From hunting - gathering to growing food - class-VI

In nature, sheep, and goats live in secluded mountain grasslands where they spend the vast majority of their time grazing the diverse landscape. 

Some of the earliest people who lived here were skilled gatherers, — that is, people who gathered their food. They knew about the vast wealth of plants in the surrounding forests, and collected roots, fruits, and other forest produce for their food. They also hunted animals.

herders keep migrating from one location to another.

Hunters and gatherers would have made and used pots because for their survival it was important for them to change their behavior with passing time.

 The first animal to be tamed was the wild ancestor of the dog because the dog is smaller in size and could be easily kept. Also, it is an intelligent animals when it is compared with other animals like goat, sheep and pig.

Firstly, studies indicate that an extinct Late Pleistocene wolf is the nearest common ancestor to the dog, with modern wolves not being the dog's direct ancestor. 

This Taymyr Peninsula wolf belonged to a population that had diverged from the ancestors of both modern wolves and dogs.

 Grassland degradation, also called vegetation or steppe degradation is a biotic disturbance in which grass struggles to grow or can no longer exist on a piece of land due to causes such as overgrazing, burrowing of small mammals, and climate change.

An increase in some small animal populations has led to some grasslands being degraded.

They claim that such burrowing aids in the recycling of nutrients in the soil and that the rise in population is only normal since grazing levels in these areas have also risen.

Domestication of animals help the humans in many ways for eg ; Cows ang goats gave them milk and meat , Cattle also helped them in ploughing the fields also Cattle and sheep are kept for their wool, skins, meat and milk , large animals can also be used to do physical work like carrying things or plowing the field and Dogs gave company and also helped in hunting.Civilizations that domesticated animals tame and train animals for their own personal use.

Beginning
of farming and herding occur during the Mesolithic Period i.e. roughly from about 12000 years ago. There were changes in climatic conditions. There was adequate rainfall with better tools and harmonized climate conditions for farming. People no longer depended on hunting, fishing, and gathering.
Agriculture and animal husbandry took care of their food. 

There is an intimate relationship between human life and the environment. Hence it is necessary to learn about the geographical environment in order to know about human history. 

Most of the tribal people were hunter-gatherers. Therefore, members of a tribe usually did occupations like hunting, gathering and farming.

In the absence of historical evidence, attempts were made to stir up the memories of the ordinary people to unearth details about various events. They were related to the past and present events. Many a time, these memories of the incidents had religious recognition too. 

Historians resort to oral descriptions to narrate the lives of ordinary people. The history created by such oral descriptions is called Oral History. 

Neolithic age is also known as agriculture revolution age since the discovery of agriculture took place in west Asia during this time.

The history of the common people was equally important and as such, writing about those who were uneducated and stayed away from knowledge centres posed a serious challenge. Hence, in the recent ages, study of history of common people has gained a lot of importance.

The first attempts at domestication of animals and plants were made during the Mesolithic Period. The first animal to be domesticated was the dog. The earliest evidence of domestication of animals comes from Adamgarh (M.P.) and Bagor in Rajasthan dated 5500 B.C. and 4500 B.C. respectively.

Hallur (in present-day Andhra Pradesh). Here evidence of grains of millets have been found.

Archaeologists have found traces of huts or houses at some sites. For instance, in Burzahom (in present-day Kashmir) people built pit-houses, which were dug into the ground, with steps leading into them. These may have provided shelter in cold weather.

Humans
made remarkable technological progress during the Neolithic period.
They became food - producers and started leading a settled life.People
no longer depend on hunting , fishing and gathering . Agriculture and
animal husbandary took care of their food, with agriculture expansion ,
early human beings needed pots in which they could store yheir food
grains. They also needed pots for cooking , eating and drinking.Pottery
was invented during this period.Animals like dogs , cats , cattle, sheep
, camels , geese, horses and pigs started out as wild animals. But
these animals were tamed out as wild animals.

All
the animals that we keep as pet these days, such as dogs, cats , cattle
, sheep, camels, geese, horses, and pigs, started out as wild
animals. But these animals were tamed into quieter animals by our
Neolithic ancestor. Humans benefited by the domestication of animals are
as follows; Cows and goats gave them milk and meat , cattle also helped
them in ploughing the fields and Dogs gave company and also helped in
hunting.

Domestication
is the name given to the process in which people grow plants and look
after animals. Very often, plants and animals that are tended by people
become different from wild plants and animals.

Usually
two or three generations live together in small settlements or
villages. Most families are related to one another and groups of such
families form a tribe.

Archaeological evidence from the Neolithic site of Hallur in Karnataka has revealed the presence of domesticated sheep and goat bones.

• The earliest 'man-like creature' which racially differed from 'Homo sapiens' is generally known as Hominid.
• They are also known as great apes and are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species.