Early Humans
Driving Question: What caused some humans to shift from foraging to farming and what were the effects of this change?
For hundreds of thousands of years, our species lived as foragers. Then, about 12,000 years ago, some foragers started to experiment with farming, kicking off the Neolithic Revolution and setting the stage for huge transformations.
Learning Objective
- Evaluate the positive and negative effects of the transition to agriculture.
Early humans lived very different lives from us—how did that impact what they ate?
Each unit of the course begins with an overview video like this one. These videos introduce students to the main narratives and themes of each unit. Each begins with a quick anecdote or source from history that helps connect them to the historical events and processes in the unit.
Humans tend to stick with what works. That was most certainly true of our ancestors, who, for a long time, were foragers. But as some groups started farming, things started to change very quickly.
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Guiding Questions
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Before you watch
Preview the questions below, and then review the transcript.
While you watch
Look for answers to these questions:
- How did young people in the Paleolithic Southwest spend their free time?
- What does Paleolithic mean?
- What does Neolithic mean?
- What were the big changes in human societies that started farming? What changes were specific to the Sinagua?
- Why did Sinagua youths stop making figurines?
After you watch
Respond to this question: According to evidence in this video, was farming was positive or negative for human societies?
Now is a great time to correct a few misconceptions your students might have: Not everyone transitioned to farming as soon as it became available. Many communities purposely avoided it, retreating into the hills and wildlands away from the lure of the plow and seed. Many agricultural communities continued to rely on foraging to supplement their farming, either by doing it themselves or by trading with foragers. In some places and for some people—such as the Hadzabe in Tanzania and Inuit communities in the Arctic—foraging remains a way of life today.
Some scholars have argued that farming actually made life worse for humans. Foragers had more leisure time, less conflict, and their societies were more equal. That doesn’t mean that we should abandon penicillin and the internet, but farming took a while to pay off. Early farmers suffered from diseases and social problems their foraging forebears never had.
The shift to farming was an important change, and not without consequences. In this article and activity, you’ll examine the bumpy road from foraging to farming.
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Guiding Questions
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Before you read
Preview the questions below, and then skim the article. Be sure to look at the section headings and any images.
While you read
Look for answers to these questions:
- What is one theory that could show that farming began unintentionally?
- How did the rise of fixed farming communities change what people’s daily work looked like?
- How did the rise of villages both expand and shrink networks?
- What were the benefits and drawbacks of foraging as a system of production and distribution?
- What were the benefits and drawbacks of farming as a system of production and distribution?
After you read
Respond to this question: Given the evidence in this article, would you have preferred to have been a farmer or a forager?
Historians suggest that the advent of farming led to the creation of states. You’ll examine the seeds of this argument in this video on farming and the state.
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Guiding Questions
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Before you watch
Preview the questions below, and then review the transcript.
While you watch
Look for answers to these questions:
- What do Candice Goucher and Laura Mitchell think about the argument that farming was a precondition for the state?
- What evidence do Goucher and Trevor Getz provide as a counterargument to the claim that grain farming, in particular, led to states?
- What does Mitchell say about the connection between labor and the state?
- Given the added labor and tax burden, do Goucher and Mitchell think the state was a good idea?
- According to Goucher, is there still a connection between farming and the state today?
After you watch
Respond to these questions: Do you think some foraging communities could also be called states? What conditions might foragers need in order to develop things like specialization of labor or social hierarchies?
Marketing 201: Agricultural Influencers:
- Using evidence and storyboard directions from the Marketing 101 activity, prompt AI to create an advertising poster that takes a side on the foraging vs. farming debate.
- Then, students complete at least three iterations of the poster, refining prompts as they go and improving the final product.
- Wrap-up discussion debrief: Students use AI as a judge of the posters, instructing it to select the ones it deems most convincing. What choices did it make? Does the class agree? How does the AI evaluate claims differently than humans would?
How this helps: Students use art and historical evidence to craft a claim. The process of refining the prompt will deepen their understanding of the changes that accompanied the transition to agriculture.
History is filled with choices: isolationism vs. internationalism, modernists vs. traditionalists, war vs. peace. You’ll face a choice of your own in this activity: foraging or farming?
