World history question!?

Question

This is my assignment:

Compare and contrast the social and economic structures of "foraging societies" (hunters and gatherers) of the Paleolithic Age with that of urbanized societies. Desribe how the role of women in each of these societies and how that role changed and why. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of one society type compared to the other.

my textbook is no help what so ever and i have no knowledge of world history at all. help is greatly appreciated :] thanks!

Answer 1

I took that class last year and I remember that in the Paleolithic age men hunted animals and women gathered berries and stuff if that's any help.

Answer 2

ask yourself what you would have to do to ensure your family would survive back then; and compare it to how mothers help their families survive now. Ask yourself how you would survive in a forest if you had to care for a child and you and that child were the only person on earth; what would you eat, how would you keep warm, and what you would have to do to on a daily basis to maintain the things you needed in your cave/hut/cabin/cottage in the woods. Make a list of how you would spend your day gathering the necessities you needed to survive, and what you would have to do to make those things ready for use. for example, you'd have to start a fire after you gathered the wood, so you could cook the fish you caught. You're probably pretty aware of how food is obtained and prepared nowadays; and where clothing comes from now, so thats the easy part. What did it take for those things to become available to you? compare how the materials necessary for clothing, and the way food was obtained and prepared back then to how it is done now. . . . knowing how you would obtain those things should allow you to imagine how you would have spent the day back then. Also consider that you might stay in the same place, but you might follow a herd of animals to ensure a constant supply of food. While the men might share in some of the daily chores, they would probably spend a large amount oif time hunting animals and doing the stuff that women were not expected to do. So, you also need to imagine what things you could expect a man to do, and what things a woman would be expected to do. Then compare the lives of women back then to a modern woman's life. After you've outlined your essay, summarize what you have written by stating the benefits and disadvantages of each period of time.

Introduction/brief history that leads to a topic sentence

compare and contrast the social standings then and now that surround food, clothing, and shelter

compare and contrast then and now how money (or at least what you would use as money) >>>> [TRADE/BARTER would affect obtaining your food, clothing, and shelter

conclude by summarizing the advantages and disadvantages of one society type compared to the other

Answer 3

Well I don't have a historical context, but just working with what I do know...

Men were the hunters and women were the gatherers. Even back in the day men were socially expected to be hypermasculine - bringing back a huge dead [fill in the blank] for dinner was probably ceremonial. Women were also expected to conform to hyperfeminine roles to balance their masculine counterparts. Women were probably (I am making assumptions here, so try to use your book to verify anything like this) responsible for the home and children while the men were out hunting. Women were probably responsible for the preparation of the food (though potentially not the more gruesome aspects of skinning and whatnot).

Today in urbanized societies (interesting distinction by the way - is the assignment implying that urban societies are more progressive and rural societies are more likely to reflect hunter/father structures?) the hypermasculine and hyperfeminine roles are blurring. Women can break out of the "woman" role and men can do the same. Now we have stay-at-home dads and CEO moms. The social structure still has "role" implications meaning there's still some expectation (and general stereotypes) that women aren't as likely to be in traditionally masculine roles and vise versa.

I'm not sure how to approach the economic structure. You could argue that men were the "bread winners" meaning they were responsible for providing for the family. Today, women reportedly earn less money to the dollar than men meaning that men are still at least implicitly expected to be the breadwinners and provide for their families today too. I'm not much of an economics person, though so that's the only take I have on that.

Basically, you could argue that while social roles have progressed, economic ones haven't. Or that both have progressed, but generally speaking there is still a common attitude/belief that the traditional roles and values (Paleolithic) are "right" or better.

Surely you can handle the advantages and disadvantages. :)

Good luck!