Paleolithic Social Changes

Everything changes with time, some of it for the greater good and some of it not, even with lots of change however some roots never get lost. Politics from the years 8000 BCE to 600 CE changed through ruling styles, like from simple tribal elders to emperors and kings as society became more complex, yet many political standards after the paleolithic age remained constant, such as a complex government ,written law, and trade, by the neolithic era due to the need of them. Lastly the social aspect of the peoples lives from the paleolithic age to the classical age had changes in equality of genders with the start of farming, but on the other hand had quite a few constants in the neolithic to classical eras such as a patriarchy, social classes,

In the paleolithic era people were in small tribes of 20 to 50 people, most likely related. At this time around 8000 BCE the division of labor between man and woman were equal, the men hunted and the women gathered.They both relied on each other for a food source so there was no inequality among them. The neolithic age brought change to the social aspect of those peoples lives. With the dawn of agriculture women immediately lost much of their equality, because the men took over the essential jobs like farming and livestock tending leaving the women with comfort jobs of cooking and taking care of the babies. For example look at Mesopotamia, once farming started their women were bound to house chores because the men were tending the fields. With the men taking over the essential jobs making them the reason why they survive a patriarchy developed where the man rules the house and men can hold high up political offices and women can’t, making men the center of attention because they are ruling and supporting the lives of the women and children. Like in China under the Shang Dynasty male children were preferred and women were hardly seen outside of their home unless they were peasants. Social classes or ones rank in society popped up too

The Neolithic age was a time of great change when new ideas and ways of living appeared with farming, government, and the rich and the poor. The classical era was a time for the fine tuning of the ideas discovered in the neolithic era and trying more sophisticated ideas like a republic and democracy. Even through all this change and evolution one key way of living remains consistent and that is the nomadic way of life, many people never settled down because farming was slow and hard and the nomadic hunter gathers actually ended up having more free time than the urban life. Nomadism was how humans started off and we still have nomads to this