Chapter 1: First Peoples: Notes

CHAPTER 1: First Peoples

Populating the Planet

(see p.7 for notes on dates) 

• Hunting & Gathering lifestyle sustained human kind for more than 95% of the time that our species have occupied the earth
• Human beings adapted to a wide variety of enviorments even without agriculture
• Gathered wild berries, nuts, roots & grains, scavenged dead animals, hunted life animals & fished
• Like any animals these people "borrowed" what nature offered, using stone tools

 Out of Africa to the Ends of the Earth:: First Migrations

• First 15o,ooo years of human history was only in Africa
• Homo sapiens emerged about 25o,ooo years ago
• Technological innovations such as "hand axes" appeared, tools made from bones & grindstones, as well as evidence of hunting & fishing
• Settlements planned around seasonal movement of game
• Social & cultural behavior marked by body ornaments, beads, etc
• Migration began sometime after 1oo,ooo years ago to Eurasia, Australia, the Americas and the Pacific (see Map 1.1, p.13)
• Learned how to occupy every climate on the earth with only a few tools

Into Eurasia

• Human migration led to Middle East, then wast to Europe about 4o,ooo yrs ago , then east to Asia
• Images were left in cave paintings
• Bone needles, multilayered clothing, weaving, nets, storage pits, baskets & pottery all found as adaptions to Ice Age
• Underground dwellings made of tusk & bones for when caves & rock shelters were absent
• Venus figurines depicted female form (often exaggerated breasts, butt, hips and stomach -- probably to represent fertility) made from bones, antlers and baked clay

Into Australia

• 6o,ooo yrs ago humans came from Indonesia from Australia by boat
• When Europeans arrived in 1788, Australia's people were still practicing ancient ways of living
• These people focused on technological simplicity and a tradition known as Dreamtime
• This tradition was expressed in folklore, rock art & recounted the begining of things; how people came to inhabit earth, how we relate to animals
• "In this view of the world everything in the natural order was a vibration, an echo, a footprint of these ancient happenings, which link the current inhabitants intimately to particular places and to timeless events in the past" (p.17)
• Used song, dance, psychoactive drugs, stories, & rituals
• Each community was loosely connected

Into the Americas

• This part of the world was occupied much later than Australia b/c of the difficulty caused by the cold of Siberia
• First migrations occured somewhere between 3o,ooo & 15,ooo years ago. 
• Evidence of human activity in southern Chile 12,5oo years ago
• Clovis people -- first defined cultural tradition in Americas
• They were hunters of large animals, i.e mammoths & bison
• Flourished 12,ooo - 11,ooo years ago
• Clovis people disappeared around the time many large animals became extinct 
• People of the Americas began to pursue bison, some learned to live in the desert for small game and plants, others near the sea for birds and fish

Into the Pacific

• Last phase of human migration, occuring only about 3,5oo years ago
• Migrated by canoe and navigational skills
• These people already had agriculutral techology and carried plants and aniamls in canoes to colonize
• Settling in the previously unoccupied islands caused many animals to go extint, especially flightless birds

  The Ways We Were

The First Human Societies

• Paleolthic societies were small (25-5o people)
• Relationships were personal
• These bands of people were small and nomadic, moving in patterns to use the land to it's fullest potental
• Highly egalitarian societies -- they lacked the inequalities of wealth & power that came from the Agricultural Era
• No class differences, people were freer of oppression than any other human society
• Most people possessed similar skill sets (though men and women often had different tasks)
• Women were primarily food gathers, providing for 7o% of the diet while men hunted
• There were some rules in regards to distribution of meat,  incest & adultery as well as who could hunt in what territories. 

Economy & the Enviornment

• Hunting & Gathering people often viewed as "primitive" however, anthropologists now note that these people worked fewer hours to meet their needs than agricultural or industrial societies -- and therefore had more time for leisure
• They wanted or needed very little
• Llife expectancy was low, about 35 yrs on average and living in the wild was dangerous
• These people shaped nature and the land with their own hands

The Realm of the Spirit

• Clear evidence of a rich ceremonial lifestyle
• Rock art suggests ceremonial spaces
• People often used psychoactive drugs during ceremonies
• Some societies were monotheistic, others saw many levels of supernatural beings, including a Creator Deity, territorial spirits, & spirits of the dead
• Cyclical view of time that drew on changing phases of moon & female fertility

Settling Down: "The Great Transition,"

• major change of Paleolithic peoples occurred as the last ice age came to an end
• followed by a general global warming, that was a natural phenomena
• Plants & animals that had once been unable to flourish b/c of the Ice Age's chilly climate were now able to thrive
• Under the improved conditions human beings thrived
• societies became larger & more complex as people started to settle down into permanent residences
• inequalities slowly began to form
• Paleolithic societies in Japan known as Jomon, settled by the sea, creating some of the world's first pottery, dugout canoes, paddles, bows, bowls and tool handles from wood
• Bows & Arrows were invented separately in Europe, Africa & the Middle East, spreading later to the Americas
• Settling down marked a huge turning point in human history & placed a much greater demand on the environment
• Agricultural societies followed soon after

 Comparing Paleolithic Societies

The Sans of Southern Africa

• North of Kalahari Desert 
• San people numbered 5o,ooo -- 8o,ooo
• Great language family of Africa -- speaking Khoisan
• Hunting & Gathering lifestyle
• Rock art of  people and animals, thousand of naturalistic scenes of hunts, battles & dances
• Sans group called Ju'hoansi meaning "real people"
• Lived in harsh conditions of Kalahari, used 28 tools (wooden shovel,  large leather bag, a knife, a spear, a bow & arrow tipped with poison, woven ropes & nets)
• Discovered and named 260 species of wild animals & 100 species of wild plants were collected by the gatherers and they had a well balanced diet
• lifestyle of mobility, sharing and equality
• bands made of 10-30 people
• moved every few months or so
• camps consisted of grass huts
• Jo'hoansi society was simple, no formal leaders -- decisions were made by individuals 
• social relationships were complex
• nicknaming type of system to form relationships
• intense personal relationships were values of modesty, cooperation and equality
• unequal gift exchanges "we don't share with things; we share with people"
• economic system aimed at leveling wealth rather than making it
• social equality amongst men and women too
• female virginity not relevant, no double standards, polygamy permitted 
• Creator God gave rise to earth -- Gao Na -- (similar to Zeus of Greek mythology as he was capricious 

The Chumash of Southern California

• Located in Southern California 
• More varied environment than the Sans people 
• Lived on the coast & had a rich variety of resources
• Population of about 2o,ooo people
• Overhunting and food shortages increased level of violence in these people
• huge technological advances -- such as a planked canoe that could cross the ocean and hold two tons
• these boats made it possible to go deep sea fishing
• lived in permanent housing, covered in reeds (some 50 ft in diameter)
• bones, plates, baskets -- and a market based system 
• emergence of politically elite amongst the Chumash
• Europeans destroyed Chumash society 

Personal Reflection: