Although it is tempting to think that a sudden flash of insight about the human ability to control plants and animals might have led ancient peoples to domestication, the evidence points us in different directions. There are several false ideas about the motivation for becoming food producers. First, contemporary foragers (people who search for food) show us that food production probably did not come about from sudden, unforeseen discoveries, such as that seeds can be planted and grown into plants, since these food foragers are perfectly aware of the role of seeds in plant growth, that plants grow better under certain conditions than others, and so forth. Jared Diamond aptly describes contemporary food foragers as "walking encyclopedias of natural history with individual names for as many as a thousand or more plant and animal species, and with detailed knowledge of those species' biological characteristics, distribution, and potential uses.”(?) In addition, food foragers frequently apply their knowledge to actively manage the resources on which they depend. Indigenous people living in northern Australia deliberately alter the runoff channels of creeks to flood extensive tracts of land, converting them into fields of wild grain.”(?)
topic: What is the motivation for becoming food producers (= domestication of plants and animals)?
false idea: due to sudden, unforeseen discoveries
How do we know that idea 2 is false?
Based on the evidence of contemporary foragers, that is, they know the role of seeds, the role of conditions for plant growth and so on.
Jared Diamond’s quote is used to emphasize the scope of detailed knowledge contemporary food foragers have on plant and animal biology. In addition to the knowledge, also needed for domestication is the application of the knowledge to actively manage the resources.
(I am not sure where the end quote is. Before the “In addition” or at the end of the paragraph?)
Inference to be made: plant and animal domestication did not happen from a sudden flash of insight, but it required the knowledge of their biology and the application of the knowledge to actively manage resources.
Why does the author provide a quotation from Jared Diamond about contemporary food foragers?
To illustrate how the lifestyle of contemporary foragers differs from that of Neolithic foragers.
To help support the claim that new insight about plants and animals was not the cause of domestication
To explain how food foragers frequently apply their knowledge to actively manage natural resources
To provide examples of the type of detailed knowledge about the natural world that is required for domestication
A: irrelevant
B: vague: what is the new insight?
C: Possible due to the word “knowledge” and active management
D: No examples of the types of detailed knowledge are mentioned by Diamond. Diamonds’ point is that foragers have a lot of knowledge of plants and animals as he identifies foragers as walking encyclopedias of natural history
C is correct if the quote ends at the end of the paragraph, but if it ends before the sentence that begins with “In addition,” C is not perfect, but it is still better than the other choices..