Hunting and

Gathering Society
Paleolithic Period

• lasted from the

beginnings of
human life until
about 10,000 BCE
 Nomads

strategies had been very They move from one place

societies are small
diverse, depending to another in search for
consisting only 20 to 30
greatly upon the local new food supplies, eat a
members and people
environment which large kill, because of
depends primarily on
includes hunting or seasonal changes and
wild food for
trapping wild animals, conflict within the
subsistence
fish group
 Kin groups are of two types:
nuclear family extended family

includes a man, his wife contains multiple nuclear

or wives, and their families linked by a part-
unmarried children child relationship although
the first is often
inclusive in the latter
The combination of a simple
technology and a nomadic
way of life makes it
impossible for them to
accumulate many
possessions.
 The quest for food is obviously a crucial activity.
The work was divided between men and women; men
hunting game animals and women gathering fruits,
berries, and other edibles.
These early peoples developed simple tools such as
spears and axes made from bone, wood, and stone.
Human beings lived in this
manner from earliest times
until about 10,000 BCE when
they started to cultivate crops
and domesticate animals.
The political institutions are
very rudimentary because they
are so small that they did not
develop political mechanisms
of the kind required to control
and coordinate larger or
diverse populations.
The primitive nature of their political system can
be seen clearly in their limited development of
specialized political roles and in the equally
limited authority given to people in those roles.
Individuals are hardly free to do
whatever they want and are
restricted by several elements of
social control such as blood
revenge, group pressure,
ostracism or banishment, and
fear of the supernatural.
The central element of
animism is the belief that
spirits inhabit virtually
everything in the world of
nature.
 Socialization of the young is largely an
informal process that stresses
independence in which children learn
both through their play and through
observing and imitating their elders.
Horticultural and Pastoral
Society
• Some people use a hoe and other simple
hand tools to raise crops while other
raise and herd sheep, goats, camels and
other domesticated animals and use them
as their major source of food and also,
depending on the animal, as a means of
transportation.
• Permanent settlements were established
though there’s still a division of work
between men and women.
• Women's status declined as men took the
lead in most areas of these early
societies.
Two (2) types of
society that developed
about 10,000 BCE :
Horticultural
• Less nomadic as they are able
to keep growing their crops in
the same location for some time
• Wealth stems from the amount
of land a family owns, and
families with more land are
more wealthy and powerful.
Pastoral
• Tends to be at least
somewhat nomadic, as they
often have to move to find
better grazing land for their
animals.
• They often produce excess
food that allowed them to
trade with other societies.
• Wealth stems from the number
of animals a family owns, and
families with more animals
are wealthier and more
powerful than families with
fewer animals
Societies were usually run by a Council of Elders
composed of the heads of the villages’ various
families.
When resources became scarce, warfare among
villages increased.
A person's social class was
usually determined by the
work they did, such as
farmers, craftsmen, priests,
and warriors.
Agricultural Society
• Developed some 5,000 years ago in
the Middle East through the
invention of the plow
• The development of this community
marked a watershed in the
development of human society.
• Ancient Egypt (Nile River), Iraq
(Mesopotamia: Tigris Euphrates),
China (Yellow River), Greece, and
Rome were all types of this
community, as well as India (Indus
River).
• They created a simple calendar to
keep track of planting and
harvesting.
Agricultural societies produce so much food. They
often become quite large, with their numbers
sometimes reaching into the millions. Their huge
food surpluses lead to extensive trade, both within
the society itself and with other societies. The
surpluses and trade both lead to degrees of wealth
unknown in the earlier types of societies and thus to
unprecedented inequality, exemplified in the
appearance for the first time of peasants, people
who work on the land of rich landowners.
Their greater size and inequality also produce more conflict. Some of this
conflict is internal, as rich landowners struggle with each other for even
greater wealth and power, and peasants sometimes engage in revolts. Other
conflict is external, as the governments of these societies seek other markets
for trade and greater wealth.
Gender inequality became very pronounced in this society. An
important reason for this is the hard, physically taxing work in the
fields, much of it using large plow animals, that characterizes these
societies. Then, too, women are often pregnant in these societies
because large families provide more bodies to work in the fields and
thus more income. Because men do more of the physical labor in this
society—labor on which these societies depend— they have acquired
greater power over women. Thus, this society are much more likely
to believe that men should dominate women.
 • This society emerged in the 1700s as the

Industrial development of machines and then factories

replaced the plow and other agricultural

Society equipment as the primary mode of

production.
• The first machines were powered by steam
and water.
• Electricity became the main source of
power.
• The growth of this society marked such a
great transformation in many of the
world’s societies.
 Positively, these technological advances improved people’s health and
expanded their life spans.

• There is also a greater emphasis in this society on individualism,

and people in these societies typically enjoy greater political
freedom than those in older societies.
• This society also have lower economic and gender inequality.
• People do have a greater chance to pull themselves up by their
bootstraps than was true in earlier societies, and “rags to
riches” stories continue to illustrate the opportunity available
under this society.
 Negatively, there is a rise and growth of large cities and
concentrated poverty and degrading conditions in these cities.
• Urbanization changed the character of social life by creating a
more impersonal and less traditional Gesellschaft society.
• It also led to riots and other urban violence that, among other
things, helped fuel the rise of the modern police force and forced
factory owners to improve workplace conditions.
• Today, these societies consume most of the world’s resources,
pollute the environment to an unprecedented degree, and compiled
nuclear arsenals that could undo thousands of years of human society
in an instant.
 Sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies divided
societies into two (2) large categories:
Gemeinschaft societies Gesellschaft societies

• Consist primarily of • Modernized

villages in which everyone • People have little in
knows everyone else. common with one another,
• Relationships are life-long and relationships are short
and based on kinship. term and based on self-
interest with little
concern for the well-being
of others.
 Post-Industrial Society
• Information age
• Wireless technology vies with machines and factories
as the basis for our economy
• Information technology and service jobs have replaced
machines and manufacturing jobs as the primary
dimension of the economy
• If the car was the sign of the economic and social
status back then, then the smartphone or netbook/laptop
is the sign of the economic and social status today.
• If the factory was the dominant workplace back then,
with workers standing at their positions by conveyor
belts, then cell phone, computer, and software
companies are dominant industries today, with workers,
almost all of them much better educated than their
earlier factory counterparts.
Biological
and
Cultural Evolution
Biological and cultural evolutions are key
concepts in the study of the origins of
modern humans.
 Biological evolution

refers to the changes, based on the theory of

modifications, and evolution that was He hypothesized that
variations in the introduced by the the evolution of
genetics and inherited famous English species happens
traits of biological naturalist and through the process of
populations from one geologist Charles natural selection.
generation to another Darwin
 • The outcome of a process that
affects the frequencies of
traits in a particular
environment. Traits that
enhance survival and
reproductive success increase
in frequency over time.
Natural selection
 Principles of natural selection:
1. Every species is made up of a variety of individuals
wherein some are better adapted to their environment compared
to others.

2. Organisms produce progeny with different sets of traits

that can be inherited.

3. Organisms that have most suitable to their environment

will survive and transfer these variations to their offspring
in subsequent generation
Cultural evolution or
sociocultural evolution
• Refers to the changes or
development in cultures from a
simple form to a more complex
form of human culture.
• Sociocultural evolution happens
as a result of human adaptation
to different factors like
climatic changes and population
increase
 The process of sociocultural evolution explains why
human societies change through time. Societies
produce new forms of subsistence, acquire more
knowledge, develop different levels of innovation, and
apply new forms of technology as a response to the
challenges posed by the environment.
Level of Development
 A. Hunting and Gathering
Societies
• The oldest and most basic way of economic subsistence is
hunting and gathering.
• Hunting and gathering societies produce simple forms of
tools used to hunt for animals and gather plants and
vegetation for food.
• Since hunting and gathering societies rely on nature for
their food, they frequently move and did not have permanent
settlements. Hence, they are nomadic societies.
• Family is the basic unit of hunting and gathering
societies.
• They usually have a shaman or priest who acts as a leader
of the group.
• Since hunters and gatherers rely on nature for food and
survival, they believe that spirits live in the world.
B. Horticultural and
Pastoral Societies
• Horticultural societies are described as
semisedentary societies because they do not
frequently move as opposed to hunting and
gathering societies.
• These societies subsist through small-scale
farming. They produce and use simple forms of
od hand tools to plant crops. Pastoral
societies' principal means of subsistence is
animal domestication. Pastoralist societies are
classified as animal herders and subsist based
on the resources provided by their animals.
They are also engaged in small-scale trading
with other groups.
C. Agricultural Societies
• Agricultural societies started to
cultivate wheat, barley, peas, rice, and
millet.
• Humans began to farm and domesticate
animals as a form of subsistence. During
the Neolithic Revolution, agricultural
societies developed and their population
increased into millions.
• They also settled permanently and improve
the technology for farming. Through the
agricultural revolution, members of
society produced a surplus of the food
supply that was transported by animal-
powered wagons.
• Money became a form of exchange
replacing the barter system
D. Industrial Societies
• Industrial societies began when
the industrial revolution swept
through Europe during the late
18th century.
• During the Industrial Revolution,
new sources of energy were
harnessed, advanced forms of
technology were applied, and types
of machinery were invented.
• These changes led to the
industrialization of the
transformation of agricultural
society into production and
manufacturing.
 E. Post Industrial
Societies
• Post Industrial Societies With the development
of information technology and computers, many
societies transformed into postindustrial
societies.
• The Post-Industrial Revolution is an important
development from the Industrial Revolution as
economic production focused on the use and
application of new information technology rather
than factories.
• In the post-industrial era, production centers on
computers and other electronic devices that
create, process, and apply ideas and information.
 Political Evolution and
the Development of
Early Civilization
• A civilization develops because
of a society’s highly advanced
level of culture, social
organization, political
developments, the judicial
system, arts, and another form of
culture at a particular time.
Four Major Civilizations
• a. The Sumerian civilization that
developed along Tigris and Euphrates
River in West Asia
• b. Indus Valley civilization that
started along the Indus River Valley
in India
• c. Shang civilization of China that
developed near the Huang Hi/ Huang
He River
• d. Egyptian civilization that
started along the Nile River