Printed Page 44(cont.)

Second Thoughts

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What’s the Significance?

Venus figurines, 14–15; 23

Dreamtime, 15

Clovis culture, 18–19

megafaunal extinction, 18–19

Austronesian migrations, 19–20

“the original affluent society,” 22

shamans, 23

trance dance, 23

Paleolithic settling down, 24–26

Göbekli Tepe, 25–26; 30

Fertile Crescent, 27; 30–32

teosinte, 33–34

diffusion, 34

Bantu migration, 35

Ishi, 36–37

Banpo, 38

“secondary products revolution,” 38–39

pastoral societies, 39–40

Çatalhüyük, 40–41

chiefdoms, 42–43

Big Picture Questions

  1. Question

    In what ways did various Paleolithic societies differ from one another, and how did they change over time?

  2. Question

    The Agricultural Revolution marked a decisive turning point in human history. What evidence might you offer to support this claim, and how might you argue against it?

  3. Question

    How did early agricultural societies differ from those of the Paleolithic era?

  4. Question

    Was the Agricultural Revolution inevitable? Why did it occur so late in the story of humankind?

  5. Question

    “The Agricultural Revolution provides evidence for ‘progress’ in human affairs.” How would you evaluate this statement?
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Next Steps: For Further Study

Elizabeth Wayland Barber, Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years (1994). Explores the role of women in early technological development, particularly textile making.

Peter Bellwood, First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies (2005). An up-to-date account of the Agricultural Revolution, considered on a global basis.

David Christian, This Fleeting World: A Short History of Humanity (2008). A lovely essay by a leading world historian, which condenses parts of his earlier Maps of Time (2004).

Steven Mithen, After the Ice: A Global Human History, 20,000–5000 B.C. (2004). An imaginative tour of world archeological sites during the Agricultural Revolution.

Lauren Ristvet, In the Beginning (2007). A brief account of human evolution, Paleolithic life, the origins of agriculture, and the first civilizations, informed by recent archeological discoveries.

Andrew Shryock and Daniel Lord Smail, Deep History (2011). An interdisciplinary mapping of the human past with a focus on very long periods of time.

Fred Spier, Big History and the Future of Humanity (2011). An effort to place human history in the context of cosmic, geological, and biological history with a focus on the growth of complexity.

“The Agricultural Revolution,” http://www.public.wsu.edu/gened/learn-modules/top_agrev/agrev-index.html. A Web-based tutorial from Washington State University.

“Prehistoric Art,” http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHprehistoric.html#general. An art history Web site with a wealth of links to Paleolithic art around the world.