Deck 8: The First Farmers

Question 1

Food production was not independently invented in the

A)Eastern United States.
B)Indus Valley.
C)Middle East.
D)Central Mexico.
E)Southern China.

Answer 1

Indus Valley.

Question 2

__________ was not domesticated in China.

A)Cassava
B)Millet
C)Pigs
D)Water buffalo
E)Rice

Answer 2

Cassava

Question 3

__________ was not domesticated in South America.

A)Llamas
B)Rice
C)Potatoes
D)Guinea pigs
E)Manioc

Answer 3

Rice

Question 4

___________ was the first hominin to arrive in the New World.

A)H.erectus
B)A.boisei
C)Homo sapiens
D)H.sapiens neanderthalensis
E)H.habilis

Question 5

In the Middle East, the domestication of plants and animals begin to replace broad-spectrum foraging as the basis of subsistence by

A)50,000 B.P.
B)20,000 B.P.
C)7,500 B.P.
D)5,000 B.P.
E)1,000 B.P.

Question 6

Domestication affects the reproduction of plants because domesticated

A)plants are able to reproduce themselves more effectively.
B)plants lose their natural seed dispersal mechanisms.
C)cereals have more brittle axes, allowing seeds to break free from the stalk more easily.
D)plants do not produce seeds.
E)farming has no effect on the reproduction of plants.

Question 7

The Natufians were

A)broad-spectrum foragers who lived in year-round villages in the Middle East.
B)the first farmers in highland Peru.
C)long-distance traders responsible for the spread of food production from the Middle East to the Indus River Valley.
D)the first Siberian big-game hunters to cross the Bering land bridge.
E)the first North American Paleoindians to settle in permanent villages.

Question 8

__________ identifies the cultural period in which the first signs of domestication are present.

A)Upper Paleolithic
B)Mesolithic
C)Microlithic
D)Chalcolithic
E)Neolithic

Question 9

The sedentary life developed in the Middle East

A)before farming and herding.
B)after farming but before herding.
C)after herding but before farming.
D)after farming and herding.
E)at the same time that farming and herding developed.

Question 10

Scholars believe that food production first began in the Middle East in the

A)marginal areas.
B)alluvial desert.
C)hilly flanks.
D)desert oases.
E)high plateau.

Question 11

With domestication, the husks of wild cereals became

A)tougher.
B)thicker.
C)darker.
D)more brittle.
E)None of the above is correct.

Question 12

Compared to the Middle East, food production emerge in the New World approximately

A)30,000 to 40,000 years later
B)3,000 to 4,000 years later
C)30,000 to 40,000 years earlier
D)3,000 to 4,000 years earlier
E)the same time

Question 13

A vertical economy is

A)a system of top-down exchange across regions.
B)a system that exploits closely spaced environmental zones that contrast with one another in altitude, rainfall, overall climate, and vegetation.
C)one of the types of segmentary lineage organization found in regions of East Africa.
D)a means of integrating a society based on hereditary inequality and coercion.
E)a form of indirect-biased transmission.

Question 14

Food production spread from the Middle East to all of the following regions except

A)Greece.
B)northern Africa.
C)France.
D)Egypt.
E)northern China.

Question 15

The first animals domesticated in the Middle East were

A)horses and cattle.
B)pigs and sheep.
C)chickens and cattle.
D)goats and sheep.
E)chickens and pigs.

Question 16

____________ did not contribute the development of food production in the Middle East.

A)The shift to a broad-spectrum subsistence pattern around 15,000 B.P.
B)The availability of wild cereals with edible grains
C)The diffusion of domesticated animal species from southern Europe
D)Drier conditions and population increase, leading people to experiment with planting wild cereals in new ecological niches
E)Favorable changes in cultivated grains resulting from artificial selection by humans

Question 17

Animal domestication was less important in the New World than it was in the Old World because

A)New World peoples did not know how to domesticate animals.
B)Human populations in the New World were quite small, so animal domestication was not necessary.
C)the large-game animals that were hunted during earlier periods either had gone extinct or were not domesticable.
D)wild birds (e.g., turkeys, ducks) already provided enough protein to the diet.
E)New World peoples tried continually to domesticate large animals but were never successful.

Question 18

Maize (corn) first domesticated in

A)Mexico
B)New England
C)Lowlands of South America
D)Beringia
E)American Southwest

Question 19

Sedentism is

A)living in permanent settlements.
B)living off domesticated species.
C)transhumance.
D)capitalist-based exchange.
E)living off wild species.

Question 20

Compared to their wild counterparts, domesticated animals tend to be

A)faster.
B)more aggressive.
C)larger.
D)smaller.
E)very similar, both morphologically and behaviorally.

Question 21

__________ are among the threats to several known archaeological sites and finds around the world.

A)Global climate change and politics.
B)Looting and armed conflicts.
C)Politics and cost of excavation.
D)Global climate change and local disinterest
E)None of the above is correct.
Essay Questions

Question 22

The Natufians were the first people to domesticate sorghum and millet.

Question 23

__________ was not domesticated in the New World.

A)Barley
B)Squash
C)Cassava
D)Beans
E)Maize

Question 24

Discuss the genetic and morphological changes in plants that were domesticated in the Old World (e.g., the Middle East) and the New World (e.g., Mexico).Cite specific domesticated plants to illustrate your answer.

Question 25

Compare and contrast the transition from foraging to food production in the Middle East and Mesoamerica.

Question 26

With domestication, plants developed thicker husks.

Question 27

Compared to wild plants, the seeds of domesticated plants are larger and less likely to break free from the stalk and disperse.

Question 28

Discuss the role of geography in the spread of food production in the Old World.Identify the ecological features that aided the spread of domesticates from the Middle East to Egypt, North Africa, Europe, and India.Name and describe at least two.Contrast these to the geographic features that hindered the spread of domesticates in the New World.

Question 29

Define a vertical economy.Discuss why vertical economies were significant in the development of domestication and food production.

Question 30

Unlike in the Old World, plant domestication in the New World

A)occurred after the first sedentary communities.
B)occurred before the first sedentary communities.
C)was not necessary for the development of states, such as Teotihuacan.
D)did not involve edible plants.
E)was abandoned.

Question 31

Food production was a critical step toward the broad-spectrum revolution.

Question 32

Neolithic is the cultural period in a given region during which stone tools were first produced.

Question 33

People who __________ are the most likely to adopt a new subsistence strategy, like food production.

A)have followed large game into a new continent
B)want to increase their population more rapidly
C)are having the most problems following their traditional subsistence strategy
D)have already organized into a state-level society
E)worship animals

Question 34

In the Middle East, sedentism developed before plants and animals were domesticated.

Question 35

Most researchers today argue that the domestication of plants in the Middle East occurred in the Hilly Flanks regions, where the wild ancestors of domesticated species grew naturally.

Question 36

Define broad-spectrum foraging, and discuss its importance to the emergence of food production.

Question 37

__________ is the name of the wild ancestor of maize.

A)Corn
B)Guajolote
C)Cassava
D)Teosinte
E)Elote

Question 38

Discuss the nature and tempo of the development of food production.Analyze whether the advent of food production was a true "revolution" or the result of a more gradual transition from foraging to strategies that increasingly relied on domesticated plants and animals.Cite specific archaeological evidence.

Question 39

The three caloric staples grown by Native American farmers were

A)wheat, barley, and oats.
B)maize, rice, and soybeans.
C)wheat, rye, and beans.
D)maize, potatoes, and manioc.
E)squash, avocados, and tomatoes.

Question 40

A vertical economy exploits environmental zones that are close together in space, but differentiated by altitude, rainfall, overall climate, and vegetation.

Question 41

Native Americans living in what is now the eastern United States established sedentary villages and a full-fledged Neolithic economy based on squash, sunflower, sumpweed, and goosefoot.

Question 42

Unlike in the Old World, few large animals were ever domesticated in the New World.

Question 43

There were three separate centers of domestication in China-one in the north, one in the south, and one on the eastern coast.

Question 44

Food production was invented independently in Egypt less than 1,000 years after domestication began in the Middle East.

Question 45

New evidence suggests that plant domestication occurred at about the same time in the New World as the Middle East.

Question 46

There were three independent centers of domestication in the New World.

Question 47

In the New World, sedentism occurred before domestication.

Question 48

The domesticated millet that appeared in China around 7500
B.P.and diffused to China.
B.P.was first domesticated in sub-Saharan Africa around 8000

Question 49

Animals domesticated in the New World include llamas, alpacas, turkeys, ducks, guinea pigs, and horses.

Question 50

Potatoes were first domesticated in Ireland and then European explorers transported to the New World.

Question 51

Rice was domesticated in southern China.

Question 52

The wild ancestor of maize (corn) is teosinte.