World History DBQ
DBQ 500 CE to 1000 CE
Directions: The following question is based on the accompanying Documents 1-8. (The
documents may have been edited for the purpose of this exercise).
This question is designed to test your ability to work with and understand historical
documents. Write an essay that:
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Has a relevant thesis and supports the thesis with evidence from the documents.
Uses all or all but one of the documents.
Analyzes the documents by grouping them in as many appropriate ways as
possible. Does not simply summarize the documents individually.
Takes into account both the sources of the documents and the author’s point of
view.
Points out documentation that would allow this essay to be more completely
answered.
You may refer to relevant historical information not included in the documents
1. Compare and contrast the differing cultural attitudes towards agricultural production
by the Native Americans and the Ancient Chinese during the period 500 C.E. – 1000 C.E.
Historical Background. During the period of 500 C.E. – 1000 C.E. ancient civilizations in
North and South America and China sophisticated and moved away from the hunting and
gathering lifestyles. These civilizations gravitated towards food collection and then
farming. Methodology, crops and attitudes toward agriculture varied with culture.
Document 1
Maria Manuela de Cora (an Incan Author) passes along an ancient legend. Seeds. KuaiMare: Mitos aborigines de Venezuala. Caracas. Monte Avila, 1972.
Pachacamac, who was the son of the sun, made a man and a woman in the dunes of
Lurin. There nothing to eat, and the man died of hunger. When the woman was bent over
searching for roots, the sun enticed her and made a child. Jealous, Pachacmac caught the
newborn baby and chopped him into pieces. But suddenly he repented, or was scared of
the anger of his father, the sun, and scattered about the world the pieces of his murdered
brother. From the teeth of the dead baby, corn grew; from the ribs and bones, cassava.
Thus the women and men born of these shores where it never rains, find food.
Document 2
From the website: http://www.garrobo.org/mosquitia/agriculture.pdf. Which is the
Central America Ecology and Environment. They are dedicated to the compilation,
organization, processing, and distribution of data and information about ecological,
environmental, Earth Science, and related topics pertaining to Central America.
Origins of Crops and heir Way of Growing:
Mexico
South America
Corn- seed
Yuca / Manioc- cuttings from the stalk “cangres”
Beans –seed
Yam- root
Squash-seeds
Cacao-seeds
[Some] chilis-seeds
Sweet Potato-root
Avocado –seeds
Peanuts-seeds
Africa
Bananas-“cepas”/young shoots
Plantains-young shoots
Sugar cane –cuttings of the stalk
Red grow yams-root
(There are native African yams &
South American yams)
Castor Oil Plant “yupur”
Rice-seeds
(There was Asian rice & a
separate African rice)
Aloe Vera (zabila)-young shoots
Watermelon-seeds
Okra- seeds
Asia
Mangos-seeds
Oranges-seeds
Coconuts-the coconut
Ginger-root
Lemon grass Tea
Rice-seeds
Document 3
Hurt, R. Douglas. “Mesoamerican Origins” from Indian Agriculture in America
Over time, the nomadic Indians of Mesoamerica learned the advantages of clearing away
unwanted plants in order to enhance the growth of others. This rudimentary weeding
process created a new, artificial environment for favored cultigens, which caused genetic
changes in these plants and increased their productivity. With these revelations, the basic
premise of agriculture had been discovered: planting, cultivating and harvesting--the
agricultural process--provided a much more dependable food supply. As a result, large
bands of Indians could settle in a specific area for a long period of time.
Current archaeological evidence cannot pinpoint a single location where Indian
agriculture began or determine precisely why the Indians became agriculturists. Rather,
the archaeological record suggests that the cultivation and domestication of plants
originated simultaneously in several Mesoamerican areas. Some of the most complete
evidence for early agricultural development comes from the Mexican state of Tamaulipas
and from the Tehuacan Valley, located in northeastern and south-central Mexico,
respectively. Indian farmers may have first raised bottle gourds (Lagenaria siceraria) as
early as 7000 B.C., in the Tehuacan Valley and in Oaxaca; Tehuacan Valley farmers
were perhaps the first to domesticate corn; and Indians may have originally cultivated
pumpkins in Tamaulipas. Concurrent agricultural development is important, because it
indicated that Indian farmers attempted to meet their own food needs according to the
dictates of their own environment.
Document 4
Penobscot (Native Mesoamerican Storyteller) passes along an ancient legend. Corn
Mother.
Moing’iima makes corn. Everything grows from his body. Every summer he becomes
heavy, his body full of vegetables: watermelons, corn squash. They grow in his body.
When the Hopi plant, they invariably ask him to make the flourish; then their things come
up, whether vegetables or fruits. When he shaves his body seeds come out and afterwards
his body is thin. He used to live on the earth and go with the Hopi. When things grow
ripe, he becomes thin and is unhappy. He stays in the west.
Document 5
Picture and caption from World Civilizations: The Global Experience. Third Edition.
Peter Stearns.
Document 6
Book of Poetry. Ancient Chinese Legends.
Root out the weeds. Where the weeds decay, there the grains will grow luxuriantly.
Document 7
Record of Ritual/ Ancient Chinese Legends.
The months of mid-summer are advantageous for weeding. Weeds can fertilize the fields
and improve the land. Modern farmers, ignorant of these principles, throw the weeds
away. They do not know that, if mixed with soil and buried deep under the roots of rice
seedlings, the weeds will eventually decay and the soil will be enriched; the harvest, as a
result will be abundant and of superior quality.
Document 8
From the website: http://www.garrobo.org/mosquitia/agriculture.pdf. Which is the
Central America Ecology and Environment. They are dedicated to the compilation,
organization, processing, and distribution of data and information about ecological,
environmental, Earth Science, and related topics pertaining to Central America.
The Garifuna are descendants of people from different parts of Africa. In the
southern regions of Africa, much agriculture is based on planting banana, plantain, and
palm. The Garifuna maintain this system of agriculture, with the coconut being the most
important palm. In other regions yams or rice is more important. Currently, there are
Garifuna planting these crops. In South America there are several species of yam. In
Africa there are different species of yam. As the Garifuna had no access to African yam
tubers, they utilized South American yam tubers in their recipes. The exception is “ñam
pan”; a yam nearly as red as a beet, which is called “red grow yam” in Honduras’ Bay
Islands region. This is a yam of true African origin. The Garifuna could not obtain their
African plant resembling the peanut, thus they were forced to use native American
peanuts instead.
One crop with a very interesting cross-continent history is the watermelon.
Through archaeological research, we know that the watermelon is a plant of African
origin. But it has been found in South America, and was grown in pre-Columbian times.
Some ask, “Does this indicate that there was contact between Africans and the people of
South America before Columbus?”