Vocabulary for Humanities Unit 1: (copy)

Homo sapiens

Human kind

Paleolithic age

They used basic stone and bone tools, as well as crude stone axes, for hunting birds and wild animals. (Earliest age)

Egalitarian society

all individuals are born equal, and all members of society are said to have a right to equal opportunities.

Fertile Crescent

a geographical area of fertile land in the Middle East stretching in a broad semicircle from the Nile to the Tigris and Euphrates

Bantu Migration

Bantu-speaking populations gradually left their original homeland of West-Central Africa and traveled to the eastern and southern regions of the continent.

Pastoral Societies

a social group of pastoralists, whose way of life is based on pastoralism, and is typically nomadic.

Caves of Lascaux

pice of Paleolithic Art that dates to arround 15,000 to 13,000 B.C.E

Ziggurat

A pyramid shaped temple tower

Sumer

The world's first civilization, founded in Mesopotamia, which existed for over 3,000 years.

Babylon

the chief city of ancient Mesopotamia and capital of the ancient kingdom of Babylonia

Hummarabi's Code

the first written code of laws (very gruesome)

Cuneiform

A form of writing developed by the Sumerians using a wedge shaped stylus and clay tablets.

Nubia

an ancient region of northeastern Africa on the Nile; much of Nubia is now under Lake Nasser

Pharoah

A ruler of ancient Egypt

Queen Hatshepsut

New Kingdom ruler renowned for expanding Egyptian trade

hieroglyphs

pictures and other written symbols that stand for ideas, things, or sounds

bantu

a member of any of a large number of linguistically related peoples of Central and South Africa

Harappa

a large ancient city of the Indus civilization, created in present-day Pakistan

Aryan

Germanic people seen as the master race

Vedas

Ancient Sanskrit writings that are the earliest sacred texts of Hinduism.

Vedic Age

A period in the history of India; It was a period of transition from nomadic pastoralism to settled village communities, with cattle the major form of wealth.

Raja

a prince or king in India

Caste system

a social structure in which classes are determined by heredity

Jati

a Hindu caste or distinctive social group of which there are thousands throughout India

Lawbook of Manu

A moral code prepared in the first century B.C.E. in India dictating the role of women in Indian society.

Sati

The Indian custom of a widow voluntarily throwing herself on the funeral pyre of her husband.

Lady Fu Hao

one of the many wives of King Wu Ding of the Shang dynasty and, unusually for that time, also served as a military general and high priestess

Mandate of Heaven

a political theory of ancient China in which those in power were given the right to rule from a divine source

Oracle bones

The earliest known Chinese writing is found on these from ritual activity of the Shang period.

Olmecs

These people were named the 'Rubber People', because they were surrounded by rubber trees that inhabited the land. Which Olmec cultural traditions influenced all societies of this era.

Quipu

An arrangement of knotted strings on a cord, used by the Inca to record numerical information.

Veneration of Ancestors

rituals designed to commemorate and venerate the spirits of one's deceased ancestors