Study Guide for Chapter 2
Wanderers and Settlers: The Ancient Middle East to 400 B.C.
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Theme
From the beginning of human history the first primitive societies of hunter-gatherers developed into the first cities and civilizations.
Summaries
The Ape's Cousin's
The similarities and differences between human beings and our ape relatives.
Bound to the Soil
The rise of agricultural societies and civilization.
The Price of Civilization
Regular problems that result from civilized life.
The Rise and Fall of Practically All Middle Eastern Empires
A brief history of the Sumerians, Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Persians.
Keywords
The Apes' Cousin's
hominins, tools, weapons, clothing, Paleolithic Age, animism, paintings, sculptures, communities, tribalism, family, hunting and gathering, Homo sapiens, ethnicity, racism
Bound to the Soil
Neolithic Agricultural Revolution, agriculture, houses, domestication, division of labor, architecture, villages, towns, cities, city-state, division of labor, peasant, polytheism, priests and priestesses, calendar, writing, schools, kings, monarchy, autocracy/absolutism, dynasty, laws, Law Code of Hammurabi, property, kingdom, emperor, empire, imperialism, barbarian
The Price of Civilization
plagues, sexism, social classes, division of labor, upper classes (aristocrats, nobles), lower classes or commoners: middle class of artisans and merchants, peasants, taxes, slavery, war
The Rise and Fall of Practically All Middle Eastern Empires
Middle East, metal, Bronze Age, Mesopotamia, fertility rituals, epic poetry, Gilgamesh; Egypt, monotheism, Phoenicians, colonialism, alphabet, Iron Age, Assyrian Empire, militarism, Persian Empire, Zoroastrianism, dualism, money
Review Questions
- What important cultural survival techniques did our hunter-gatherer ancestors use in the Old Stone Age?
- What did agriculture cultivate as the key components of civilization?
- What often-ignored problems did civilization create?
- What did various Middle Eastern civilizations offer to the early peoples of the West?
Other Questions
- How does the large number of basic principles in this chapter indicate how much we owe to these early civilizations?
- How is the word “barbarian,” when used as a descriptive term according to neutral objectivity, contrast with how civilized peoples use it to insult others as inferior?
- Will Cuppy's humorous history book, The Rise and Fall of Practically Everybody, notes the frequent collapse of empires. What causes imperial collapse?
