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Period 1:1  Big Geography

Page history last edited by Robert W. Maloy 2 months ago

Big Geography and the Peopling of the Earth (Big Bang to 600 BCE)

 

The Blue Marble photograph of the Earth taken on December 7, 1972, by the crew of the Apollo 17

 

Cross-Links

Mary Anning, Fossil Finder and Paleontologist

 

 Special Topic Page: The Beginnings of the Solar System, Life on Earth and Extinction Events

 

 Special Topic PagePeopling of the Americas

 

 

Cross Link: AP Art History: Global Prehistory

 

 Massachusetts Standards Cross-Links 

 

 

 

  

 

I. Archeological evidence indicates that during the Paleolithic Era, hunting-foraging bands of humans gradually migrated from their origin in East Africa to Eurasia, Australia and the Americas, adapting their technology and cultures to new climate regions.


What is the evidence that explains the earliest history of humans and the planet?

Humans as we understand them first appeared on Earth during the Paleolithic Era. The evidence of burial grounds, as well as stone tools and other items explains this. They show a general migration path from Africa outwards. Their tools show that they were nomadic societies of hunter-gatherers.

 

Map of the fossil sites of the early hominids

Map of the fossil sites of the early hominids


Oldest Fossils of Homo Sapiens Found in Morocco, Altering History of Our Species, New York Times (June 7, 2017)

 


This Ancient Jawbone Suggests Our Species Left Africa 40,000 Years Earlier Than Expected, Science Magazine (January 25, 2018)

 


New Fossil Found in Israel Suggest Much Earlier Human Migration Out of Africa, NPR (January 25, 2018)

What are the theories that interpret this evidence?

Anthropologists infer through an analogy between modern hunter-gatherer societies.

Anthropologists Link Human Uniqueness to Hunter-Gatherer Group Structure This article demonstrates how anthropologists study modern hunter-gatherer societies to better understand early human societies.

Where did humans first appear on Earth, and what were their societies, technology, and culture?

Humans first appeared on Earth during the Paleolithic Era, in the steppes and savannah of Africa, before migrating to Eurasia, the Americas, and Australia. These humans were hunter-foragers, changing their tools and culture to adapt to their surroundings.

 

 The Journey of Man : A Genetic Odyssey is an excellent video to show human migration. Originally a book, a Tedx Talk with its author, Spencer Wells, can be found here.

4.5 Billion Years in 24 Hours offers a perspective on just how little of earth's history involves humans.


Bridging World History Unit 3: Human Migrations focuses on human migrations out of Africa, across the Pacific and the Bantu through Africa.

History, Geography and Time provides an introduction to big geography.

external image IPod_family.pngBack in Time, a history textbook for iPad, uses a 24 hour clock to tell the story of the history of the universe and the emergence of human life on the planet.

 

 Human Odyssey Interactive Migration Map/Timeline, An interactive map that really illustrates how human migration started in Africa and expanded all the way to where it is today.

 


Image shows Olduvai Gorge in northern Tanzania where the Leakeys made their discovery of early humans.

Photo on Wikimedia Commons by Dan Lundberg

History of the World in 7 Minutes provides a quick video.

 

 

A video about mapping the human journey, from a Cartographer

 

 

An animated map of the Global Human Journey from National Geographic 


external image 200px-Hebrew_timeline.svg.pngHuman evolution interactive timeline, demonstrates how humans evolved as climate changed over time. Also shows important discoveries such as the uses of fire and when it was approximately invented.


A. Humans used fire in new ways: to aid hunting and foraging, to protect against predators, and to adapt to cold environments.


Use of fire by hunter-gatherer societies of the Paleolithic Age

 

B. Humans developed a wider range of tools specially adapted to different environments from tropics to tundra.


What were the earliest humans’ technology & tools?

FIRE: The humans used fire as a main tool everywhere, from hunting and foraging, as well as for defense and warmth.

 

STONE TOOLS: The earlier human’s used a variety of stone weapons for their specific environments and food they hunted.

Archaic Human Culture presents information on Paleolithic tool technology.

Early tools show humans migrating from Africa, this shows how evidence uncovered from early tools may prove that humans migrated out of Africa sooner than we had once believed.

The following three tools are all hand axes from different places around the globe that early humans made. For more information please visit this link: Early Human Tools.

Locations in order: Europe, India, China


C. Economic structures focused on small kinship groups of hunting-foraging bands that could make what they needed to survive. However, not all groups were self-sufficient; they exchanged people, ideas, and goods.


What were the earliest humans’ religious beliefs and practices?

Many of the earliest beliefs were in spirits, no real concept of gods. The beliefs were animistic in nature.

Early Belief Systems A lesson plan for high school students that covers early religious belief systems of early societies from around the world


Cave Art

 

external image Gabillou_Sorcier.png

To the right is a picture of a half-animal half-human in a Paleolithic cave painting in Dordogne, France. Some paleoanthropologists take the depiction of such hybrid figures as evidence for early shamanic practices during the Paleolithic Era.


A Journey to the Oldest Cave Paintings in the World in Indonesia

 Meet Our Ancestors: Interactive VR Cave Art Video

 

      This is an interactive Virtual Reality video about cave art.

 

Just click and drag to rotate your point of view and really experience the whole video! Skip to about 4:30 for when they really begin to talk about cave art, but watch the beginning for the very cool light show!

How did the earliest humans’ society help them procure enough supplies to survive?

Each band of hunter-gatherers had specific duties assigned to a group of people to make what they needed for survival. Exchanges in items and ideas between these groups were common.

Foragers and Others This journal shows the history of studying hunter-gatherer societies.

 

Women during the Paleolithic Era This article goes into depth about women's advanced role during the paleolithic era that often gets overlooked.

 

 

Early Civilizations in the Americas

 

 

Beringia Land Bridge. Animated gif of its progress from 21.000 BC to modern times
Beringia Land Bridge. Animated gif of its progress from 21.000 BC to modern times


The story of Native Americans begins in the ancient past. Scientists believe that the first human settlers of the Americas migrated from northeastern Asia during the last ice age, which ended 10,000 years ago.

Whereas today the waters of the Bering Strait separate Asia and North America, during the ice age sea levels were much lower, and a wide land bridge, called Beringia connected the continents. Anthropologists believe one or more waves of people crossed this bridge to North America, and through countless generations, eventually made their way down to Central America and across the Isthmus of Panama into South America.

In what in evolutionary terms was a brief flash of time, the descendants of those first migrants adapted to nearly every environment throughout Middle and South America, from the temperate highlands of Mexico and tropical rain forest of the Amazon Basin to the grassy pampas of Argentina and frigid islands of southernmost Chile. In Middle America and in the Andes mountains of South America, Native Americans began to grow maize (corn), beans, squash, and many other crops. As agriculture and food production intensified, populations soared, eventually developing into great states and empires of immense size, wealth, and complexity.

The largest and best known of these were the Maya Civilization, the Aztec Empire, and the Inca Empire. Other important civilizations included the Olmec, Toltec, and Zapotec cultures of Middle America; and the Chavín, Moche, Navza, Tiwinaku (Tiahuanaco), and Chimu cultures of the Andes.

When Italian-Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus landed in the Bahamas in 1492, he thought he had reached islands off the eastern coast of Asia, which was then known as the Indies.

 

  • Perhaps because of this belief, he called the villagers who greeted him indios, which later became the English word Indian.

 

  • During the colonial period in Spanish-speaking Middle and South America, many indigenous peoples came to detest the name indio because it was accompanied by their subjugation and maltreatment at the hands of European conquerors.

 

  • Although the use of indio persists to the present, anthropologists today generally use the term indigenous peoples when referring to the native inhabitants of Latin America and their ancestors; some also use the English terms Indian or Native American in scholarly writing. 

 

  • Like their counterparts in North America, the indigenous peoples themselves prefer to be identified by their specific tribal name, such as Huichol, Maya, or Aymara.


The Aztecs were a Mesoamerican people of central Mexico in the 14th, 15th and 16th century. They were a civilization with a rich mythology and cultural heritage. Their capital was Tenochtitlan on the shore of Lake Texcoco – the site of modern-day Mexico City.

 

Aztec Stone Calendar

Aztec Stone Calendar

 

 

  • In Nahuatl, the native language of the Aztecs, "Aztec" means "someone who comes from Aztlán", a mythical place in northern Mexico. However, the Aztec referred to themselves as Mexica or Tenochca.

 

    • Aztec culture is generally grouped with the cultural complex known as the nahuas, because of the common language they shared. According to legend, the various groups who were to become the Aztecs arrived from the north into the Anahuac valley around Lake Texcoco.

 

    • For more information visit this link: The Aztec


Link to page on Aztec History

Video on the Aztec Empire's fall in the 16th Century

Video on early South American native civilization and their contributions

 

Map of Mesopotamian Early Civilizations 

 

 

Bibliography, the following are mostly journal readings for history teachers. They could be useful to give students for additional reading or extra credit assignments. Some are framed as extra credit assignments.


Read any or all the articles on the Bridging World History site here

Read David Christian, “Inner Eurasia as a Unit of World History” from the Journal of World History here http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/journals/jwh/jwh052p173.pdf

See also "The History of the World in 18 Minutes," David Christian's 2011 TED Talk

Read the main article here and several of the articles at the end of the article – 2nd web page: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/12/1212_021213_journeyofman.html - then explain what the controversy is about the Out of Africa thesis is and why the timing is the major division among researchers in various fields: genetics, archaeology, paleontology, etc.

Read Antronotes about what it means to be human and displaying evolution at the Smithsonian: http://anthropology.si.edu/outreach/anthnote/AnthroNoteSpring2010webversion.pdf

Read David Christian, “The Case for ‘Big History” in the Journal of World History here: http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/journals/jwh/jwh022p223.pdf

Read Johan Goudsblom, “The Civilizing Process and the Domestication of Fire” in the Journal of World History here: http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/journals/jwh/jwh031p001.pdf

Review the Migration stories from these websites – these are great sites for WHAP – be sure to use the timeline feature: https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/lan/en/globe.html#/index/

 

 

 

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