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The Biggest Mistake Humans Ever Made?
Driving Question: How could the development of agriculture be considered both good and bad for humanity?
Everything changed for humanity once our foraging ancestors began to settle down in early communities. Agriculture not only dramatically changed the diets of early humans, but also their communities, lifestyles, networks, and systems of production and distribution—and these changes have massive consequences even to this day.
- Learn about differing perspectives for why early humans made the transition from foraging to farming.
- Evaluate why some foraging communities began to farm and how farming led to more complex societies.
- Use the historical thinking practice of causation to analyze why many early human communities made the switch from foraging to farming
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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 is one theory that could show that farming was an unintentional process to begin with?
- 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?
Evaluate
- Did this article support, extend, or challenge your understanding of the communities, networks, and production and distribution frames?
- Given the evidence in this article, would you have preferred to have been a farmer or a forager?
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Supporting Materials
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Work on your causation skills as you review a video and two articles to help you complete the Causation Tool.
Download The Agricultural Revolution: Crash Course World History #1
Download “The First Farmers in Africa: The Cradle of Humanity”
Download “The Transition to Farming: Differing Perspectives”
Farming and the State
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
- 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, leads 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
- What does the relationship between farming and the state suggest about the relationship between the production and distribution and communities frame? In what ways are these frames related? In what ways are they different?
- This video concentrates on the connection between farming and the formation of states, many of which had some common characteristics such as social hierarchy and specialization of labor. But the participants also push back on this by stating that there were other states that did not rely on farming such as fishing populations or pastoralists. What about foraging communities—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?