Foragers and Village Networks
Driving Question: How did early villages depend on other villages, foragers, and pastoralists?
Early farming villages may have been small, but they were far from isolated. Discover how these communities connected through networks—and how they interacted with outsiders such as foragers, herders, and nomads.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand how village networks expanded into new forms of communities.
- Evaluate how villages interacted with each other and with groups like foragers, pastoralists, and nomads.
- Use claim-testing skills to evaluate evidence about early village networks.
Vocab Terms:
- division of labor
- inequality
- nomadic
- steppe
- urban
As you prepare to learn about how different types of ancient communities interacted, use this activity to think about how they might react to different types of pressures.
Did you ever think that you putting a poster of donuts on a wall would help you teach claim testing? Neither did we, until our artists got hungry at work. Click here for some new wall art.
Before cities and large states, there were small villages. What can life in those small communities tell us about who we are now? Practice evaluating the evidence with the activity, then put those skills to use as you read the article.
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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:
- How was life in early farming villages different from life in hunter-gatherer communities?
- What do we know about women’s lives in early farming villages?
- What are some examples of trade between villages?
- How did changes in production and distribution affect communities?
- In what ways did village networks affect the population of villages, towns, and cities?
After you read
Respond to this question: What do you think are some of the limitations of archaeological evidence?
Before you complete this lesson be sure that your students don't walk away thinking that all foragers disappeared as farming swept across the world. Many communities refused agriculture or blended foraging, farming, and pastoralism. And lots of ancient farming societies remained reliant on their pastoralist and foraging neighbors for trade. A few foraging societies remain in our world today, including the Hadzabe in Tanzania and the Batek in Malasia.
Not everyone took up farming immediately. For thousands of years, nomads, pastoralists, farmers, and foragers all lived alongside each other, connecting, fighting, and trading.
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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:
- In what ways was farming “uneven”?
- What was central to nomadic pastoralists’ way of life? Why?
- How did different kinds of food production affect community structures?
- What networks were pastoralists, nomads, and foragers a part of?
- What are some advantages that nomadic communities had over settled communities?
After you read
Respond to this question: How does this article challenge the idea that people were foragers first and later became farmers?
Reading primary sources can help you deepen your understanding of how different forms of communities interacted during this period.
Providing solid evidence and analyzing it is crucial for building a strong written argument. Look for these elements in a sample student essay.
