Ancient Lineage-Based Cultures

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Ancient Lineage-Based Cultures
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Ancient Lineage-Based Cultures

• Ancient lineage-based cultures are pre-history.
• That is, they are cultures before the recorded
  word.
• Usually split into five distinct (but related)
  areas of study
• Europe
• Native American Cultures
• African Cultures
• Egyptian Cultures
• The Fertile Crescent

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Europe

• Most important historical discovery is the Cave
  of Lascaux, which used pictographs
• PictographsPictures that tell a story without
  words
• Pictographs from the Cave of Lascaux use stylized
  drawings of the natural words and dyes made from
  the natural world.

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Cave of Lascaux

• Notice the stylized versions of buffalo and the
  blood from the hunt.

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Cave of Lascaux
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The Fertile Crescent

• Most notable for their use of cuneiform or
  ideogram language
• Ideograms Words that are formed from pictures or
  symbols, rather than an accepted alphabet.
• Mesopotamia created the first epic hero,
  Gilgamesh
• The Epic of Gilgamesh tells of a culture that is
  polytheistic and seeks to understand the nature
  of death.
• First uniform code of conduct
• The Code of Hammurabi explains laws, rules, and
  regulations within Mesopotamian society.

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Examples of Sumerian Cuneiform
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Native Americans

• Native Americans tenet of Use everything, and
  everything has a purpose explains the focus of
  all culture
• Most notable art is applied, ceremonial, and
  often narrative.
• Belief in pattern of life seen in focus on
  patterns in art.

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Native American Art

• Native Americans revered nature and practiced a
  type of animalism
• AnimalismThe belief that animals can guide and
  influence humanity with their own often magical
  nature.
• Often, totems depicted a mix of man and animal
  together

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Native American Art

• Notice again the use of natural colors and dyes
  in the blanket, an applied piece of art.
• Applied art, remember, is art that is used.

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Native American Art

• Again, the applied art of the tepee.
• Notice the earth tones and the patterns on the
  tepee.

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Egypt

• Egypt Mummies
• The pyramids of Giza
• The largest and best-known is the Great Pyramid,
  or the Pyramid of Khufu.
• Covered in hieroglyphs
• The Book of the Dead

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The Great Pyramid
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Egyptian Hieroglyphs

• Egyptians wrote in hieroglyphs, a mixture of
  cuneiform and pictographs.
• Some accepted pictographs of Egyptian descent

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Hieroglyph Examples
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Hieroglyph Examples
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Hieroglyph Examples
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African Culture

• Call and response music
• Drum as primary instrument, aside from voice
• A speaker or lead singer would sing chorus, then
  all would repeat together.
• Call and response is the basis for all popular
  music today and the primary reason we have
  choruses in our songs.
• Like Native Americans, they practiced a form of
  Animalism

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African Animal Masks

• Usually made out of wood or another natural
  resource and focused on the spirit of an animal
• Would be used in ceremonial dances asking for a
  gift from the animal gods.