NCERT Solutions for Class 6 Social Science History Chapter 2 From Hunting – Gathering to Growing Food contains answers to all the questions given in the exercise of the history book. These solutions have been created on the basis of NCERT Book Guidelines. The solutions are prepared in simple language by our subject experts to help students in their exam preparation.
Class 6 History Chapter 2 From Hunting – Gathering to Growing Food Questions and Answers
Let’s Recall
Question 1: Complete the sentences
(a) Hunter-gatherers chose to live in caves and rock shelters because they found protection from rains, winds and sunlight.
(b) Grasslands developed around 12,000 years ago
Question 2: Why do people who grow crops have to stay in the same place for a long time?
Answer: When they plant a seed, it takes some time to grow. Depending on the type of seeds used, the time taken would vary from days, weeks, months and years. It means they had to stay in the same place to take care of the plants by watering, weeding, driving away animals and birds – till the grain ripened. Once ripened, they had to think of ways to store it. Hence, they had to stay in the same place for a long time.
Question 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: On excavation, archaeologists have found bones of wild animals in the lowermost levels. On upper levels, they found cattle bones. This means that hunting wild animals was important much before herding was.
Question 4: Why did the hunter-gatherers 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 and many rivers and lakes were seasonal. So, they had to go in search of water during dry seasons.
Question 5: List three ways in which hunter-gatherers used fire (see page 15). Would you use fire for any of these purposes today?
Answer: It was primarily used for 3 purposes.
- Clearing forest area
- Cooking
- For protection from wild animals.
Question 6: List three ways in which the lives of farmers and herders would have been different from that of hunter-gatherers.
Answer: Three points of difference between the lives of farmers/herders from hunter-gatherers:
(i) Hunter-gatherers kept travelling from place to place whereas farmers had to live at the same place for longer periods of time to take care of their crops.
(ii) Hunter-gatherers depended on the meat of wild animals whereas farmers and herders used plants, crops and cattle.
(iii) Hunter-gatherers did not have any settled life whereas farmers and herders gradually settled in huts, pit-houses, etc.
The NCERT Class 6 History Our Pasts-I Chapter 2 discusses the following topics:
- Why people moved from one location to the other
- The beginning of farming and herding
- Details on Mehrgarh