SPICE Intro

SPICE Themes

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The five themes serve as unifying threads through
which students can examine broader themes
throughout each period.

Use the acronym - SPICE - to help them remember
the five areas of analysis:

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Social;

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Political;

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Interactions between humans and the environment
(technology);

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Cultural;

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Economic.

Theme 1: Social

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Development and transformation of social structures

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Gender roles, family and kinship, race/ethnicity, social classes

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Relationships among human beings. All human societies
develop ways of grouping their members, as well as norms that
govern interactions between individuals and social groups

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Social stratification based on kinship systems, ethnic
associations, and hierarchies of gender , race, wealth, and class

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World History requires analysis of the processes through which
social categories, roles and practices were created, maintained
and transformed

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Involved analysis of the connections between changes in social
structures and other historical shifts, esp. trends in political
economy, cultural expression, and human ecology

Theme 2: Political

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State-building, expansion and conflict

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Political structures, forms of governance,
Empires, Nations/nationalism,
Revolts/revolutions

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Refers to the processes by which hierarchical
systems of rule have been constructed and
maintained and to the conflicts generated
through those processes

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Theme encourages the comparative study of
different state forms (kingdoms, empires,
nation-states) across time and space, and the
interaction among them

Theme 2: Political (cont)

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Continuity and change are also embedded in
this theme through attention to the
organizational and cultural foundations of
long-term stability vs. internal and external
causes of conflict

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Examine and compare various forms of state
development and expansion in various
productive strategies (agrarian, pastoral,
mercantile), various cultural and ideological
foundations (religion, philosophies, ideas of
nationalism, various social and gender
structures, and in different environmental
contexts.

Theme 2: Political (cont)

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Discusses different types of states, such as
autocracies and constitutional democracies

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Encourages students to explore interstate
relations, including warfare, diplomacy,
commercial and cultural exchange, and the
formation of international organizations

Theme 3: Interaction

Between Humans and the

Environment

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Demography, disease, migration, patterns of settlement,
technology

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Fundamental theme for world history

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Environment shaped human societies, but, increasingly, human
societies also affected the environment

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During prehistory, humans interacted with the environment as
hunters, fishers, and foragers

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As the Neolithic revolution began, humans exploited their
environments either as farmers of pastoralists

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Environmental factors such as rainfall patterns, climate and
vegetation shaped the methods and exploitation used in
different regions

Theme 3: Interaction Between
Humans and the Environment

(cont)

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Exploitation of the environment intensified as
populations grew

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As people flocked into cities or established trade
networks, new diseases emerged and spread

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In recent centuries, human effects on the
environment – and the ability to master and
exploit it – increased with the development of
more sophisticated technologies, the exploitation
of new energy sources and a rapid increase in
human population

Theme 4: Cultural

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Cultural Development and interaction of cultures

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Religions, belief systems, philosophies,
ideologies, science/technology, arts and
architecture

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Explores the origins, uses, dissemination, and
adaptation of ideas, beliefs, and knowledge within
and between societies

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When people of different societies interact, the
often share components of the cultures,
deliberately or not. The process of adopting or
adapting new belief and knowledge systems are
complex and often lead to historically novel
cultural blends

Theme 4: Cultural (cont)

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A society's culture may be investigated and
compared with other societies' cultures as a
way to reveal both what is unique to a culture
and what is shares with other cultures.

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It is also possible to analyze and trace
particular cultural trends or ideas across
human societies

Theme 5: Economic

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Creation, expansions and interactions of
economic systems

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Agriculture, Pastoral production, Trade and
commerce, Labor systems, Industrialization,
Capitalism/Socialism

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Surveys the diverse patterns and systems
that human societies have developed as they
exploit their environments to produce,
distribute, and consume desired goods and
services across time and space

Theme 5: Economic (cont)

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It stresses major transitions in human economic
activity

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The development of various labor systems
associated with these economic systems and the
ideologies, values, and institutions (such as
capitalism and socialism) that sustained them.

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Calls attention to patterns of trade and commerce
between various societies, with particular
attention to the relationship between regional and
global networks of communication and exchange,
and their effects on economic growth and
decline

S.P.I.C.E.

Credit: Bill Zeigler, PDSI Summer Institute