Deck 9: A Feast of Diversity

Question 1

What is the role of the Humboldt Current in the subsistence of the Andean coast?

Answer 1

The current accounts for the remarkable wealth of marine resources including anchovies, large fish, ocean birds, marine mammals, and shellfish. El Niño creates a reversal of the current, which causes a massive decline in marine resources along the coast.

Question 2

What is the Cotton Preceramic?

Answer 2

Approximately 5,700 years ago, large sites with monumental architecture began to appear on the coast of Peru (e.g., El Paraiso, Caral, Aspero) These sites were large and characterized by the prevalence of cotton seeds and the absence of pottery. The bulk of their diet came from fish and shellfish, although some sites used domesticated plants, too.

Question 3

How did domestication in the Andes region differ from other regions in the world?

Answer 3

In the Andes, there was a complex interplay between the domestication of plants and animals by mobile societies in the Highlands. On the other hand, settled village societies living on the coast depended heavily on marine resources. When agriculture was adopted on the coast, the main focus was a nonfood crop: cotton.

Question 4

Domesticates in the Yangtze and Huai River valleys in southern China include __________.

A) water buffalo
B) camels
C) millet
D) rye

Question 5

__________ was a Japanese preagricultural society that lived in large villages and produced elaborate pottery.

A) Jomon
B) Longshan
C) Yangshao
D) Pentoushan

Question 6

What are the most significant plants domesticated in East Asia?

A) rice and millet
B) beans and rice
C) quinoa and wheat
D) sweet potatoes and quinoa

Question 7

_________ refers to an ecological event causing a massive decline in marine resources along the Andean coast.

A) Global warming
B) El Niño
C) Tsunami
D) La Pinta

Question 8

What Andean period corresponds with the appearance of monumental architecture and the absence of pottery?

A) Pre-Pottery Neolithic B
B) Moche
C) Archaic
D) Cotton Preceramic

Question 9

A(n) __________ is a domesticated camelid.

A) manioc
B) alpaca
C) quinoa
D) guinea pig

Question 10

AMS dates of beans at Guitarrero Cave indicate that they were domesticated __________.

A) at the same time as llamas
B) 10,000 years ago
C) 4,300 years ago
D) well after highland cities had been established

Question 11

What was the Jomon?

Question 12

What evidence is there for early rice farming in China?

Question 13

What sort of plants were domesticated in New Guinea, and how did they differ from other areas?

Question 14

What is the importance of the Nabta Playa site?

Question 15

What were the three major regions where plants were indigenously domesticated in Africa?

Question 16

What is the relationship between settled village life and agriculture?

Question 17

How did the trajectories of domestication differ between the highlands and lowlands of the Andean region?

Question 18

How can the study of microbotanicals, such as pollen, phytoliths, and starch grains, help scientists to interpret archaeological sites?

Question 19

Discuss the environment of the Sahara Desert between 14,000 and 4,500 years ago and the adaptation of the people who lived there.

Question 20

What were the differences between the origins of agriculture in Africa, New Guinea, the Andes, and East Asia?

Question 21

What general characterizations can be made about domestication around the world?

Question 22

What is the significance of the Banpo site?

Question 23

__________ are patches nurtured by mist from coastal fog in which dense vegetation grows.

A) Sunis
B) Punas
C) Llomas
D) Yungas

Question 24

__________ accounts for the remarkable wealth of marine resources along the Andean coast.

A) El Niño
B) The Humboldt Current
C) The Gulf Stream
D) The Pacific Current

Question 25

Andean indigenous domesticates include ___________.

A) quinoa
B) turkeys
C) dogs
D) squash

Question 26

El Niño is a severe reversal of the Humboldt current that has been brought about by recent industrial development, resulting in a degraded environment.

Question 27

Studies of shellfish on archaeological sites suggest the El Niño events between 6,000 and 3,000 years ago were less frequent than they are today.

Question 28

The Pacific coastal region of the Andes is tropical forest environment with abundant rainfall.

Question 29

Phytoliths are a type of pollen best preserved in freshwater lakes and ponds.

Question 30

The Kuk Swamp site in highland New Guinea has produced early evidence of llama herding.

Question 31

Sweet potatoes and pigs were both domesticated indigenously in New Guinea.

Question 32

In New Guinea, domestication focused on herd animals.

Question 33

Pastoral societies are sedentary societies with an economy based on horticulture.

Question 34

Prior to 5,000 years ago, the Sahara Desert was extensively occupied.

Question 35

In central Africa, two critical cereals-quinoa and sorghum-were domesticated.

Question 36

Llamas and alpacas were domesticated in the lowland tropical forest region east of the Andes.

Question 37

On the Andean coast, settled villages preceded the adoption of agriculture.

Question 38

Silica structures that build up along plant cell walls are called __________.

A) pollen casts
B) ecoliths
C) phytoliths
D) starch grains

Question 39

What evidence for agriculture was found at the Kuk Swamp site in New Guinea?

A) the ancient field system (drainage canals, pits and mounds)
B) post holes indicating garden boundaries
C) Extensive evidence for crop burning
D) written record of planting schedules

Question 40

Genetic research indicates that this plant species was domesticated in New Guinea.

A) millet
B) potatoes
C) yams
D) maize

Question 41

Which of these was one of the most significant plants domesticated in East Asia?

A) yams
B) quinoa
C) taro
D) millet

Question 42

Pastoral societies have an economy based on __________.

A) fishing
B) herding
C) hunting and gathering
D) horticulture

Question 43

The spectacular preservation at this preagricultural site in the Sahara produced many organic items, including a layer of preserved animal dung.

A) Nabta Playa
B) Uan Afuda
C) Wanlek
D) Kuk Swamp

Question 44

One of the most complete pictures of a hunter-gatherer village in North Africa comes from the North African site of __________.

A) Akhreijit
B) Uan Afuda
C) Dhar Tichit
D) Nabta Playa

Question 45

Which of these was domesticated in Ethiopia/Eritrea?

A) Teff
B) Barley
C) Pearl millet
D) Amaranth

Question 46

Millet, not rice, was the main early domesticate in northern China around the Yellow River valley.

Question 47

There is evidence for the domestication of llamas and alpacas beginning 6,000 years ago.

Question 48

In Africa, pastoral societies based on domesticated animals developed without plant domestication.