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Foraging Societies

Driving Question: How did foragers build and maintain their communities?

Foraging—sometimes called hunting and gathering—required a great deal of knowledge and skill. This lesson explores the communities and networks that helped foragers thrive for hundreds of thousands of years.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Understand the characteristics of foraging communities.
  2. Investigate how historians can develop understandings of early human cultures.
  3. Evaluate the importance of language development for early human societies.

Vocab Terms:

  • culture
  • egalitarian
  • forager
  • migration
  • nomadic
  • sedentism
  • symbolic
STEP 1

Opener: Foraging Societies

Ever been stumped by a question? Sometimes it’s less about not knowing the answer to the question than it is about understanding the question in the first place!

STEP 2

The Life of a Forager

Teaching Tools

OER Project teachers love the Foraging Simulation. Learn about how other teachers plan and execute this activity here External link .

STEP 3

Hunter-Gatherer Societies

Teaching Tools

The OER Project Writing Guide gives a detailed explanation of the importance of student writing in our courses.

Did you know that people who live in cities still hunt and forage? Although foraging isn’t as common as it was back in the days of early humans, the skill may be a necessary one, depending on the availability of resources to a community.

STEP 4

Language

Teaching Tools

This fan-favorite activity is the brainchild of an OER Project teacher. Learn more about classroom implementation here External link .

Humans’ ability to communicate through symbolic language is necessary for collective learning, and it helped our species grow and expand across the globe.

STEP 5

Closer: Foraging Societies

Teaching Tools

Informal writing is a mainstay of our courses. Learn why in this overview.

Extension Materials
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Use this article to dig deeper into how the development of language helped early human communities survive and thrive.
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Language Networks

Have you ever wondered about the origins of our modern notions of communication? How did we develop our language and social skills? What do they mean for our survival?

Language Networks and Social Life External link

Our ancestors shared ideas and experiences through language networks. These were the first human networks, and they still connect us and affect who we are today.

Key Ideas

As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.