Making Claims: Farming
OER PROJECT: BIG HISTORY/ LESSON 5.2 CLOSER MAKING CLAIMS: FARMING1Unless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Credit: “Making Claims: Farming,” OER Project, https://www.oerproject.com/PurposeEvaluating claims made in secondary sources helps hone your sourcing skills and deepens your content knowledge. Process1.Circlethe claim below that you agree with most. ●Farming and the creation of cities and civilizations led to mostly negative outcomes.●Farming and the creation of cities and civilizations led to mostly positive outcomes.2.Use evidence from the secondary sources below to complete the table for the claim you chose.Source 1Source 2“Civilized life is secure life. Plans can be made. People can be expected to act according to the rules. In the first cities, there were more races and ethnic groups speaking more languages, engaged in more jobs, and living a greater variety of lifestyles.Security plus variety equals creativity. The possibility of a more creative, expressive life was available in the protected city enclosures.”Citation: Kevin Reilly, The West and the World: A History of Civilization: From the Ancient World to 1700(Markus Wiener Publishers, 1991). Source has been lightly edited for younger readers.“Staying in one place wasn’t all that healthy for us. Our human ancestors resisted it strongly for a very long time. Once we had agriculture, we had inherited property and thus the basis for passing wealth from one generation to another. This wasn’t true for hunter and gatherer societies, which shared property with the tribe. So early agricultural societies created the basis for the class distinctions, massive hierarchies, and inequalities we see today.”Citation: James Scott, “Why a Leading Political Theorist Thinks Civilization Is Overrated,” Vox interview with Sean Illing, November 22, 2017.Source has been lightly edited for younger readers.
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / LESSON 5.2 ACTIVITY MAKING CLAIMS: FARMING2Claim you chose: Find twopieces of evidence from one of the secondary sources that supportsthe claim.1.2.Find two pieces of evidence from one of the secondary sources that argues against the claim.1.2.Write a four-or five-sentence response using the evidence you found that answers this prompt: Was farming and the creation of civilizations an overall positive innovation for humans?