Where can I see a DECENT website that tells me the political structure in Paleolithic age?

Question

ok I know this is a wrong question, but I was so fed up with my teacher blabbing about it and not even bothering to write terms on the blackboard. The prof mentioned very complicated words and apparently, he described a somewhat structure (like leader, shaman???)

PS, I know there's no political structure, but that teacher mentioned that there was and I was SHOCKED!

Answer 1

> PS, I know there's no political structure, but that teacher mentioned that there was and I was SHOCKED!

You're sure? I've had a look at "Standards, GRADE 6, World History and Geography: Ancient Civilizations", and there they speak of "the hunter-gatherer societies and their characteristics". Only later on, when it's about Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Kush, do they speak of "geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures ".

http://csmp.ucop.edu/cisp/standards/grade6.html

Not a website, but a good article :

"Basic dynamics of classic tribes", David F. Ronfeldt , First Monday : http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue10_3/ronfeldt/#r1

Answer 2

I am a Prof and I think your prof was talking about early man and the political environment of Australopithecus. It has been theorized that early man was political in regards to shared grooming, hierarchy or the groups, and territorial grounds.

It is true that scientist believe that there were unwritten political environments before the inauguration of written systems.
Just remembered somethings, The Paleolithic age is divided into Upper, Middle, and Lower ages.

many times scientist refer to this age as the stone age. However, if you relate it to the stone age more periods are combined , Mesolithic, neolithic>

furthermore, Scientist have concluded that these groups of people all the way to the bronze age did have a political structure that governed life after death rituals, burials, the gathering of food, even family structure. These conclusions have been made from, archaeological sites, cave paintings, and skeletal remains.

www.infoplease.com/dictionary/Paleolithic.com

archaeology.about.com/od/pathroughpd/g/paleolithic.htm

Most of you are misunderstanding the meaning of Political. It means omore than a structured governemnt.

Answer 3

There was no record of political structure during the paleolithic age. Sorry. Recorded history begins after this age.

Answer 4

Since the stone age was pre-written history, you will only find speculation and educated inferences on what the political structure was like. We can assume that any "political" structure was tribe-based, using native American tribes as a general model (since their political structure remained unchanged for an extremely long period in history).

Answer 5

You're lucky you didn't find one. If you had, it would be a sham. There were no politics in the stone age. It was small clans, drawn together by basic subsistence needs, living as "hunter gatherers" in caves or primitive structures. It was "survival of the fittest" exemplified and that's about the extent of their "political structure".

Answer 6

The paleolithic age pre-dates the concept of politics so I'm not sure you are going to find what you are looking for. Perhaps this will help:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic

Answer 7

try an advanced search on your search engine, narrowing the domains to .edu or .gov--these will be the most reliable.

I've lost faith in .org since Wikipedia is a .org domain--wikipedia is terribly unreliable.

.com will also be very unreliable.

Hopefully you can get some more information from a .edu or .gov search.

Good luck!

Answer 8

If you are a religious conservative, you don't believe in the Paleolithic age, and if not then there was no set structure.