Analyze hunter-gatherer Paleolithic societies (Sapiens evolution out of East Africa c. 200,000-70,000 BCE, migration globally, fire and tool use) and the Neolithic Agricultural Revolution (c. 10,000-8,000 BCE) and its consequences (settlement, surplus, kingship, organized religion, writing-systems origin)
Exercise
Difficulty 4
~6 min
hist.g6.f.ex_04
Evidence Evaluation
Prompt
Read this excerpt: 'Skeletal evidence from early-Neolithic Fertile Crescent farming sites shows farmers were SHORTER and had MORE dental disease than their late-Paleolithic hunter-gatherer ancestors.' (Larsen 1995; Cohen and Armelagos 1984). How does this evidence challenge the simple 'Agricultural Revolution made life better' narrative? Write a 3-sentence response.
How it's presented
mode
text
Answer criteria
type
rubric scored writing
rubric
3 stars: identifies that bioarchaeological evidence shows early-Neolithic individuals were worse off than hunter-gatherer ancestors AND distinguishes individual-life impact from civilization-level transformation AND uses 'BUT' or 'however' to mark the multi-perspective complication. 2 stars: identifies the evidence + complication. 1 star: identifies the evidence only. 0: response misses the bioarchaeological point.
Hints
- Look at the difference between INDIVIDUAL-LIFE impact and CIVILIZATION-LEVEL impact.
- What does it mean to say something was 'good for civilization' but 'bad for individuals'?
Misconceptions to watch
- Treating Agricultural Revolution as unambiguous improvement
- Conflating individual-life impact with civilizational impact
Used in lessons