Read the passage and answer the questions:
Hunting and Gathering
The earliest human beings depended on their immediate environment for their sustenance. They subsisted on: (a) animals which they hunted; and (b) the edible plants which they gathered from forests in the vicinity.
People located in very cold and extremely hot climates survived on hunting. The people in the coastal areas still catch fish though fishing has experienced modernisation due to technological progress. Many species, now have become extinct or endangered due to illegal hunting. The early hunters used primitive tools made of stones, twigs or arrows so the number of animals killed was limited.
Gathering and hunting are the oldest economic activity known. These are carried out at different levels with different orientations. Gathering is practised in regions with harsh climatic conditions. It often involves primitive societies, who extract, both plants and animals to satisfy their needs for food, shelter and clothing. This type of activity requires a small amount of capital investment and operates at very low level of technology. The yield per person is very low and little or no surplus is produced. In modern times some gathering is market- oriented and has become commercial. Gatherers collect valuable plants such as leaves, barks of trees and medicinal plants and after simple processing sell the products in the market. They use various parts of the plants, for example, the bark is used for quinine, tanin extract and cork— leaves supply materials for beverages, drugs, cosmetics, fibres, thatch and fabrics; nuts for food and oils and tree trunk yield rubber, balata, gums and resins.
Gathering has little chance of becoming important at the global level. Products of such an activity cannot compete in the world market. Moreover, synthetic products often of better quality and at lower prices, have replaced many items supplied by the gatherers in tropical forests.
Which of the following is the oldest economic activity?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Gathering
Option (1) Gathering — Correct. The passage says that gathering and hunting are the oldest economic activity known. The earliest humans lived on the animals they hunted and the edible plants they gathered from the forests around them.
Option (2) Agriculture — Incorrect. The earliest people took what nature offered; growing crops came later.
Option (3) Pastoral — Incorrect. Domestication of animals began only after hunting proved unsustainable.
Option (4) Nomadic herding — Incorrect. It too depends on domesticated animals, which came after hunting and gathering.
Note: This passage is NCERT’s section ‘Hunting and Gathering’ from the chapter ‘Primary Activities’ (Fundamentals of Human Geography), almost word for word; NTA left out a few lines, such as the list of regions where gathering is practised. NTA trimmed the lines on where gathering is practised out of this passage, then brought them back in another question, with the northern fringe of Australia as the answer. Read the whole opening page of ‘Primary Activities’, trimmed lines included, and both questions answer themselves.
NCERT (2025-26): “HUNTING AND GATHERING … The earliest human beings depended on their immediate environment for their sustenance. They subsisted on: (a) animals which they hunted; and (b) the edible plants which they gathered from forests in the vicinity. Primitive societies depended on wild animals. People located in very cold and extremely hot climates survived on hunting. The people in the coastal areas still catch fish though fishing has experienced modernisation due to technological progress. Many species, now have become extinct or endangered due to illegal hunting (poaching). The early hunters used primitive tools made of stones, twigs or arrows so the number of animals killed was limited.…” “HUNTING AND GATHERING … Gathering and hunting are the oldest economic activity known. These are carried out at different levels with different orientations. Gathering is practised in regions with harsh climatic conditions. It often involves primitive societies, who extract, both plants and animals to satisfy their needs for food, shelter and clothing. This type of activity requires a small amount of capital investment and operates at very low level of technology. The yield per person is very low and little or no surplus is produced.” |