NCERT CLASS 6 HISTORY NOTES PDF for UPSC

NCERT Class 6 History notes

Chapter 3- "FROM GATHERING TO GROWING FOOD"

In this chapter we are going to read about the gathering process of ancient people and then the crop growing process of ancient people. In the NCERT class 6 history chapter 3 crop production and system of ancient times is shown and how animals are reared by the ancient people.

-- Food is very important for the live and this food we get from plants, grasses, trees, animals, fishes, birds etc.

-- Different type of plants grow in different conditions like rice, for example, requires more water than wheat 

and barley. This explains why farmers grow some crops in some areas and not in other areas.

-- Different animals too, prefer different environments-for instance, sheep and goat can survive more easily than cattle in dry, hilly environments.

-- Women, men and children could also attract and then tame animals by leaving food for them near their shelters. The first animal to be tamed was the wild ancestor of the dog.

-- Later, people encouraged animals that were relatively gentle to come near the camps where they lived, animals such as sheep, goat, cattle and also the pig lived in herds, and most of them ate grass and they are harmless.

-- They become herders by protecting these animals from wild animals.

-- The grain had to be stored for both food and seed, people had to think of ways of storing it, so storehouses were created.

-- Animals which gives milk like cow, buffalo, goat, and the animals like sheep which gives wool were reared.

-- The sites like Mehgarh, Burzahome etc from where grains and bones have been found.

-- Paleolithic people use different tools as compared to Neolithic people.

-- Neolithic tools: These include tools that were polished to give a fine cutting edge, and mortars and pestles used for grinding grain and other plant produce. 

-- Mortars and pestles are used for

grinding grain even today, several thousand years later. Mortars are used.

-- At the same time, tools of the Paleolithic types continued to be made and used, and remember, some tools were also made of bone.

-- Many kind of decorated pots are are found they were used to store things.

-- But many people of that time used to gather and hunt but in some areas farming was started and some people used to practice both gathering as well farming.

-- Many of the farmers and herders live in groups called tribes.

-- Mehgarh: This site is located in a fertile plain, near the Bolan Pass, which is one of the most important routes into Iran.

It was probably one of the places where women and men learnt to grow barley and wheat, and rear sheep and goats for the first time in this area.

--People rear animals like pigs, deer, sheeps, goat etc and one of the ritual like that of when people die, their relatives and friends generally pay respect to them. People look after them, perhaps in the belief that there is some form of life after death. 

-- Burial is one such arrangement. Several burial sites have been found at Mehrgarh. In one instance, the dead person was buried with goats, which were probably meant to serve as food in the next world.