Homework Lance
Answer each question with three or four sentences.
1.
What evidence and characteristics do scientists use to place animals, such as humans, in a particular classification, such as a kingdom, order, or family?
2.
How did climate affect the development of human cultures during the Pleistocene epoch?
3.
What are the advantages and disadvantages to Homo sapiens in having a larger forebrain?
4.
Historians used to call Paleolithic peoples hunter-gatherers but now prefer the term foragers. What does this terminology shift indicate about Paleolithic peoples’ daily lives?
5.
What kinds of animals were lost in the megafaunal extinctions at the end of the last Ice Age, and what role did humans play in those extinctions?
6.
What effect did the domestication of plants have on human population growth?
7.
What advantages did the domestication of dogs provide to both dogs and humans?
8.
What did humans learn about selective breeding from the domestication of sheep around 9000 B.C.E.?
9.
What kinds of goods were created and traded at Çatal Hüyük? What do these goods indicate about Neolithic culture?
10.
What kinds of religious rituals did Neolithic people develop? Who performed them?
Answer Key
1.
Answer would ideally include:
· In order to classify an animal, scientists originally used evidence from externally visible characteristics, such as body elements, how these elements are used, and what other animals that animal resembles. A final important division results from the ability to interbreed. Recently, scientists have added DNA testing and other genetic evidence.
2.
Answer would ideally include:
· The Pleistocene epoch, which began about 2.5 million years ago and ended 12,000 years ago, was the last major Ice Age. Glaciers and ice sheets covered much of the earth. Sea levels lowered, and what are now oceans were land masses that humans and other animals were able to cross, although they could not cross the ice sheets themselves. The ability to cross from one continent to another encouraged human migration into new environments; this in turn shaped how humans developed physically and culturally.
3.
Answer would ideally include:
· Having a larger forebrain gave Homo sapiens greater capacity for conscious thought, the ability to think reflectively and to create a symbolic language, greater intelligence overall, and the ability to manipulate their immediate world. Homo sapiens could understand and explain the surrounding world and organize socially. Larger brains were a disadvantage in that they required more energy (or food) and made childbirth more difficult for bipedal mammals. Infants were born earlier and required more care after birth.
4.
Answer would ideally include:
· Hunter-gatherer implies that the majority of food came from hunting and that the majority of time was spent hunting. In truth, Paleolithic peoples’ diet may have depended more on gathered foods than hunted meat. This would indicate that more time was spent gathering than hunting. Foraging goes a step further and indicates how flexible and adaptable Paleolithic peoples were in searching for food. Foragers gathered plants, scavenged, and hunted.
5.
Answer would ideally include:
· Most of the animals lost in the megafaunal extinction of 10,000 to 15,000 years ago were large mammals: wooly mammoths, mastodons, wooly rhinos, camels, horses, sloths, giant kangaroos, and wombats. Some animals became completely extinct, but others became extinct only in certain areas. Humans may have played a role in their extinction by hunting them, although a warming trend also contributed.
6.
Answer would ideally include:
· The domestication of plants increased human population growth by providing infants with an alternative food source (crops yielding soft cereals gave infants a food source beyond breast milk alone). Not having to breast-feed for as long allowed women to have more pregnancies as they lost the birth-control effect of breast-feeding. More food meant decreased child mortality and longer life spans generally, increasing periods of fertility and leading to higher population growth.
7.
Answer would ideally include:
· Dogs gained new food sources by sharing food with humans and safer surroundings as they came under the protection of humans. Humans gained assistance with hunting from the dogs’ abilities to smell and track prey and extra body warmth from the dogs. Both dogs and humans also gained companionship.
8.
Answer would ideally include:
· From observation and experimentation, humans learned that particular traits—such as size, temperament, strength, production of milk, and coat quality—could be manipulated by breeding those animals that had the desired characteristics. Humans learned that such characteristics were passed down from one generation of animals to the next.
9.
Answer would ideally include:
· The people at Çatal Hüyük made textiles, pots, figurines, baskets, carpets, beads, and other decorative goods. Çatal Hüyük traded obsidian—which was used for knives, blades, and mirrors—with other towns for sea shells and flint. They also traded copper, which was used for jewelry and tools. All of these goods, plus the diversity of agricultural goods, indicate that Neolithic culture was sophisticated and not that different from modern culture. People made practical tools and objects, such as pots, but also purely decorative objects, such as beads.
10.
Answer would ideally include:
· Neolithic societies had religious specialists—priests or shamans—who performed the rituals. Many of these involved giving the gods community-produced goods, whether agricultural, pastoral, or manufactured. In exchange for the goods, the gods were asked for favors, particularly concerning the fertility of the community, or were asked to ward off death and destruction.
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