DBQ Source Summaries: Farming vs. Foraging
WORLD HISTORY PROJECTORIGINS / LESSON2.5DBQ SOURCE SUMMARIES: FARMING VS. FORAGINGUnless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Credit: “DBQ Source Summaries: Farming vs. Foraging”, OER Project, https://www.oerproject.com/1Note to Teachers:Note to teachers: Below are summaries of the sources in DBQ Sources: Farming vs. Foraging. Theseare meant to provide you a quick understanding of the document types and content so you can decide which sources you want your students to use. You may choose to provide these summaries to your students as additional scaffolding.Source SummaryDocument 1 (Text)Source: “Farmers have less leisure time than hunter-gatherers, study suggests.” University of Cambridge Research, May 21, 2019. https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/farmers-have-less-leisure-time-than-hunter-gatherers-study-suggestsA group of anthropologists (people who study humans), did a study to find out how the shift from foraging to farming could affect people’s lives. They lived with the Agta, a group of hunter-gatherers in the Philippines. The study found that the more the Agta farmed, the less free time they had. This especially impacted women.Document 2 (Text)Source:Sahlins, Marshall. “Hunter-gatherers: insights from a golden affluent age.” Pacific Ecologist 18 (Winter 2009).This section of Marshall Sahlins' article discusses how hunter-gatherer societies in Australia and Africa, like the Bushmen and the Hazda, have lived and thrived without farming.Document 3 (Text)Source: Reilly, Kevin. The West and the World: A History of Civilization: From the Ancient World to 1700. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1997.Historian Kevin Reilly explains how farming changed life for people in ancient Mesopotamia. He explains that farming could feed large populations, and that some people could do work other than farming.Document 4 (Text)Source: Illing, Sean and James Scott. “Why a Leading Political Theorist Thinks Civilization is Overrated.” Vox, November 22, 2017. https://www.vox.com/conversations/2017/11/22/16649038/civilization-progress-humanity-history-technology. Political scientist James Scott argues that farming developed property and wealth, and also created inequalities that didn’t exist in hunter-gatherer societies
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT ORIGINS / LESSON2.5DBQ SOURCE SUMMARIES: FARMING VS. FORAGING2Source SummaryDocument 5 (Text)Source: deLong, Brad. “Agriculture is the Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race?:Today’s Economic History.” Equitable Growth (blog). June 6, 2016. https://equitablegrowth.org/agriculture-the-worst-mistake-in-the-history-of-the-human-race-todays-economic-history/. In this essay, economist Brad deLong shares some of the pros and cons of moving from foraging to farming. He does not come to a clear decision..Document 6 (Text)Source: Harari, Yuval Noah. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Harper Collins, 2015.Historian Yuval Noah Harari writes from the perspective of wheat. Using wheat as an example, he shows some of the negative impacts that large scale agricultural lifestyles have had on farmers.