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Introduction:

Our ancestors who relied on gathering to survive knew much about plants and trees. 
They sometimes might remove a neighboring tree or plants to make space for plants 
or trees they wanted to harvest. They probably even from time to time planted crops 
or trees, but as they were on the move this was not a main occupation so for millions 
of years they remained hunters and gatherers. 
 
Some 13,000 years ago this changed. This was a mild period after an ice age and the 
numbers of people had risen as food had become plentiful. However, for a few 
hundred years the Earth experienced a new small and severe ice age. Draught 
ravaged many areas and as a survival strategy people in the Middle East began to 
plant crops along rivers in what is now Iraq and Egypt. They were successful. The 
farming communities grew in size and level of organization. They spread their 
techniques to other areas as some migrated and as knowledge was transmitted. 
Because farmers selected the best seeds for planting in the next season they slowly 
changed wild plants into domesticated varieties. The same happened to animals. 
When there were fewer animals to hunt farmers raised sheep and goats, and over 
time breed only the friendliest animals and those that yielded most meat or milk. 
After the ice age the Sahara desert was a lush savannah for thousands of years but 
around 8000 years ago it started to dry out. Therefore many people moved to live 
along the fertile river Nile. The influx of people further developed Egyptian 
agriculture. 
 
Farming was started independently in China at about the same time and a bit later in 
Papua Guinea, in Mexico and in the Andes of South America. Some of the cultures 
had no contact with the other farmers. Thus the transition to farming was more than 
a local phenomenon. We do not know why people in several locales in a period of a 
few thousand years started farming when our ancestors had been hunting and 
gathering for hundreds of thousands of years. Some speculate that the climatic 
period we now live in has been more stable than any similar period during the last 
400,000 years. For much of the past million years climate were colder and dryer than 
today, so people in the past might not have had enough time to build the extensive 
knowledge needed for an advanced farming culture. But once well organized 
agricultural societies have shown their potential to influence vast regions. 
 
The spread of farming in Africa is an example of this. Farming started in Egypt very 
long ago and slowly spread south and west. 3000 years ago the Bantu people were a 
farming tribe in the region where we find Cameroon today. They knew of several 
crops and of making iron. From their original homeland they started to migrate into 
Central Africa. When they reach East Africa the Bantus met pastoral tribes with their 
herds of cattle and added husbandry to the farming tradition. They expanded into all 
of Southern Africa mingling with the original population except in the extremely dry 
regions where the original San people still survive and the dense forests of Central 
Africa where we find indigenous Pygmy tribes. 
 
Farming made possible a great transformation of the world and its people and 
enabled the number of human beings to grow manifold.

Directive:

1. See the film (Guns, Germs and Steel film no. 1) if possible together with a fellow student, or someone else interested 
in the matter (you may also show it to a group of DNS students. In that case you 
would need to prepare for a presentation and discussion and you might have to use 
more than the allocated 2 hours.) 
 
2. Discuss the film with your fellow student (or consider for yourself if you could 
not find someone to share the film with). Conclude on what the film tells about:
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">- Why people started farming? 
- What are some main characteristics of farming life as compared to life as hunter- 
gatherer? 
- How did farming spread to new areas? 
- What are the factors Jared Diamond (the film maker) use to explain differences in 
agricultural development in different parts of the world? 
&nbsp;</div>
3. Write down your conclusions and send to your tutor. 
(You may do this task together with the task: History as a result of environmental 
factors - section 4, task 6.)

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