Comparative Analysis: What did all Paleolithic peoples share in common, and what differences subdivided them?

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For much of the period,Paleolithic societies shared a number of important features,including life in bands of twenty-five to fifty people,a gathering and hunting lifestyle,a mobile lifestyle,a relatively egalitarian social structure,and relatively equal gender relations.

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Population density was low,and the population grew slowly.

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Relationships were understood in kinship terms.

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There were no formal chiefs,kings,bureaucrats,soldiers,nobles,or priests.

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Rituals,particularly those associated with burial,were important.

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Some societies were monotheistic;others believed in various spirits.

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Religion had a strong feminine dimension (Venus figurines,Great Goddess).

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Many subscribed to a cyclical view of time.

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However,varied environments and food supplies did create differences between groups that became increasingly pronounced as humankind spread around the globe.For instance,the spread of humans into the Pacific islands required the development of seaworthy canoe technologies that other Paleolithic groups did not develop,and the cold weather in parts of Eastern Europe,along with the lack of caves,spurred the development of multilayered clothing and partially underground dwellings constructed from the bones and tusks of mammoths.

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Another key differentiation occurred between 16,000 and 10,000 years ago,after the end of the last Ice Age.As plants and animals thrived,making a larger and more secure food source,some Paleolithic groups were able to settle down in more permanent settlements or villages.others continued their nomadic existences.Those societies that settled down became larger and more complex.Settlement also meant that households could store and accumulate goods to a greater degree than their nomadic ancestors.This accumulation of goods led to inequality and a wearing away of the egalitarianism found in more nomadic Paleolithic communities.

Comparative Analysis: What Did All Paleolithic Peoples Share in Common