Lara Tuncer Mrs.Sedmak Ap Human Geography May 8, 2021 A. The first people lived in groups and they were mobile, going to the source of food. They were first hunter-gatherers but as they discovered some edible crops, they started staying in the areas longer. The food was next to where they were living, easily accessible and easy to manage compared to hunting. They found shelters when they moved to hide or live in, fed themselves until seasons changed in the same area.Later, they changed location when the climate was infavorable, so they fled to another valley to look for new sources of food. They haunted the available game at the time. People travelled in search of for more food or better climate. B. Domestication is the way the people control the nature by interfering and changing the its nature. Domestication of the crops is the way to change the crops by selecting the best among them, for the purpose of serving for the best useful to human kind. The crops can be domesticated for their taste, nutrition value, or productivity. In the ancient times, domestication was applied naturally as the people in the area were geographically lucky, so it made it possible to domesticate crops and later animals. Animal domestication was by controlling the animals’ move, feed and breeding. When they started growing crops, they also looked for ways to store it. When they started controlling the nature, they started choosing the crops which were more beneficial for them without realizing. When they stopped following the food, but grew the crops next to where the lived, they also chose what kind they wanted and store them. This was the start of domestication. Those who could not make it happen were just unlucky geographically and did not have access to varities of food. C. Domestication led to people’s decision on what to farm. The ancient people could have changed the food chain of the modern world without realizing. They chose to be farmers to foragers, and they chose to select crops the way they grew, they tasted, the biggest, the best looking, easy to harvest or even faster to harvest. The shift of ancient people choosing farming to foraging, food production to food collection and domesticating the wild, they shifted the landscapes according to the their need choice.The early people might have cleared the area to yield more farming area by eliminating trees, other greens causing an adverse effect on the climate change, to enable the area drier, unaccessible to water and causing drought eventually. This early choice of domestication may have led to having the crops in certain areas and shaping the world we live in today by populating in the places where crops grow the best. D. I also agree with Diamond’s “ Continental Axis Theory” where crops, innovation, and animals spread more easily alongside the East-West Eurasia as they are in the same line of latitude. Since the same latitude shares the same length of day, similar kind of vegetation, and climate, these conditions make it easier for the people, animals or the crops to adapt themselves ecologically and geographically. 5. A. When people started living in larger scales, they became more productive farmers. They needed more muscle power to farm the lands and the ancient people discovered they could tame some animals which were in the area naturally. They used their meat, milk, fur and leather to make clothes. They also discovered they could tame them and use them as workforce on the farm field. B. The invention of plow and domesticating the animals around naturally such as cows, oxen etc. the vast cultivation of the land was possible. The more productive the lands became, the animals also fed on the remaining crops after the harvest and making their meat and milk more nutritious. They realized the dunks of the animals also fertilized the lands. The animals were fed better so they were healthy, their milk and meat provided protein for the people, maybe they got sick less so they were more productive and they could have food surpluses as they could plow the lands with the animals. So Jared Diamond thought those who settled in the Fertile Crescent were blessed naturally to have all the benefits of the nature. C. The best to domesticate were the large, plant eating mammals. Mammals had offsprings one or more every year and they also had to be social animals. So male and female of the animals would live together in a group and have an internal social hierarchy. Once the humans could control the leader, they could control the whole flock or herd of animals. Also they need to be well-tempered animals as they would live in the farm. Considering all these criteria, only fourteen animals were domesticated. Those were; sheep, goat, cow, pig, horse, Arabian camel, Bactrian camel, llama and alpaca, donkey, reindeer, water buffalo, yak, Bali cattle, and Mithan. D. The area where the “Fertile Crescent” was located, was shaped like an arc symbolising the crescent and the land was quite fertile; so the land deserved its name. They were geographically blessed with access to some of the best crops and farm animals in the world and these blessings gave them a good headstart. E. Jared Diamond realized that the ancient people in the “Fertile Crescent” were naturally blessed, having animals and crops naturally ready for domestication. Once the farmers invented the plows, animals helped in the muscle force, provided efficiency to the operations. Eventually they had food surpluses to store and also feed the animals.Their milk and meat benefitted, so did the ancient people. As these people had food surpluses to spare and feed the community, time to tend to other labor opportunities, they started basic sophisticated changes in their household. For example, they plastered their walls. They had to keep the fire in quite high temperatures for hours for plaster, so they learned how to control fire and it was a major step for forging the steel. 6. A. Even though the area was lucky to have a good headstart, unfortunately the region had a fundamental climate weakness where its climate was quite dry and its ecology was too fragile to support continuous farming. Without knowing, people destroyed the environment, the water was and the crops were overexploited, the trees were cut. Communities were forced to move on when there was no farming. They migrated either to East or to West. B. As these people were geographically blessed their move east or west still helped them to build their community from scratch, start over with the same crops as the land were favorable as they were on the same latitude. They were able to prosper both in East or West. C. I totall agree with the Jared Diamond’s opinion for the geography. Even people had to immigrate in the east-west axis, they found the same fertile lands suitable for the crops in Eurasia. The domestic animals they got used to were also available naturally in the area. So they started prospering fast as they were experienced in “Fertile Crescent” . When they spreaded East, they went to India, West were North Africa and Europe, they transformed human society for the better. Once these prosperous crops from the “Fertile Crescent” started growing in ancient Egypt, it caused a big impact on the Egyptian society. They had enough food to feed pharaohs and soldiers. There was also enough food to feed workers and Pyramids were built with the help of this prosperity.
