Empire

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Queen Vashti

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Xerxes first wife who was banished for not displaying her beauty for Xerxes’ guests

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Livia, Mother of Her Country

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wife of the Roman Emperor Octavian who was able to exert political power

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Laws of Manu

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Vedic laws gathered into one book