Chapter 6: Commonalities and Variations PDF

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{ I ï ' 1r:tfr? r \.-..:n.-¡.!{" I r'.;r*tii ,î IW O Peter lv4. Wilson/Alamy  CHAPTER 6 Commonalities and Variations Africa, the Americas, and Pacific Oceania 6oo B.c.E.-rzoo c.E. Continental Comparisons ln early 2010, Bolivian president Evo Morales was inaugurated for his Civilizations of Africa second term in office, the only person from the country's Native lVleroë: Continuing a Nile Valley American population ever elected to that post since independence Civilization Axum:The lVaking of a Christian from Spain in 1825. The day before the official ceremony in the capi- Kingdom tal of La Paz, Morales traveled to Tiwanaku (tee-wah-NAH-coo), the Along the Nlger River: Cities without center of an impressive empire that had flourished in the Andean States highlands between 400 and 1000 c.r., long before either the lncas or Civilizations of Mesoamerica The Maya:Writing and Warfare the Spanish ruled the area. There he sought to link himself and his Teotihuacán: The Americas' Greatest administration to this ancient culture, a symbol of Bolivian national- City ism and indigenous pride. On his arrival, Morales was rìtually cleansed Civilizations of the Andes with holy water and herbs and dressed in a llama wool robe. After Chavín: A Pan-Andean Religious l\4ovement offerings were made to Pachamama, an Andean earth goddess, and Moche: A Civilization of the Coast to Tata lnti, the lnca sun god, Morales was invested with symbols of Wari and Tiwanaku: Empires of the both kingship and spiritual leadership. thus joining political and reli- lnterior gious sources of authority. Proclaiming a new multinational state, Alternatives to Civilization Bantu Africa: Cultural Encounters Morales declared: "Gone forever is the colonialstate, which allowed and Social Variation the looting of our natural resources, and gone also is the discrimina- North America: Ancestral Pueblo tory [against native peoples] colonial state."l This recent ceremony and lVlound Builders provides a reminder that memories of American second-wave civili- Pacific Oceania: Peoples of the Sea zations remained alive and were available for mobilizing political sup- Reflections: Deciding What's lmportant: Balance in World port and legitimating political authority in the very different circum- History stances of the early twenty-first century. Zooming ln: Piye, Kushite Conqueror of Egypt o. tlr..ry people, the second-wave era evokes most vividly the Zooming ln: The Lord of Sipan f and the Lady of Cao I civilizations of Eurasia-the Greeks and the Romans, the Per- Working with Evidence: Axum sians and the Chinese, and the Indians of South Asia-yet those and the World 'were not the only civilizations of that era. During this period, the The Maya Temple of the Great Jaguar in Tikal Located in the Maya city of Tikal in present-day Guatemala, this temple was constructed in the eighth century c.E, and excavated by archeologists in the late nineteenth century. lt served as the tomb of the Tikal ruler Jasaw Chan K'awiil I (682-734). Some 144 feet tall, it was topped by a three-room temple complex and a huge roofcomb showing the ruler on his throne. Carved on a wooden beam inside the temple is an image of the ruler protected by a huge jaguar, along with illustrations of his military victories. 229 230 CHAPTER 6 / COMMONALITIES AND VARIATIONS, 600 B.c.E.-1200 c.E Mesoamerican Maya and the Andean Tiwanaku thrived, as did several civilizations in sub-Saharan ,\frica, including Meroë (MER-oh-ee), Axum (AHK-soom), and the Niger River valley. Furthermore, those peoples who did not organize them- selves around cities or states likewise had histories of note and alternative ways of constructing their societies, although they are often neglected in favor of civiliza- tions. This chapter explores the histories of the varied peoples SEEK¡NG THE MAIN POINT ofAfrica, the Americas, and Pacifìc Oceania during this phase of world history. On occasion, those histories will extend some centuries beyond the chronological boundaries of the second-wave era in Eurasia because patterns of historical development around the world did not always coincide precisely. Continental Comparisons At the broadest level, hurnan cultures evolved in quite similar fashion around the world. Al1, of course, \Mere part of that grand process of human migration that ini- tially peopled the planet. Beginning in ,\frica, that vast movement of humankind subsequentþ encompassed Eurasia, Àustralia, the ,\mericas, and Pacific Oceania. Almost everywhere, gathering, hunting, and fìshing long remained the sole basis for sustaining life and society. Then, on the three supercontinents-Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas-the momentous turn of the Agricultural Revolution took place independently and in several distinct areas of each landmass (see Chapter 1). That revolutionary transformation of human life subsequently generated, in particularþ rich agricultural environments of all three regions, those more complex societies that we know as civilizations, featuring cities, states, monumental architecture, and great social inequality (see Chapter 2). In these ways, the historical trajectory of the human journey has a certain unity and similarity across quite distinct continentâl regions. These commonalities provide the foundation for a genuinely global history of humankind. At the beginning of the Common Era, that trajectory had generated a total world population of about 250 million people, substantially less than the current population of the United States alone. By modern standards, it was still a sparsely populated planet. The world's human population was then distributed very unevenly across the Guided Reading three giant continents, as the Snapshot on page 232 indícates. Eurasia was then home Question to more than 85 percent of the world's people, Africa about 10 percent, the Ameri- r COMPARISON cas around 5 percent, and Oceania less than 1 percent. That unevenness in popula- What similarities and tion distribution, a pattern that has persisted to the present, is part of the reason why differences are noticeable among the three major world historians focus more attention on Eurasia than on these other regions. Here continents of the world? lies one of the major differences among the continents. There were others as well. The absence of most animals capable of domestica- tion meant that few pastoral societies developed in the Americas, and only in pock- ets of the Andes Mountains based on the herding of llamas and alpacas. No animals  CONTINENTAL COMPARISONS 231 ll. MI\P OF TIME 1400-800 e.c.r. Lapita culture in Oceania 900-200 e.c.e. Chavín religious movement in Peruvian Andes 730 a.c.e. Nubian conquest of Egypt 300 a.c.e.-100 c.r. Kingdom of Meroë in upper Nile Valley 300 a.c.e.-900 c.r. Niger Valley civilization in West Africa 200 a.c.r.-400 c.e. Hopewell "mound-building" culture in U.S. eastern woodlands 1st-8th centuries c.e. Flourishing of Axum (East Africa) and Moche (coastal Peru) civilizations; spread of Bantu-speaking people in eastern and southern Africa 250-900 c.E. Classical Maya civilization 300-600 Flourishing of Teotihuacán 4th century lntroduction of Christianity to Axum 400-1 000 Tiwanaku and Wari in the Andes 860-1 1 30 Chaco culture in U.S. Southwest 900-1 250 Cahokia After 1000 Flourishing of Tonga trading network 1 100-'t600 Saudeleur dynasty on island of Pohnpei 1 200 lnitial settlement of New Zealand were available in the Americas to pull plows or carts or to be riclden into combat. Africa too lackecl wild sheep, goats, chickens, horses, and camels, but irs proximity AP@ EXAM TIP to Eurasia meant that these animals, once domesticated, became widely available to You should remem- Afican peoples. Metallurgy in the Americas was likewise far less cleveloped than in ber that ¡nterac- Eurasia ancl Africa, where iron tools ancl weapons played such an important role in tions between economic and military life. In the Americas, writing was limited to the Mesoameri- humans and their can region and was most highly developed among tire Maya, whereas in Africa it environment are a was confined to the northern and northeastern parts of the continent. In Eurasia, key theme in this by contrast, writing emerged elaborately in rnany regions. Furthermore, civlliza- course. tions in Africa and the Anericas were fewer in number ancl generally smaller than those of Eurasia, and larger numbers of people in those t\Mo continents livecl outside the confines of any civilization in communities that did not feâture cities and states. A final continental comparison distinguishes the history of Africa from that of the Americas. Geography placed Africa adjacent to Eurasia, while it separated the Americas from both Afì'ica and Eurasia. This has meânt that parts ofAfììca frequentþ 232 CHAPTER 6 / COMMONALITIES AND VARIATIONS, 600 s.c.e.-1200 c.e r@ Be able to define SNI\PSHOT Continental Population in the Second-Wave Era and Beyond and describe the (Note: Population figures for such early times are merely estimates and are often controversial processes of "demo- among scholars. Percentages do not always total 1 00 percent due to rounding.2) graphics" through- out world history. North Central/South Australia/ Total Eurasia Africa America America Oceania World Area (in square miles and as percentage of world total) 21,049,000 1 1,608,000 9,36s,000 6,880,000 2,968,000 51,870,000 (41o/o) (22o/o) (18%) (13%) (6%) Population (in millions and as percentage of world total) 400s.c.¡. 127 17 | 1 1 153 (83%) (11%) (0.7%) (5%) (0.7o/o) 10 c.¡. 213 26 2 10 1 252 (8s%) (10%) (0.8%) (4o/o) (0.4%) 200 c.r. 215 30 2 9 1 257 (84%) (12o/ù (0.8%) (4o/ù (0.4%) 600 c.r. 167 24 2 14 1 208 (80%) (12o/o) (1%) (7o/o) (0.s%) 1000 c.¡. 195 39 2 16 1 253 (77o/o\ (1s%) (0.8%) (6"/") (0.4%) 1500 329 13 1 4.5 53 3 477 (690/0) (24%) (0.9%) (11o/o) (0.6%) 1750 646 104 3 15 3 771 (83%) (13%) (0.4%) (1'e%) (0.4o/o) 2013 5,041 1,1 10 355 617 38 7,162 (70.4o/o) (15.s%) (5%) (8.6%) (0.s%) interacted with Eurasian civilizations. In fact, Mediterranean North Africa was long part of a larger zone of Afro-Eurasian interaction. Ancient Egyptian civilization was certainly in contact with Crete, Syria, and Mesopotamia and provided inspiration for the Greeks. The entire North African coastal region was incorporated into the Roman Empire and used to procluce wheat and olives on large estates with slave iabor. Christianity spread widely across North Africa, giving rise to some of the early Church's most famous marryrs and theologians. The Christian faith found an even more permanent footholcl in the lands now known as Ethiopia. Arabia, located between ,\frica and Asia, was another point of contact with a wider world for African peoples. The arrival of the domesticated camel, probably from,\rabia, generated a pastoral way of life among some of the Berber peoples of the western Sahara during the first three centuries c.p. ,\ little 1ater, camels also made  CIVILIZATIONS OF AFRICA 233 possible trans-Saharan commerce, which linked interior West Africa to the world of Mediterranean civilization. Over many centuries, the East African coast wâs a port of call for Egyptian, Roman, and Arab merchants, and that region subsequently became an integral part of Indian Ocean trading networks. The rransoceanic voyages of Austronesian-speaking sailors from Southeast Asia brought various food crops of that region, bananas for example, to Madagascar and from there to the East African mainland. The Americas and Oceania, by contrast, developed almost wholly apart from this Afro-Eurasian network until that separation was breeched by the voyages of Colr-rnrbus from 1.492. To illustrate the historical developments of the second-wave era beyond Eurasia,/ North Africa, this chapter exarnines first the civilizations that emerged in sub- Saharan Afiica ancl the Americas. Then our historical spotlight turns to several regions on both continents as well as the islands of the Pacific that remâined ourtside the zone of civilization, reminding us that the histories of many peoples took shape without the cities, states, and empires that were so prominent within that zone. Civlizations ofAfrica When historians refer to Africa in premodern times, they are speaking generally of a geographic concept, a continental landmass, and not a cultural identity. Certainly few, if any, people living on the continent at that time thought of themselves as ,\ficans. Like Er-rrasia or the Americas, Afi'ica hosted numeroLls separate socieries, cultures, ancl civilizations with vast differences among them as well as some interac- tion between them. Many of these differences grew out of the continent's environmental variations. Small regions of Mediterraneân ciimate in the northern and southern extremes, large deserts (the Sahara and the Kalahari), even larger regions ofsavanna grasslands, E@ Expect the AP@ exam tropical rain forest in the continent's center, highlands and mountains in eastern to ask you to iden- Africa-all ofthese features, combined with the continent's enormoLls size, ensured tify political, social, endless variation âmong Afi'ica's many peoples. Africa did, however, have one dis- and economic con- tinctive environmental feature: bisected by the equator, it was the most tropical of nections between 'While the world's three supercontinents. some regions, such as highland Ethiopia, major regions. sustained very procluctive agriculture, elsewhere a variety of factors generated lower crop yields and diminishecl soil fertility. These included hear.y bllt sometines- erratic rainfall fiequently followed by long dry seasons and the leaching of nutrients from often very ancient soi1s. Climatic conditions also spawned nlrmerous disease- cartying insects and parasites, which have long createcl serious health problems in tnany parts of the continent. It was within these environmental constraints that Afican peoples made their histories. In several distinct regions of the continenc- the upper Nile Valley, northern Ethiopia/Eritrea, and the Niger River valley- small civilizations flourished during the second-wave era, while others followed later. A further African civilization falling partly within this time period grew Lrp along the East African coast in conjunction with Indian Ocean commerce. I{nown as Swahili civilization, it is treated in greater detail in Chapter 7. 234 CHAPTER 6 / COMMONALITIES AND VARIATIONS, 600 B.c.E.-l200 c.E. Mero'ë: Continuíng a NíleVølley Cíuílízatíon EXAM TIP In the Nile Vailey south of Egypt lay the iands of Nubian civilization, almost as AP@ old as Egypt itself. Over many centuries, Nubians both traded and fought with Know the ways Egypt, and on one occasion the Nubian I(ngdorn of Kush conquered Egypt and that civilizations ruled it for a century. (See Zooming In: Piye, page 236.) While borrowing heavily influenced each from Egypt, Nubia remained a distinct and separate civilization. As Egypt fell increas- other across place and time. ingly under foreign control, Nubian civilization came to center on the southern city of Meroë (MER-oh-ee), where it flourished between 300 s.c.n. and 100 c.¡. þee Map 6.1). Politically, the Kingdom of Meroë was governed by an all-powerful and sacred Guided Reading monarch, a position helcl on at least ten occasions by women, governing alone or Question as co-rulers with a male monarch. Unlike the female pharaoh Hatshepsr.rt in Egypt, I CONNECTION who was portrâyed in male clothing, Meroë queens appeared in sculptures as How did the history of women and with a prominence and power equivalent to their male counterparts. Meroë and Axum reflect interaction with neighbor- In accordance with ancient traditions, such rulers were buried along with a num- ing civilizations? ber of human sacrificial victims. The city of Meroë and other urban centers housed a wide variety of economic specialties-merchants, weavers, potters, and masons, as well as servânts, laborers, and slaves. The smelting of iron and the manufacture of iron tools and weapons were especially prominent industries. The rural areas surrounding Meroë were populated by peoples who practiced some combination of herding and farming ancl paicl periodic tribute to the ruler. Rainfall-based agri- culture was possible in Meroë, and consequently farmers were less dependent on irrigation. This meant that the rural popuiation did not need to concentrate so heavily near the Nile as wâs the case in Egypt' The wealth and rnilitary powel' g ü of Meroë derived in part from t t.g extensive long-distance tracling con- €. r.l}- t nections, to the no1'th via the Nile L. Ð -.S and to the east and west by means e./3 of canrel câravans. Its iron weap- -* -ç ,d#' ons and cotton cloth, as well as its access to gold, ivory, tortoiseshells, and ostrich feathers, gave Meroë a reputation for great riches i.n the A Bracelet from Meroë 00 B.c.E., iìlustrates the skill of lVeroë's craftsmen as well as lhe world of northeastern Africa and This gold bracelet, dating to about 1 kingdom's reputation as one of the wealthiest states of the ancient world, The bracelet's depiclion the Mediterrânean. The discovery of a seated Hathor, a popular Egyptian goddess, shows the influence of Egyptian culture in Nubia. in Meroë of a statue of the Roman (Braceletwith an image of Hathor, from Pyramid B, Gebel Barkal, Nubia, Meroitic Period, 250-100 a.c. lgold and emperor,\ugustus, probably seized enamell, Nubian/Museum of Fine Arls, Boston, Massachusetts, UsAJHarvard University-Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition/Bridgeman lmages) during a raid on Roman Egypt,  CIVILIZATIONS OF AFRICA 235 tt Madeiro Isla¡ds Sea Canøry Islands ; '¡. ARABIA Mecca Gutf of Guinea ATLANT"IC lNDlAN O CEAN OCEAN I 0 500 1,000 miles I 0 500 r,obo kilo-"t".3 o o I Niger Valley Civilization ffi Egypt I Nubia/Meroë I Axum EH Bantu I San