6th Class Social - Early Life to Settled Life Best Notes

6th Class Social – Early Life to Settled Life

→ Thousands of years ago the people who lived in the sub-continent were called hunter-gatherers. They gathered fruits, edible roots, and tubers, nuts, seeds, leaves, honey, wild grains that grew naturally in the forests. They hunted animals and birds, caught fish, gathered eggs for food. So they got that name. They covered their bodies with skins of animals and leaves.

→ They lived in caves or under tree shades or rock shades. They moved from place to ] place in search of food. Such people are called nomads. Men, women, and children participated in hunting and gathering.

→ The hunter-gatherers discovered fire. It let them cook their food, making it safe to eat. They used fire to keep off wild animals, to light the caves, and to harden the wood. The fire had many uses in the life of hunter-gatherers. So, they considered it sacred.

→ Hunter-gatherers had a wide range of tools made out of stone, wood, and bone. They used those tools to scrape animal skins and to clean the skins. They used stone tools to cut animal flesh and bones. They dug soil for edible tubers and roots with these tools. They prepared spears and arrows for hunting. They hunted animals easily with these tools.

6th Class Social – Early Life to Settled Life

→ Betamcherla and Banaganapalli caves in the Kurnool district seem to have been used by the stone tools using hunter-gatherers as resting places for thousands of years.

→ Hunter-gatherers painted pictures of humans, animals, and hunting scenes on the surface of the rocks. Different color stones were ground and mixed with animal fat to prepare these colors. They used bamboo brushes to paint on rocks.

→ More than 12,000 years ago, the world had started becoming wanner. This was known as the period of great development for humans. In this period, humans changed from food gatherers to growers. Animals like buffalo, ox, sheep, goat, deer, etc., which depend on grass started increasing in number. Man used to domesticate those ani¬mals.

→ As the greenery increased, people started observing the places where edible plants could be found, how seeds broke off stalks, fell on the ground, and new plants sprouted from them. This was the beginning of farming. They cultivated different crops such as rice, wheat, barley, lentil, green-gram, black-gram, etc.

→ Animals such as sheep, goats, buffaloes, oxen, and pigs lived in herds and most of them ate grass. These animals provided milk, meat and some would even carry loads. People protected those animals from the wild animals. This was how they became herders.

→ People realized that seeds took some time to grow – days, weeks, months, and even years. This meant that people had to stay in a place for a long time taking care of the plants, watering them, and protecting them from birds and animals. Due to these reasons, people began to settle down inconvenient places for a longer time.

→ The early farmers needed tools to clear forests by cutting trees. They developed new kinds of stone tools which were called Neolithic stone tools by the archaeologists. This period of early agriculture is called the Neolithic period.

6th Class Social – Early Life to Settled Life

→ During the late Neolithic Age, people made more technological advances. Toolmakers created better farming tools according to their needs.

→ Hunter-gatherers: The people who depend, upon hunting and gathering produce from the forest

→ Herders: Animal rearers.

→ Archaeologist: An archaeologist is a scientist who studies human history by digging up human remains and artifacts.

→ Settled life: Living permanently in one place

→ Stone-tools: Tools made by stones for different purposes

→ Mortars and pestles: Tools used to grind grains and plant products

→ Bronze: It is an alloy of copper and tin metals

6th Class Social – Early Life to Settled Life

→ Domestication: It is the name given to the process in which people grow plants and rear animals