Primitive man and the formation of primitive society. primitive people

History is divided into two layers: primitive society and civilizations. The initial system is the primitive system, which covers a period of time over two million years, when there were no state formations, legal norms had not yet been formed.

During its existence, primitive society has gone through a significant evolutionary path, during which there was a change in its socio-cultural appearance and economic structure. There are two main stages of primitive society: the first is the appropriating economy, the second is the producing economy. The change of stages occurs in the Neolithic era in the 8th-3rd millennium BC.

The first stage is characterized by the formation of people who used the simplest stone tools, lived by appropriating the products of nature (gathering, fishing, hunting), led a wandering lifestyle, united in local groups under the leadership of a leader. This simplest form of life and social organization, reflecting the low level of development of industrial, social and cultural relations, is called the primitive herd or the ancestral community. However, despite the chaotic nature of the internal life of the herd, the first primitive society, rules, standards and other behavioral stereotypes can be traced in it.

Natural instincts begin to recede before sociocultural stereotypes. Relations within the group are egalitarian. Distribution of food and other resources occurs evenly. The basis of such equality is an equivalent exchange (both food, tools, and wives, etc.). The power of the leader over the group is manifested very expressively. His will is perceived by the herd as the norm.

The complication of social ties, changes in marital relations (the appearance of exogamy, which prohibited marriages between blood relatives) and the Neolithic revolution led to the emergence of family and clan groups. There was a change of the herd based on kinship relations. Clan-communal relations could be built according to the principles of matrilineality or patrilineality.

The history of primitive society after the Neolithic revolution enters a new round. People are moving to a productive economy, which allows them not only to ensure their own survival, but also to start purposefully providing themselves with food and other items necessary for life. This became a prerequisite for the transition to a settled way of life. Gradually, separate family and clan groups establish control over a certain territory. The primitive herd turns into a stable group of producers, which has grown in numbers and is associated with a certain territory. The new social organization is based on self-government and self-regulation.

At this stage of development, primitive society moves to a fixed division of labor, the distribution of food, and the principles of equality and egalitarianism are still preserved. But, at the same time, the distribution of booty could be made taking into account the role functions of its participants (by the principle of gender, age, etc.). Its leader also had advantages in the team. Members of the group were concentrated around him, who, in return for the benefits provided to them, recognized the authority of the leader. So there was a pre-state form of power.

In tribal communities, there are already rules of conduct that are obligatory for all members of its team. Generic norms were associated with totems, had a mythological coloring. The order of distribution of booty becomes regulated, the leader takes control over this process. are self-adjusting in nature: they are supported by interests, religious beliefs and other value orientations. But this did not exclude the compulsion to follow the norms that primitive society developed. When taboos were violated, the offender could even be expelled or subject to the death penalty.

The primitive communal system is the first stage in the history of mankind, which began with the separation of man from the animal world and ended with the emergence of early states.

Chronology. The lower chronological limit, that is, the time of the beginning of the history of primitive society, is not exactly defined, it is mobile, and, as the early history of mankind is studied, it moves back into the depths of millennia.

At present, some scientists believe that the most ancient man (and thus the primitive society) arose 1.5 - 1 million years ago, others attribute his appearance to the time of 2.6 million years ago. The upper chronological boundary, that is, the time of the end of the history of primitive society in different regions is different. In Asia and Northeast Africa, the first early states formed at the end of the 4th - beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, in Europe - in the 1st millennium BC.

Periodization. The history of primitive society is divided into periods. Researchers use several periodizations, but the most common of them is considered to be archaeological. It is based on differences in the material and technique of making tools.

According to archaeological periodization, the history of mankind is divided into the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages. The history of primitive society falls on the Stone Age. The Stone Age is divided into Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic.

The Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) is subdivided into the Early Paleolithic (ends 100 thousand years ago), Middle Paleolithic (ends 40 thousand years ago) and Late Paleolithic (ends in the 10th millennium BC). The Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) begins in the 9th millennium BC. and ends in the 7th millennium BC. The Neolithic (New Stone Age) begins in the 6th millennium BC. and ends at the end of the 3rd millennium BC, when in some regions of Western Asia people learned how to get bronze. The Bronze Age lasted until the beginning of the 1st millennium BC, when the Iron Age began.

The place of man in the animal world. Modern man belongs to the order of primates (as well as living apes), the family of hominids (or anthropomorphic), the genus Homo and the species sapiens. Homo habilis (handy man), Homo erectus (upright man), and Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthal man) are the main fossil human species today.

Distinguishing humans from other primates. Man, as a biological species, is distinguished from other primates by upright posture, free upper limbs with a movable hand capable of fine manipulation, and a developed brain (in a modern person, it ranges on average from 1000 to 1800 cm.kb.). The main social difference of a person is his ability to work. Consequently, the basic criterion for identifying human remains among the skeletons of other primates is the tools found nearby.

The driving forces of anthropogenesis. Anthropogenesis is the process of the emergence of man and his development as a biological species. It is in this section of the science of primitive society that discussions have not ceased for two hundred years and fierce disputes have been going on. In particular, it is not completely clear how our distant ancestors developed "human" signs, that is, what are the driving forces of the process of anthropogenesis. Charles Darwin attached the greatest importance to sexual selection. According to his theory, the peculiar physical organization of a person was formed as a result of the selection by women of individuals who differed in certain advantages. As a result, in the process of reproduction, such men left the most numerous offspring, exerting a decisive influence on the development of the human race. However, Darwin already did not understand why exactly those and not other signs were subjected to the action of natural selection, why the volume of the brain, hand, body proportions, and so on change.

Friedrich Engels formulated the labor theory of anthropogenesis. Labor activity, according to F. Engels, was a powerful stimulus that transformed the appearance of a person: it led to upright posture and developed a hand; joint work gave rise to speech. However, as it turned out at the end of the 20th century, these factors are strongly separated in time: primates began to move on their hind limbs more than 5 million years ago, that is, when their brain was very primitive and there was no speech at all.

At the end of the 20th century, the “mutation theory” gained great popularity. The change in the physical organization of human ancestors is explained by the influence of ionizing radiation and the intense geomagnetic field of the Earth. The conditions for this arose in eastern Africa, where the East African Rift formed 20-10 million years ago, uranium mines were exposed, and mountain ranges isolated local primates.

At the same time, a cooling and drying up of the climate occurred in East Africa, which led to a reduction in the area of ​​tropical forests and the spread of savannahs. Part of the large higher primates, being pushed into open areas, was forced to stand on their hind limbs and use their forelimbs to carry food, cubs, and also to protect themselves from predators.

It is possible that the change in the hereditary properties of a person was caused by the influence of inversion - a change in the magnetic poles of the Earth. In any case, researchers notice a certain correlation between the next inversion and a certain stage in the biological evolution of man. Despite the variety of theories, none of them can be considered the only correct one, explaining the complex process of anthropogenesis in the Early and Middle Paleolithic.

Stages of anthropogenesis. Primates evolved from mammals about 60 million years ago. Approximately 30 million years ago, higher primates appeared.

It is possible that Australopithecus monkeys were distant ancestors of modern man. The first Australopithecus (translated as "southern monkey") was discovered in 1924 in southern Africa in a lime quarry by the Australian explorer Raymond Dart. The main Australopithecus finds are still being made in Tanzania, in the Olduvai Gorge, which, in turn, is a section of the Great African Rift. They had a flat face, massive jaws, strongly pronounced brow ridges, and a sloping forehead. The Australopithecus man is associated with upright posture and the absence of a diastema - the gap between the fangs and incisors. Australopithecus lived from 4 to 1 million years ago.

Australopithecus traditionally include Homo habilis (“handy man”), who lived 2.4-1.7 million years ago and had a brain volume of 600-680 cm3. The bones of the first "handy man" were found in 1960 in the Olduvai Gorge. When he was discovered, the first tools made from pieces of lava and quartz pebbles and dated back to 2 million 600 thousand years. For this reason, many paleoanthropologists consider Homo habilis to be the first human. Their opponents are sure that the found artifacts cannot be considered tools, since sharp working parts were obtained in the simplest way: by breaking a stone against a rock, or by splitting it with another stone. The activity of Homo habilis, they continue, was based not on the will and consciousness (as in humans), but on innate instincts. For this reason, the activity of a “handy man” can be considered not labor, but only pro-tool, and he himself cannot be considered a man in our understanding.

Australopithecus was replaced by archanthropes (the oldest people), represented by Pithecanthropes and Sinanthropes. At the International Conference in 1962, they were assigned to Homo erectus ("upright man").

Pithecanthropus is the first creature that accurately made tools, which means that it can be confidently ranked among people. The first Pithecanthropus was found at the end of the 19th century on about. Java by the Dutch physician Eugene Dubois. Pithecanthropes lived in the time interval from 1 million 800 thousand years to 1 million years ago. Compared with Australopithecus, the volume of the Pithecanthropus brain increased significantly and averaged 900 cm3. Pithecanthropus had a sloping forehead with prominent brow ridges and an angular nape. But sweat glands are already appearing on his body and the hairline is disappearing.

Sinanthropus was discovered in 1929 in China by the English anatomist Davidson Black. In a cave, 50 km from Beijing, the Black expedition unearthed the bones of more than 40 individuals - a whole camp of ancient hunters. Sinanthropus lived 350-400 thousand years ago, his brain volume was, on average, 1000 kb. see Sinanthropus had permanent habitats and, judging by the bones found, collectively hunted large animals - deer, gazelles, wild horses, buffaloes and rhinos. It is possible that Sinanthropus spoke articulately and, importantly, widely used fire: a layer of compressed ash up to 7 meters thick was preserved in the cave.

The parking lot of archanthropes was also found in Altai - in the valley of the river. Anui, Ust-Kansky district (Karama site).

Archanthropes widely used stone tools - hand axes, pointed and side-scrapers. They led an appropriating economy: they were engaged in gathering and collective hunting. They lived in caves, and in open areas - in light dwellings made of tree branches.

Neanderthal. Neanderthals (paleoanthropes, Homo neanderthalensis) appear about 130 thousand years ago. The first Neanderthal man was discovered in 1856 in the Neandertal Valley in West Germany. The Neanderthal man lived during the Wurm glaciation and many of his physical features were formed under the influence of the most difficult living conditions. The morphology of the Neanderthal is characterized by power adaptation: a massive skeleton and skull were supplemented by a large muscle mass. Along with this, he had a completely modern brain with an average volume of 1200-1600 kb. see with developed frontal lobes responsible for logical thinking. Without a doubt, the Neanderthal also possessed articulate speech. Thanks to this, Homo neanderthalensis spread over a vast territory. Its sites have been found in tropical Africa and Japan, China, India, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, Turkey and Western Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Mongolia and southern Siberia. In Altai, Neanderthals lived in the Ust-Kanskaya and Denisova caves, traces of his activity were found on Ulalinka.

Economic activity of Neanderthals. Neanderthals were still engaged in an appropriating economy: gathering, driven hunting and, to a limited extent, fishing. The main object of hunting becomes any one type of animal. They make extensive use of flint, with flint flakes chipped from disc-shaped cores. Nucleus - a specially prepared piece of stone of a certain shape, from which plates were chipped or pressed to make tools. Neanderthals also use composite tools - throwing spears with inserted flint tips. In addition to stone and wood, Neanderthals used a new material - bone. They lived in caves and in artificial structures. The caves are now being improved: the floor was covered with pebbles that protected from dampness, and a windproof wall was being built inside the cave. It has been fully proven that in a cold climate, Neanderthals learned how to make fire and make clothes from animal skins. Burials with traces of ritual suggest that Neanderthals had primitive religious ideas.

Neanderthal problem. It is difficult to say whether modern man is a descendant of the Neanderthal, or whether he arose through the hybridization of various species: Neanderthal, Yunxiang, Sinanthropus, and so on.

Until the beginning of the 80s. 20th century it was generally accepted that a modern man (Cro-Magnon) appeared 40-35 thousand years ago. But since the end of the 20th century paleoanthropologists began to make sensational discoveries in Africa. It turned out that people morphologically close to modern sapiens appeared south of the Sahara at least 100 thousand years ago. The penetration of small groups of modern humans (Homo sapiens) outside Africa into Southwest Asia begins 60-50 thousand years ago. This first group of sapiens interbred with Neanderthals, and for this reason, modern humans have 2.5% of Neanderthal genes (2011 research data). In Asia, Homo sapiens appeared massively about 45 thousand years ago, and 35-40 thousand years ago it began to populate Europe. With the advent of modern man, anthropogenesis ended.

Denisovans. Paleoanthropological finds in the Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains make it possible to distinguish, in addition to sapiens and Neanderthals, another human population - the Denisovans. DNA analysis done in 2010 shows that Denisovans were a little closer to Neanderthals than we are and are the ancestors of modern Melanesians (inhabitants of New Guinea and the islands to its east).

Sociogenesis. Communal-tribal system. Sociogenesis implies the formation and development of primitive society. Archanthropes and paleoanthropes united in ancestral communities - primitive human herds. The period of the fore-community was the longest in the history of mankind. The emergence of ancestral communities is explained by the conditions of life under which the single existence of an individual was ruled out in principle. Indeed, gathering provided low-calorie food and took a lot of time, and battue hunting for large game or fast herd animals was possible only as part of a relatively large and close-knit team. This team consisted of about 20 people. Separately, the ancestral community of the Neanderthal man is singled out - more united and numerous.

With the advent of modern man (the time of the late Paleolithic), the era of the communal-tribal system begins. It is divided into periods of the early primitive community (Late Paleolithic-Mesolithic) and the late primitive community (Neolithic), and ends with the decomposition of primitive society and the emergence of early states. The reasons for the emergence of a communal-tribal system are usually considered all the same battue hunting, as well as new conditions for economic life. In particular, the emergence of complex tools and the accumulation of rich experience required not episodic, as before, but constant communication between different generations of relatives. The emergence of a more sociable Homo sapiens, as well as its transition to a relatively settled way of life, became the prerequisites for the formation of a communal-clan system.

The communal-tribal system implies the existence of a clan - a collective of blood relatives who have realized their kinship along one line - male or female. The clan was considered the owner of the fishing area - hunting grounds and the river, later - arable land and pastures. A tribal community is understood as an economic organization consisting of one or more clans and aliens. Husbands who settled in the family of the spouse, or third-party people more often became strangers.

The clan was governed on the basis of the principles of tribal democracy. The highest governing body was the meeting of all adult relatives. At the meeting, the main issues of economic and religious life were decided, leaders were elected from authoritative and experienced people.

There was no division of power into economic, military, judicial, and there was no apparatus of coercion: if necessary, the offender was punished by the collective itself.

In the period of the late primitive community, tribes arise. A tribe is a large social-territorial unit that unites several communities. It is characterized by a common territory, language, cultural and sacred life.

Maternal tribal community. The early primitive communities of the late Paleolithic-Mesolithic were, as a rule, maternal tribal communities and had a maternal kinship account.

The causes of matriarchy lie in the peculiarities of economic life and marital relations. In the economy of the early tribal community, the labor of a woman was of great importance. She was engaged in gathering, giving (as opposed to hunting) guaranteed food, looked after housing, hearth and children, stored and processed food. At the stage of early farming, the position of a woman in the community was further strengthened: being engaged in hoe farming, she became the main supplier of grain - a staple product.

Family and marriage relations in the early primitive community. The priority of women in family and marriage relations was even more convincing. With the emergence of the communal-tribal system, exogamous group marriage spread. It implies the prohibition of marriage relations within the genus (agamiya) and the permission to enter into marriage relations with representatives of another specific genus. Two clans, united by marriage relations at the beginning, formed a tribe. At the same time, economic activity even within the tribe was carried out by such clans separately. Marriage relations at the stage of exogamous group marriage, as a rule, were episodic, and the born child remained with the mother. For this reason, group marriage implied group kinship: fathers were called all men of a neighboring clan of a certain age, and mothers - all women of their own clan, belonging to the age class of the biological mother.

With the transition to pair marriage, families arise. Since the property of the clan was essentially female, the husband passed to the tribal community to his wife. The paired family was fragile: the spouses often worked separately, did not have family property (each used the property of his family), the children belonged to the maternal family and were brought up by all her relatives. Exogamous group and pair marriages strengthened the dominance of women in the early primitive community.

Collectivism was inherent in the early primitive tribal community. It manifested itself in the form of ownership (land, hunting grounds, fishing dams, dwellings, boats, etc. belonged to women of the clan), in production activities (obligatory collective labor was practiced) and in collective consumption. A reciprocal exchange was practiced: each community member contributed as much as he could to the “common pot”, and received as much as he was supposed to. The difference between what was contributed and what was received was compensated by an increase or decrease in personal prestige.

The development of productive forces in the early primitive community. During the Late Paleolithic period, the technique of stone processing becomes more complicated: flint plates are now chipped off from prismatic cores. Composite tools are widespread - a spear with a flint tip and a knife with a handle. Specialized tools appear: a harpoon and fishhooks made of bone, a sling and a boomerang. Man learned to sew clothes and make shoes. Hunting, especially battling, has become highly effective. At the sites of this time, archaeologists find huge accumulations of bones of large animals: at the Amvrosievskaya site alone, about 1 thousand bison were found, driven into a ravine and destroyed there. The growth of labor productivity contributed to the growth of the population, and the extermination of game animals caused its migration to the north of Eurasia, to America, to the Japanese islands.

At the beginning of the Mesolithic, the ice age ends in the Northern Hemisphere and the modern climate is established. The flora and fauna are changing, hunting resources are depleted: instead of large animals, vast territories began to be inhabited by relatively small and non-herd animals - elks, wild boars, roe deer and others. Under these conditions, the invention of the bow, the first mechanical tool, was of paramount importance. A quick-firing and long-range bow made it possible to hunt small fast animals, as well as birds, and increased the chances of a person to survive.

Knife-like plates are now chipped from pencil-shaped cores, the size and shape of which are similar to a pencil. The edges of such plates, surprisingly even, were from 0.5 to 1.5 cm wide. Microliths are widespread - processed flint chips 1-2 cm long, which are used as parts of composite tools - liners for knives and sickles. Macroliths are widely used - stone axe, adze and chisel. During the Mesolithic period, a person learned to make one-tree boats, nets with floats, sledges, skis and baubles.

late primitive community. During the Neolithic period, man learned to drill, polish and grind stone. He invents ceramic production, spinning and weaving, discovers the smelting of copper. New means of transportation appear - wheeled transport and a sailboat.

Transition to a manufacturing economy. At this time, there is a transition of a person to a productive economy - to agriculture and animal husbandry (domestication). The reasons for domestication are usually seen in the desire of a person to provide himself with a guaranteed product, reducing his dependence on blind chance and the vagaries of nature. The transition to animal husbandry in a number of regions is explained by the decline in the number of wild animals due to the high efficiency of the appropriating economy, or the drying up of the climate.

Stages of formation and development of agriculture.

First stage. Highly organized collection. At this stage, a person only helped nature, caring for wild plants: watered wild cereals, transplanted fruit plants closer to housing and cut dry branches, cut down bushes that interfered, and so on.

Second phase. Hoe farming. The main tool at this stage is a hoe, later equipped with a metal working part. Hoe farming, as a rule, was carried out by a woman who was traditionally associated with plants and knew them well. For this reason, the position of women in the tribal community at the stage of hoe farming was significantly strengthened.

Third stage. Arable (plough) agriculture. The main tool of labor at this stage is a plow drawn by draft cattle. Plow farming was everywhere practiced by men who have long associated life with animals.

The peoples of Western Asia began to switch to agriculture from the 8th millennium BC, Mesoamerica and the Peruvian Andes - from the 4th millennium BC.

Human domestication of animals. The first domestic bulls, apparently, appeared on the territory of modern Iran and Iraq in the 4th millennium BC, goats and sheep - in Western Asia in the 6th millennium BC. The domestication of a horse (descended from a wild tarpan) took place on the territory from the Dnieper to the Urals in the 4th millennium BC. - much earlier than in Western Europe. However, some researchers (P.A. Lazarev and others) suggest the existence of an independent center of horse breeding in Yakutia.

Consequences of the transition of man to a productive economy. Thanks to the transition of mankind to agriculture and animal husbandry, food production has stabilized, and this has increased life expectancy and the population of the Earth. Farmers finally switched to a settled way of life, began to build cities and create the first civilizations. The productive economy made it possible to obtain a regular surplus, and then a surplus product, and this, in turn, led to the formation of early states.

Family and marriage relations in the late primitive community. Domestication caused fateful changes for mankind in family and marriage relations. With the development of arable farming and animal husbandry in the Late Neolithic, the role of male labor increased. Moreover, all the main means of production (cattle, pastures, arable land, agricultural and handicraft tools) are used exclusively by men, become men's property and could be transferred within the tribal community only through the male line. Since the tribal community was interested in preserving their men, there is a transition from the matrilocal to the patrilocal settlement of the spouses: now not the husband, but the wife is forever sent to the spouse's community. The process of transition to a patrilocal settlement was lengthy and gave rise to intermediate compromise forms. With the emergence of family property (and it was originally the property of men), there is a transition from pair marriage to an incomparably stronger monogamous marriage. Monogamous marriage in a primitive society excluded extramarital affairs for a woman and provided for divorce at the initiative of a woman only in exceptional cases.

A large patriarchal family arises, which included several generations of male relatives, their wives and children. At the head of the patriarchal family was the eldest man (patriarch), who had the widest power over the household. Later, slaves began to be included in the patriarchal family, occupying the position of the younger members of the family there.

The development of the productive economy (agriculture and animal husbandry) led to the first and second social divisions of labor.

The first social division of labor. It consists in separating pastoral and agricultural tribes from complex farms.

The reasons for the first social division of labor are usually seen in population growth (demographic theory) or in the drying up of the climate (climatic theory). In the first case, the surplus population, forced out into natural areas unsuitable for agriculture, switched to cattle breeding. In the second case, the tribes that had previously been engaged in complex farming were forced to become pastoralists. The emergence of cattle breeding was also facilitated by technical achievements, first of all - a lifting wheeled cart with a metal axle and a collapsible dwelling (yurt).

Second social division of labor. It consists in the separation of crafts from agriculture, that is, in the emergence of professional artisans.

The reason for the second social division of labor was the complication of the technological process in metalworking, pottery, leather and weaving. Now the occupation of the craft required a lot of time, money and great experience from the community member and did not allow him to provide himself with food in full. The first professional artisans, apparently, were gunsmiths and jewelers.

Consequences of the first and second social division of labor. There is a regular economic exchange between communities (a consequence of the first division of labor) and within communities (a consequence of the second division of labor). Economic exchange led to the emergence of the first measures of value and to the improvement of means of communication - roads, wheeled and water transport. The deepening of professional specialization caused an increase in labor productivity and product quality. And, finally, regular economic exchange caused the growth of wealth inequality and contributed to the beginning of the process of politogenesis.

Politogenesis in the late primitive community. In the late primitive community, a conflict arose between the growth of labor productivity and traditional community psychology. The fact is that the excess product, the ability and desire to receive it caused discontent and persecution of relatives. The community, seeking to maintain property equality, introduced a number of restrictions. In particular, a maximum of personal property was set, and the resulting excess product was periodically destroyed or donated to neighbors. This is how a prestigious economy arises - prestigious feasts and gift exchanges between relatives and friendly communities. In this way, the contradiction between the growth of productive forces and the primitive mentality was resolved within the framework of the traditional worldview.

In the late primitive community, a significant part of the surplus product began to be concentrated in the hands of leaders and tribal nobility. The tribal nobility kept the surplus product, accumulating it for prestigious feasts and disposing of it in the interests of their relatives. For the performance of judicial, priestly and peacekeeping affairs, she received voluntary offerings of food and handicrafts.

The surplus product in the late primitive society was obtained in the course of intercommunal and intracommunal exploitation. Chronologically, the earliest, inter-communal exploitation, was carried out in the form of predatory wars, the collection of tribute and indemnity. At the same time, not only the excess product was confiscated from weak tribes, but also part of the product they needed.

The predatory wars intensified the property stratification within the tribe, accelerated the process of the formation of private property and made significant changes in psychology. War and military robbery began to be considered a worthy occupation for men, a kind of labor that brought a fair income. In the warring tribes, groups of professional warriors are distinguished, headed by military leaders. Using great authority in the tribe, they influence the decision of the people's assembly and oppose the traditional tribal nobility in the struggle for power. At the same time, the power of the military leader is based not so much on the authority of traditions, but on the strength of the squad, on personal wealth and on the dependence of community members on it. This is a military version of politogenesis - the formation of a new type of power and control, culminating in the emergence of an early state. The struggle between the new aristocracy and the tribal traditional nobility usually ended with the victory of the new aristocracy, headed by a military leader, or with a compromise favorable to it. The military version of politogenesis provides, first of all, for intercommunal exploitation.

The aristocratic version of politogenesis is based on the strengthening of the positions of the traditional tribal nobility (elders and priests), which removes ordinary community members from power. Since the power of the traditional aristocracy is sanctified by religion and tradition, they receive the right to life and death of their kindred. Military leaders were chosen only if necessary from the tribal nobility and did not have a significant impact on the life of the tribal community. The aristocratic version of politogenesis provides for the spread of intracommunal exploitation.

The forms of intra-communal exploitation during the period of decomposition of primitive society are debt slavery, working off and sharecropping. Debt slavery was at first non-hereditary and temporary, until the debt was paid off. The debtor, bound by working off, worked off his debt in the economy of the lender. Sharecropping provides for the work of the debtor in his household and the payment of part of the product received to the lender on account of the debt.

The process of politogenesis stretched for hundreds of years and ended with the formation of early states in the ancient East.

Introduction

There are two periods in the history of mankind - the primitive and the period of the existence of complexly organized class societies. The first of them lasted many hundreds of thousands of years, the second - not for long. In primitive times, man became a man in the full sense of the word, his culture arose. Collectives of people were relatively small and simply organized, with a primitive way of life, which is why they are called primary - primitive. At first, people, in order to get their own food, were engaged in gathering and hunting, using stone tools. Then they began to grow the plants they needed for themselves, breed domestic animals, build dwellings, and create settlements.

People in primitive communities were equal in their position, with the same rights and obligations, among them there were no rich and poor. Relations between families and individuals were determined by kinship, and the norm in this society was help and mutual support.

According to the materials from which people made tools, archaeologists divide history into three "ages": stone, bronze and iron. The Stone Age was the longest - about 2.5 million years ago, and ended 3 thousand years BC. The Bronze Age lasted more than 2.5 thousand years, and approximately in the middle II thousand BC The Iron Age is upon us, and we are living in it. These ages, especially the Bronze and Iron Ages, did not occur simultaneously in different regions of the Earth, somewhere earlier, somewhere later.

Now it is hard to believe it, but a little over a hundred years ago, people believed that their appearance had remained unchanged since the appearance of man. They were considered the descendants of the first man and the first woman who were created by the gods, regardless of whether they were the gods of Christians, Muslims or followers of the teachings of the Buddha. When human bones were found during excavations that differed from modern ones, they were considered the remains of especially strong people or, conversely, sick people. In the 40s. of the last century, the bones of one of the ancestors of modern man, a Neanderthal man, were found in Germany, who were mistaken for the remains of a Russian Cossack, a participant in the Napoleonic wars, and one respected scientist said that these were the bones of a sick old man, who was also hit on the head several times.

INIn 1859, Charles Darwin's book "The Origin of Species" was published, which did not talk about the origin of man, but suggested that man, like other living beings, could also change, develop from simpler to more complex forms. From that moment on, a struggle began between those who considered it possible for a human to originate from an ape, and their opponents. Of course, it was not about the gorillas, chimpanzees or orangutans known to us, but about some extinct species, ancestors common to humans and monkeys.

Primitive

1.1. Primitive.

In XIX V. very few remains of the skeletons of the most ancient people were known. Now many of them have been discovered. The most ancient ones were found in Africa, therefore it is believed that it was on this continent that the evolution of great apes, which lasted many millions of years, led to the appearance of man. 3.5-1.8 million years ago, the steppes of Africa were already roaming creatures, which were named Australopithecus-mi- southern monkeys. They had a small brain and massive jaws, but they could already move in an upright position and hold a stick or stone in their hands.

Scientists believe that the first stone tools appeared about 2.5 million years ago. These were stones with sharp edges and flakes from them. Such tools could cut a branch, skin a dead animal, split a bone, or dig a root out of the ground. The one who made them got the name "skillful man" ( homo habilis ). Now he is considered the first representative of the human race.

The “handy man” moved on his feet, and his hands were adapted to not only hold a stick or stone, but also to make tools. These ancient people did not yet know how to speak; like monkeys, they gave each other signals with cries, gestures, grimaces. In addition to plant foods, they ate the meat of animals that they probably hunted. Their groups were small and consisted of several males, females with cubs and adolescents.

About 1 million years ago, a new species appeared - "straight man" ( Homo erectus ), Pithecan Trope, those. ape-man. This creature still resembled its animal ancestors. It was covered with hair, had a low forehead and strongly protruding brow ridges. But the size of his brain was already quite large, approaching the size of the brain of a modern person. The “straightened man” learned to make various stone tools - large regular-shaped axes, scrapers, chisels (See Appendix 1.2). With such tools it was possible to chop, cut, plan, dig, kill animals, remove skins from them, butcher carcasses.

The development of labor skills, the ability to think, to plan their activities allowed these people to adapt to life in different climatic conditions. They lived in the cold regions of Northern China and Europe, in the tropics of the island of Java, the steppes of Africa. During the existence of the “rectified man”, the ice age began. Due to the formation of glaciers, the level of the World Ocean dropped, land “bridges” arose between previously separated water areas, over which people could penetrate, for example, to the island of Java, where the first bones of Pithecanthropus were found .

The camps were located along the banks of rivers and lakes, in places where large herds of animals lived. Pithekan-trops sometimes lived in caves, but not in the depths, where it was dangerous, but at the exit. Bold hunters, whose prey was large and strong animals, drove herds of deer, bulls, elephants to cliffs, ravines or gorges, where they killed them with spears and stones. The bull was divided among everyone. Primitive people began to use fire, which warmed them, protected them from animals and helped them hunt. On the fire they began to cook food that was previously eaten raw.

ABOUT hota on large animals, protection from dangers, relocation to new territories - all this required the combined efforts of many people. Their teams had to be sufficiently numerous and cohesive. The complication of the way of life led to the fact that the elders began to teach the younger ones, and teenagers stayed longer than before with their parents and relatives. These people already knew how to speak. And yet, both their physical development and the development of culture went very slowly: Pithecanthropes, like the tools they created, almost unchanged, existed for about 1 million years.

1.2. Neanderthals.

The impact of the natural environment and the complication of human activities led to the appearance of an ancient variety about 250 thousand years ago "reasonable man" - Neanderthal(by the name of the German valley Neandertal, where his remains were first discovered). He no longer differed much from modern man, although he was roughly built, had a low forehead and a sloping chin. According to one scientist, he would not want to meet such a creature at night in a city park. But these people had a more lively mind and adapted better to the difficult conditions of the ice age than their predecessors, the Pithecan Tropes, who eventually died out.

Neanderthals began to populate the previously deserted areas of southern Europe, Asia, and Africa. They climbed into the caves, where huge cave bears went to hibernate in the winter. The height of these animals reached 2.5 m, length -

3 m, and such large animals were killed by people armed with spears, stones, clubs. Huge accumulations of bear bones have been found in caves in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and other countries.

The Neanderthals improved the tools invented by the Pithecanthropes. Their form has become more regular and varied. Neanderthals wore clothes made of skins and knew how to build simple dwellings, and about 60 thousand years ago they learned how to make fire. The pace of development is accelerating: the technique of stone processing is now being improved much faster than before. Let's remember how long the tools of Pithecanthropes existed, and the tools made by Neanderthals were in use for 70 thousand years, after which they were replaced by more advanced ones.

The rather high level of development of the Neanderthals and their culture can be judged by the fact that the tools in different areas of the Earth inhabited by them were no longer as identical as before. At this time, one of the features of human culture begins to take shape - its diversity. At the same time, some signs of physical differences between the inhabitants of different regions appear, and races are formed.

Relationships between people in the groups that Neanderthals lived in are becoming stronger. Realizing that they belong to a chain of successive generations, people began to bury their dead. Some animals also do not abandon their dead relatives: for example, elephants throw branches at them. Perhaps the ancestors of the Neanderthals also hid their dead. People specially dug pits where they put the dead. Often burials, and numerous ones, were made in caves. Everyone was buried - women, children, old hunters. Often such burials were surrounded by stones, weapons were left in them, the skull of some small animal, even flowers. The remains were sprinkled with red ocher or pieces of this mineral were placed next to the deceased. Probably, red color was already perceived as the color of life.

People not only realized the need to take care of the weak and sick, they got the opportunity to do so. In order for a seriously wounded person to recover, it was necessary to take care of him, to share food with him. Skeletons of obviously seriously ill people are found in the burials, and in one of them the remains of a man without an arm were found. This means that people could already get enough food to feed not only growing children, but also weak, sick, old people. Probably, in such conditions, ideas about good and bad in relation to people began to form, i.e. moral standards.

Neanderthals were the first people about whom we can say that they performed some kind of rites. In the caves they find specially collected and even arranged in a certain order the skulls of bears. Around them, apparently, there were some rituals. It is noteworthy that human skulls were also treated in a special way: separate burials of skulls were found in special pits.

1.3. "Reasonable Man".

Problematic are the questions of which of the oldest hominids should be attributed to the earliest forms of Homo sapiens and when they appeared. There is an opinion that the time of their occurrence is not 40 thousand years ago, as is commonly believed, but 100 thousand years or even more. As many researchers believe, between homo sapiens and Neanderthals lack biological and cultural barriers.

It is also not entirely clear how the Neanderthal was replaced by modern humans. It is known that he appeared as if suddenly in Europe, Southeast Asia and Africa. Skeletons of Neanderthals were found in Palestine, more developed than their other relatives, already possessing the signs of a person who was formerly called Cro-Magnon, and now they prefer a more general name - "modern man type". (He is called in Latin homo sapiens sapiens - as if "a man twice intelligent" in comparison with the Neanderthal, which is only ho-mo sapiens neandertalensis - “reasonable non-Anderthal man.”) People who replaced the Neanderthals 40-30 thousand years ago (100 thousand years ago) no longer had the features that gave their predecessors a somewhat bestial appearance: their hands became less powerful, the forehead is higher, they have a chin protrusion.

The appearance of a modern type of man coincides with the beginning of the last period of the ancient Stone Age - about 35 thousand years ago. In this era, which did not last long compared to the previous ones - only 23-25 ​​thousand years, people settled on all continents, except, of course, Antarctica. Through the "bridges" that arose due to glaciation, they penetrated into Australia. This happened, as is believed, about 20 thousand years ago. Probably, America was settled 40-10 thousand years ago: one of the ways people penetrated there was the bottom of the Bering Strait, which was land.

At that time, the technique of making stone tools reached a very high level of development. Many of them were now made from regular-shaped plates, which were separated, "squeezed out" from the prismatic-shaped cores. Plates of different sizes were subjected to additional processing, blunting the edges or removing thin scales from the surface using a bone or wooden tool. The most suitable stone for making tools was flint, which is often found in nature. Other minerals were also used, which easily split, were quite hard and fine-grained. Some knife-like plates were so sharp that they could be shaved. The technique of making tools and weapons became virtuoso. It was at this time that the forms of many things were formed, which later began to be made of metal: spearheads, daggers, knives.

Bone tools - awls, needles - began to be widely used. A device was made from bone and horn, which made it possible to increase the flight range of a spear - a spear thrower. Bone products were decorated with carvings - ornaments or images of animals, which, it was believed, gave them a special power.

In this era, onions appeared in some places. In total, about 150 types of stone and 20 types of bone tools of the Late Old Stone Age are known.

It was the time of the last glaciation. Herds of mammoths, woolly horns, and bison grazed where the cities of France, Spain, and southern Russia are now located. Following the herds of animals, communities consisting of small families moved - father, mother, children. Hunting for animals provided not only meat, but also material for making tools and ornaments. Our ancestors were especially fond of necklaces made of animal teeth. They were also engaged in catching fish, which was abundant in rivers and lakes.

People now lived not only in caves or grottoes, but also in parking lots, in solid dwellings. The material for the buildings, probably, was often wood and skins, but the ruins of semi-dugouts made of mammoth bones have come down to us. From huge bones and tusks, they built or framed a dwelling, which was then covered with skins, branches, and partially covered with earth. The ruins of such large dwellings, which belonged to several families, were found during excavations near Voronezh and in Ukraine.

Chapter 2. The emergence of human society.

2.1.Pracommunity (primitive human herd).

The historical reconstruction of the original human society is perhaps the most difficult problem of primitive history. In the absence of any direct parallels, it can only be judged on the basis of indirect data. This, on the one hand, is our information about the herd relationships among monkeys, on the other hand, some facts of archeology and anthropology, as well as those facts of ethnology, which, with a greater or lesser degree of probability, can be considered as remnants of an ancient, pre-sapiens state. humanity. Comparison and analysis of all these data make it possible to draw up a general, although largely hypothetical, idea of ​​the social life of that time, but, of course, leave room for numerous ambiguities, purely logical conjectures, and controversial assumptions.

As already mentioned, the initial form of organization of society in domestic science is often called the “primitive human herd”, At the same time, some scientists believe that the use of this term is unlawful, since it combines incompatible concepts - the herd nature of relationships is attributed to primitive human groups , therefore, vulgarization, biologization of the processes of social development is allowed. But this objection is hardly sound. The term "primitive human herd" just well conveys the dialectical originality of the organization of the most ancient and ancient people, its transitional state from the pre-human herd of animals to the "ready", formed society. Therefore, using here, like many other specialists, the term "primordial community", we are guided only by the fact that it is shorter and more convenient.

What chronological boundaries dates from the era of the fore-community? Its beginning, obviously, coincides with the separation of man from the animal world and the formation of society. There is no doubt that the emergence of goal-setting labor activity was associated not only with a change in man's attitude to nature, but also with a change in relations between members of the original human collective. Thus, the beginning of the era of the fore-community coincides with the appearance of quite consciously manufactured and used tools. The final frontier of the era of the fore-community was the emergence of a “ready-made” human society to replace it - the communal system. Back in the early 1930s, archaeologists P.P. Efimenko and P.I. Boriskovsky suggested that the transition to the communal system occurred at the turn of the Late Paleolithic. New archaeological finds do not refute this assumption, but allow us to assume that the transition from the fore-community to the community could have occurred earlier. Consequently, the end of the epoch of the proto-community coincides with the transition from the early to the middle or late Paleolithic. New data still needs to be comprehended, and here we will adhere to the previous synchronization of the era of the fore-community.

The progressive development of stone tools, the change in the physical type of man himself, and, finally, the fact that the communal system could not arise immediately, in finished form - all this shows that the ancestral community was not a uniform form frozen in time. Therefore, one often distinguishes between the early protocommunity of the most ancient people and the more developed protocommunity of the Neanderthals. Some scholars even call this later ancestral community of Neanderthals special terms (“primitive community”, etc.).

The ancestral community was, apparently, a small group of people. It is unlikely that a large group could feed themselves with the weak technical equipment of the Early Paleolithic man and the difficulty of obtaining food. Gathering requires a lot of time, and provides relatively little food, moreover, most often low-calorie; as for the hunting of large animals, already known to primitive man, it was associated with great difficulties, was accompanied by many victims and was not always successful. Thus, it is difficult to imagine that the original community consisted of more than a few dozen, most likely 20-30 adult members. It is possible that such ancestral communities sometimes united into larger ones, but this association could only be accidental.

The life of the fore-community, most likely, was not the life of gatherers and hunters randomly moving from place to place. Excavations at Zhoukoudian paint a picture of settled life for many generations. Many cave camps of the Early Paleolithic period, excavated in different parts of Eurasia over the past 60 years, also speak of relative settledness. This is all the more likely that the wealth of the Quaternary fauna made it possible to use the fodder territory for a long time and, therefore, made it possible to occupy well-located and convenient sheds and caves for permanent housing. Probably, these natural dwellings in some cases were used for several years, in others - for the life of several or even many generations. The development of hunting undoubtedly played an important role in establishing such a way of life.

2.2. Role hunting in the development of the fore-community.

It is difficult to say which of the two branches of the economy of ancient and ancient people - gathering or hunting - was the basis of their life. Probably, their ratio was not the same in different historical epochs, in different seasons, in different geographical conditions. However, there is no doubt that it was hunting that was the more progressive branch of the economy, which largely determined the development of primitive human groups.

The objects of hunting, depending on the fauna of a particular region, were various animals. In the tropical zone, these were hippos, tapirs, antelopes, wild bulls, etc. Sometimes, among the animal bones found at the Acheulean sites, bones of even such large animals as elephants come across. In the more northern regions they hunted horses, deer, wild boars, bison, and sometimes killed predators - cave bears and lions, whose meat was also eaten. In the high-mountain zone, hunting of mountain goats played a predominant role in hunting, for example, among the Neanderthals, as can be seen from the finds in the Teshik-Tash cave. To some extent, the size of the hunt can be judged on the basis of counting the bones found at the sites. The cultural layer of many of them contains the remains of hundreds, a sometimes even thousands of animals. In addition to the location in Zhoukoudian, such large camps of the Acheulean period were discovered at the site of Torralba in Spain and in the grotto of the Observatory in Italy. In the first of them, for example, the bones of more than 30 elephants were found, not counting other animals. True, these sites were inhabited for a long time, but, nevertheless, it is obvious that hunting was of considerable importance in the life of their inhabitants.

Hunting for large animals, especially those that live in herds, is difficult to imagine, as already mentioned, without a driven method. The weaponry of the Acheulean hunter was too weak for him to kill a large animal directly. There have been such cases, but they cannot but be regarded as an exception, and even then mainly when hunting sick and weak animals that have lagged behind the herd. As a rule, the most ancient people could dare to kill large mammals only during driven hunting. Probably, the animals were frightened by noise, fire, stones, and, as the location of many sites shows, they were driven to a deep gorge or a large cliff. Animals fell and broke, and the man had only to finish them off. That is why it was hunting, and above all the hunting of large animals, that was the form of labor activity that most of all stimulated the organization of the fore-community, forced its members to unite more and more closely in the labor process and demonstrated to them the power of collectivism.

At the same time, hunting was the most effective source of meat food. Of course, primitive people received animal food not only from hunting mammals: just as it was practiced later in much more developed human societies, they caught insects, killed amphibians, reptiles, and small rodents. But the extraction of large animals gave much greater opportunities in this regard. Meanwhile, meat, containing the most important substances for the human body - proteins, fats and carbohydrates, was not only a satisfying food, especially after processing it on fire, but also accelerated the growth and increased the vital activity of primitive man.

2.3. The development of primitive collectivism.

The separation of man from the animal world became possible only thanks to labor, which in itself represented a collective form of man's influence on nature. The transition to even the simplest labor operations could only take place in a team, under the conditions of social forms of behavior. This circumstance allows us to assert that already at the earliest stages of anthropogenesis and the history of primitive society, there was regulation in the procurement and distribution of food, in sexual life. This process was intensified by the action of natural selection, which contributed to the preservation of precisely those collectives in which social communication and mutual assistance were more pronounced and which opposed enemies and natural disasters as monolithic associations.

The already noted development of driven hunting, joint protection from predatory animals, maintaining fire - all this contributed to the consolidation of the fore-community, the development of first instinctive, and then conscious forms of mutual assistance. The improvement of the language, which will be discussed below, also acted in the same direction of team building. But especially great progress falls on the final stage of the existence of the fore-community - the Mousterian time. It was to this time that the first clear evidence of concern for the members of the team dates back - Neanderthal burials.

Conclusion.

The way of life of people of the Stone Age, the level of their development partly resembles some aspects of the life of peoples who in the recent past, before the arrival of Europeans, lived in Australia, certain regions of South Asia, South America and Africa. Of course, it is impossible to directly compare them: over the past thousands of years, even people as cut off from civilization as the natives of Australia have accumulated a lot of observational experience, their thinking abilities have developed, and their perception of the world has expanded. And yet, the life of these tribes and peoples allows us to understand to some extent how people lived 30-20 thousand years ago.

The most ancient tools of labor are at the same time monuments of both material and spiritual culture, as they testify to the conscious activity of the creatures who created them, to their even primitive and minimal knowledge and skills, transmitted from one individual to another. With the advent of human consciousness and conscious activity with its results, the first cultural and historical era begins - the primitive one, within which there was only one type of culture of the same name. The named era is the longest of all experienced by mankind, it makes up more than 90% of world history. In turn, most of the primitive era coincides with the process of formation of man, society and culture. People then slowly but surely created the basis, the foundation of culture, prepared the conditions for its later successes.

Literature

1. Alekseev V.T. History of primitive society / V.P. Alekseev, F.I. Pershits - 6th ed. - M .: AST Publishing House LLC: Astrel Publishing House LLC, 2004. - 350 p.: ill. - (Graduate School).

2. Vishnyatsky L.B. Origin Homo sapiens . New facts and some traditional ideas - M: Soviet archeology, 1990, No. 2.

3. Zubov A.A. Controversial issues of the theory of anthropogenesis - Ethnographic Review, 1994, No. 6. Alekseev V.T. History of primitive society / V.P. Alekseev, F.I. Pershits - 6th ed. - M .: AST Publishing House LLC: Astrel Publishing House LLC, 2004. - 350 p.: ill. – (higher school), p. 129.

Section - I - An introductory description of the primitive society briefly
Section - II - primitive human herd
Section - III - Primal hunters
Section - IV - Formation of the genus
Section - V - Agriculture and cattle breeding of ancient people

It is interesting to realize that the course of development and abrupt changes in climate forced our human race to evolve from a half-ape into a completely rational being. A large number of finds in Africa indicate that civilized humanity is one of the smallest parts of the entire history of the existence of our species. Australopithecus.

Primitive man inhabited Africa presumably between 3.5-1.8 million years ago. At that time it was small herds of semi-intelligent monkeys, which were called Australopithecus - that is, southern monkeys. They were distinguished by a rather large jaw, a small brain, a straight posture, as well as the ability to hold a stone or a club in their hands.

A skilled man (eng.homo habilis) arose about 2.5 million years ago. years ago. This primitive man was characterized by the fact that he had the opportunity to use the first tools made of stone in the economy. Stone tools could dig up a root, hunt, skin a dead animal, chop branches, etc. It is a skillful person who is considered the main representative of the entire modern human race. Being homo habilis, primitive people moved on 2 legs. Their flock consisted of several males, and presumably the same number of females. They ate both animal and vegetable food. They still couldn't talk. Only with the help of simple cries and gestures did they somehow talk to each other.

Pithecanthropus. The next stage in the development of primitive man is considered to be a “straightened man” (that is, from the English homo erectus), Pithecanthropus or ape-man. In its appearance, this creature still resembled animals. It was hairy, with a large jaw, a low forehead, and a large head. But Pithecanthropus, unlike other homo habilis, learned not just to pick up sticks and pebbles from the ground, but to make them on their own. So there were various scrapers, sharp axes, which helped well to cut roots, branches, hunts, and also cut animal skins. It was during the time of the Pithecanthropes, primitive people learned to adapt to different climate conditions. Their sites were recorded in Africa and in Europe, and in China.

And the first parking lot of Pithecanthropus was found on the island of Java. During the existence of homo erectus, glaciers began to advance on the earth. It became very cold and the level of the World Ocean decreased. Therefore, many scattered small groups primitive people were forced to unite. This made it easier to hunt and protect yourself from threats. Around the same period, fire appeared, with the help of which primitive man was heated. The Pithecanthropus community evolved very slowly. In this society, adults began teach younger generations to hunt and n growth crafts, after some time was born

). As sources about the prehistoric times of cultures, until recently devoid of writing, there may be oral traditions passed down from generation to generation.

Since data on prehistoric times rarely concern individuals and do not even always say anything about ethnic groups, the main social unit of the prehistoric era of mankind is archaeological culture. All terms and periodization of this era, such as Neanderthal or Iron Age, are retrospective and largely arbitrary, and their precise definition is subject to debate.

Terminology

A synonym for "prehistory" is the term " prehistory”, which is used less frequently in Russian-language literature than similar terms in foreign literature (eng. prehistory, German Urgeschichte).

To denote the final stage of the prehistoric era of any culture, when it itself has not yet created its own written language, but is already mentioned in the written monuments of other peoples, the term “protohistory” (eng. protohistory, German Fruhgeschichte). To replace the term primitive society characterizing the social structure before the emergence of power, some historians use the terms "savagery", "anarchy", "primitive communism", "pre-civilization period" and more. In Russian literature, this term has not taken root.

Non-classical historians deny the very existence of communities and primitive communal system, interconnection, identity of power and violence.

From the following stages of social development primitive society distinguished by the absence of private property, classes and the state. Modern studies of primitive society, according to neo-historians who deny the traditional periodization of the development of human society, refute the existence of such a social structure and the existence of communities, communal property under the primitive communal system, and in the future, as a natural result of the non-existence of the primitive communal system - the non-existence of communal agricultural land tenure until the end XVIII century in most countries of the world, including Russia, at least since the Neolithic.

Periods of development of primitive society

At different times, various periods of the development of human society were proposed. So, A. Ferguson and then Morgan used the periodization of history, which included three stages: savagery, barbarism and civilization, and the first two stages were broken by Morgan into three stages (lower, middle and higher) each. At the stage of savagery, hunting, fishing and gathering dominated human activity, there was no private property, there was equality. At the stage of barbarism, agriculture and cattle breeding appear, private property and social hierarchy arise. The third stage - civilization - is associated with the emergence of the state, class society, cities, writing, etc.

Morgan considered the lowest stage of savagery, which began with the formation of articulate speech, to be the earliest stage in the development of human society, the middle stage of savagery, according to his classification, begins with the use of fire and the appearance of fish food in the diet, and the highest stage of savagery - with the invention of onions. The lowest stage of barbarism, according to his classification, begins with the advent of pottery, the middle stage of barbarism - with the transition to agriculture and cattle breeding, and the highest stage of barbarism - with the beginning of the use of iron.

The most developed periodization is archaeological, which is based on a comparison of man-made tools, their materials, forms of dwellings, burials, etc. According to this principle, the history of mankind is mainly divided into stone age, bronze age and iron age.

Stone Age

The Stone Age is the oldest period in the history of mankind, when the main tools and weapons were made mainly of stone, but wood and bone were also used. At the end of the Stone Age, the use of clay (dishes, brick buildings, sculpture) spread.

Periodization of the Stone Age:

• Paleolithic:
  • Lower Paleolithic - the period of the appearance of the most ancient types of people and wide distribution Homo erectus .
  • The Middle Paleolithic is a period of displacement of erectus by evolutionarily more advanced human species, including modern humans. Neanderthals dominated Europe during the entire Middle Paleolithic.
  • The Upper Paleolithic is the period of domination of the modern type of people throughout the globe in the era of the last glaciation.
• Mesolithic and Epipaleolithic; the terminology depends on how much the region has been affected by the loss of megafauna as a result of the melting of the glacier. The period is characterized by the development of technology for the production of stone tools and the general culture of man. Ceramic is missing.
• Neolithic - the era of the emergence of agriculture. Tools and weapons are still made of stone, but their production is brought to perfection, and ceramics are widely distributed.

copper age

Copper Age, Copper-Stone Age, Chalcolith (Greek. χαλκός "copper" + Greek. λίθος "stone") or Eneolithic (lat. aeneus"copper" + Greek. λίθος "stone")) - a period in the history of primitive society, a transitional period from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age. Approximately covers the period 4-3 thousand BC. e., but in some areas it exists longer, and in some it is absent altogether. Most often, the Eneolithic is included in the Bronze Age, but sometimes it is also considered a separate period. During the Eneolithic, copper tools were common, but stone tools still prevailed.

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is a period in the history of primitive society, characterized by the leading role of bronze products, which was associated with an improvement in the processing of metals such as copper and tin obtained from ore deposits, and the subsequent production of bronze from them. The Bronze Age is the second, late phase of the Early Metal Age, succeeding the Copper Age and preceding the Iron Age. In general, the chronological framework of the Bronze Age: 35/33 - 13/11 centuries. BC e., but different cultures are different. In the Eastern Mediterranean, the end of the Bronze Age is associated with the almost simultaneous destruction of all local civilizations at the turn of the 13th-12th centuries. BC e., known as the bronze collapse, while in the west of Europe the transition from the bronze to the iron age drags on for several more centuries and ends with the appearance of the first cultures of antiquity - ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.

Bronze Age periods:

1. Early Bronze Age
2. Middle Bronze Age
3. Late Bronze Age

iron age

Treasure of Iron Age coins

The Iron Age is a period in the history of primitive society, characterized by the spread of iron metallurgy and the manufacture of iron tools. For civilizations of the Bronze Age, it goes beyond the history of primitive society, for other peoples, civilization develops in the era of the Iron Age.

The term "Iron Age" is usually applied to the "barbarian" cultures of Europe, which existed simultaneously with the great civilizations of antiquity (Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Parthia). The “barbarians” were distinguished from the ancient cultures by the absence or rare use of writing, and therefore information about them has come down to us either according to archeology or from references in ancient sources. On the territory of Europe in the era of the Iron Age, M. B. Schukin identified six "barbarian worlds":

• proto-Germans (mainly Jastorf culture + southern Scandinavia);
• mostly Proto-Baltic cultures of the forest zone (possibly including Proto-Slavs);
• Proto-Finno-Ugric and Proto-Sami cultures of the northern forest zone (mainly along rivers and lakes);
• steppe Iranian-speaking cultures (Scythians, Sarmatians, etc.);
• pastoral-agricultural cultures of the Thracians, Dacians and Getae.

History of the development of public relations

The first tools of human labor were a chipped stone and a stick. People obtained their livelihood by hunting, which they conducted jointly, and by gathering. Human communities were small, they led a nomadic lifestyle, moving in search of food. But some communities of people who lived in the most favorable conditions began to move towards partial settlement.

The most important stage in human development was the emergence of language. Instead of the signal language of animals, which contributes to their coordination in hunting, people got the opportunity to express in language the abstract concepts of “stone in general”, “animal in general”. This use of language has led to the ability to teach offspring with words, and not just by example, to plan actions before the hunt, and not during it, etc.

Any booty was shared among the whole team of people. Tools of labor, household utensils, decorations were used by individual people, but the owner of the thing was obliged to share it, and in addition, anyone could take someone else's thing and use it without asking (remnants of this are still found among individual peoples).

The natural breadwinner of a person was his mother - at first she fed him with her milk, then she generally took upon herself the responsibility of providing him with food and everything necessary for life. This food was supposed to be hunted by men - the mother's brothers, who belonged to her family. Thus, cells began to form, consisting of several brothers, several sisters and the children of the latter. They lived in communal dwellings.

Specialists now generally believe that during the Paleolithic and Neolithic - 50-20 thousand years ago - the social status of women and men was equal, although it was previously believed that at first matriarchy dominated.

At first, neighboring clans and tribes exchanged what nature gave them: salt, rare stones, etc. Both whole communities and individuals exchanged gifts; This phenomenon is called gift exchange. One of its varieties was "silent exchange". Then the tribes of farmers, pastoralists and those who led the agricultural and pastoral economy stood out, and between the tribes with different economic orientations, and subsequently within the tribes, the exchange of products of their labor developed.

Some researchers believe that the tribes of hunters, who did not adopt an agrarian lifestyle, began to “hunt” the peasant communities, taking away food and property. This is how a dual system of producing rural communities and former hunters who plundered them formed. The leaders - the leaders of the hunters gradually moved from raiding robbery of peasants to regular regulated requisitions (tributes). Fortified cities were built for self-defense and protection of subjects from the raids of competitors. The last stage in the pre-state development of society was the so-called military democracy.

Power and social norms in primitive society

The emergence of religion

The primitive tribes did not have special clergymen; religious and magical rites were performed mainly by the heads of tribal groups on behalf of the whole family or by people who, by personal qualities, gained a reputation for knowing the methods of influencing the world of spirits and gods (healers, shamans, etc.). With the development of social differentiation, professional priests stand out, arrogating to themselves the exclusive right to communicate with spirits and gods.

see also

• Early history (protohistory)

Notes

Links

• Alekseev V.P., Pershits A.I. History of primitive society: Proc. for universities on special "Story". - M .: Higher. school, 1990

• "The transition from primitive to class society: ways and options for development." Part I