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SL Class Date: Wednesday 10.5.216
SL Class Section: The Beginnings of Western Culture (Part 1)


A.     Introduction to Pre-History (Paleolithic through Neolithic Periods)


1.       Culture & Civilization. 

Before we begin to explore Western civilization, we should discuss two terms: Culture and Civilization.

a)      How do you define “culture”? 
b)      What qualities do you think defines “culture”?
c)       What are some of society’s cultural values?
d)      What about “civilization”?

Corollary:
Culture can refer to the sum of human endeavors: methods and practices for survival economic and social structures, values, beliefs and “The Arts”.
Culture can be used to refer to the creative, artistic and intellectual expressions of a civilization.
Culture is learned behaviors (not genetic nor biological) and passed on.
Culture is shared by a group (more than one person).
Culture includes languages, customs, artifacts, technology, etc.

Civilization refers to the way people live in a complex political, economic, and social structure – often after making certain technological and artistic advances. Civilization is transmitted primarily by writing. 




2.       Lecture Notes: Pre-history and The Stone Age

What is “Pre-History”?   

       History is everything humanity has done since we first started recording it, sort of like a person's life before she or he starts remembering it. We know it happened, we just don't have any personal memory of it happening.  

      We can define prehistory as the period of human development during the time before the discovery of writing.

      Prehistory extends from the emergence of our first ancestors, about five million years ago, to the invention of writing, approximately 5,000 years ago.

       Now, some people might refer to prehistory as all time before writing, from the creation of the universe, while others refer to it as time since the development of life on earth, while still others define prehistory as the period of time beginning with the appearance of human beings.


This lesson will discuss human history before the invention of writing.











There are three major periods of prehistory: Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic.

Homo sapiens, who came into being around 200,000 B.C.E, in Africa, began to supplant the Neathderthal Homo erectus in Europe. Both Homo erectus and Homo sapiens were early toolmakers, who cooked with fire, wore skins for clothing and buried their dead in ritual ceremonies. 

       The first historical evidence of a culture – socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought – occurred approximately 35,000 years ago. Sometime between 35,000 and 10,000 B.C.E, at the end of the Paleolithic period (also called Old Stone Age period) the first objects that can be considered works of art began to appear. These objects expressed the values and beliefs of early Paleolithic peoples. 




  Prehistory is divided into distinct periods
 Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic

The term “Paleolithic” comes from the Greek:

“palaios” = old
“lithos” = stone




The Paleolithic period (or Old Stone Age) is approximately 2.4 million years to about 10,500 years ago. It corresponds to the geological Pleistocene era – otherwise known as the Ice Age.  During this era, glaciers moved over the European and Asian continents, forcing peoples to move to areas around the Mediterranean and into Africa.




The Paleolithic people were nomadic hunters, gatherers, and fishers; they did not produce their own food and they lived precariously as peoples completely dependent on their natural environment. The earliest people were nomadic hunter-gatherers, following herds of bison, deer, horses and mammoths – depending on these animals for survival.







The Mesolithic Period (or Middle Stone Age), lasted about 500 years. This period was a transitional phase between the Paleolithic and Neolithic ages du ring which people emphasized fishing and developed new tools, particularly for use in woodworking.







The Mesolithic era was very different from the Paleolithic. Because the glaciers were gone, the northern and southern regions suddenly had a bountiful food supply. Forested regions were for the first time being cut down in small numbers. Flint was worked into small tools, which were used for many different things. Fishing tackle and stone axes have been found and could have been used for fishing and shaping wood. Canoes and bows have also been found.

With food more plentiful and the development of better tools and weapons to kill and make use of animals, it's not surprising that the human population boomed. With animals and environments more diverse than they had been for hundreds of thousands of years, it also seems only natural that cultures that were more and more different from each other would develop.




The Neolithic Age (or New Stone Age), began about 11,000 years ago. By 9500 B.C.E during this period, humans began to grow crops, domesticate certain animals (wild pigs, goats, sheep and cattle). Groups of human beings started to live in villages.


Note:

The Bronze and Iron Ages (Metal Ages) began about 7,000 years ago. The Bronze Age (2300–700 bce) and the Iron Age (700–1 bce), which followed a less distinctly defined Copper Age (c. 3200–2300 bce). At this time, societies in Europe began consciously to produce metals. Simultaneous with these technological innovations were changes in settlement organization, ritual life, and the interaction between the different societies in Europe. These developments and their remarkable reflections in the material culture make the period appear as a series of dramatic changes.


B.      In-Class Activity Videos:  Introducing Paleolithic Art  




1) “Paleolithic Art” from "Paleolithic Art" (M. Ohl)  (Click to watch!) 




         2) "Venus of Willendorf" from "The Sculpture Diaries" (W. Januszczak) (Click to watch!) 


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C.  Prehistoric Cultural Developments: 

It is believed that prehistoric art, religion, and ritual were all bound together, with images, language, and physical movement combined to improve the chance of achieving success in the hunt.  Religion and rituals were important to the prehistoric peoples, seeking to provide some kind of control over nature. The use prayer, art, and ritual enactments of the hunt were extremely important to aid in survival.

Some examples to note:





1)  Mammoth Bone Hut, Teeth Tusks, and Tar Pits, ca. 15,000 bce. Exhibit, The Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois.
This house was built of hundreds of mammoth bones by hunters on windswept, treeless plains in Ukraine. Working as a team, hut builders needed only a few days to haul together hundreds of massive bones and stack them into a snug abode.




2)  Hall of the Bulls, ca. 15,000–13,000 bce.
Cave paintings like these were probably associated with prehistoric rituals that may have included music. Some researchers believe that the caves may have been chosen for their acoustical properties and that the paintings had some sort of magical significance connected to game hunts during the hunter-gatherer phase of Paleolithic culture.




3)  Venus of Willendorf, ca. 28,000–23,000 bce Willendorf, Austria. Limestone, 41 ⁄4" (10.8 cm) high. Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria.
This figurine is one of numberless representations of earth mother goddesses from the Paleolithic period. Original color indicates it was painted red. Parts of the body associated with fertility and childbearing have been emphasized.

The 'Venus of Willendorf' is the name that was given to a female figurine that was found in 1908 by an archeologist named Joseph Szombathy in an Aurignacian loess deposit near the town of Willendorf in Austria. It is now in the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna. The statue was carved from limestone and was colored with red ocher. It measures 110 mm in height and is dated 30,000 and 25,000 BC

(Corollary: Ocher is an earthy pigment containing ferric oxide, typically with clay, varying from light yellow to brown or red.)


This statue is an important icon of prehistory. Archeologists have suggested many different ways of understanding its significance for the nomadic society which made it. The first suggestion is that it was a "Venus figure" or "Goddess," used as a symbol of fertility. Apart from being female, the statue has an enlarged stomach and breasts, its pubic area is greatly emphasized, probably serving as a representative of procreativity, and the red ocher pigment covering it has been thought to symbolize or serve as menstrual blood seen as a life giving agent.

The second suggestion is that the figurine may have served as a good luck charm. Its diminutive size led archaeologists to assume that it may have been carried by the men during their hunting missions in which it served not only as a reminder of their mate back at home but also as a charm to bring them success in their hunting. This is further strengthened by the facelessness of the figurine giving it an air of mystery and anonymity which suggests that it may have been of more importance as an object rather than as a person. Also, the figurine's hair is braided in seven concentric circles, seven in later times being regarded as a magic number used to bring about good luck.

A third possible significance put forth is that of the figurine serving as a mother goddess (earth mother or female deity). This comes from a suggestion that the statue was a woman whose special quality was indicated in her obesity since women in a hunter gatherer society would probably not have had the opportunity to get as obese.

With all the suggestions that have been put forward about the significance of the sculpture, tentative conclusions can be made about the social, political and religious beliefs of the foraging society in which it was found.

The use of the figurine as a deity suggests the practice of religious ceremonies to ensure the success of the tribe. As an earth goddess, it may have played the role of ensuring a continuous supply of food in the society. Along with this comes a possible belief in magic if the figurine was intended to ensure hunting success. Politically, it can be speculated that women due to their nurturing capabilities might have had an esteem role in the society.


The society may have thus been more matriarchal rather than patriarchal as suggested by Jacob Bachojen (1815-1887), "Matriarchate or gynaecocracies’ found among tribal peoples, where authority in both the family and the tribe was in the hands of the women, was to be associated with the worship of a supreme female earth deity"  

That's it for this week!

Next week, we will be delving closer into the various art styles and expressions of our early ancestors!




HOMEWORK:  

      1.  Please watch the documentary "History of Humanity".






      2.  Please watch “Venus of Willendorf".




Think about and answer these questions:

  •          How do people express ideas through art?
  •          What can we learn about people who lived long ago by looking at a picture?
  •          Why do people use images to tell stories and to communicate?
  •         What did people use to record important events in their lives or history long ago?
  •         How has art been used throughout history to tell stories or to show us what people in other times and places considered important?





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Sources:


Text: Discovering the Humanities (H. Sayre)
Text: The Western Humanities (R.T. Matthews; F.D. Platt)
Text: Handbook for the Humanities (J. Benton; R. DiYanni)
Text: Culture and Values: A Survey of Western Humanities (L.S. Cunningham; J. Reich; L.Fichner-Rathus
Text: Stone Age Women: "The Venus of Willendorf" (C. Whitcombe)

Image/Slides: Prehistory – Historialavilaroja
Timeline: “A Walk Through Human Evolution” (J. Lertola)
Video: “Paleolithic Art” Video  (M. Ohl)
Video: “Venus of Willendorf” (W. Januszczak)
Video: "History of Humanity" (National Geographic)



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