Living Off the Land
Analyzing Hunter-Gatherer and Sedentary Lifestyles

Developed by John Butterfield, Automotive High School; Nancy Ashon, Susan Wagner High School; and, Ana Carvajal, Fort Hamilton High School. 1998

Aim
In what ways did food production and domestication of animals help to transform hunter-gatherer societies into subsistence societies?

 

Performance Objectives
Students will be able to:

  • Define hunter-gatherer society and subsistence society; paleolithic and neolithic; surplus, domestication, sedentary.
  • Understand how food production and domestication of animals required a sedentary lifestyle.
  • Understand the advantages of a sedentary lifestyle over that of a non-sedentary lifestyle.
  • Explain how food production led to advantages that allowed sedentary societies to conquer non- sedentary societies.


Materials
Due to copyright laws, the following material could not be uploaded, but is readily available.

  • Chapter 4, "Farmer Power." Diamond, J., Guns, Germs, and Steel. (New York: W.W. Norton, 1997) pp. 85-89.
  • Prologue, "Yali's Question." Diamond, J., Guns, Germs, and Steel. (New York: W.W. Norton, 1997) pp. 12-32.
  • Reilly, Kevin, The West and the World (Princeton: Markus Wiener, 1989) pp. 3-7, 69, 186-89.


Motivation
Ask students where/how they obtain food. Then ask them how their lives might be different if they had to produce their own food supplies.

  • If they had to produce their own food, where do they think they might be living?
  • How might technologies used by the household and the community differ in villages that produce their own food than from technologies in urban settings?


Development
Divide the class into four groups.

Give Group One copies of Chapter 4 (Diamond), pp. 85-89. They will read the handout and chart five major developments in the course of moving from paleolithic society to neolithic society.

Give Group Two copies of Reilly pp. 3-6 and 69. They will read the handout and chart five major time periods in the development of sedentary lifestyles.

Give Groups Three and Four Reilly pp. 186-88. Group Three will read the handout and list the advantages and disadvantages of living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Group Four will read the handout and list the advantages and disadvantages of living a sedentary lifestyle.


Questions for Guidance / Follow up:
1. Why did farming and domestication of animals require a sedentary lifestyle.

2. What factors enabled sedentary societies to sustain more people than hunter-gather societies could sustain?

3. What were the four distinct ways Diamond gives for livestock's ability to feed more people?

4. How did the interaction of domesticated plants and animals increase food production?

5. Food surpluses and division of labor were two direct results of sedentary lifestyles. How did these two things lead to taxation and formation of armies?

6. What were the factors that led to conflict between hunter-gatherer groups and sedentary groups?

7. How did domestication of animals contribute to wars of conquest?

8. How did germs that evolved from domestication of animals contribute to wars of conquest?


Homework
Ask the students to choose two factors influencing the evolution from hunter-gatherer societies to sedentary societies, and write an essay explaining how these factors contributed to this transformation.


Essay Format
Paragraph One: State two reasons contributing to the transformation from hunter-gatherer societies to sedentary societies.

Paragraph Two: Show how and why one of the factors you chose led to change and demonstrate with examples.

Paragraph Three: Choose another factor and show how and why it led to change. Demonstrate with examples.

Conclusion: Sum up your essay with brief statement.

 

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