CSET SOCIAL SCIENCE SUBTEST
Rousseau - ANSWER (1712-1778) Believed that society threatened natural rights
and freedoms. Wrote about society's corruption caused by the revival of sciences
and art instead of it's improvement. He was sponsored by the wealthy and
participated in salons but often felt uncomfortable and denounced them. Wrote "The
Social Contract."
epic - ANSWER A long narrative poem telling of a hero's deeds
glaciation vs. interglaciation - ANSWER we are in interglaciation stage of ice age
(ha!)
ice age and species - ANSWER primacy of mammals vs. cold blood vs. plants
limiting competition, requiring migration
early humans and food - ANSWER needed to leave lush jungle
migratory herds were most reliable food source
thaw led to abundant vegetation therefore - ANSWER humans realized no need to
migrate, but herds didn't know this. need to domesticate in order to stay in place
early use of dogs - ANSWER probably first for sheep, then other animals
how did domestication of animals lead to agriculture - ANSWER herd animals
allowed humans to stay put long enough for a harvest
steps leading to human hierarchies - ANSWER Step 1: A person does something
awesome or terrible to the people.
Step 2: Out of love for or fear of that person, the people decide to follow him.
Step 3: The leader realizes he cannot possibly handle everything himself.
Step 4: He divides his responsibilities and authority among subordinates.
The most common form of hierarchy is - ANSWER an aristocracy. In this system,
status is based on one's lineage
The system Jethro proposed was a theocracy, - ANSWER a hierarchy based on
religion
At core of human hierarchies for most of history - ANSWER kinship (knights, kings,
city states, emperors)
mother goddess worship - ANSWER oldest sculptures. reach peak in Minoan. bull as
constrained male force?
Noah story - ANSWER told for thousands of years. probably stems from prior
cultures. influence of actual flood? lake in north america?
,indo european diaspora - ANSWER 8000 years ago. proto-indo-european from black
sea basin. scatter. common language roots. (ma). spreads civilization and farming
around the world
one of the black basin farmers ends up in mesopotamia. what periods? what result?
- ANSWER ubaid. uruk. division of skills. population surplus. creation of networks to
feed central.
walled cities like jericho - ANSWER defeat barbarians for many years
rivers essential ________ but _______ - ANSWER for moving supplies___but
ultimately you're going to need roads if you want to expand into other territories
roads not feasible until - ANSWER discovery of how to make bronze, which can be
used to cut stone. (and weapons)
advent of horses - ANSWER steppe and assyrians embraced. but not widespread
until advent of the stirrup. plus, early horses not great for a lot of things.
bronze + horse = - ANSWER empire. defines success for next 1000 years.
sumerians. hittites.
roads of various empires connected by - ANSWER darius
how do chariots defeat Jericho - ANSWER horses attack so fast many goods can't
be moved inside. then they are starved.
civilizations (with agriculture) create surpluses, divisions of labor, modern
advancements (e.g. bronze) in exchange for a lack of sustainability but - ANSWER
restricted to areas with lots of water and good climate. Competing systems went to
less hospitable areas.
horse people could compete in fertile areas - ANSWER because of archery, pastoral
food supplies, maneuverable horses (no need for roads)
The struggle between settled agriculturalists and nomadic pastoralists is the longest
standing conflict in human history. - ANSWER Settled agriculturalists take all the
best land and make fine products. Horse peoples run in, take the fruits of
civilization's labor, and head back to the steppe.
The earliest invaders we have a name for are the Scythians, later - ANSWER
Parthians (Rome), Huns, who finding themselves locked out of their normal targets in
China by a great wall, turned west and descended on Europe in force and terror.
Medieval Europeans would struggle against Magyars, Mongols, Seljuks, Slavs, and
Tartars, to name a few. Cossacks in Russia.
The symbols, called pictographs, were the first written language, called - ANSWER
Cuneiform
,First, writing - ANSWER increases social memory, allowing a society to retain the
progress it has made
Second, writing - ANSWER reduces the corruption of ideas by oral transmission -
oral cultures must depend on what are called mnemonic devices
gift or debt economy - ANSWER Stan gives the gift of food to his tribesmen in their
time of need, and they return the favor. This gift economy is most likely the oldest
form of economics and probably dates back to our time as hunter-gatherers.
limits of gift economy - ANSWER when villages start growing into towns, it becomes
increasingly difficult to know everyone. A gift economy cannot work between
strangers because there is no guarantee that the stranger will repay the debt with a
gift of his own. First, gift economies do not bring goods into the civilization; they only
move them around within a small group. Also, gift economies do not lend themselves
to systematic taxation. With Jim paying his taxes in pigs, Fred paying them in
baskets, and Jill paying them in clothes, the royal treasury will end up looking like a
flea market.
Bartering in a Commodity Economy - ANSWER Tom can give Jill an otherwise
worthless lump of iron in exchange for a shirt. Jill can then take that iron to Ted the
blacksmith. Ted can use some of the iron to make Jill's needles and keep the rest of
the iron in exchange for his work. This system is called a commodity economy
Ingots - ANSWER lumps of metal called ingots are the first form of currency. Instead
of trading in finished goods, like knives, which not everyone might want, people
begin trading in the metal itself.
and Shekels - ANSWER The original shekel was probably a bag of grain of set
weight, which people used to trade. Over the years, the sacks of barley came to be
replaced with ingots of metal, considered to be worth as much as a shekel of barley,
and the name shekel transferred from the barley to the lump of metal.
To solve counterfeiting problem, kings, priests and other leaders begin marking
commodities with seals guaranteeing their weight and purity. - ANSWER This is the
first official sort of money: bags or ingots of a commodity with a seal stating their
quality and their weight. Such seals depended on people's fear of authority, either
divine or secular, to keep them from debasing the currency.
From sealed ingots, it was just a short leap to standardized coinage. But this had
limitations. - ANSWER A coin economy is still very much a commodity economy.
That is to say that the value of the coin lay in the metal - the commodity - that it was
made of. The problem is that someone might cut bits of a coin off and still use it to
buy something with its full purchasing power. This is where we get the term 'to cut
corners.' To counter this, authorities made their coins round, but this did not prevent
people from shaving a bit of gold off the edge.
It has been suggested that this relationship might be explained by a transition away
from the family unit to a larger community. Violent forces were male, therefore
, needed to appease male gods. Or perhaps invading groups worshiped male gods. -
ANSWER transition from female to male gods (men could father more)
Mesopotamia - ANSWER which means 'land between the rivers.'
These permanent societies, or sedentary cultures, were very different from the
nomadic ones. - ANSWER In a nomadic society, basically everyone worked to
procure food. However, these sedentary farming societies of Mesopotamia produced
so much food that they developed a surplus.
They could make more food than they needed and this gave people and opportunity
to do other things. Rather than everyone growing food, some people could focus on
building permanent houses for this settled society. - ANSWER Since those builders
now spend all of their time working on something besides making food, they had to
buy it, which meant that the society now needed merchants to sell food produced by
the farmers.
nomadic tribes more egalitarian - ANSWER cities very hierarchical. haves vs. have
nots
Sumerians - ANSWER Uruk. Ur. Weather -- religion. Cuneiform. Seals containing
carvings rolled across wet clay. Standard of Ur -- farm based scenes. Ziggurat at Ur
dedicated to Nanna. Carved figures of various height showing hierarchy.
Sumerians defeated -- power struggle - ANSWER First co-opted by Akkadians. Then
conquered by the Guti. Neo-Sumerian empire finally done in Elamites. Then
Amorites made a play at conquering. Babylon slowly emerges from various powerful
city states and tries to make an Empire under Hammurabi (Code of Laws. Largely
imitates Sumerian structure)
Babylonians deposed by - ANSWER Hittites. Warriors not settlers. Remained in
Anatolia. Big fans of chariots. Excellent metal workers. bit-hilani, a sort of pillared
front porch, and the double gateway with corbeled arch - the best surviving example
of which is the Lion Gate at Hattusa,
Defeat of Babylonians by the Hittites allows new players to emerge. Including -
ANSWER Mittani (Hurrians) -- little known. Battled Hittites. This gave Assyrians an
opportunity. Where the Babylonians had been farmers and merchants ruled by
priests, the Assyrians were first and foremost warriors. While their kings might have
traced their descent from the city's patron diety, Ashur, it was in essence a military
aristocracy. Yet, like the Babylonians before them, the Assyrians assiduously copied
the accomplishments of their predecessors and had not yet begun to generate a
unique culture of their own.
Power struggle after Mittani - ANSWER The Assyrians to the northeast, the Hittites
to the northwest and the Kassite Babylonians to the south.
This struggle for power would continue until roughly 1200 BCE, when a series of
invasions from all directions tore bronze age civilization to shreds (including from the
"sea peoples") - ANSWER Trade ground to a halt, populations plummeted, literacy
Rousseau - ANSWER (1712-1778) Believed that society threatened natural rights
and freedoms. Wrote about society's corruption caused by the revival of sciences
and art instead of it's improvement. He was sponsored by the wealthy and
participated in salons but often felt uncomfortable and denounced them. Wrote "The
Social Contract."
epic - ANSWER A long narrative poem telling of a hero's deeds
glaciation vs. interglaciation - ANSWER we are in interglaciation stage of ice age
(ha!)
ice age and species - ANSWER primacy of mammals vs. cold blood vs. plants
limiting competition, requiring migration
early humans and food - ANSWER needed to leave lush jungle
migratory herds were most reliable food source
thaw led to abundant vegetation therefore - ANSWER humans realized no need to
migrate, but herds didn't know this. need to domesticate in order to stay in place
early use of dogs - ANSWER probably first for sheep, then other animals
how did domestication of animals lead to agriculture - ANSWER herd animals
allowed humans to stay put long enough for a harvest
steps leading to human hierarchies - ANSWER Step 1: A person does something
awesome or terrible to the people.
Step 2: Out of love for or fear of that person, the people decide to follow him.
Step 3: The leader realizes he cannot possibly handle everything himself.
Step 4: He divides his responsibilities and authority among subordinates.
The most common form of hierarchy is - ANSWER an aristocracy. In this system,
status is based on one's lineage
The system Jethro proposed was a theocracy, - ANSWER a hierarchy based on
religion
At core of human hierarchies for most of history - ANSWER kinship (knights, kings,
city states, emperors)
mother goddess worship - ANSWER oldest sculptures. reach peak in Minoan. bull as
constrained male force?
Noah story - ANSWER told for thousands of years. probably stems from prior
cultures. influence of actual flood? lake in north america?
,indo european diaspora - ANSWER 8000 years ago. proto-indo-european from black
sea basin. scatter. common language roots. (ma). spreads civilization and farming
around the world
one of the black basin farmers ends up in mesopotamia. what periods? what result?
- ANSWER ubaid. uruk. division of skills. population surplus. creation of networks to
feed central.
walled cities like jericho - ANSWER defeat barbarians for many years
rivers essential ________ but _______ - ANSWER for moving supplies___but
ultimately you're going to need roads if you want to expand into other territories
roads not feasible until - ANSWER discovery of how to make bronze, which can be
used to cut stone. (and weapons)
advent of horses - ANSWER steppe and assyrians embraced. but not widespread
until advent of the stirrup. plus, early horses not great for a lot of things.
bronze + horse = - ANSWER empire. defines success for next 1000 years.
sumerians. hittites.
roads of various empires connected by - ANSWER darius
how do chariots defeat Jericho - ANSWER horses attack so fast many goods can't
be moved inside. then they are starved.
civilizations (with agriculture) create surpluses, divisions of labor, modern
advancements (e.g. bronze) in exchange for a lack of sustainability but - ANSWER
restricted to areas with lots of water and good climate. Competing systems went to
less hospitable areas.
horse people could compete in fertile areas - ANSWER because of archery, pastoral
food supplies, maneuverable horses (no need for roads)
The struggle between settled agriculturalists and nomadic pastoralists is the longest
standing conflict in human history. - ANSWER Settled agriculturalists take all the
best land and make fine products. Horse peoples run in, take the fruits of
civilization's labor, and head back to the steppe.
The earliest invaders we have a name for are the Scythians, later - ANSWER
Parthians (Rome), Huns, who finding themselves locked out of their normal targets in
China by a great wall, turned west and descended on Europe in force and terror.
Medieval Europeans would struggle against Magyars, Mongols, Seljuks, Slavs, and
Tartars, to name a few. Cossacks in Russia.
The symbols, called pictographs, were the first written language, called - ANSWER
Cuneiform
,First, writing - ANSWER increases social memory, allowing a society to retain the
progress it has made
Second, writing - ANSWER reduces the corruption of ideas by oral transmission -
oral cultures must depend on what are called mnemonic devices
gift or debt economy - ANSWER Stan gives the gift of food to his tribesmen in their
time of need, and they return the favor. This gift economy is most likely the oldest
form of economics and probably dates back to our time as hunter-gatherers.
limits of gift economy - ANSWER when villages start growing into towns, it becomes
increasingly difficult to know everyone. A gift economy cannot work between
strangers because there is no guarantee that the stranger will repay the debt with a
gift of his own. First, gift economies do not bring goods into the civilization; they only
move them around within a small group. Also, gift economies do not lend themselves
to systematic taxation. With Jim paying his taxes in pigs, Fred paying them in
baskets, and Jill paying them in clothes, the royal treasury will end up looking like a
flea market.
Bartering in a Commodity Economy - ANSWER Tom can give Jill an otherwise
worthless lump of iron in exchange for a shirt. Jill can then take that iron to Ted the
blacksmith. Ted can use some of the iron to make Jill's needles and keep the rest of
the iron in exchange for his work. This system is called a commodity economy
Ingots - ANSWER lumps of metal called ingots are the first form of currency. Instead
of trading in finished goods, like knives, which not everyone might want, people
begin trading in the metal itself.
and Shekels - ANSWER The original shekel was probably a bag of grain of set
weight, which people used to trade. Over the years, the sacks of barley came to be
replaced with ingots of metal, considered to be worth as much as a shekel of barley,
and the name shekel transferred from the barley to the lump of metal.
To solve counterfeiting problem, kings, priests and other leaders begin marking
commodities with seals guaranteeing their weight and purity. - ANSWER This is the
first official sort of money: bags or ingots of a commodity with a seal stating their
quality and their weight. Such seals depended on people's fear of authority, either
divine or secular, to keep them from debasing the currency.
From sealed ingots, it was just a short leap to standardized coinage. But this had
limitations. - ANSWER A coin economy is still very much a commodity economy.
That is to say that the value of the coin lay in the metal - the commodity - that it was
made of. The problem is that someone might cut bits of a coin off and still use it to
buy something with its full purchasing power. This is where we get the term 'to cut
corners.' To counter this, authorities made their coins round, but this did not prevent
people from shaving a bit of gold off the edge.
It has been suggested that this relationship might be explained by a transition away
from the family unit to a larger community. Violent forces were male, therefore
, needed to appease male gods. Or perhaps invading groups worshiped male gods. -
ANSWER transition from female to male gods (men could father more)
Mesopotamia - ANSWER which means 'land between the rivers.'
These permanent societies, or sedentary cultures, were very different from the
nomadic ones. - ANSWER In a nomadic society, basically everyone worked to
procure food. However, these sedentary farming societies of Mesopotamia produced
so much food that they developed a surplus.
They could make more food than they needed and this gave people and opportunity
to do other things. Rather than everyone growing food, some people could focus on
building permanent houses for this settled society. - ANSWER Since those builders
now spend all of their time working on something besides making food, they had to
buy it, which meant that the society now needed merchants to sell food produced by
the farmers.
nomadic tribes more egalitarian - ANSWER cities very hierarchical. haves vs. have
nots
Sumerians - ANSWER Uruk. Ur. Weather -- religion. Cuneiform. Seals containing
carvings rolled across wet clay. Standard of Ur -- farm based scenes. Ziggurat at Ur
dedicated to Nanna. Carved figures of various height showing hierarchy.
Sumerians defeated -- power struggle - ANSWER First co-opted by Akkadians. Then
conquered by the Guti. Neo-Sumerian empire finally done in Elamites. Then
Amorites made a play at conquering. Babylon slowly emerges from various powerful
city states and tries to make an Empire under Hammurabi (Code of Laws. Largely
imitates Sumerian structure)
Babylonians deposed by - ANSWER Hittites. Warriors not settlers. Remained in
Anatolia. Big fans of chariots. Excellent metal workers. bit-hilani, a sort of pillared
front porch, and the double gateway with corbeled arch - the best surviving example
of which is the Lion Gate at Hattusa,
Defeat of Babylonians by the Hittites allows new players to emerge. Including -
ANSWER Mittani (Hurrians) -- little known. Battled Hittites. This gave Assyrians an
opportunity. Where the Babylonians had been farmers and merchants ruled by
priests, the Assyrians were first and foremost warriors. While their kings might have
traced their descent from the city's patron diety, Ashur, it was in essence a military
aristocracy. Yet, like the Babylonians before them, the Assyrians assiduously copied
the accomplishments of their predecessors and had not yet begun to generate a
unique culture of their own.
Power struggle after Mittani - ANSWER The Assyrians to the northeast, the Hittites
to the northwest and the Kassite Babylonians to the south.
This struggle for power would continue until roughly 1200 BCE, when a series of
invasions from all directions tore bronze age civilization to shreds (including from the
"sea peoples") - ANSWER Trade ground to a halt, populations plummeted, literacy
