Chapter – 2 From Hunting Gathering to Growing Food

Information about the Earliest People

• obtained by archaeologists.
• Archaeologists have found some such objects, which were used by hunters to collect food, it is possible that people have made stones, wood, and bones for their work, out of which stone tools have survived even today.
• Some were used to make spears and arrows with fists of bones or wood.
• Those who lived in the subcontinent two million years ago, today are known as hunters, and food collectors.
• The people of that time used to hunt and eat fish, birds, wild animals, etc.

Early Humans: Why Did They Move From One Place to Another?

• While hunting animals, they used to reach from one place to another.
• People used to change their places due to the effects of changing seasons such as drought, flood, extreme heat, or cold. According to the season, they used to go out in search of different fruits and flowers.
• Due to staying in one place for a long time, he used to end up eating fruits, flowers, plants, animals, etc.
• The places with the red triangle are places where there is evidence of the presence of a hunter-gatherer. Apart from this, there are hunter-food collectors in many other places.
• These people used to choose such a place to live where they would have facilities for food. Such as animals, fruits, water, etc. to hunt can be easily obtained.
• At the same time, they also took care that no wild animal could ask to harm them.
• Caves were chosen to protect against calamities like winter, heat, rain, storm, etc.

Rock Painting: – In the caves where people used to live, paintings have been found on some days. Some examples are paintings from the caves of Madhya Pradesh and Dashrini Uttar Pradesh.

Finding out about the Fire

The ashes were first found by archaeologists in the Kurnool cave, which also suggests that early humans had learned to burn fire. The fire was used to escape the wild animal and to cook the meat.

Names and Dates

• Archaeologists named the early period the Palaeolithic.
• The Palaeolithic period is thought to be from 20 million years to 12000 years ago.

Let’s Recall

Question: Complete these sentences.

1. The hunter-gatherers lived in caves because _

Here they also got protection from cold, sun, heat, rain, storm and wild animals.

2. Khas Wale Maidan was developed _ years ago.
   Answer: 12000

Question: Why did the cultivators stay in one place for a long time?
Answer: The cultivators lived in one place for a long time because they had to work very hard to make the land fertile, and then after cultivating, they used to take care of it, irrigate and wait for the fruits.

Question 3: Why do archaeologists believe that the people of Mehrgarh were only hunter-gatherers and later animal husbandry became more important for them?
Answer: Mehrgarh is stationary near the road to Iran. All the first levels of excavation at this place give evidence of hunters. But after excavation, more bones of domestic cattle have been found, which indicates to us that in the later years it became important for the people of Merhargarh to raise cattle.

Question 4: Why did hunter-gatherers keep moving from one place to another? What are the similarities or differences between the reasons for his visit and ours today?
Answer: Those people had to move from one place to another in search of food, due to change of weather, today people used to go to different places for roaming, in search of work, for business, for studies. Is.
Travel similarities:
Even today, shepherds travel from one place to another in search of fodder and water for their animals.
Contraindications to travel:-

1. At present people grow grains themselves, earlier people used to wander here and there in search of food.
2. Today people like to roam in different places for their gaiety.

Question 5: What were the hunter-gatherers using fire for? Would you use fire today for which of these things?
Answer: Hunting food collectors used to use the following things:-
To cook meat
To protect from wild animals
To light
At present, people use fire to cook food.

Question 6. How different was the life of farmers and livestock farmers from the life of a hunter-gatherer, tell three differences?
Answer: The life of farmers-animals was different from the life of a hunter-gatherer in this way, three main differences:

• The farmers-animals had started staying in one place while the hunters used to move from one place to another.
• Farmer-veterinarians used to do farming while the hunters used to eat the meat and fruits of the food-gathering animals.
• The farmers and herders used to store food and the hunter-gatherers did not do anything like that, they used to find food for every day only.