Deck 11: The First Farmers

Question 1

Which of the following statements about sheep is NOT true?

A) Woolly sheep are the product of domestication.
B) Wool from sheep can be used to make clothing.
C) The wool of domesticated sheep offers protection against extreme heat.
D) Wild sheep are less hardy than domesticated sheep.
E) Wild sheep produce purer wool than domesticated sheep.

Answer 1

Wild sheep produce purer wool than domesticated sheep.

Question 2

The broad-spectrum revolution in Europe includes the late Upper Paleolithic and the Mesolithic, which followed it. What tool type characterized the Mesolithic?

A) blade
B) core
C) axe
D) microlith
E) spear

Answer 2

microlith

Question 3

The path from foraging to food production was one that people followed independently in at least seven world areas. One of these areas is what is now southern Egypt, where excavations at Nabta Playa

A) suggest that its sedentary life, which flourished around 12,000 B.P., had an elaborate and previously unsuspected ceremonialism, as well as social complexity during the African Neolithic.
B) suggest it was entirely isolated from Middle Eastern influence until about 1000 B.P.
C) prove that in some cases, greater knowledge of food and plants does lead to domestication.
D) provide evidence for the "African sheep complex," in which cattle were used economically for their milk and blood, rather than killed for their meat except on ceremonial occasions.
E) reveal evidence of sheep and goat domestication, unlike the one that occurred in the Middle East.

Answer 3

provide evidence for the "African sheep complex," in which cattle were used economically for their milk and blood, rather than killed for their meat except on ceremonial occasions.

Question 4

Middle Eastern food production arose in the context of four environmental zones. From highest altitude to lowest, they are

A) high plateau, Natufian fields, Mesopotamia, and alluvial desert (the area watered by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers).
B) Zagros, piedmont steppe, hilly flanks, and alluvial plains.
C) high plateau, hilly flanks, piedmont steppe, and alluvial desert (the area watered by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers).
D) high zone, middle-high zone, middle-low zone, and low zone.
E) Ali Kosh, high plateau, Mesopotamia, and piedmont steppe.

Question 5

The Natufians' ability to exploit their rich local environment with broad-spectrum foraging made it possible for them to

A) live in year-round villages prior to the emergence of domestication.
B) establish the foundations of a complex state even prior to boosting food production.
C) experiment with agricultural techniques that would eventually lead to increased food production and a truly sedentary lifestyle.
D) have a nutritious diet with staples ranging from millet to manioc.
E) incorporate roaming herding groups into their sedentary communities.

Question 6

Which of the following was NOT domesticated in China?

A) cassava
B) millet
C) chickens
D) the water buffalo
E) rice

Question 7

The foundations of the state-a social and political unit featuring a central government, extreme contrasts of wealth, and social classes-emerged

A) in the alluvial desert plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, where a new economy based on irrigation and trade fueled the growth of this entirely new form of society.
B) out of an attempt to copy, on a larger scale, the lifestyle that early sedentism offered its members prior to the sudden population growth caused by food production.
C) in the hilly flanks, because that was the area that could best sustain a growing population.
D) at the intersection between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, where the abundance of water helped keep a complex irrigation system working.
E) against the will of the people, who correctly foresaw the many ills that this new form of society would bring upon them.

Question 8

With domestication, the husk that encloses the edible portion of wild cereals became

A) tougher.
B) thicker.
C) darker.
D) more brittle.
E) Wild cereals do not have husks.

Question 9

What did Kent Flannery (1969) refer to with the term broad-spectrum revolution? The period

A) The period in which Asia became the only place in the world with communities leading a sedentary life and engaging in food and animal domestication.
B) The period in which the first large states began to grow, although there was nothing revolutionary about it because this process occurred very gradually.
C) The period in which a wider range of tools was being fabricated, for both utilitarian and ritualistic purposes.
D) The period beginning around 15,000 B.P. in the Middle East and 12,000 B.P. in Europe, during which a wider range of plant and animal life was hunted, gathered, collected, caught, and fished.
E) The period between 20,000 B.P. and 10,000 B.P. when anatomically modern humans (AMHs) colonized the entire world, made possible by a smarter utilization of a wider range of environments.

Question 10

Where did the earliest domestication of animals and plants in the Middle East occur?

A) in desert oases
B) in the area where wild forms of wheat and barley grew
C) along the banks of the Nile
D) in the marginal zone next to the hilly flanks
E) in the Fertile Crescent, where the world's first civilization emerged

Question 11

What is the name given to the cultural period in which the first signs of domestication are present?

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

Question 12

What is sedentism?

A) life in permanent villages
B) living off domestic species
C) transhumance
D) a capitalist-based exchange
E) living off wild species

Question 13

In the Middle East, early cultivation began as an attempt to copy, in a less favorable environment, the dense stands of wheat and barley that grew wild in the hilly flanks. All of the following either motivated or facilitated this attempt EXCEPT

A) population growth.
B) climatic changes that reduced the available amount of wild wheat and barley.
C) the existence of a vertical economy.
D) human inventiveness and experimentation that occurred in the optimal zones, such as the hilly flanks.
E) living in marginal areas most affected by climatic changes.

Question 14

Which of the following is NOT true regarding Europe by 10,000 B.P.?

A) The range of hunting, gathering, and fishing populations extended to the formerly glaciated British Isles and Scandinavia.
B) The continent was forest rather than treeless steppe and tundra, as it had been during the Upper Paleolithic.
C) As a consequence of the increase in forest species, people increasingly practiced new hunting techniques: solitary stalking and trapping, similar to more recent practices of many Native American groups.
D) The process of preserving meat and fish by smoking and salting grew increasingly important.
E) The continent's coasts and lakes were fished intensively with new technologies such as the characteristic Mesolithic stone blades and cores used as fishhooks and in harpoons.

Question 15

Where do scholars believe that food production first began in the Middle East?

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

Question 16

What is a vertical economy?

A) a system of top-down exchange across regions
B) a system that exploits environmental zones that contrast with one another in altitude, rainfall, overall climate, and vegetation
C) one of the types of segmentary lineage organization that is 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 17

When did sedentary life develop 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 18

The independent domestication of the dog

A) illustrates the strong human-animal bond that was an important adaptation during the time of early hominin evolution.
B) occurred only after a key mutation that turned dogs into more docile creatures.
C) worldwide ensured that all early states had strong enough animals to help plow fields.
D) was a worldwide phenomenon.
E) occurred only in the Eastern Hemisphere.

Question 19

Which of the following is NOT one of the areas where food production was independently invented?

A) the eastern United States
B) the Indus Valley
C) the Middle East
D) Mesoamerica
E) southern China

Question 20

Which of the following conditions did NOT contribute to the development of food production in the Middle East?

A) the shift to a broad-spectrum subsistence pattern at the end of the Upper Paleolithic
B) the availability of annual grasses with edible grains
C) the diffusion of domesticated animal species from southern Europe
D) population increase, leading people to try planting grasses in new ecological niches
E) favorable changes in cultivated grains through artificial selection

Question 21

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

Question 22

Contrary to the old assumption that New World farming originated in the upland areas, recent research suggests that

A) farming first originated in the tropical lowlands at about the same time food production arose in the Middle East-around 10,000 years ago-and that these new techniques developed in the tropics then diffused into drier regions at higher elevations.
B) the upland communities borrowed farming techniques from their lowland neighbors.
C) farming originated in the coastal lowlands of Argentina and then diffused upward.
D) all food staples except maize were domesticated in the tropical lowlands.
E) all food staples except teosinte were domesticated in the South American jungle.

Question 23

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

A) occurred after the rise of the first sedentary communities.
B) occurred before the rise of the first sedentary communities.
C) was apparently not necessary for the development of states such as Teotihuacán.
D) involved no food plants, but instead was used to increase the production of utilitarian plants such as bottle gourds and hemp.
E) was begun but then abandoned before there was a chance for societies to develop into states.

Question 24

What have new dating techniques applied to plant remains revealed about the origins of domestication in the New World?

A) Evidence of Mexican peanut hulls dating back 15,000 years confirms that the origin of domestication in the New World preceded food production everywhere else in the world by more than 5,000 years.
B) Evidence of Peruvian squash seeds dating back 10,000 years has pushed back the origin of domestication in the New World to about the same time that food production arose in the Old World.
C) Evidence of Ecuadorian potatoes dating back 5,000 years suggests that food production originated in the New World as the result of growing population pressures, particularly in the South American Andes.
D) Food production in the New World was a result of knowledge brought by the first settlers to the Americas who crossed Beringia approximately 18,000 years ago.
E) Food production had originated independently in five different regions of the Americas by 12,000 B.P.

Question 25

Which of the following was NOT domesticated in the eastern United States?

A) goosefoot
B) marsh elder
C) corn
D) squash
E) sunflower

Question 26

Which of the following is true?

A) Food production led to an increase in social inequality.
B) Food production reduced warfare.
C) Food production yielded more nutritious diets.
D) Food production allowed most people to work less.
E) Food-producing societies are more egalitarian than foraging societies.

Question 27

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

Question 28

Three key caloric staples and major sources of carbohydrates were domesticated by Native American farmers. They were

A) maize, teosinte, and peanuts.
B) maize, white potatoes, and manioc.
C) wheat, maize, and cassava.
D) corn, squash, and potatoes.
E) corn, beans, and potatoes.

Question 29

The path from foraging to food production was one that people followed independently in at least seven world areas. New archaeological research techniques continue to overturn previously held assumptions about where and how this occurred. Microscopic evidence from early-cultivated plants suggests that

A) farming in the South American tropical lowlands preceded domestication in the Middle East by some 5,000 years.
B) New World farming began in the lowlands of South America and then spread to Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean islands.
C) maize was first domesticated in the Pacific islands and brought to the Americas by colonizers who navigated to the western coasts of South America.
D) all early domesticates originated among the Clovis people, whose knowledge then diffused southward.
E) the old assumption that New World farming originated in the upland areas is correct.

Question 30

Most researchers today argue that the domestication of plants in the Middle East took place in the hilly flanks regions where wild plant ancestors naturally grew.

Question 31

Early cultivation began as an attempt to copy, in a less favorable environment, the dense stands of wheat and barley that grew wild in the hilly flanks.

Question 32

With domestication, plants developed thicker husks.

Question 33

What is the name of the wild ancestor of maize?

A) corn
B) guajalote
C) cavia
D) teosinte
E) elote

Question 34

Which of the following was a consequence of domestication?

A) Humans had to work less than before to acquire food.
B) There was a decline in disease.
C) Sedentary life became more widespread.
D) There was an increase in dietary diversity.
E) There was a gradual decrease in population size.

Question 35

Where were beans domesticated?

A) Mexico
B) New England
C) Patagonia
D) Beringia
E) the U.S. Southwest

Question 36

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

Question 37

Compared to those of wild plants, the seeds of domesticated plants are larger and less likely to shatter and disperse.

Question 38

Which of the following is a key difference between the food-producing traditions of Mesopotamia and Mesoamerica that helps us understand the subsequent histories in the two regions?

A) Food production occurred as a gradual process in Mesoamerica but was revolutionary in Mesopotamia.
B) Large domesticated animals played an important role in Mesopotamia but were absent from Mesoamerica.
C) In Mesoamerica, goats, sheep, and pigs were domesticated, but in Mesopotamia only dogs were domesticated.
D) Food production emerged in Mesoamerica thousands of years prior to when it did in Mesopotamia.
E) Maize was the staple grain in Mesopotamia, whereas the primary grain in Mesoamerica was wheat.

Question 39

Which of the following is a benefit of farming?

A) a broader diet
B) better health
C) greater predictability of staple species
D) fewer diseases
E) less work

Question 40

Anthropologists once thought that domestication would happen almost automatically once people gained sufficient knowledge of plants and animals and their reproductive habits to figure out how to make domestication work. They now know that

A) they were correct, thanks to recently uncovered evidence in Chile.
B) aside from this knowledge, an emerging state is necessary for domestication to occur.
C) foragers have an excellent knowledge of plants and animals and their reproductive characteristics, so some other trigger is needed to start and sustain the process of domestication.
D) the will to overcome a lazy lifestyle is even more important than such knowledge.
E) aside from the knowledge, domestication requires the invention of the wheel.

Question 41

Nabta Playa was an important center for prehistoric herders in southern Egypt.

Question 42

China was host to three different centers of domestication: one in the north, one in the south, and one on the eastern coast.

Question 43

What is broad-spectrum foraging, and why is it important in understanding the shift to farming?

Question 44

Food production is more labor intensive than foraging.

Question 45

The domesticated millet that appeared in China around 7500 B.P. was first domesticated in sub-Saharan Africa by about 8000 B.P., then diffused to China through long-distance trade networks.

Question 46

What archaeological evidence can be used to support interpretations of either a food-producing revolution or a gradual transition from foraging to strategies that relied more heavily on domesticated plants and animals?

Question 47

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

Question 48

Unlike the centers of domestication in the Old World, very few animals were ever domesticated in the New World.

Question 49

The geography of the Old World facilitated the diffusion of plants, animals, technology, and information.

Question 50

Around 8000 B.P., communities on Europe's Mediterranean shores started to export species to the Middle East.

Question 51

The domestication of plants and animals for food independently occurred in both the Old World and the Americas approximately 11,000 years ago.

Question 52

Wheels fueled the growth of transport, trade, and travel in the Old World thousands of years after the origin of food production.

Question 53

Corn, beans, and squash were the major crops to be domesticated in Mexico.

Question 54

Recent research using microscopic evidence suggests that farming in the tropical lowlands of Central and South America began at around the same time that food production arose in the Middle East.

Question 55

In the Middle East, as subsistence economies became more specialized and more dependent on domesticated species, population centers began to emerge that had temples, writing, and canals for irrigating fields.

Question 56

What is a vertical economy? Why is this concept significant in the history of domestication and food production? In which areas of the world do we see vertical economies?

Question 57

Rice was domesticated in southern China.

Question 58

In the New World, sedentism occurred before domestication.

Question 59

With a more reliable food source, the early food producers were considerably healthier than the hunter-gatherers.

Question 60

Agricultural intensification enabled people to farm for only part of the year, then leave the cities to live away from the problems endemic to urban populations for the rest of the year.

Question 61

What has been the relationship between geography and climate and the spread of food production? Provide examples.

Question 62

Anthropologists once thought, erroneously, that domestication would happen almost automatically once people gained sufficient knowledge of plants and animals. How has their view changed?

Question 63

What are the similarities and differences in the transition from foraging to food production in the Middle East and Mesoamerica?

Question 64

One of the most significant contrasts between Old and New World food production involved animal domestication. Describe this contrast and its possible consequences on the diverging pattern of history on both sides of the Atlantic.

Question 65

What are the advantages and disadvantages of a subsistence economy based on farming?

Question 66

Discuss the genetic changes in the domestication of plants in the New and Old Worlds, and compare the selective factors for these changes in the two areas. How do these facts and their role in the history of domestication help explain the differences between natural selection and artificial selection?