FROM GATHERING TO GROWING FOOD

1. Name: Janette Camen Roger Magwaza
Reg #: 11816142
Topic: From gathering to growing food
Class: Six (6th) Social Science
Chapter 3

2. THE BEGINNING OF FARMING AND HERDING
• Wheat, barley and rice grew naturally in different part of the subcontinent, men women
and children probably collected these grains as food, and learnt where they grew and when
they ripened.
• This may lead them to think about growing plants on their own. In such way, people
became farmers.
• People could also attract then and then tame animals by leaving food for them near their
shelters.
• Animals such as: sheep, goat, cattle and also pig lived in herds, and most of them ate grass.
People often protected these animals from attack by other wild animals and this is how
they became herders.

3. DOMESTICATION
 Domestication is the name given to the process in which people
grow plants and look after animals. Very often, plants and animals
that are tended b people become different from wild plants and
animals. This process is because is because people select plants
and animals for domestication.
 It began about 12,000 years ago. Virtually all the plants and
animals produce that we used as food today is a result of
domestication.

4. A NEW WAY OF GROWING FOOD
 When people began growing plants, it means that they had to stay in the
same place for a long time looking after the plants, watering, weeding, driving
away animals and birds till the grain ripened. And then, the grain had to be
used carefully.
 As grain had to be stored for both food and seed, people had to ways of
storing it.
 In many areas, they began making large clays pots, or wove baskets or dugs
pits into the ground.

5. Quick quiz
1. Domestication began about:
A. 1 million years ago
B. 12,000 years ago
C. 17,000 years ago
2. When people start growing plants, it means they had to stay in the same place.
A. True
B. False
3. ________ is the name given to the process in which people grow plants and look
after animals
A. Calibrate
B. Domestication
C. Farming

6. STORING ANIMALS
•The storing of animals makes animal multiply naturally.
•If they are being take care of properly and well looked
at, they provide milk which is an important source of
food and meat whenever required.
•Animals that are reared can be used as a “store” of food

7. FINDING OUT ABOUT THE FIRST FARMERS AND
HERDERS
 Archaeologists have found evidence of early farmers and herders. These
are found all over the subcontinent.
 Burzhom (Kashmir), Daojali Hading (Dima Hasao District of Assam) Chirand
(Saran Bihar) both Koldihwa and Mahagara (near Belan River Devghat
Village – UP) Hallur (Haveri – Karnataka) Paiyampalli (Vellore District in
Tamil Nadu).
 To find out whether these sites were settlements of farmers and herders,
scientists study evidence of plants and animals bones.
 One of the most exciting finds includes remains of burnt grains. (These
may have been burnt accidentally or on purpose). Scientists can identify
these grains and so we know that a numbers of crops were grown.
 They can also identify the bones of different animals.

8. TOWARDS A SETTLED LIFE
 Archaeologists have found traces of huts or houses of some sites. For
instance, in Burzahom (in present day Kashmir) people built pit houses,
which were dug into the ground, with steps leading into them.
 These may have provided shelters in cold weather. Archaeologists have
also found cooking hearths both inside and outside the huts, which
suggests that, depending on the weather, people could cook food either
indoors or outdoors.
 Stones have been found from many sites as well.
 These are different from the earlier Palaeolithic tools and that is why
they are called Neolithic.

9.  These include tools that were polished to give a fine cutting edge, and mortars and pestles used for
grinding grain and other plant produce.
 Mortars and pestle are used for grinding grains even today, several thousand years later.
 At the same time, tools of the Palaeolithic types continued to be made, and used, and remember, some
tools were also made of bones.
 Many kinds of earthen pots have also been found.
 These were sometimes decorated and then used for storing things.
 People also began using pots for cooking food, especially grains like rice, wheat and lentils that now became
important part of diet.
 They began weaving cloth, using different kinds of materials, cotton that could now be grown.
 In many areas, men and women still continued to hunt and gather food, and elsewhere people adopted
farming and herding lowly, over several thousand years.

10. QUICK QUIZ
1. _______ have found evidence of early farmers and herders.
A. Historians
B. Archaeologists
C. Philosophers
2. Burzahom is a place in
A. Present day Kashmir
B. Tamil nadu
C. Daojali Hading
3. Where is the site koldihwa located?
A. Pakistan
B. Uttar Pradesh
C. Bihar
D. Andhra pradesh

11. LIVING AND DYING IN MEHRGARH
• Mehrgarh is a site located in a fertile plain, near the bolan pass
balochistan, Pakistan, which is one f the most important route to
Iran.
• Mehrgarh where people learnt to grow barley and wheat and also
rear sheep and goats for the first time in this area.
• It is one of the earliest village that we know about. Bones of wild
animals such as the deer and pig and also bones of sheep and goat
were found.
• Mehrgarh includes remains of square or rectangular houses. Each
house had four or more compartments and some of which may
have been used for storage.

12. • When people die, their relatives and friends generally pay
respect to them.
• Burial is one such arrangement. Several burial sites have been
found at mehrgarh the dead person was buried with goats,
which means to serve a food in the next world.

13. RECAPITULATION
Dear students, today we have learned about “ From gathering to growing food ”. Pupil
teacher will now ask students the following questions:
1. Mehrgarh is located in a
A. Fertile plain
B. High plain
C. Low plain
2. What were the occupations followed by the tribes of middle stone age?
A. Herding
B. Hunting
C. Fishing
D. All of the above
3. Wheat, barley and rice grew naturally in different part of the subcontinent.
A. True
B. False

14. Answer the following questions in two points
1. How did the transitions from hunters to farmers occur?
2. What were the features of the houses that archaeologists found in
Burzahom?
3. What is the importance of Daojali Hading?