Early Humans Unit: Neolithic Social Organization - Hierarchical or Egalitarian?

Essential Questions:  Who makes decisions in a society?  How are responsibilities, power and resources divided up and distributed?    

What will you know and be able to do?  You will understand that societies through time and space have had different ways of organizing the people within them, how people relate to each other within the society, and how important decisions are made.  One important way is an egalitarian structure (same root as "equal") and the other is hierarchical (Greek root hieros means "sacred;"  + arkhein "to lead, rule").

How will you show what you know?  You will turn in Reading Notes Graphic Organizer, the Quote Sandwich Graphic Organizer and a final "quote sandwich" paragraph with your claim, evidence and reasoning about whether the current US social structure is hierarchical or egalitarian.  You will also answer questions about the social structure of Neolithic society based on your reading.

Vocabulary:  egalitarian, heirarchical, patriarchy (patriarchal), matriarchy (matriarchal)

Introduction:

What form of social order or government did the people who lived from 8,000 to 3,000 B.C.E. live under? Hierarchical societies or societies with "rulers set apart from others," are typically organized so that some people have more power than others. The more powerful people usually have more wealth and a higher social status (rank) than others in the society. Often these societies are viewed in a pyramid formation, with the largest masses of people in the bottom rung, and the ruler at the top.  By contrast, egalitarian - or "equal" - societies are societies in which people share power and wealth. People often work together and share the rewards of their work.

Step 1: Preview - Social Organization in the Neolithic Period - Look at the PowerPoint pictures and learn how scholars make inferences from these figures about the social structure of the cultures who created them (there are notes about the pictures in the PowerPoint). 

Step 2: Article - Read the text of the article Social Organization in the Neolithic Period.  As you read, find the main idea and supporting details of each paragraph.  Annotate the reading with insights, questions, and connections. 

Step 3: Quote Sandwich Prompt - How will historians classify the United States many years from now?

Step 4: Brainstorm Notes - Re-read the entire article and complete the Note-Taking Graphic Organizer by re-reading through the article to find characteristics/topics and back them up with quotes and examples from the text. For example: 

Step 5: Quote Sandwich - Complete the Quote Sandwich Graphic Organizer .  Check your work against the Rubric.  Write your final quote sandwich on a separate sheet of lined paper, in ink.  Here  is an example from a student at another school.  

Step 6:  Comprehension Questions - Answer in complete sentences on a separate piece of paper, in ink.

1. What are the basic differences between an hierarchy and an egalitarian society? Provide examples.

2.  What evidence do archeologists and other scholars have to determine which type of society existed in Neolithic times?

3. Were Neolithic societies patriarchical or matriarchical? What do the scholars have to say about this?