To date, what are the basics of what is known about protohumans?
What did bipedalism allow protohumans to do and how did it affect their further development?
In what ways did the use and control of fire benefit protohumans?
Homo erectus was the first protohuman to do what things?
When did Homo sapiens (modern humans) first appear? Of all the things they produced, what do the McNeills feel is their most important development? Why?
How/why is the development of song and dance seen as important?
What changes accompanied or were created by humans as they spread throughout the world?
As human cultures developed, so did task/job specialization. What kind of specializations developed? Why? Who/what kinds of people specialized in these tasks?
What did the end of the Ice Age do for human populations? What allowed people to settle down? (Give Examples!)
Chapter 2: Shifting to Food Production 11,000 – 3,000 Years Ago (pgs. 25 – 40)
What did the development of domestication (farming) of plants and animals do for people?
Why did people settle down and begin farming? Where did farming/domestication probably occur first?
Why was farming a woman’s job at first? Why did it seem to become men’s work?
How did farming/domestication biologically change some plants and animals (and humans) as well as terrains of different areas? (Give Examples!)
List and briefly describe the three most important uses that farmers had for domesticated animals.
What were the positives and negatives of early rice cultivation in Asia/China?
What were the main crops and subsistence patterns of prehistoric Southeast Asia?
What are the main pieces of evidence that exist to indicate that Southeast Asian societies had the ability to make and use boats/rafts?
Why were early civilizations developed by grain farmers and NOT by “tropical gardening” societies, according to the McNeills?
What was the major pattern of agricultural development in Sub-Saharan Africa?
What were the major patterns of agricultural development in the Americas (North, Central and South)?
What advantages did Eurasian societies have that Sub-Saharan and American ones did not have in terms of social and technological development?
What positive social and technological changes resulted from the development of agriculture?
What problems arose with the development of farming and sedentary lifestyles?
Chapter 3: Webs and Civilizations in the Old World 3,500 BCE – 200 CE (pgs. 41 - 81)
How did the rise of cities and civilizations serve to form an “Old World Web”? What processes and relationships were at work here?
What are the three oldest civilization clusters? Which one is the oldest and most important according to the McNeills?
What was the “second big metropolitan web”?
What were the major early civilization zones and clusters in Mesoamerica?
What was the major early civilization zones and cluster in South America? What were the relationships between the different climate and elevation regions of South America?
Why is less known about the early civilization of the Indus Valley and South America than the other major early civilizations?
Explain the processes that occurred by which the earliest settlements and civilizations began along the Tigris and Euphrates River Valleys?
List and briefly describe the Three main elements of Sumerian cities.
What was the relationship between the Sumerian civilization’s religion and its economy/government?
How is the rise of military power linked to the rise of farming/herding, city life and trade? How might the rise of monarchy be related to these concepts, too?
What is known about the Indus Valley civilization? What things are still unclear about the Harappans?
How did Egypt’s early leaders take and consolidate their power? What steps and techniques did they use?
Why was Egypt’s Civilization more stable? Why were they less militarily developed than other civilizations?
Who were the Hyksos? What did they do?
In what ways were the development of the Chinese civilization different from that of Egypt and Mesopotamia?
Explain the process by which local elites gained and retained power in China. How is this different from Egypt and Mesopotamia?
List and briefly give the general details about the two major pre-Dorian Greek cultures.
What was the Polis system? What were its features? How did it work?
What did the people of Greek city-states begin to do around 750 BCE to deal with land shortages? Where did this occur?
Who invented coinage? In what ways did it change trade and production systems within the Mediterranean world?
In what ways were non-land owning peoples incorporated into the society and defense of their city-state?
What were the major cultural developments of the Classical Greeks?
What aspects of Greek culture were spread due to the conquests and empire of Alexander the Great?
How did a widespread monetary economy come to be? How did it change the Old World Web?
What were the main similarities and differences between the Greek Polis model of state and society and that of the Roman Republic?
What effects did Christianity have on the people of the Roman Empire? What factors about the Empire and Christianity caused it to spread so rapidly and far?
By 200 CE, where was a hunter-gatherer subsistence strategy still common?
What problems had arisen in the Old World due to high populations and heavy reliance on agriculture by 200 CE?
