Chapter 11

Question 1

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

Answer 1

live in year-round villages prior to the emergence of domestication.

Question 2

What is a vertical economy?

Answer 2

a system that exploits environmental zones that contrast with one another in altitude, rainfall, overall climate, and vegetation

Question 3

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

Answer 3

more brittle, so the grain didn’t need to be roasted in order to remove the tough husk

Question 4

Which of the following statements about domesticated sheep is true?

Answer 4

Wool on sheep apparently happened sometime after domestication, domestic sheep’s wool offers it protection against extreme heat.

Question 5

The path from foraging to food production was one that people followed independently in at least seven world areas.

Answer 5

true

Question 6

To what did Kent Flannery (1969) refer with the term broad-spectrum revolution?

Answer 6

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

Question 7

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

Answer 7

New World farming began in the lowlands of South America and then spread to Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean islands.

Question 8

What is the name of the wild ancestor of maize?

Answer 8

teosinte

Question 9

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

Answer 9

occurred before the rise of the first sedentary communities.

Question 10

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?

Answer 10

Large domesticated animals played an important role in Mesopotamia but were absent from Mesoamerica.

Question 11

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

Answer 11

microliths

Question 12

Which of the following was a consequence of domestication?

Answer 12

Sedentary life became more widespread.

Question 13

Which of the following is a benefit of farming?

Answer 13

greater predictability of staple species

Question 14

Which of the following is true?

Answer 14

Food production led to an increase in social inequality and a decline in public health.

Question 15

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

Answer 15

false

Question 16

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.

Answer 16

true

Question 17

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

Answer 17

true

Question 18

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

Answer 18

true

Question 19

Rice was domesticated in southern China.

Answer 19

true

Question 20

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

Answer 20

Neolithic