CHAPTER 3:

TRACING BACK THE HUMAN

BIOCULTURAL AND SOCIAL
EVOLUTION
The Neolithic Revolution
The archaeologist V. Gordon Childe coined
the term “Neolithic Revolution” in 1923.

 Also called the “Agricultural Revolution”.

 It describes the origin and impact of food

production-plant cultivation and animal
domestication.

 “Neolithic” which means “New Stone Age”

-refer to techniques of grinding
and polishing stone tools.
NEOLITHIC STONE TOOLS
 EARLY CIVILIZATION AND THE RISE OF THE
STATE
 The Emergence of Civilization
 Kottak (2009) states that most ancient civilizations have been
studied by archaeologist rather than historians because those
civilizations evolved before the advent of writing.

 The earliest Neolithic societies were egalitarian – people did not

differ much in wealth, prestige, or power.

 Some archaeologists think that’s stated first evolved around 3,500

B.C. in greater Mesopotamia, the area shared by southern Iraq.

 Most think that hierarchical and centralized decision making

affecting a substantial population is the key criterion.
 Neolithic period began when humans first settled
down and began farming. They continued to make tools
and weapons from flint and some kinds of tool.
Fertile Crescent, a Cradle of Civilization

The Fertile Crescent is the region in the Middle

East which curves, like a quarter-moon shape, from the
Persian Gulf, through modern-day southern Iraq, Syria,
Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and northern Egypt.
It contains a comparatively moist and fertile land.
The region is often called the cradle of civilization
which saw the development of some of the earliest
human civilization.
 THE CRADLES OF CIVILIZATION
 Refers to civilization that emerged independently.

 These civilizations developed around rivers.

 Rivers provided enough water for large-scale agriculture,

enabling people to abandon a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and to
grow and store surplus food. This, in turn, permitted the
development of a hierarchical society with a division of labor,
and led to the growth of cities.
1. Tigris-Euphrates River Civilization of Mesopotamia.
Mesopotamia (most ancient known civilization),
 A region which lies primarily in modern Iraq.
 Mesopotamia, Greek for “between the rivers”, is sometimes called
the Fertile Crescent because it is a crescent-shaped area between
the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
2. The Nile Valley Civilization of Egypt. Egypt was known as the Gift
of the Nile because the annual flooding of the Nile River made
possible the agriculture on which Egypt’s civilization was based. In
3118 B.C. Pharaoh Narmer was believed to have unitd Upper (or
southern) and Lower (or northern) Egypt from this time on ancient
Egypt was generally characterized by a highly unified culture and
strong central government.

3. The Yellow River Civilization of China. By 3000 B.C. the Yellow

River Valley was settled by farmers. Chinese legend holds that the Xia
Dynasty arose and flourished during the prehistoric period.

4. Indus Valley Civilization of India. The ancient civilization of the

Indus Valley, located in modern Pakistan, is unique because unlike the
continuously existing civilization of Mesopotamia, Egypt and China it
rose and then fell, leaving only mysterious ruins to testify to its
existence.
 FEATURES OF CIVILIZATION
Perry (1983) states that historians use the term
civilization to distinguish between pre-historic societies and
the considerably more advanced societies that developed
later. The civilization features the following;
1. Cities. Civilized societies were urban societies, for
civilization developed in cities. Cities were larger and more
complex than villages.
2. Writing. Written language enabled people to preserve,
organize, and expand their knowledge. It made it easier for
government officials, priests, and merchants to carry out
their duties.
3. Specialization. People in civilized societies were specialist-
artisan, merchants, priest, record-keepers, government
officials, farmers.
4. Government. In civilized societies government
became more organized. There were rulers who
issued laws and officials to carry them out. The
government drew up boundary lines that defined the
state’s territory. It formed an army to protect or
expand its borders.
5. Religion. Civilized societies had organized
religions with a powerful, trained, and wealthy
priesthood. From the priesthood, people derived
their values and attitudes toward life. Religion gave
the rulers their authority, for they were thought to
represent the will of the Gods.
 RISE OF THE CIVILIZATION AND STATE
1. The Sumerian Civilization. According to Perry (1983), in
learning how to use the rivers’ waters, the Sumerians developed
important skills. Each city-state included a city and the country
side around it. On clay-tablets they carved wedge-shaped
symbols called Cuneiform.

2. Egyptian Civilization. The country of Egypt had existed for

thousands of years. Since ancient times it has been called the
Gift of the Nile – and for good reason.

3. The Greece City-States. The Greeks discovered a new way of

thinking about nature, society, and the purpose of life.
4. Roman Republic.
 Rome began as a small town near the coast of Central
Italy.

 Early in their history the Romans were influenced by two

peoples who had settled in the Italian Peninsula- the
Greeks and the Etruscans.

 It was led by two consuls, nobles who directed the daily

affairs of the government.
The assembly included wealth landowners called
Patricians and common people known as Plebeians.
 DEMOCRATIZATION
Process by which democracy expands,
within a state or across the world. Both as a process
and as a concept, democratization draws on a long
history. The intellectual origins of the concept of
democracy stretch back to Athenian ideals of city
governance and Roman republicanism.
Democratization, then, might be most
readily understood as a concept that encapsulates the
expansion of a set of related political ideals with
different intellectual vintages that gain public
prominence during the emergence of capitalist
modernity.
 OVERVIEW OF DEMOCRACY
 Shively (2005) states that democracy is a state in which all
fully qualified citizens vote at regular intervals to choose, from
among alternative candidates, the people who will be in charge
of setting the state’s policies.

 Democracy comes from the Greek word demokratia; demos

meaning “people” and kratia meaning “government”.
Democracy is “government of the people”.

 A democratic government is legitimized by the electoral

process that produced it. Most of us are familiar with
democratic government from our own experience. The
Philippines is very good example of a democratic country as
stated in our Philippine Constitution.
 Democratic Bargain.
Each group accepts that it must abide by the end
result and hopes that it will be able to get enough of what it
wants out of the process.

MODERN DEMOCRACY
At the present time the word democracy has a rather
magical connotation and a somewhat tranquilizing effect.
Any citizen who is persuaded that its own government
system is a democratic one is likely to accept the political
power exercised by that system.
A government needs to submit each issue requiring a
decision to so many voters who would be too unwieldy to
function efficiently in a modern technological society
(Roskin 1991).
 ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS OF
DEMOCRACY
Roskin (1991) identifies the essential ingredients of
democracy as follows;
1. Popular Support of Government. It is the crucial test of
modern democratic government, for in a democracy the
policymakers’ legitimacy usually depends on the support
they receive in the form of a majority or plurality of votes
cast.
2. Political Competition. The people’s right to reject
unsatisfactory officials at the polls is bolstered when a
choice of policies is offered on the ballot.
3. Alternation in Power. The reins of power will
occasionally alternate both in terms of actual
officeholders and in terms of prevailing ideas.
4. Popular Representation. The votes elect
representatives to act as legislators and, as such, to
voice and protect their general interest. It is said that
a system is not democratic unless legislators treat
election as mandate to carry out constituents’
wishes.
5. Majority Rule. Is any government decision
involving important policymaking, there is rarely
complete agreement. In any controversy, the policy
that has the support of the greatest number of citizen
should generally become the policy of government.