Early Domestication and Agriculture

To some extent, the causes of agriculture are to be found in the thousands of years of hunting-gathering that immedi-
ately preceded the first agricultural societies. A critical interval may be the period between 22,000 and 8,000 years
ago—a time of major climatic changes for much of the world. In Western Europe, population densities shifted as the
herds of reindeer and horses that once supported many hunting bands moved northward as the glaciers became
smaller. Some people moved with them, but others worked out subsistence strategies stressing plants, smaller game,
and fish. Salmon became especially important in Europe as traps, drying racks, and other tools were developed to
make salmon exploitation a reliable way to make a living. In Southwest Asia, parts of Africa, and parts of the Americas,
some late Pleistocene and early post-Pleistocene (12,000-8,000 years ago) peoples began to eat more small game,
fish, waterfowl, clams, wild cereals, and similar foods. Elsewhere, however, big-game hunting specializations (hunting
large animals) persisted.

1. According to paragraph 1, all of the following occurred between 22,000 and 8,000 years ago EXCEPT:
A. Some human populations migrated farther north.
B. The climate warmed in some locations.
C. Small animals became a bigger part of the diet of some Europeans.
D. Human populations in all parts of the world stopped hunting large animals.

2. According to paragraph 1, which of the following resulted in salmon fishing becoming an effective way for people to
support themselves?
A. The development of new types of tools for fishing
B. An increase in salmon populations
C. A decline in the number of hunting bands
D. The northward movement of certain glaciers

Where a shift to a smaller, more varied resource was made, technologies also changed. The bow and arrow and
throwing stick were important innovations, and new tools were developed to dig plants, trap wild fowl, and prepare
and cook this broader diet. Small, simple, geometric stone tools predominated in many areas. The world about 12,000
years ago was relatively diverse culturally, as some groups remained big-game hunters while others took up fishing, in-
tensive foraging, and other pursuits. Thus, a great diversity of plants and animals was being exploited with varying in-
tensities and technologies in a wide range of climates. Out of this vast mixture of people, plants, animals, and places
the first domesticates and farmers appeared.

3. The word "predominated" in the passage is closest in meaning to

A. were the most advanced
B. were the most common
C. had already appeared
D. had almost disappeared

4. According to paragraph 2, what was true at the time when the first farmers appeared?
A. Different societies adopted a variety of activities and strategies for making a living.
B. Plants had become far more diverse than they were in previous periods.
C. The domestication of animals had become relatively advanced.
D. Fishing and intensive plant foraging had almost entirely replaced hunting as a means of providing food.

But which of these groups became agriculturalists and why? Although all the people before about 10,000 years ago
were hunter-gatherers, this term covers a wide range of economies. Much of the variability in hunter-gatherer adap-
tations seems to be linked to food storage. Anthropologist Alain Testart notes that some hunter-gatherers store large
amounts of food, others do not, and that "storing hunter-gatherer societies exhibit three characteristics— a sedentary
(settled) way of life, a high population density, and the development of socioeconomic inequalities-which have been
considered typical of agricultural societies". Thus, in looking for causes of agricultural economies, we must consider
kinds of adaptations where storage is a potential factor. This relates directly to certain types of foods. Cereals store
well, but many tubers do not. Sheep, goats, barnyard fowl, and other animals can also be considered a form of food
storage, since one simply feeds them excess or unwanted foods until the need arises to eat the animals.

5. What does paragraph 3 suggest about societies that did NOT store food before about 10,000 years ago?
A. They usually remained in one location.
B. They had fewer, if any, socioeconomic inequalities compared to storing societies.
C. They were probably the first societies to depend on agricultural economies.
D. They tended to have dense populations.

6. Which of the following can be inferred from the statement that " Cereals store well, but many tubers do not"?
A. People who relied on foods like tubers were less likely to develop agricultural societies.
B. Societies that relied on foods like tubers were more likely to develop social inequalities.
C. Early agricultural societies used tubers mainly as a source of food for farm animals.
D. Some early agricultural societies that relied on tubers rather than cereal developed new methods of food storage.

It is probably also significant, as researcher Kent Flannery notes, that the major cereal seed crops that supported the
first farmers and remain the basis of modern economies, including wheat, barley, millet, and rice, appear to have de-
rived from wild ancestors that were "third-choice" foods: plants that were usually more difficult to gather and process
than other wild plants and thus were probably first eaten in quantity because people had to do so, not because they
wanted to. On the other hand, most of these third-choice foods are easily storable, plentiful, easy to grow, and, as an-
nuals, genetically adaptable.

Aspects of the shift to cereals and other resources may help explain how agriculture-once it was in its initial stages-
changed human demographic patterns. In hunting-gathering societies, fertility rates are suppressed significantly sim-
ply by maternal mobility. Thus, those late Pleistocene groups that became less mobile, perhaps because they began to
obtain food from salmon runs or wild cereal patches, might have experienced a rise in fertility rates. Also, a direct cor-
relation exists between the amount of carbohydrates in the diet and fertility rates. Studies have shown that it is al-
most impossible for a woman to become pregnant until she has about 27,000 calories, or 20 to 25 percent of her body
weight, stored as fat. Nursing a child requires about 1,000 calories a day, and in many hunter-gatherer societies, the
rigors of mobility and their high-protein diet can mean that nursing itself prevents sufficient fat build-up for a success-
ful subsequent pregnancy for about three years. But with the change to a high-carbohydrate, cereal-based diet and re-
stricted mobility of sedentary life, fertility rates may well have risen rapidly.

7. For which of the following reasons does the author include the information that 'Nursing a child requires about
1,000 calories a day"?
A. To emphasize that a woman must store a large amount of fat before having a baby
B. To indicate the main reason why hunter-gatherer societies gave up hunting in favor of farming cereals
C. To help explain why fertility rates were low in hunter-gatherer societies
D. To suggest that the demands of raising children led hunter-gatherers to become less mobile

8. The word "subsequent" in the passage is closest in meaning to

A. healthy
B. normal
C. following
D. older-age

To some extent, the causes of agriculture are to be found in the thousands of years of hunting-gathering that immedi-
ately preceded the first agricultural societies. A critical interval may be the period between 22,000 and 8,000 years
ago—a time of major climatic changes for much of the world. In Western Europe, population densities shifted as the
herds of reindeer and horses that once supported many hunting bands moved northward as the glaciers became
smaller. Some people moved with them, but others worked out subsistence strategies stressing plants, smaller game,
and fish. 【 】Salmon became especially important in Europe as traps, drying racks, and other tools were developed
to make salmon exploitation a reliable way to make a living.【 】 In Southwest Asia, parts of Africa, and parts of the
Americas, some late Pleistocene and early post-Pleistocene (12,000-8,000 years ago) peoples began to eat more small
game, fish, waterfowl, clams, wild cereals, and similar foods. 【 】Elsewhere, however, big-game hunting specializa-
tions (hunting large animals) persisted.【 】

9. Look at the four squares 【 】that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.

In North America, for example, some groups centered their lives around vast buffalo herds.

10. Drag your choices to the spaces where they belong. To review the passage, select View Passage.

Many different factors led people in various parts of the world to stop hunting and gathering food in the wild.

Answer Choices
A. Human populations grew smaller in Europe when the reindeer and horses that provided the main sources of food
disappeared due to the warming climate.
B. Farmers in early agricultural societies tended to concentrate on producing types of food that were easy to store,
leading them to grow grains and raise animals.
C. High levels of inequality often caused food shortages in farming societies, while hunter-gatherer societies were
limited to very small populations in which inequality was absent.
D. Some people began to rely on fish, small animals, and wild grains around the end of the Pleistocene, but others
continued to obtain most of their food by hunting large animals.
E. Farming and the domestication of animals quickly spread throughout the world 12,000 years ago as changes in
the climate made hunting and gathering impractical in most places.
F. Agriculture may have increased human populations because people who settled permanently in areas that pro-
vided large food supplies, especially cereals, tended to have more children.