Writing Assignment 2 –
Cause-and-effect and the history of hunters and gatherers
Before you start on this assignment:
1. Review WTWA, Chapter 1, pages 18-42.
2. Review the Clive Gamble tool use chart (see BLACKBOARD for the PDF)
3. Read and examine the example of prehistoric art from the end of Chapter 1 in WTWA.
The work: Drawing on both the tool use chart and the assigned readings, how and why did human society become more complex between around 80,000 BCE and 6,000 BCE?
Being “proficient” at this activity requires satisfying all of the following criteria:
1. Your answer cites the sources of its information using parenthetical citations.
To show me that you understand the assigned reading, you need to show me where you are drawing on things you learned from the reading. These can be simple citations: (WTWA, page #) or (Gamble, page #) is enough.
2. Your answer uses specific examples from the assigned readings to show how human society changed *before* the domestication of plants and animals in around 10,000 BCE.
To show that you have thought independently about cause and effect, you need to describe and give examples in your own words that explain changes in hunter gatherer societies.
3. Your answer uses specific examples to show how domesticating animals and plants depended on earlier changes in human society, especially technological ones.
This activity is designed to make you think about change over time in history. Show me, in your own words, that you understand how later changes (domestication) depended on earlier ones.
4. Your answer uses specific examples to show how and why domesticating animals and plants led to greater complexity in human societies that adopted agriculture and pastoralism.
In history, change often has unintended consequences. Show me, in your own words, that you understand how adopting new lifestyles (pastoralism, agriculture) led to many further changes to human society, not all of which were positive.