Culture Hearths

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Culture Hearths World Religions

• Steven A. Stofferahn
• Department of History
• Geography and History of the World Seminar
• Indiana State University
• July 2007

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Culture Hearths

• GHW 1.1 DEFINITION
• Culture Hearth
• - heartland
• - source area
• - innovation center
• - place of origin of a major culture
• civilization incubator

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Culture Hearths

• GHW 1.1 STANDARD
• Use maps, timelines, and/or other graphic
  representations to identify the location,
  distribution, and main events in the development
  of culture hearths in various regions of the
  world.

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Culture Hearths

• GHW 1.1 EXAMPLE
• Primary Culture Hearths of the World

http//www.harpercollege.edu/mhealy/g101ilec/china
/chh/hea/chhheafr.htm
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Culture Hearths

• GHW 1.1 EXAMPLE
• Primary Culture Hearths of the World
• Fertile Crescent (8000 BCE)
• India (7000 BCE)
• Huang Ho (5000 BCE)
• West Africa (2000 BCE)
• Mesoamerica S. America (8000-3000 BCE)

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Culture Hearths

• GHW 1.1 EXAMPLE
• Fertile Crescent
• - Neolithic Revolution ca. 8000 BCE
• - several early settlements Jericho et al.
• - organized societies appear concurrently
• Mesopotamia Sumer (3200)
• Unification of Egypt (3100)

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Culture Hearths

• GHW 1.1 EXAMPLE
• India
• - early agricultural sites date from 7000 BCE
• - Harappan society arises ca. 3000
• - dependent upon rich floodplains of Indus
• - develop cotton textiles dyes by 2000
• - impt. trade contacts w/ Fertile Crescent
• - Aryan migration into India ca. 1500

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Culture Hearths

• GHW 1.1 EXAMPLE
• Huang Ho (Yellow River)
• - Neolithic Revolution ca. 5000 BCE
• - rich soils but floods need for dikes,
  dredging
• - small societies flourish, 5000-3000 BCE
• - emergence of centralizing hereditary
  monarchies
• Xia (ca. 2200-1750) Shang (ca. 1750-1100)
• - major influence of Indo-Europeans bronze,
  chariots
• - Zhou dynasty (1122-256) classical Chinese
  civilization

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Culture Hearths

• GHW 1.1 EXAMPLE
• West Africa
• - early Sudanic agricultural influence
• - incremental Bantu migrations, 3000-1000 BCE
• - spread across central and southern Africa
• - enabled by agricultural surpluses iron
• - diffusion - W. African yams grains
• - 90 million Bantu-speakers today

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Culture Hearths

• GHW 1.1 EXAMPLE
• Mesoamerica South America
• - migrations to W. hemisphere ca. 13,000 BCE(?)
• - early agriculture in Mesoamerica by 7000
• - maize cultivation begins ca. 4000
• - no large domestic animals (hence no wheel)
• - only small villages no large cities until
  later
• - Olmec rulers (fl. 1200-400) compel building of
  large ritual centers, drainage projects,
  artistic objects (heads)
• - Olmec destroy own civilization Maya inherit
  later

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Culture Hearths

• GHW 1.2 STANDARD
• Ask and answer geographic and historical
  questions about the locations and growth of
  culture hearths. Assess why some of these
  culture hearths have endured to this day, while
  others have declined or disappeared.

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Culture Hearths

• GHW 1.2 EXAMPLE
• Keys to Success
• - geographical integrity
• - ecological sustainability
• - agricultural surpluses
• - internal order

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Culture Hearths

• GHW 1.2 EXAMPLE

Egypt Gift of the Nile (3100-1200 BCE)
- regular flood cycle - natural frontiers
- Nile-as-highway - breadbasket - awe
and wonder ? pharaohs
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Culture Hearths

• GHW 1.2 EXAMPLE

Egypt 2nd Pyramid of Giza (Khafra, 2558-2532)
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Culture Hearths

• GHW 1.2 EXAMPLE
• Common Factors of Decline
• - increased contacts with hostile neighbors
• - ecological degradation exhaustion
• - over-attractive agricultural hearths (?)
• - internal disorder
• ? all in evidence in Egypt by 1200 BCE

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Culture Hearths

• GHW 1.3 STANDARD
• Analyze agricultural hearths and exchanges of
  crops among regions. Evaluate the impact of
  agriculture on the subsequent development of
  culture hearths in various regions of the world.

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Culture Hearths

• GHW 1.3 EXAMPLE
• Columbian Exchange DEFINITION
• the radical s.16-18 global diffusion of
• - people
• - animals
• - ideas
• plants food crops
• pathogens

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Culture Hearths

• GHW 1.3 EXAMPLE
• Columbian Exchange DEMOGRAPHICS
• New World disaster
• - smallpox, measles, influenza, et al.
• - 90 mortality
• - s.16-18 100 million dead
• - adult losses esp. devastating

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Columbian Exchange SMALLPOX

• http//www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/smallpox-imag
  es/smallpox1.htm

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Culture Hearths

• GHW 1.3 EXAMPLE
• Columbian Exchange DEMOGRAPHICS
• Old World boon
• - new crops population explosion
• - s.16-18 growth of 475 million!
• - European pol econ expansion
• ? WORLD HEGEMONY

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Culture Hearths

• GHW 1.4 STANDARD
• Detect the factors that explain how the local
  and regional human and physical environments of
  selected culture hearths were modified over time
  in terms of such features as urban development
  and agricultural activities.

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Culture Hearths

• GHW 1.4 EXAMPLE
• The Reinvention of Ancient Athens

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Culture Hearths

• GHW 1.4 EXAMPLE
• Peisistratus (546-527 BCE)
• - popular tyrant of Athens
• - land redistribution and 5 income tax
• - reshapes Athenian agriculture economy
• OLIVE OIL and CERAMICS
• - Athens becomes a major commercial hub
• - leads to Athens hegemony in the Greek world

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Questions Discussion
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World Religions

• GHW 2.1 STANDARD
• Map the spread over time of world religions
  from their points of origin and identify those
  that exhibit a high degree of local and/or
  international concentration.

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World Religions

• GHW 2.1 EXAMPLE
• Spread of World Religions (500BCE-600CE)

http//www.maps.com/referenceProduct.aspx?pid1143
9
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World Religions

• GHW 2.1 DEFINITION
• RESTRICTED
• - localized identity
• - circumscribed recruitment base
• - serving particular local social need
• ? Hinduism varnas
• ? Judaism chosen people
• ? Shinto kami as distinctly Japanese

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World Religions

• GHW 2.1 DEFINITION
• UNIVERSAL
• - universal identity
• - open recruitment base
• - addressed to universal questions
• ? Buddhism human suffering
• ? Christianity Islam salvation

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World Religions

• GHW 2.1 EXAMPLE
• Spread of Islam (632-750CE)

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World Religions

• GHW 2.1 EXAMPLE
• Spread of Islam (632CE-present)

Historical Maps Online - antiquarian but
still useful - University of Pennsylvania
collection http//ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs143/map.h
tml
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World Religions

• GHW 2.1 EXAMPLE
• Spread of Islam (632CE-present)

Online Lesson Plans with Activities -
Council on Islamic Education - based on
Frontline documentary http//www.cie.org/Audienc
es.aspx?ided
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World Religions

• GHW 2.1 EXAMPLE
• Spread of World Religions FILMS
• Buddhism Ashoka
• Christianity From Jesus to Christ
• Islam The Message
• www.imdb.com

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World Religions

• GHW 2.2 STANDARD
• Differentiate among selected countries in
  terms of how their identities, cultural and
  physical environments and forms of government are
  affected by world religions.

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World Religions

• GHW 2.2 EXAMPLE
• Spain Crucible of Competing Cultures
• (c.200 BCE 1492 CE)
• Romans (paganism)
• Visigoths (Arianism) ? Mozarabs
• Umayyads (Sunni Islam)
• Almoravids (puritanical Islam)
• Jews (influential minority)
• Northern Christians (militant Catholicism)
• The Reconquista and the Legacy of 1492

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World Religions

• GHW 2.2 EXAMPLE
• Spain Crucible of Competing Cultures
• (c.200 BCE 1492 CE)
• MUSICAL COMPARISON
• Mozarabic chant (Vox clamantis)
• vis-à-vis
• Quranic recitation

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World Religions

• GHW 2.3 STANDARD
• Compare and contrast different religions in
  terms of perspectives on the environment and
  attitudes toward resource use, both today and in
  the past.

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World Religions

• GHW 2.3 EXAMPLE
• R. Foltz, Worldviews, Religion, and
  Environment (2003)
• - stereotype West/Christianity to blame for
  ecological crisis
• E / indigenous societies more in tune with
  nature
• - reality as somewhat more complex
• ? Japan Shinto reverence or CONTROL?
• bonsai tree as symbol
• ? current ecological disasters in Asia?

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World Religions

• GHW 2.4 STANDARD
• Analyze and assess the rise of fundamentalist
  movements in all the worlds major religions
  during contemporary times (1980-present), and
  describe the relationships between religious
  fundamentalism and the secularism and modernism
  associated with the Western tradition.

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World Religions

• GHW 2.4 EXAMPLE
• Bernard Lewis, The Crisis of Islam (2003)
• Islamism
• - response to perceived humiliations
• 1683, 1798, 1917, 1948, 1967, 1991,
  2003(?)
• - incomprehensible to the West
• - primarily internally focused

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World Religions

• GHW 2.4 EXAMPLE
• Karen Armstrong, The Battle for God (2001)
• Fundamentalism
• - a 20th-century phenomenon
• - strong current in all major religions
• - painful response to modernity
• - ironically dependent on modernity
• Armstrongs own plea for rapprochement

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Questions Discussion
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Resources
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Culture Hearths World Religions

• Steven A. Stofferahn
• Department of History
• Geography and History of the World Seminar
• Indiana State University
• July 2007