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The Agricultural Revolution
Driving Question: Why did the Agricultural Revolution begin?
Not all revolutions are instantaneous. Some take thousands of years to play out. In this lesson, you will explore the revolutionary transition from foraging to agriculture, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of such a transition. The slow beginnings of species domestication, the development of agriculture, and the establishment of settled communities laid the foundation for the first agricultural societies and marked a major shift in human history.
- Understand the Agricultural (Neolithic) Revolution and consider how revolutionary farming was for early humans.
- Identify the characteristics of farming communities and understand why humans began to switch from foraging to farming.
- Learn about the historical thinking skill of comparison and how to apply this concept to historical thinking and analysis.
- Use a graphic biography as a microhistory to support, extend, or challenge the overarching narratives of this time period.
The Agricultural Revolution: Crash Course World History #1
The Agricultural Revolution is widely considered to be a key turning point in human history. It gave us cheeseburgers, but was it good for us? Can we even call it a revolution?
Key Ideas
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Guiding Questions
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Before you watch
Before you watch the video, it’s a good idea to open and skim the video transcript. And always read the questions below so you know what to look and listen for as you watch!
While you watch
- Where did early humans tend to settle and why? Can you think of an example of how this affects humans today?
- What evidence do we have that foragers “had it pretty good”?
- What are some advantages and disadvantages of agriculture? (Hint! You may want to make a T-chart here to list these as John Green will jump back and forth.)
- John Green tells you there is evidence that more than 13,000 years ago, humans in Southern Greece domesticated snails. What claim is this evidence meant to support?
- What are some of the negative consequences of agriculture?
After you watch
- Do you think that the Agricultural Revolution was a positive or negative change? Defend your claim with evidence from this video and from your own experience.
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Guiding Questions
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Note: For more detailed directions on completing the three close reads below, refer to the Three Close Reads for Graphic Bios – Introduction activity.
Observe
Skim the full comic, paying attention to things like prominent colors, shapes, and types of text and fonts. How do you know where to start and which direction to read? What’s in the gutters (the space between panels)? Who is the focus of the comic? What big questions do you have?
Understand
- How did Khunanup make his living and provide for his family?
- What happened during Khunanup’s trip that eventually led him to appeal to the Pharaoh?
- How was Khunanup described by the Pharaoh and by himself? Do you think this had any effect on the outcome of Khunanup’s case?
- In what ways could Khunanup be considered a poor man? In what ways could he be considered a rich man?
- How does the artwork support the idea that Khunanup was a poor man? Conversely, how might the artwork support the idea that Khunanup could also be considered a wealthy man?
Connect
- Khunanup’s story is one of the earliest written sources we have of the life of farmers in the ancient world. What evidence does this story present as to what the consequences were of the shift to farming? What evidence does this story present about the consequences of the shift to farming?
- Do you think Khunanup chose to travel to the city to sell his goods because he wanted to, or do you think he was forced to leave his farm and try to sell his possessions because of drought? What does your answer tell you about the quality of life for early farmers?
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Guiding Questions
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Note: For more detailed directions on completing the three close reads below, refer to the Three Close Reads – Introduction activity.
Skim
Before you read, you should quickly skim the article, by looking at the headings of each section and the charts. Read the questions below as well, so you know what to look for when you read!
Key Ideas
- What kind of production and distribution characterized most sub-Saharan Africa societies until about 1000 CE?
- What were the problems and benefits of becoming farmers instead of foragers?
- What is the “Gardens of Eden” or “trap of sedentism” hypothesis?
- Why didn’t humans in sub-Saharan Africa fall into the trap of sedentism?
- What evidence does the author use to prove that farming in sub-Saharan Africa developed independently of other complex societies?
Evaluate
- From what you read in the article, what examples or evidence did the author use to prove his assertion that human societies adapted in many different ways to their environment? Were those adaptations similar or different from each other?
- How does the information in this article help you to answer the Unit 2 Problem: Why did some humans become farmers, when our species had survived without farming for so very long, and what were the consequences of this change?