Deck 6: B: Commonalities and Variations Africa, the Americas, and Pacific Oceania

Question 1

What evidence do scholars rely on to learn about people who left behind no written record?

Answer 1

•Artifacts,pottery,tools
•Buildings (temples,monuments,houses)
•Burial sites (mounds)
•Linguistic similarities between different societies in a region
•Changes to geographical landscape (terraced hillsides)

Question 2

What are the major ways in which contact with Eurasia influenced the development of African civilizations?

Answer 2

•The introduction of new foods (wheat,olives,coconut,sugarcane,bananas)
•The introduction of Christianity (and later Islam)
•The introduction of domesticated camels,sheep,goats,chickens,and horses
•International trade

Question 3

What factors contributed to the development of civilization in the Niger Valley?

Answer 3

•The migration of Saharan peoples to the region because of a prolonged drought
•The presence of fertile,well-watered land for agriculture
•A network of West African trade

Question 4

How did geography and environment shape the rise and fall of civilizations and cultures in Africa and the Americas?

Question 5

What were the major contributions of the Bantu-speaking peoples to African history and culture?

Question 6

What were the key features of religious life in Pacific Oceania?

Question 7

Although Bantu Africa,the Ancestral Pueblo,and the Mound Builders are usually not regarded as civilizations,what features did they exhibit that suggest the existence of complex societies?

Question 8

What were the fundamental differences between the development of civilizations in the Americas and the development of civilizations elsewhere?