Hunters and Gatherers: The Paleolithic EraE. Napp

Today’s Reflection:

The earliest humans were hunters and gatherers. The men hunted and the women gathered edible plants. As hunters and gatherers, men and women were nomads. They moved in search of food. They did not settle. This hunting and gathering way of life lasted for thousands of years in a period of time known as the Paleolithic era or the Old Stone Age. During the Paleolithic era, simple stone tools were made and cave paintings were created. Paleolithic culture [a way of life of a group of people] was very different from modern society. In Paleolithic culture, there were no rich people or poor people. As people moved frequently, they did not accumulate property. Without an accumulation of property, there were no social classes. Women were also treated better in Paleolithic culture. The labor of both men and women were needed for the group to survive. Of course, life was not perfect. It was difficult at times to find food. Paleolithic people generally did not live to old age because accidents happened easily. At the same time, there were benefits in Paleolithic culture such as no social classes and the relatively equality of men and women [gender equality].

Terms to Define:

1- Paleolithic

2- Nomads

3- Gender equality

Critical Thinking Questions:

How did Paleolithic culture differ from modern society?

What were the advantages of Paleolithic culture? What were the disadvantages of Paleolithic culture?

Would you prefer living in the Paleolithic era? Explain your answer.

A Different Perspective: Generally, historians have regarded the movement from hunting and gathering societies to farming societies as a positive development. But not all historians and intellectuals agree. In history, there a many different points of view. In the reading passage that follows, Jared Diamond views the hunting and gathering way of life as superior to the farming way of life. Read the passage and be on the lookout for criticisms of our farming-based lifestyles.

The Passage from The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race by Jared Diamond

“There are at least three sets of reasons to explain the findings that agriculture was bad for health. First, hunter-gatherers enjoyed a varied diet, while early farmers obtained most of their food from one or a few starchy crops. The farmers gained cheap calories at the cost of poor nutrition, (today just three high-carbohydrate plants -- wheat, rice, and corn -- provide the bulk of the calories consumed by the human species, yet each one is deficient in certain vitamins or amino acids essential to life.) Second, because of dependence on a limited number of crops, farmers ran the risk of starvation if one crop failed. Finally, the mere fact that agriculture encouraged people to clump together in crowded societies, many of which then carried on trade with other crowded societies, led to the spread of parasites and infectious disease. (Some archaeologists think it was the crowding, rather than agriculture, that promoted disease, but this is a chicken-and-egg argument, because crowding encourages agriculture and vice versa.) Epidemics couldn’t take hold when populations were scattered in small bands that constantly shifted camp. Tuberculosis and diarrheal disease had to await the rise of farming, measles and bubonic plague the appearance of large cities.”

What is accurate about Paleolithic culture in this cartoon?

What is inaccurate about Paleolithic culture in this cartoon?

Dissect the Passage:

In the passage, Jared Diamond provides three reasons why agriculture was bad for health.

1- The first reason was: _______________________

Provide a summary of Diamond’s evidence

2- The second reason was: _____________________

Provide a summary of Diamond’s evidence

3- The third reason was:

Provide a summary of Diamond’s evidence

Opinion:

Do you agree with Jared Diamond? Explain your answer.

Provide a counterpoint or alternative point of view to Diamond’s argument.

1. The term “prehistory” means (1) Before people wrote history books. (2) Before people had written language. (3) Before people had libraries. (4) Before people could count. (5) Before people could talk.

2. The term “Paleolithic” refers to the (1) Old Stone Age. (2) Middle Stone Age. (3) New Stone Age. (4) Old Stones. (5) Old Writing.

3. An important cultural change from Paleolithic to Neolithic is (1) From nomadic to agricultural. (2) From megalithic to caves. (3) From pottery to sculpture. (4) From warlike to peaceful. (5) From illiterate to literate.

4. Which generalization is characteristic of most traditional societies?(1) people move from city to city seeking new jobs(2) sons learn the same trades as their fathers(3) a high degree of social mobility exists(4) all people have the same economic opportunities

5. Women in hunting and gathering societies differed from women in agricultural societies because(1) Women had lower status in hunting and gathering societies than agricultural societies(2) Women had higher status in hunting and gathering societies than agricultural societies(3) Men and women were equal in both hunting and gathering societies and agricultural societies(4) Women farmed in hunting and gathering societies

From National Geographic:Sex-Based Roles Gave Modern Humans an Edge, Study Says; Stefan Lovgren; December 7, 2006

“The emergence of ‘female labor roles’ played an important role in human evolutionary history, because it allowed early-human hunter-gatherer societies to draw on more food resources and live in larger communities, researchers say.

It may help explain why the Neandertals, who occupied Europe until modern humans arrived some 45,000 years ago, went extinct.

‘The competitive advantage enjoyed by modern humans came not just from new weapons and devices but from the ways in which their economic lives were organized around … roles for men, women, and children,’ said Steven Kuhn, an anthropologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson…

The new study suggests the changes didn’t occur until the upper Paleolithic period, which lasted from about 45,000 years ago to 10,000 years ago.

‘We argue that the typical patterns of labor division emerged relatively recently in human evolutionary history,’ Kuhn said.”