Join the Neolithic Revolution Advertisement

The Neolithic Revolution – also known as the Agricultural Revolution – was the wide-scale transition of many human societies from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to one of agriculture and settlement, making an increasingly larger population possible. These settled communities permitted humans to observe and experiment with growing plants. This new knowledge led to the domestication of plants.

The Neolithic Revolution involved far more than the adoption of a limited set of food-producing techniques. During the next millennia it would transform the small and mobile groups of hunter-gatherers that had hitherto dominated human pre-history into sedentary (non-nomadic) societies based in built-up villages and towns. These societies radically modified their natural environment by means of specialized food-crop cultivation, with activities such as irrigation and deforestation which allowed the production of surplus food. Other developments found very widely are the domestication of animals, pottery, polished stone tools, and rectangular houses.

These developments, sometimes called the Neolithic package, provided the basis for centralized administrations and political structures, hierarchical ideologies, writing, cities, specialization and division of labor, more trade, the development of non-portable art and architecture, and property ownership.

ACTIVITY – Join the Neolithic Revolution Advertisement

Create an advertisement urging human beings to settle down and join the Neolithic Revolution.  Your ad should be artistic, creative, and appealing, but should also communicate the key changes/benefits that an agriculturally-based lifestyle will bring to those who adopt it – using at least 3/4 of the vocab words found in your textbook.

You must also utilize at least two of the following – the seven most common techniques of persuasion used in advertising:

  • Testimonial – a story from someone, usually famous, who has used the product
  • Glittering Generalities – words that cannot really be measured, like “great”
  • Transfer – using this product will make you “cool” or “attractive”
  • Plain Folks – a common person who can understand and empathize with a listener’s concerns.
  • Bandwagon – everybody’s doing it, you’re being left behind
  • Name Calling – bashing the competition
  • Card Stacking – shows the product’s best features, tells half truths, omits potential problems.

Think of something like —

NeolithicRevolution

The Dead of Antietam: Photography in the Civil War


This lesson can be used with The United States: An Open Ended History, a free online textbook.  Adapted in part from open sources.

Mathew B. Brady (May 18, 1822 – January 15, 1896) was one of the earliest photographers in American history, best known for his scenes of the Civil War.

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Awards for “The Dubai Mall” Lesson at Openendedsocialstudies.org

The University of Arizona Center for Middle Eastern Studies has recognized the Openendedsocialstudies lesson The Dubai Mall, Sharia Law, and Social Norms as part of its annual lesson plan competition.  The lesson is adaptable for use in both middle school and high school classrooms, and uses the rules and code of conduct posted at this fabulous mall’s entrance to introduce students to norms of the Arab world.

How and why do social norms and laws in Muslim majority countries differ from those in countries like the United States?  Would students still want to visit greatest mall in the world if it meant following a different set of rules than they’re used to?

Check out our ever growing (and always free!) set of lessons, resources, and activities covering the Middle East.

 

Charles C. Mann on the European Conquest of the Americas

“Cultures are like books, the anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss once remarked, each a volume in the great library of humankind. In the sixteenth century, more books were burned than ever before or since. How many Homers vanished? How many Hesiods? What great works of painting, sculpture, architecture, and music vanished or never were created? Languages, prayers, dreams, habits, and hopes—all gone. And not just once, but over and over again. In our antibiotic era, how can we imagine what it means to have entire ways of life hiss away like steam? How can one assay the total impact of the unprecedented calamity that gave rise to the world we live in? It seems important to try.” – Charles C. Mann, author of 1491.

Openendsocialstudies.org is bringing the remnants of these vibrant cultures to life in your classroom – check out our library of free readings, lessons, and activities on precolumbian American civilizations.

 

Stateless Peoples in Lands Far from Home

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Trading Card Propaganda: Winning Over the Children of the Revolution

This lesson was reported from:

Adapted in part from open sources.

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The Dubai Mall, Sharia Law, and Social Norms: No Short-Shorts, No PDA

This lesson was reported from:

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