Hunter/Gatherers
and Agriculturists
The Paleolithic Age and the
Neolithic Revolution
Prehistory
 What would people in the future think of
American culture based on what we leave
behind?
A. Life Before Agriculture
1. Paleolithic Era
1. paleo meaning “old”
2. lithos meaning “stone”
2. 2.5 million BCE – 10,000 BCE
3. Greatest accomplishment of Paleolithic
people was migration
Evolution of Modern Humans
How would migration affect the Paleolithic way
of life?
B. Paleolithic Way of Life
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Adaptation – Ice Age
Use of fire
Art
Life after Death – buried
their dead with great care
Roles of Men and Women
C. Causes of the Neolithic
Revolution
1. As the ice age ended, population began to grow
2. Retreat of large game animals forced hunters to turn
to smaller game animals
 Overall yield declined
3. People needed more reliable ways to get food
4. By 9000 B.C.E. people became more dependant on
regular harvests of wild grains, berries, and nuts
5. Led to deliberate planting
6. Evidence suggests that hunter/gatherer societies
resisted
7. Eventually agricultural societies won out – most
important
 H/G societies killed off by diseases
Livin’ the Paleolithic Life
Man, we didn’t always look like this,
We didn’t have fire, couldn’t cook like this.
We didn’t sleep with a pillow,
Lived in trees originally, so if you cried you would
weep in a willow.
But one monkey comes down; it’s cool,
When he gets up on his hind legs, he can use tools.
Might kill a bird or two, but that’s not happening
much,
Instead, he’s picking blueberries and he’s
gathering nuts.
But what’s this, he’s making a stone knife,
Now he’s hunting antelope his whole life.
But it’s a cold night; with no light it’s dark as
cocoa,
No home – that could drive a sane man loco.
Picture this like Kodak: He roams, he’s a nomad,
Following herds of pachyderms wherever they go
now.
He rubs two sticks, makes a fire,
Now his meat and food is so easy to chew.
This African man was mostly grunting,
Couldn’t think in our terms, he didn’t have
words.
So he makes, a word for fire, a word for water,
A word for his son and his daughter.
He does another thing that no animal tries,
He paints paintings on the cave wall; why?
I don't know but he’s an African, he’s an
Ethiopian,
And guess what kid, so are you…
Because he made babies, and they made babies,
And they made babies,
And they made a baby and that baby is you!
Oh, we ain’t got no homes,
So all we gonna do is roam.
We’re not Romans, but we’re roaming,
We’re nomadic, so you know we keep it going.
OK, I don’t even need a hand at all,
I will bury the dead like a Neanderthal.
I’m Cool Herc meets Kirk, your flow captain,
I throw spears like a Cro-Magnon.
Livin’ the Paleolithic Life
That’s the early man, he was going insane,
Tired of chasing animals across the plains.
His wife’s picking berries and fruit from the trees,
She’s like, "We could grow food if we plant these seeds."
Now she’s like, "This is sweet, my man,
We eating bread from the wheat we plant.
Those animals you hunt, let’s domesticate them,
Put a fence around them, now we’re baking bacon."
We ira-irrigate, control water flows,
Plow the land, plant the crops, and watch them grow.
Now my brother doesn’t even have to farm no more,
The Bronze Age – he’s making bronze arms and swords.
Division of labor, that’s the plan,
Now my aunt can go and open that frozen yogurt stand.
You better know, we trade it like Joe’s, n’ settle down,
Like Jericho, kid, we built the cities and towns.
You better recognize.
Oh, we ain’t got no homes,
So all we gonna do is roam.
We’re not Romans, but we’re roaming,
We’re nomadic, so you know we keep it going.
As a hunting-gathering society, you
have slowly made the shift to
agriculture…..
 So, now you have some questions to
consider regarding your society.
– What benefits come from this lifestyle? What
disadvantages?
– What if your population grows faster than your
food supply? What do you do?
– What if another society wants what you have?
What do you do?
– How do you keep your people satisfied and
cooperating?
D. Life After Agriculture
1.Food Supply
1.planted, tended and stored crops
2.Improvement of key grains through selection of
seeds from the best plants
3.Animals are domesticated
 by 9000 B.C.E. goats, sheep, and cattle
4.hunting supplemented food supply
2.Shelter
1.use of mud bricks
2.eventually stones are quarried
3.Settled villages located near fields – farming
communities
C. Life After Agriculture
3. Social Structure
1.Complex social structures involved many clans living in
close proximity
2.Gender separation:
3.Men farmed, herded, and hunted
4.women did jobs near the home: child-rearing, food
preparation, etc.
5.Religion is believed to have been developed to explain the
forces of nature
6.And governments developed to organize activities.
4. Specialization
1.People begin to specialize in various tasks: (tool maker),
stone cutter, potter, and basket weaving
2.first potter’s wheel - 6000 B.C.E.
3.first bronze tools - 4000 B.C.E.
4.Regional resources are gathered and traded
C. Life After Agriculture
5. Art and Innovation
1.Carving and statuary, complex tools such as advances in
weapons, plows pulled by animals, building techniques,
cloth making and weaving
2.Architecture and building for religious or common use
6. Language
1.Development of pictographic languages (Egyptian
Hieroglyphic) or written language.
2.Developed to keep records concerning food storage &
trade.
D. Characteristics of Civilization
1. Organized Governments
1.Planned, organized, and directed large city projects –
irrigation, flood control
2.Division of Labor
1.Provided goods and services
2.Enabled people to develop specialized skills
3.Encouraged trade and the development of new
technology
2. Class Structure
1.Defined a person’s place in society
2.reflected distribution of wealth
D. Characteristics of Civilization
3. Organized religion
1.Formalized religious beliefs, rituals & structure
2.Explained life, death, nature, and spirits
4. Cities
1.Urban centers & surrounding farmland
2.Marked the beginning of civilizations
5. System of Writing
1.Ability to send messages, keep records
2.Transmit knowledge
6. Art and Architecture
Can you answer these focus
questions?
 Discuss the advances that people made during
the Old Stone Age.
 Examine the benefits and the drawbacks of the
agricultural revolution explaining each fully.
 How and when did agriculture spread to different
areas?
 Explain how the first cities emerged.
 Explain the transition between the Paleolithic Age
and the Neolithic Age.
D. Characteristics of Civilization
1. Organized Governments
1.Made and enforced laws to keep order
2.Exercised authority over an organized state
3.Planned, organized, and directed large city projects –
irrigation, flood control
4.Standardized the money system
5.Collected taxes
6.Division of Labor
1.Provided goods and services
2.Enabled people to develop specialized skills
3.Encouraged trade and the development of new
technology
2. Class Structure
1.Defined a person’s place in society
2.reflected distribution of wealth
D. Characteristics of Civilization
3. Organized religion
1.Formalized religious beliefs
2.Explained life, death, nature, and spirits
3.Selected a clergy
4.Established rituals and symbols, shrines and sacred places
4. Cities
1.Growing population led to urban centers
2.Included surrounding farmlands
3.Marked the beginning of civilizations
5. System of Writing
1.Ability to send messages, keep records
2.Transmit knowledge with far greater accuracy, detail, and
quantity
6. Art and Architecture