Study Terms and Test Guide
World to 1500 (Fall 2012)
These terms will be an important component of our daily discussions. They will also, perhaps more importantly, be the list from which the tests are drawn. Not all of the terms are covered in the textbook: some will be dealt with only in lecture.
Each test will present 12-15 terms from the appropriate chapters, from which you will select 10 terms on which to write answers. You will have to answer at least 1 or 2 terms from each chapter covered by the test (look closely at the test: it will tell you whether 1 or 2 terms is required; as a general rule of thumb, chapters with longer lists of terms will require 2).
The answers I’m looking for have three important components:
- Definition: Basic information about what the person did or what the event involved or what the term means.
- Context: What country or region, what time period does this fit into? What else is happening around this term that’s important to know? What other people or events or concepts play a role?
- Significance: Why is this an important person or event or concept? What does this change about the world, and what comes after this that couldn’t have happened without it?
Definition alone, which is what you get if you memorize a sentence or two from the text (don’t even bother with the glossary definitions: they are usually inadequate, and often don’t cover the right material), gets you up to about a C, maybe. Context or Significance gets you to B-range. You need all three to make an A-quality answer. (All of this assumes that you’re getting it right, of course.) You can most of that from the textbook, if you read it carefully, but it’s a lot easier if you listen to the lectures, too; however, some terms, mostly historical terminology, will not be in the textbook at all, because I am planning to discuss them in lecture. Your answer need not be limited to the material in a single chapter: many names and terms and processes will appear in multiple chapters. Not all the terms will be discussed directly in lecture, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t connections to be made.
Test 1 (9/12)
Chap. 1bronze cities domestication Neolithic Revolution pastoralism tools Chap. 2 animism |
Chap. 3Aryan Harappa & Mohenjo Daro Mandate of Heaven Shang varnas Vedas Chap. 4 Confucius |
Test 2 (10/8)
Chap. 5 Alexander the Great Athens drama Funeral Oration of Pericles Melian Dialogue Peloponnesian War philosophy Royal Road Zoroastrianism Chap. 6 Brahman |
Chap. 7 Augustus Caesar Carthage Cicero Colosseum Gospels Jesus of Nazareth mystery religions plebians Senate Stoics syncretic |
Test 3 (10/24)
Chap. 9 Axum Bantu Germans Ghana maori migration pastoral nomads Polynesians taboo Yamato Chap. 10 Attila the Hun |
Chap. 11 Abbasids dhimmi Five Pillars jihad Mecca Muhammad Omar Khayyam Qur’an Shi’a Sunni Surahs 1 and 2 Thousand And One Nights Umayyads |
Test 4 (11/12)
Chap. 12 Bhakti Crusades Delhi Sultanate dhows Harun al-Rashid Seljuk Turks Sufi Chap. 13 Ethiopia |
Chap. 14 Crusades Cyril icons Justinian Kievan Rus’ schism Chap. 15 Charlemagne |
Test 5 (12/7)
Chap. 8 and Chap. 16 Anasazi Aztecs Cahokia Incas maize Maya Olmec Toltec Chap. 17 bureaucracy |
Chap. 18 samurai Shoguns Shotoku’s 17 Article Constitution Silla Sinification Tale of Genji Trinh and Nguyen Chap. 19 Chinggis Khan Chap. 20 Black Death |