Food Gathering To Food Production

Read the text and do the tasks that follow:

Accordingly, paleoanthropologists posit, or hypothesize, that around 9000 B.C.E. excess populations in western Asia started migrating inland to territories where wildlife and plant foods were less plentiful, and where they were forced to return to the nomadic ways of hunter-gatherers. What is certain is that between 9000 and 8000 B.C.E. some humans in Iran had taken the first known step toward food production by domesticating animals – in this case, sheep and goats. This would have been no more than the equivalent of taking out a small insurance policy. People seeking to avoid overreliance on one particular food source, and starvation if that source failed, captured live animals and gradually bred them so that they had meat on the hoof, available whenever the need arose. Owning a few sheep or goats did not inhibit the people who first domesticated them from continuing in their nomadic way of life (it is easier to travel with trained goats than with babies). But it did make them accustomed to the notion of actively manipulating their environments.

Producing plant food came next. After the glaciers had receded, wild wheat and wild barley had begun to grow in scattered hilly parts of inland western Asia. Accustomed to gathering all sorts of seeds, hunter-gatherers between about 9000 and 8000 B.C.E. gladly drew on the wheat and barley because when these plants were ripe, gatherers could reap large amounts of seeds from them within as little as three weeks and than move on to other pursuits. Archeological discoveries reveal that the peoples in question developed flint sickles to accelerate their harvesting, mortars for grinding their harvested grain into flour, and – most significantly for future developments – lined storage pits for preserving their grain or flour. In other worlds, these peoples had not only begun to pay special attention to harvesting wild grain, but they were saving their harvests for use over time. Again, people were manipulating their environments instead of merely adjusting to them.

Vocabulary extension

to posit – to suggest or assume as a fact

nomad – member of a tribe that wanders from place to place looking for pasture for its animal and having no fixed home

starvation – suffering or death caused by lack of food

to inhibit – to prevent smb. from doing smth.

to grind – to crush smth. to very small pieces or to powder

to adjust to – to become or make suited to new conditions

Ex. 1. Find words in the text which mean the following.

1. abundant, in large quantities or numbers

2. to look for, try to find or obtain

3. to appear, originate

4. used or obtained

5. to move away

6. lying far apart, not close together

7. being used to

8. ready to be gathered and used for eating

9. to make smth known

Ex. 2. Answer the questions.

1. Why were humans forced to return to the nomadic ways of hunter gatherers?

2. What was the first known step toward food production taken by the humans?

3. Why does the author call the domestication of animals a type of insurance policy?

4. What step came next after domesticating animals?

5. What do archeological discoveries reveal about the people of that time.

Speak on the gradual transition from food gathering to food production.

Use the following clichés:

Paleoanthropologists posit that …

The negative consequences of non-nomadic lifestyle were that …

People gradually …

In other words …