Chapter 2 From Hunting-Gathering to Growing Food
1. Complete the sentences:
(a) Hunter-gatherers chose to live in caves and rock shelters because ————————.
Answer - Hunter-gatherers chose to live in caves and rock shelters because these shelters saved them from heat, rain, wind and wild animals.
(b) Grasslands developed around ———————— years ago.
Answer - 12000
2. Why do people who grow crops have to stay in the same place for a long time?
Answer - When people began growing plants, it meant that they had to stay in the same place for a long time looking after the plants, watering, weeding, driving away animals and birds — till the grain ripened.
3. Why do archaeologists think that many people who lived in Mehrgarh were hunters to start with and that herding became more important later?
Answer - Mehrgarh is located in a fertile plain, near the Bolan Pass, which is one of the most important routes into Iran. Mehrgarh was probably one of the places where people learnt to grow barley and wheat, and rear sheep and goats for the first time in this area. It is one of the earliest villages that we know about. At this site many animal bones were found. Bones of wild animals such as the deer and pig, and also bones of sheep and goat were found.
4. Why did the hunter-gatherers travel from place to place? In what ways are these similar to/different from the reasons for which we travel today?
Answer - Hunter-gatherers moved from place to place. There are many reasons for this: -
(i) First, Hunter-gatherers moved from place to place in search of food.
(ii) Second, animals move from place to place in search of grass and leaves. That is why those who hunted them had to follow their movements.
(iii) Third, plants and trees bear fruit in different seasons. So, people may have moved from season to season in search of different kinds of plants.
(iv) Fourth, people, plants and animals need water to survive. Water is found in lakes, streams and rivers. So Hunter-gatherer moved place to pace in search of water during the dry seasons.
In present time we also travel from one place to another place for Education, Occupations, Trade, and Tourism etc. In this ways the movements of us is different from Hunter-gatherer.
5. List three ways in which hunter-gatherers used fire. Would you use fire for any of these purposes today?
Answer - Hunter-gatherers used fire for many things: as a source of light, to roast meat, and to scare away animals.
In present time we used the fire in cooking, lighting, generating electricity and in engines etc.
6. List three ways in which the lives of farmers and herders would have been different from that of hunter-gatherers.
Answer - The life of farmers and herders would have been different from that of hunter-gatherers in the following ways:
(i) Farmers and herders lived in group.
(ii) Farmers and herders lived settled life.
(iii) Farmers and herders lived in huts made up of mud and wood.
7. List the cereals that you eat. Do you grow the cereals you eat?
Answer – We are using Rice, Wheat, Barley, Jowar, Bajra, Maize etc. cereals for food in present time. These cereals grown in different parts of India.