Agricultural Origins and Diffusions Practice Test

Secondary source excerpt (Sub-Saharan Africa hearth, 88 words): Scholars locating an African agricultural hearth emphasize the Sahel’s long-term climate variability and the selective cultivation of drought-tolerant grains such as pearl millet and sorghum. Domestication was not a uniform “package”; herding, cultivation, and foraging were combined differently across communities, and mobility remained important. As these crops diffused southward into savanna zones and westward along exchange routes, farmers adjusted planting calendars and storage practices to local rainfall regimes. In some areas, pastoralism remained dominant despite knowledge of cultivation.

The excerpt best illustrates which of the following characteristics of agricultural hearths?

Secondary source excerpt (Neolithic transition, 92 words): Researchers describe the shift from hunting and gathering to cultivation as a protracted reorganization of labor, land use, and seasonal scheduling rather than a sudden “revolution.” Early cultivation often supplemented broad-spectrum foraging, and commitments to sedentism varied widely. In some landscapes, reliable wild resources reduced incentives to intensify farming, while in others, storage and property arrangements encouraged greater investment in fields. The archaeological record thus shows multiple pathways, including mixed economies and intermittent cultivation, shaped by social institutions and local ecologies.

Which of the following best explains the spatial pattern of agricultural origins described in the excerpt?