First Farmers

Question 1

Agricultural Revolution

Answer 1

Also known as the Neolithic Revolution, this is the transformation of human (and world) existence caused by the deliberate cultivation of particular plants and the deliberate taming and breeding of particular animals.

Question 2

Austronesian

Answer 2

An Asian-language family whose speakers gradually became the dominant culture of the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Pacific islands, thanks to their mastery of agriculture.

Question 3

Banpo

Answer 3

A Chinese archeological site, where the remains of a significant Neolithic village have been found.

Question 4

Bantu

Answer 4

An African-language family whose speakers gradually became the dominant culture of eastern and southern Africa, thanks to their agricultural techniques and, later, their ironworking skills.

Question 5

Bantu Migration

Answer 5

The spread of Bantu-speaking peoples from their homeland in what is now southern Nigeria or Cameroon to most of Africa, in a process that started ca. 3000 B.C.E. and continued for several millennia.

Question 6

broad spectrum diet

Answer 6

Archeologists’ term for the diet of gathering and hunting societies, which included a wide array of plants and animals.

Question 7

Cahokia (pron. cah-HOKE-ee-ah)

Answer 7

An important agricultural chiefdom of North America that flourished around 1100 C.E.

Question 8

Çatalhüyük (pron. cha-TAHL-hoo-YOOK)

Answer 8

An important Neolithic site in what is now Turkey.

Question 9

Chiefdom

Answer 9

​A societal grouping governed by a chief who typically relies on generosity, ritual status, or charisma rather than force to win obedience from the people.

Question 10

diffusion

Answer 10

The gradual spread of agricultural techniques without extensive population movement.

Question 11

domestication

Answer 11

The taming, breeding, changing, and manipulation of plants and animals for the benefit of humankind.

Question 12

end of the last ice age

Answer 12

A process of global warming that began around 16,000 years ago and ended about 5,000 years later, with the earth enjoying a climate similar to that of our own time; the end of the Ice Age changed conditions for human beings, leading to increased population and helping to pave the way for agriculture.

Question 13

Fertile Crescent

Answer 13

​Region sometimes known as Southwest Asia that includes the modern states of Iraq, Syria, Israel/Palestine, and southern Turkey; the earliest home of agriculture.

Question 14

horticulture

Answer 14

Hoe (tool for farming)-based agriculture, typical of early agrarian societies.

Question 15

intensification

Answer 15

The process of getting more in return for less; for example, growing more food on a smaller plot of land.

Question 16

Jericho

Answer 16

Site of an important early agricultural settlement of perhaps 2,000 people in present-day Israel.

Question 17

Mesopotamia

Answer 17

The valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in present-day Iraq.

Question 18

Native Australians

Answer 18

​Often called “Aboriginals” (from the Latin ab origine, the people who had been there “from the beginning”), the natives of Australia continued (and to some extent still continue) to live by gathering and hunting, despite the transition to agriculture in nearby lands.

Question 19

Pastoral society and Pastoral Nomads

Answer 19

A human society that relies on domesticated animals rather than plants as the main source of food;

Pastoral nomads lead their animals to seasonal grazing grounds rather than settling permanently in a single location.

Question 20

“secondary products revolution”

Answer 20

A term used to describe the series of technological changes that began ca. 4000 B.C.E., as people began to develop new uses for their domesticated animals, exploiting a revolutionary new source of power.

Question 21

stateless societies

Answer 21

Village-based agricultural societies, usually organized by kinship groups, that functioned without a formal government apparatus.

Question 22

teosinte (pron. tay-oh- SIN-tay)

Answer 22

The wild ancestor of maize (corn).