&
Steven A. Stofferahn
Department of History
Geography and History of the World Seminar
Indiana State University
July 2007

Culture Hearths
GHW 1.1
DEFINITION
Culture Hearth:
- heartland
- source area
- innovation center
- place of origin of a major culture
* “civilization incubator”

Culture Hearths
GHW 1.1
STANDARD
Use maps, timelines, and/or other graphic representations to identify the location, distribution, and main events in the development of culture hearths in various regions of the world.

Culture Hearths
GHW 1.1
EXAMPLE
Primary Culture Hearths of the World http://www.harpercollege.edu/mhealy/g101ilec/china/chh/hea/chhheafr.htm

Culture Hearths
GHW 1.1
EXAMPLE
Primary Culture Hearths of the World:
Fertile Crescent (8000 BCE)
India (7000 BCE)
Huang Ho (5000 BCE)
West Africa (2000 BCE)
Mesoamerica & S. America (8000-3000 BCE)

Culture Hearths
GHW 1.1
EXAMPLE
Fertile Crescent:
- Neolithic Revolution ca. 8000 BCE
- several early settlements: Jericho et al.
- organized societies appear concurrently:
Mesopotamia: Sumer (3200)
Unification of Egypt (3100)

Culture Hearths
GHW 1.1
EXAMPLE
India:
- early agricultural sites date from 7000 BCE
- Harappan society arises ca. 3000
- dependent upon rich floodplains of Indus
- develop cotton textiles & dyes by 2000
- impt. trade contacts w/ Fertile Crescent
- Aryan migration into India ca. 1500

Culture Hearths
GHW 1.1
EXAMPLE
Huang Ho (Yellow River):
- Neolithic Revolution ca. 5000 BCE
- rich soils but floods = need for dikes, dredging
- small societies flourish, 5000-3000 BCE
- emergence of centralizing hereditary monarchies:
Xia (ca. 2200-1750) & Shang (ca. 1750-1100)
- major influence of Indo-Europeans: bronze, chariots
- Zhou dynasty (1122-256): classical Chinese civilization

Culture Hearths
GHW 1.1
EXAMPLE
West Africa:
- early Sudanic agricultural influence
- incremental Bantu migrations, 3000-1000 BCE
- spread across central and southern Africa
- enabled by agricultural surpluses & iron
- diffusion: - W. African yams & grains
- 90 million Bantu-speakers today

Culture Hearths
GHW 1.1
EXAMPLE
Mesoamerica & South America:
- migrations to W. hemisphere ca. 13,000 BCE(?)
- early agriculture in Mesoamerica by 7000
- maize cultivation begins ca. 4000
- no large domestic animals (hence no wheel)
- only small villages; no large cities until later
- Olmec rulers (fl. 1200-400) compel building of large ritual centers, drainage projects, & artistic objects (heads)
- Olmec destroy own civilization; Maya inherit later

Culture Hearths
GHW 1.2
STANDARD
Ask and answer geographic and historical questions about the locations and growth of
culture hearths. Assess why some of these
culture hearths have endured to this day, while others have declined or disappeared.

Culture Hearths
GHW 1.2
Keys to Success:
- geographical integrity
- ecological sustainability
- agricultural surpluses
- internal order
EXAMPLE

Culture Hearths
GHW 1.2
Egypt: Gift of the Nile
(3100-1200 BCE)
- regular flood cycle
- natural frontiers
- Nile-as-highway
- breadbasket
- awe and wonder
 pharaohs
EXAMPLE

Culture Hearths
GHW 1.2
EXAMPLE
Egypt: 2 nd Pyramid of Giza ( Khafra, 2558-2532)

Culture Hearths
GHW 1.2
EXAMPLE
Common Factors of Decline:
- increased contacts with hostile neighbors
- ecological degradation & exhaustion
- over-attractive agricultural hearths (?)
- internal disorder
 all in evidence in Egypt by 1200 BCE

Culture Hearths
GHW 1.3
STANDARD
Analyze agricultural hearths and exchanges of crops among regions. Evaluate the impact of agriculture on the subsequent development of
culture hearths in various regions of the world.

Culture Hearths
GHW 1.3
EXAMPLE
Columbian Exchange: DEFINITION the radical s.16-18 global diffusion of:
- people
- animals
- ideas
* plants & food crops
* pathogens

Culture Hearths
GHW 1.3
EXAMPLE
Columbian Exchange: DEMOGRAPHICS
New World: disaster
- smallpox, measles, influenza, et al.
- 90% mortality
- s.16-18: 100 million dead
- adult losses = esp. devastating

Columbian Exchange: SMALLPOX http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/smallpox-images/smallpox1.htm

Culture Hearths
GHW 1.3
EXAMPLE
Columbian Exchange: DEMOGRAPHICS
Old World: boon
- new crops = population explosion
- s.16-18: growth of 475 million!
- European pol & econ expansion
 WORLD HEGEMONY

Culture Hearths
GHW 1.4
STANDARD
Detect the factors that explain how the local and regional human and physical environments of selected culture hearths were modified over time in terms of such features as urban development and agricultural activities.

Culture Hearths
GHW 1.4
EXAMPLE
The Reinvention of Ancient Athens

Culture Hearths
GHW 1.4
EXAMPLE
Peisistratus (546-527 BCE)
- popular tyrant of Athens
- land redistribution and 5% income tax
- reshapes Athenian agriculture & economy:
OLIVE OIL and CERAMICS
- Athens becomes a major commercial hub
- leads to Athens’ hegemony in the Greek world

~

World Religions
GHW 2.1
STANDARD
Map the spread over time of world religions from their points of origin and identify those that exhibit a high degree of local and/or international concentration.

World Religions
GHW 2.1
EXAMPLE
Spread of World Religions (500BCE-600CE) http://www.maps.com/referenceProduct.aspx?pid=11439

World Religions
GHW 2.1
DEFINITION
RESTRICTED:
- localized identity
- circumscribed recruitment base
- serving particular local social need
 Hinduism: varnas
 Judaism: chosen people
 Shinto: kami as distinctly Japanese

World Religions
GHW 2.1
DEFINITION
UNIVERSAL:
- universal identity
- open recruitment base
- addressed to universal questions
 Buddhism: human suffering
 Christianity & Islam: salvation

World Religions
GHW 2.1
EXAMPLE
Spread of Islam (632-750CE)

World Religions
GHW 2.1
EXAMPLE
Spread of Islam (632CE-present)
Historical Maps Online:
- antiquarian but still useful
- University of Pennsylvania collection http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~rs143/map.html

World Religions
GHW 2.1
EXAMPLE
Spread of Islam (632CE-present)
Online Lesson Plans with Activities:
- Council on Islamic Education
- based on Frontline documentary http://www.cie.org/Audiences.aspx?id=ed

World Religions
GHW 2.1
EXAMPLE
Spread of World Religions: FILMS
Buddhism: “Ashoka”
Christianity: “From Jesus to Christ”
Islam: “The Message” www.imdb.com

World Religions
GHW 2.2
STANDARD
Differentiate among selected countries in terms of how their identities, cultural and physical environments and forms of government are affected by world religions.

World Religions
GHW 2.2
EXAMPLE
Spain: Crucible of Competing Cultures
(c.200 BCE – 1492 CE)
Romans (paganism)
Visigoths (Arianism)  Mozarabs
Umayyads (Sunni Islam)
Almoravids (puritanical Islam)
Jews (influential minority)
Northern Christians (militant Catholicism)
The Reconquista and the Legacy of 1492

World Religions
GHW 2.2
EXAMPLE
Spain: Crucible of Competing Cultures
(c.200 BCE – 1492 CE)
MUSICAL COMPARISON:
Mozarabic chant
(“Vox clamantis”) vis-à-vis
Qur’anic recitation

World Religions
GHW 2.3
STANDARD
Compare and contrast different religions in terms of perspectives on the environment and attitudes toward resource use, both today and in the past.

World Religions
GHW 2.3
EXAMPLE
R. Foltz, Worldviews, Religion, and Environment (2003)
- stereotype: West/Christianity to blame for ecological crisis
E / indigenous societies more in tune with nature
- reality as somewhat more complex:
 Japan & Shinto: reverence or CONTROL?
bonsai tree as symbol
 current ecological disasters in Asia?

World Religions
GHW 2.4
STANDARD
Analyze and assess the rise of fundamentalist movements in all the world’s major religions during contemporary times (1980-present), and describe the relationships between religious fundamentalism and the secularism and modernism associated with the Western tradition.

World Religions
GHW 2.4
EXAMPLE
Bernard Lewis, The Crisis of Islam (2003)
Islamism:
- response to perceived humiliations
1683, 1798, 1917, 1948, 1967, 1991, 2003(?)
- incomprehensible to the West
- primarily internally focused

World Religions
GHW 2.4
EXAMPLE
Karen Armstrong,
(2001)
Fundamentalism:
- a 20 th -century phenomenon
- strong current in all major religions
- painful response to modernity
- ironically dependent on modernity
Armstrong’s own plea for rapprochement

~

&
Steven A. Stofferahn
Department of History
Geography and History of the World Seminar
Indiana State University
July 2007