NCERT Book Solutions Class 6 Our Pasts - Chapter 2
NCERT Solutions for class 6 History Chapter 2 "From Hunting-Gathering to Growing Food" contains the answers for the exercise. This chapter begins with a doubt that arises in the mind of Tushar while travelling from Delhi to Chennai. This chapter will systematically help in solving his query by making him understand how people moved from one place to other, the reason behind their movement and the beginning of farming and herding.
Intext Question, Page - 16
Q. Can you think of any reasons why the dog was perhaps the first animal to be tamed.
Answer:
The dog is :
- Smaller in size and could be easily kept.
- They are gentle and man learnt they are loving creatures who followed their masters.
- Dog is an intelligent animals when it is compared with other animals like pig, sheep and goat.
Intext Question, Page - 17
Q. Look at the two sets of teeth given in the textbook page 17. Which do you think belongs to a wild pig and which to a domesticated animal.
Answer:
Among the two sets of teeth
- One is much smaller in size and teeth are not sharp, they have rounded edges. They belong to domesticated animal.
- Another set of teeth are very large. It has sharp pointed teeth, may be used for tearing meat. They belong to wild pig.
Intext Questions, Page - 18
Q. Do you think hunters-gathers would have made and used pots ? Give reasons for your answer.
Answer:
As grain had to be stored for both and seed, people and to think of ways of storing it. In many areas, they began making large clay pots.
Hunter-gathers went to hunt animals and gather fruits and barries everyday. So they, did not need clay pots.
Q. Apart from food, what are the other things that could have been obtained from animals ? What are the animals used for today ?
Answer:
Apart from food animals give
- Skin and hide, used for making clothes.
- The bones were used to make tools.
- The blood was used for painting the walls of the caves.
- The sinews were used a thread.
- The fat could be used to light the caves
Today we use animals :
- for transportation, pulling the carts
- performing operations
Intext Question, Page - 22
Q. What do you think cowries and shells would have been used for ?
Answer:
Cowries and shells were used as a form of currency in ancient India.
Let's Recall, Page - 22
1. Complete the sentences:
(a) Hunter-gathers chose to live in caves and rock shelters because_______
(b) Grasslands developed around________years ago.
Answer:
(a) they found protection from rains, winds and sunlight
(b) 12,000
2. Why do people who grow crops have to stay in the same place for a long time ?
Answer:
People who grow crops have to stay at one place for a long time because the fields had to be looked after, the plants had to be watered and plants had to be protected from birds and animals so that they could grow and the seeds would ripen.
3. Why do archaeologists think that many people who lived in Mehrgarh were hunters to start with and that herding became more important later ?
Answer:
Archaeologists think many people who lived in Mehrgarh were hunters because they have found bones of many kinds of animals from earliest levels. These included bones of wild animals such as deer and pig. In later levels they found more bones of sheep and goat and in still later levels, cattle bones are more common.
Let's Discuss, Page - 24
4. Why did the hunter - gathers travel from place to place ? In what ways are these similar to/different from the reasons for which we travel today ?
Answer:
There are 4 reasons :
- They would have eaten up all the plant and animal resources
- Animals move from place to place, hence they had to follow their movements.
- Plants and trees bear fruits in different seasons. So people may have moved from season to season in search of different kinds of plants.
- They need water to survive, many rivers and lakes were seasonal had to go in search of water during dry seasons.
Answer:
It was primarily used for 3 purposes :
- Clearing forest area
- Cooking
- For protection from wild animals
6. List three ways in which the lives of farmers and herders would have different from that of hnter - gathers.
Answer:
Farmers herders :
- Farmers had to stay at once place because they had to lend the plants and look after the fields.
- Farmers could much more than was needed by his family.
- They stored the surplus food or sold them in the market.
- The hunter had to migrate to those places where game was plentiful.
- The hunters-gathers collected that was needed by them.
- They could not store food or sell them in the market.