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Link titleLink titleUnit 1

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ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF CIVILIZATION

Structure

Overview

Learning Objective

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Definition of Civilization

1.2.1 Origin of Earth, Man and Growth of Civilization

1.3 The Old Stone Age

1.4 The New Stone Age

To Sum up

Glossary

Answers to check your progress

OVERVIEW

In this unit the definition of civilization, origin of man, the life of Old Stone Age man and the New Stone Age man have been dealt with in detail.

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

After going through this unit the student will be able to


 * define the meaning of civilization.


 * trace the origin of Earth, man and growth of civilization.


 * describe the life of man in the Old Stone Age and New Stone Age.

1.1 Introduction

Man is inquisitive by nature. How did the Earth come into existence? How and when did man originate? What was the life of man in the beginning? Such questions arose in the mind of man have not been answered fully but partly we are able to know something out of the relics left by them while most of the details could not be known due to the absence of written materials.

The history of the evolution of man on earth is highly interesting and exciting. From the earliest times people have been trying to go into the mystery behind the creation of the universe, the earth and the evolution life on it. In the past it resulted in various speculations, some of which were based on religious beliefs, not on scientific observations.

Our knowledge about the earliest man or man like-creature is very little. There are a lot of questions relating to the antiquity of man unanswered. We can form an idea of the early man from their fossils as well as from their implement discovered by excavations. One of the important values derived from the study of History is that it enables us to grasp relationship with our past. Man is interested to trace out the life of man. The search for ancient civilization is an exciting chronicle of trials and triumphs.

1.2 Definition of Civilization 

In the beginning the culture and civilization was meant one and the same but later both of them has different meaning. Buckle held that moral and intellectual progress is the basis of civilization. Prof Lynn Thordike believes that civilization “is the product of our higher qualities as exercised first by original and superior individuals and then accepted or followed by a sufficient number of human beings to make it a social factor.” According to Emerson the civilization is progress. To Bertrand Russell, the great thinker and philosopher says that it is the progress and predominance of science.

The word ‘Culture’ means a way of life of a human group. The term culture is derived from the Latin cultura. In Roman antiquity, cultura referred to cultivation in farming but soon took on rich extended meanings, relating especially to the cultivation or improvement of something as in individual education. In the writing of Kant and other philosophers of the German Enlightenment, the term Kultur came to contrast with Zivilisation, which entered German thought under French influence Civilization, was only outward decorum of a people. By the early 20th century, for the French and partly for the English, civilization connoted the process of human progress through the effects of certain political, legal, and economic institutions on social conduct.

A man’s entire range of activities in a society to better his lot in many fields comes under the purview of culture. His interest in art, architecture, literature, music, and philosophy are included in culture. Civilization means an advanced state of culture. Maciver said, “Our culture is what we are, our civilization in what we use.”

1.2.1 Origin of Earth, Man and Growth of Civilization

According to astronomers, the age of the Earth as body separate from the Sun is two thousand million years. The Earth was a large ball of flaming matter. Gradually it began to become cooler on the surface. In the course of development the surface of the Earth became solid and thus originated mountains and valleys. There were many changes taken place; the earth became so cool on the surface and water formed. There came rivers and lakes and oceans. Sand, stone had then origin in this manner.

The geologists have divided the early period of the earth into different phases, such as, Camlerian, Ordovician, Silurian, Pleistocene, and Holocene. The early man would have appeared in the middle of the Pleistocene Age. The life appeared on the earth. The first living things were supposed to be water planets. It was called Protozoa. It was form this tiny creature that the animal kingdom has developed reaching up to the stage of human beings. Scientists are of opinion that the first man-like animals developed from monkeys.

The history of earliest man is not known in detail but there is no doubt that man during this period was little better than a brute. He would have lived like animals. He would have survived by eating raw leaves, roots, fruits, raw flesh of animals. Gradually, the passage of time made them to develop their power of intelligence and they began to become civilized.

1.3 The Old Stone Age

The pre-historic period is a period before the advent of the technique of ‘writing’. Pre-historic period is the period of man in Stone Age. It was this period the man started his evolution from his stage of being ape-man to human. The Paleolithic or Old Stone Age is said to have spread from 30,000 B.C. to 10,000 B.C. It was followed by New Stone Age. The new Stone Age must have begun about 10,000 B.C. Both Paleolithic and Neolithic periods are called Pre-historic period since these have no evidence of writing materials. It has also been called the Age of unrecorded history.

Source of pre-history

The knowledge of pre-history man was very little and limited and only a guess work. The tools and wares left by them give us very scanty information. Geology and Anthropology are the two sciences which have helped historians to learn more about the pre-history of man. Monuments, relics, arts and crafts and tools and weapons of pre-historic people have made the study of pre-history easier. Archeologists could tell the antiquity through scientific analysis. However they differ from scholar to scholar.

The Paleolithic period has long period and it has been studied under Upper Paleolithic period and Lower Paleolithic period. The men of that period lived in caves, used skin cloths of animals. Hunting was the chief means of survival for man. They began to make crude tools, weapons and implements out of stones for hunting. The achievement of men of their period was their learning as to how to make a fist hatchet, the spear and fire. All these made him to save from the wild animals. Their life was nomadic and searched food from place to place in the forest. They ate the flesh of animals. The caves were used by them to protect them from cold during the winter seasons.

Neanderthal man

The Neanderthal men belong to this period. They were men who lived in the Neanderthal Valley in Germany and they were more popular in Stone Age. They lived one lakh years ago. They could neither stand erect nor speak. But, when they evolved more, they became able to stand erect and produce sounds to communicate ideas. They used rough stones and they killed birds and animals. They lived in caves, living in groups. The head of the each group was the strongest of them. They buried the dead along with foodstuffs and weapons. They are said to have believed in life after death. Later they used bones and horn tools. Fire was produced artificially by using stones. They used fire for light, heat and protection.

Lower Paleolithic period

Cro-Magnon Men

The Cro-Magnons belong to this period. They lived in France and their skeletons have been discovered from Cro-Magnon Caves. They were much advanced both physically and intellectually when compared to other primitive men. The peculiarity of their features was that they had developed brain, broad face, elevated nose and tall stature. They used stones, bones or weapons. They lived in the caves where they drew or engraved the pictures on the walls. The pictures reveal their life and the walls and the roofs of caves in which the Cro-Magnon men lived were adorned with life-like paintings and carvings of men and animals. They depicted motion in the pictures of animals. They made fine needles, pins and spoons out of bone and horn and used needles for sewing. They did not know cultivation. They had a tribal life and had a more highly developed notion of life after death than their predecessors. The Cro-Magnon men could be described as belonging to our own species – The Homo Sapiens.

The Life of the Old Stone Age people

They led simple life and remained as food gatherers. The basic unit was family. Each member of a group had duties towards the others and in turn enjoyed rights and privileges. They helped each other in the quest for food and in providing shelter from their enemies. The Paleolithic men had no political structure under a political leader. Leaders arose naturally for specific purpose. There were no institutions for imposing one’s will upon others. The cave paintings of the Old Stone Age men reveal their feelings. The best of which were usually beasts and animals such as bison, wild boar and woolly rhinoceros.

Characteristics of Paleolithic Man

The man during the Old Stone Age was a hunter and a wanderer. They survived overcoming dangers and difficulties; they made weapons and tolls in the stones and fought against physically powerful animals. These can be taken as the great achievements of this period. Using animals skins as dress and the knowledge of fire were also mark of advancement. Their artistic tendencies also are a sign of progress. Perhaps their contributions to the civilization were limited, yet it was not insignificant. The life of Old Stone Age man was barbarous. Man was neither completely savage nor cultured. They had no organization and no pleasing social manners.

1.4 The New Stone Age

The Neolithic age began about 15,000 B.C. It ended with the age of metal age. It is an important era with regard to the history of world civilization is concerned. The term ‘Neolithic’ derives the origin from the Greek words neos meaning ‘new’ and ‘lithos’ meaning ‘stone.’

The Nomadic life of man in search of food came to an end and the settled life began to start. The distinguishing feature of the Neolithic age was that stone weapons and tools were used by grinding and polishing. The end of Neolithic age varies from place to place ranging from 5000 B.C. to 3000 B.C.

Stone Weapons and Tools

We cannot say exactly when the New Stone Age began. The advent of the New Stone Age was very late in some parts of Europe and Africa. It was because there took place revolutionary changes in making stone weapons that this period was called New Stone Age. Different varieties of better weapons and tools began to be manufactured. They learnt to manufacture sharp and smooth stone weapons. The invention of Stone Age was an important turning point. With the help of stone axe they could cut down trees and make different types of wooden tools such as spear, needles, chisels, hook so on and so forth. The variety in tools showed progress of their life.

New Stone Age developed all over the world. The centers of its development were the Nile valley, Tigres and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia, Indus RiverLink title, Hwang Ho River, Crete islands, Andes Mountains and Yucatan Peninsula.

Agriculture and the Permanent settlement

The most wonderful accomplishments of the Neolithic age was the beginning of agriculture. The men who were in search of food began to cultivate and started settled life. It marks a great social and economic revolution in the history of mankind. The most remarkable feature of the New Stone Age is the beginning of agriculture.

The Neolithic man was the first to have distinction of being a food-producer. The transformation from the life of a nomad to that of a farmer is one of the most significant events in the whole history of man.

The agricultural implements during this period were wooden ploughs and hoes. But these crude beginnings marked a great revolution in the progress of human civilization. The women did most of the farming. The man started living in the fertile lands sowed and got food for the whole year. As a result of settled life there started a family and social life and society became orderly. Perhaps this would be the beginning of human civilization and culture.

Women indulged in agricultural work while men domesticated wild animals. Men knew pottery which was used to store the grains and water. The people began to wear the cloths for the first time. They began to domesticate animals such as dog, goat, sheep, and horse. The dogs were used for hunting and protecting their cattle. They built small huts with the help of the branches of trees. They also built huts in the middle of the lake. Boats were used by them. The common food was fruit, vegetables, flesh of animals and other common food. Ghee butter and curd were also used by them.

Social Life

Neolithic man did not need to spare his whole time for earning food. He utilized his leisure time for expanding his capabilities. Hence, while some indulged in agriculture other who had artistic talents, concentrated on manufacturing weapons, vessels, and in weaving. Some others occupied in some particular occupation. During the primitive life everyone was equal in society. When population increased individuals begun to own land. This resulted in the idea of private ownership on land.

Religious life

The burial of the dead bodies along with their weapons and foodstuffs gives us a clue that they had religious belief. They believed in life after death. Totem was the emblem of society. This totem was either a bird or beast or tree. They respected the totem and did religious rites. They worshipped Mother Goddess. A number of figures of women, made of clay, are abundantly available in many places. They believed earth is as Mother Goddess.

Invention of Wheel

The invention of wheel was the greatest technological advantage of primitive man. The earthen vessels were produced with use of the wheels. Later wheels were fitted to carts drawn by animals.

The features of the Neolithic age were; - It organized the state. The cultivation was as a feet of achievement. The settled life fostered love and affection of the family members. Social life began. The people domesticated animals and used them for the work of men. This period has great significance as far as development of human society is concerned.

The evolution of man in the pre-historic period is quite interesting to know. The life of man in the New Stone Age marked the progress over the life of the man in the Old Stone Age. However the life was only barbaric and not cultured. However the invention of Wheel and making various wooden tools by New Stone Age man were the feet of achievements leading to the progress of man in the long journey of civilization.

______________________________________________________________________________ Check your progress

1. What is Civilization?

2. What do you know about the Old Stone Age people?

3. Describe the general features of the Neolithic or New Stone Age.

4. Make a comparative study of the life style of the Paleolithic Man and the Neolithic Man.

To Sum up

The study of History enables us to grasp relationship with our past. Civilization is progress. “Our culture is what we are; our civilization is what we use.” In the beginning Earth was the part of Sun. The New Stone Age man made some important improvements over the Old Stone Age.

Glossary

Cultura : Culture

Paleolithic: Old Stone

Neolithic: New Stone

Answers to check your progress

1. Refer Sections 1.1, 1.2

2. Refer Section 1.3

3. Refer Section 1.4

4. Refer Sections 1.3, 1.4