Key+Concept+1.1

............................................................................................................................................... **Key Concept 1.2 >**

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

[[image:masscities.png width="80" height="48"]] F ** or more resources, go to Massachusetts History & Social Science Curriculum Framework **

 * ** Grade 7.1 on climate and environmental changes leading to growth of human life **
 * ===** Grade 7.2 on sites with evidence of the origins of modern humans **===
 * ===** Grade 7.3 on characteristics of hunter-gatherer societies of the Paleolithic Age **===

[[image:rotating gif.gif width="43" height="43"]]Link to Special Topic Page on Peopling of the Americas
=== 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.

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 society, 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.

[|Journey of Mankind] website - includes an interactive timeline and lecture/video.

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.

[|Back 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.

[|History of the World in 7 Minutes] provides a quick video. Presented and created by [|World History for All of Us.]
 * Image shows Olduvai Gorge in northern Tanzania where the Leakeys made their discovery of early humans. Photo on Wikimedia Commons by Dan Lundberg. **
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/1993_161-14_Olduvai_Gorge_%28Leakey%29.jpg width="373" height="298" align="left"]] ||

[|The Human Journey] presents Spencer Wells' genographic journey of human migration.

[|Human 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.**

 * [[image:rotating gif.gif width="43" height="43" link="7.3"]]Link to Grade 7.3 for information about the use of fire by hunter-gatherers**

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

 * //Describe earliest humans’ technology & tools.//**

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


 * //[[image:Screen Shot 2018-02-01 at 12.55.25 PM.png]]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



[[image:Screen Shot 2018-01-06 at 11.48.22 AM.png]]**Cave Art**
To the left 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


 * Link also to AP Art History: Global Prehistory**


 * //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.

Early Civilizations in the Americas

 * For more on the peopling of North America, link to Grade 7.1**

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.
 * 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


 * [[image:rotating gif.gif width="43" height="43" link="Aztec History"]]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

====**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: [|h] ttp://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/