Nature of Institutions and Family Definition

Study Notes

Millets, vegetables, and fruits were cultivated.
Development of institutions combines group beliefs and activities organized for fulfilling group needs.
Institutions include customs, traditions, rules, and physical constructs like buildings and communication tools.

Family defined as a permanent unit of parents and offspring.
Functions include child care, division of labor, property management, and belief transmission.
Families existed in both polygamous and monogamous forms; polygamy often arose from a surplus of females.
Polygamy promotes population growth as one man can father more offspring than one woman can bear.
Hebrews encouraged extra wives for rapid multiplication and self-protection.
Rulers used multiple wives as a display of wealth and power.

Religion developed to establish a dependence on a higher power, spiritual or moral.
Primitive man's dependence on natural elements led to the creation of ceremonies for weather and harvest.
Early religion involved fear and a constant state of alarm regarding natural forces.

Skeletal remains (Java, 1891) indicate an early hominin with a cranial capacity between a gorilla and modern humans.
Peking Man discovered in China highlights a common ancestral origin.
Fonte-Chevade Man found in France closely resembled modern humans; notable skeletal features include a thick skull and low cranium.
Neanderthal Man, recognized as a "cave man," lived around 25,000 years ago; skeletal remains suggest a height of about five feet four inches.

Lower Paleolithic humans possessed speech and reasoning skills.
They developed advanced tools, including spearheads and superior knives.
Evidence of cooperative life and early social structures through communal activities like caring for the dead.

Transition from chipping tools to grinding and polishing marks the New Stone Age.
Advances in agriculture and animal domestication led to population growth and settled communities.
People began fearing not just death, but hunger and natural disasters; misfortunes attributed to ritual failures needing appeasement.

Ancient states primarily originated from warfare, founded for conquest, defense, or repelling invaders.
Hebrews sought a king for leadership similar to neighboring nations, emphasizing leadership's significance in state formation.

Civilization has varied meanings, often describing advanced cultural phases and later declines.
Historians view civilization as a complex pattern of ideas and achievements of a society at a specific time.
Culture is typically associated with societies that have not developed writing; it encompasses intellectual and artistic achievements like literature, art, and philosophy.
Civilization can be regarded as the peak of culture, representing advanced societal structures and achievements.