Chapter 12: The Worlds of the Fifteenth Century

Chapter 12: The Worlds of the Fifteenth Century

Even though there have been many advanced that have been made in this time for agriculture there were still gathering and hunting societies, often called the pathlolitic peoples. Includes people from all of Austria, much of Siberia, the arctic coastlands, and parts of Africa and the Americas are the groups that still took part in gathering and hunting.

The Australians were also a group that still took part in gathering and hunting, even though there were peoples nearby that did have the advancements in agriculture. However, these new advances never penetrated the way the Australians chose to do their agriculture. Even without the advancement they were still able to manipulate and master the environment around them, even coming up with their own practice called "fire stick farming."

"Fire stick farming"- a pattern of deliberately setting fires, which they described as "cleaning up the country"

  • these fires served as a way to clear the underbrush- hunting was easier and it promoted certain plants to grow and certain animals to be present
Another group of people that were seen within the fifteenth century were those who avoided incorporation into larger empires or civilizations and had no developed their own city- or state- based societies. This included small village based communities that were made based on kinship. These kinds of systems were seen in North America, in most of the tropical lowlands of South America and Caribbean, in part of the Amazon River basin, Southeast Asia, and Africa south of the equator, and through the Pacific Ocean. 

Igbo peoples were found east of the Niger River in the heavily forested region of West Africa. These people rejected the kingship and state-building efforts of their neighbors. Instead of having a king they would rely on their institutions. These people, however, did not live in isolated, self-contained societies. 

Iroquois people were also part of the peoples who did not include themselves into larger civilizations. However, this group of peoples triggered a remarkable political innovation around the 15th century, which was a loose alliance or confederation between five Iroquois-speaking peoples. Of which included the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca. This would be known as the Great Law of Peace. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Chapter 11: Pastoral Peoples on the Global Stage

Chapter 10: The Worlds of Christendom