CLASS-6||HISTORY|| LESSON - 2|| On the Trial of the Earliest People||

 

Chapter 2

On The Trial of the Earliest People

1.     Why did the hunter-gatherers travel from place to place? In what ways are these similar to/different from the reasons for which we travel today?
 Hunter-gatherers travelled from place to place for four basic reasons which are as follows: (also see flow-learning).

·         If they stayed at one place for a long time, they would have eaten up all the available plant and animal resources. Therefore, they went to another place for more food.

·         Animals move from place to place. Humans followed them as they hunted them.

·         Plants and trees bear fruit in different seasons. So when season changed, people moved to another place.

·         In search of water, people travelled from place to place. Water is necessary for survival.

However, nowadays we travel for different purposes, like:

1.     Education. We travel to schools.

2.     Work. We travel to work.

3.     Business. People travel from place to place for business purposes.

4.     Entertainment. We travel from one place to another to amuse and entertain ourselves, like going to a circus, a zoo or sightseeing.

2.     What tools would you use today for cutting fruit? What would they be made of?
Today, for cutting fruit, we would use modem tools like knives, which are made of iron or steel.

 

3.      List three ways in which hunter-gatherers used fire. Would you use fire for any of these purposes today?                                                                              ,
(a)

1.     Hunter-gatherers used fire as a source of light.

2.     They used fire to cook meat or food.

3.     They used fire to scare away animals also.

4.     Fire keeps him or her warm.

(b) Yes, fire is used as a source to cook food including meat. We also use it to keep us warm. Some people use it for religious purposes and bum their dead bodies.

4.     Make two columns in your notebook. In the left hand column, list the foods hunter-gatherers ate. In the right hand column, list some of the foods you eat. Do you notice any similarities/differences.

COLUMN 1 Food eaten by early man	COLUMN 2 Food eaten by modern man
Fruits, roots, nuts, seeds, leaves, stalks, eggs, meat	Processed food like bread, pizza, ice-cream, etc, along with unprocessed food like fruit.

Differences between the two eating habits: Today, we largely eat processed and cooked food, whereas the early people did not cook their food. They ate everything raw.

5.     If you had a natural pebble-like the ones shown on page 13 in the textbook, what would you use it for?

1.     I would have used some of these stone tools to cut meat and bone, scrape bark (from trees) and hides (animal skins), chop fruit, and roots.

2.     Some may have been attached to handles of bone or wood, to make spears and arrows for hunting.

3.     Other stone tools were used to chop wood, which was used as firewood,

6.      List two tasks that are performed by both men and women at present. List another two that are performed only by women, and two that are performed only by men. Compare your list with that of any two of your classmates. Do you notice any similarities/differences in your lists?

Two tasks that are performed by both men and women:
(a) Teaching                                        (b) office jobs

Two tasks that are performed by only men:
(a) Mining                                            (b) Working in a shipyard

Two tasks that are performed by only women:
(a) Nursing                                          (b) Looking after home and hearth