Domestication of animals
A stray puppy that gets a bowl of food every day starts following you home. Slowly it begins to guard your house. Long ago people and animals came together in just this way.
Domestication (पाळीवपणा) means taming wild animals and keeping them for our use. Keeping animals for our use is animal husbandry (पशुपालन).
Rule 1: Three steps of domestication — (1) Capture wild animals. (2) Tame them, that is, train them to live with humans. (3) Get useful things like milk, and train them to work as beasts of burden. After step 3 the animal is completely domesticated.
In the figure : In the figure domestication goes in steps: capture, tame, then take milk or work.
- Easy : Easy: A dog, goat and cow are domesticated.
- Medium : Medium: A bullock pulling a cart is at step 3.
- Exam-type : Exam: Number the steps: capture, tame, use.
Rule 2: First animals — The dog was the first animal domesticated, in the Middle Stone Age, and helped in hunting. The goat and the sheep were domesticated next. Cattle and buffalo came later.
- Easy : Easy: The dog was first.
- Medium : Medium: A dog helped in hunting, so hunters kept it.
- Exam-type : Exam: Next came goat and sheep.
Domestication: capture, tame, use. Dog first.
Thinking all animals were domesticated together. Dog first, then goat and sheep.
Memory clue: "पकड, माणसाळव, वापर".
Spot the difference
| Animal | Use |
|---|---|
| Dog | Help in hunting |
| Goat, sheep | Milk, wool |
| Cattle | Milk, farm work |
Practice questions
- 1What is domestication?
- 2Name the three steps.
- 3What is animal husbandry?
- 4Which was the first domesticated animal?
- 5In which age was it domesticated?
- 6How did the dog help?
- 7A buffalo gives milk and carries loads. At which step is it?
- 8Why can a tiger not be fully domesticated though it can be caught?
Show answers (try them yourself first)
- 1Taming wild animals and keeping them for our use.
- 2Capture, tame, use for milk or work.
- 3Keeping animals for our use.
- 4The dog.
- 5Middle Stone Age.
- 6In hunting.
- 7Step 3, completely domesticated.
- 8It is dangerous and cannot be trained for work or milk.
Beginning of agriculture
When you plant a seed in a pot, you must water it daily and stay near it till it grows. A farmer cannot leave the field either. So farming made people stay in one place.
Agriculture (शेती) is growing crops. It first began about 11,000 years ago, in the region of Israel and Iraq.
Rule 1: How farming began — Women are credited with starting cultivation. They may have sown seeds with pointed sticks, and a perforated stone weighed the stick so it dug deeper.
In the figure : In the figure the plough increased the harvest, and farming made people settle in one place.
- Easy : Easy: Farming began about 11,000 years ago.
- Medium : Medium: A stick with a perforated stone dug deeper.
- Exam-type : Exam: 11,000 years ago in Israel and Iraq.
Rule 2: Plough and village life — Production grew a lot after the plough pulled by animals came into use. People stayed in one place, worshipped nature and deities for good crops, shared farm work and water, and made rules and customs. Thus a social system based on agriculture began.
- Easy : Easy: A plough is pulled by animals.
- Medium : Medium: Because of farming, people stayed in one place.
- Exam-type : Exam: Farming led to rules and customs.
Farming: 11,000 years ago. Plough → more food → settled life → rules.
Thinking farming made people wander more. It made them settle.
Memory clue: "शेती = थांबा".
Spot the difference
| Step | Result |
|---|---|
| Sowing with sticks | Start of farming |
| Plough | More production |
| Farming | Settled life |
Practice questions
- 1What is agriculture?
- 2When did it begin?
- 3Where did it begin?
- 4Who is believed to have started cultivation?
- 5What helped the stick dig deeper?
- 6What increased production?
- 7Why did people stay in one place?
- 8How many years before 2026 did farming begin?
Show answers (try them yourself first)
- 1Growing crops.
- 2About 11,000 years ago.
- 3Israel and Iraq region.
- 4Women.
- 5A perforated stone weight.
- 6The plough pulled by animals.
- 7Crops need care for months.
- 8About 11,000 years.
Special skills and occupations
If you must cook, fetch water and clean every day, you have no time to paint. When your father brings enough grocery for a month, you get time for a hobby. Stored grain gave early people such free time.
Foodgrains (अन्नधान्य) could be stored for long, so people got spare time and developed special skills (विशेष कौशल्ये).
Rule 1: From hunting to skills — Before agriculture, people hunted and gathered, could not store food for long, and all men and women were busy getting food. With agriculture, grain was stored and there was more than the community needed.
In the figure : In the figure stored grain gave spare time, and people used it to develop skills such as making pots and beads.
- Easy : Easy: Grain can be stored.
- Medium : Medium: Hunting-gathering left no spare time.
- Exam-type : Exam: Storing grain gave spare time for new skills.
Rule 2: Crafts — People with special skills were given work based on those skills. So crafts like making earthen pots (मातीची भांडी) and beads (मणी) arose. In the New Stone Age, women are believed to have made earthen pots by hand.
- Easy : Easy: Pots store grain.
- Medium : Medium: Beads were worn as ornaments.
- Exam-type : Exam: Women made pots by hand in the New Stone Age.
Stored grain → spare time → skills → crafts.
Thinking everyone made pots. Only those with special skills did.
Memory clue: "धान्य साठा → वेळ → कला".
Spot the difference
| Before farming | After farming |
|---|---|
| No storing | Grain stored |
| Busy all day | Spare time |
| No crafts | Pots, beads |
Practice questions
- 1What did people do for food before farming?
- 2Why could they not store food?
- 3What could be stored after farming?
- 4What did people get from stored grain?
- 5Name two crafts that arose.
- 6Who made pots in the New Stone Age?
- 7Why are pots useful for farmers?
- 8A village grows 100 sacks and needs only 70. How many sacks are spare?
Show answers (try them yourself first)
- 1Hunting and gathering.
- 2Hunted and gathered food spoils soon.
- 3Foodgrains.
- 4Spare time.
- 5Earthen pots and beads.
- 6Women, by hand.
- 7To store grain and water and to cook.
- 8100 − 70 = 30 sacks.
Trade, co-operation and village administration
You give a neighbour a mango and she gives you a coconut in return. No money is used. This is how early people traded.
The barter system (वस्तुविनिमय) is exchanging goods for goods without money.
Rule 1: Barter and salt trade — Farmers had extra food and needed craftsmen to make and repair tools. Craftsmen were paid in grain or other goods and bought raw material from far away the same way. Salt was essential and came from distant places, so the salt trade (मिठाचा व्यापार) helped trade grow in the New Stone Age.
In the figure : In the figure goods are exchanged for goods without money, for example grain for pots or salt.
- Easy : Easy: Grain for pots is barter.
- Medium : Medium: 5 measures of grain for 1 pot = barter.
- Exam-type : Exam: Salt came from far, so its trade grew.
Rule 2: Chiefs and protection — The village made rules for co-operation. People responsible for the rules became chiefs (प्रमुख) and protected the village. This is how village administration began. Excavations found protective walls and moats built against floods, wild animals and outsiders who stole cattle.
- Easy : Easy: A chief protects the village.
- Medium : Medium: Walls protected against floods and thieves.
- Exam-type : Exam: Rules led to village administration.
Barter = goods for goods. Salt trade grew. Chiefs made rules.
Thinking barter used coins. It used no money.
Memory clue: "बार्टर = वस्तू ↔ वस्तू".
Spot the difference
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Barter | Goods for goods |
| Salt trade | Spread trade |
| Chief | Rules and protection |
Practice questions
- 1What is barter?
- 2Why did farmers need craftsmen?
- 3How were craftsmen paid?
- 4Which essential item came from far?
- 5Who made village rules?
- 6What did chiefs protect?
- 7Why were walls and moats built?
- 8A potter gets 3 baskets of grain for 1 pot. How many baskets for 4 pots?
Show answers (try them yourself first)
- 1Exchanging goods for goods without money.
- 2To make and repair tools.
- 3In grain or goods.
- 4Salt.
- 5The village community, with chiefs.
- 6The village.
- 7Against floods, wild animals and cattle thieves.
- 84 × 3 = 12 baskets.
Houses, kinship and family
Ask a grandmother about her village house: mud walls, a courtyard and a cow-dung floor. Early villagers built homes from what was nearby.
Wattle and daub (कुडाचे घर) houses are made of woven sticks or bamboo plastered with mud or cow-dung.
Rule 1: Changing houses — At first houses were wattle and daub. Food was plentiful, so population grew and villages became permanent. Later people built quadrangular houses of sun-dried bricks (उन्हात वाळवलेल्या विटा). Some had more than one room, and they stood close together. House styles differed by climate.
In the figure : In the figure houses changed from wattle and daub to sun-dried bricks, and were built close together.
- Easy : Easy: Early houses used mud and sticks.
- Medium : Medium: Bricks were dried in the sun.
- Exam-type : Exam: Houses differed region to region by climate.
Rule 2: Kinship and the dead — The people of a village seem to belong to one clan, so the village was an extended family (विस्तारित कुटुंब). A dead person was buried in the house or courtyard, perhaps so the bond with the family would not break. Articles were buried with the dead for use after death.
- Easy : Easy: A village was like one big family.
- Medium : Medium: Articles were buried with the dead.
- Exam-type : Exam: Burial in the courtyard kept the family bond.
Wattle and daub → sun-dried bricks. Village = extended family.
Thinking all houses looked the same everywhere. Styles changed with climate.
Memory clue: "काठ्या+माती → कुड; वीट+ऊन → पक्की".
Spot the difference
| House | Material |
|---|---|
| Wattle and daub | Sticks and mud or dung |
| Sun-dried brick | Mud bricks dried in sun |
Practice questions
- 1What is wattle and daub?
- 2Why did the population grow?
- 3What were later houses made of?
- 4What shape were the houses?
- 5Why did house styles differ?
- 6What is an extended family?
- 7Why were the dead buried in the house?
- 8Why were articles buried with the dead?
Show answers (try them yourself first)
- 1Woven sticks plastered with mud or dung.
- 2Food was plentiful.
- 3Sun-dried bricks.
- 4Quadrangular.
- 5Climates differed.
- 6A large family of one clan; here the whole village.
- 7Perhaps so the bond with the family would not break.
- 8For use after death.
Quick revision
- The dog was the first animal domesticated; domestication has three steps.
- Agriculture began about 11,000 years ago; it led to stored grain, crafts, barter, salt trade and village chiefs.
- Houses changed from wattle and daub to sun-dried bricks; the village was like an extended family.