Arrange the following primary activities from oldest to newest.
(A) Extensive Commercial Grain Cultivation
(B) Nomadic Herding
(C) Hunting and Gathering
(D) Primitive Subsistence Agriculture
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → (C), (B), (D), (A)
(C) Hunting and Gathering — first. The earliest human beings lived on animals they hunted and plants they gathered.
(B) Nomadic Herding — second. When people saw that hunting could not last, they began to domesticate animals and move with their herds.
(D) Primitive Subsistence Agriculture — third. Tribes cleared small forest patches and grew crops for their own use.
(A) Extensive Commercial Grain Cultivation — last. It is a modern, fully mechanised way of growing grain for the market.
Note: The given answer is as per the official NTA Answer Key. The book does not give this order in clear words. It shows hunting and gathering as the earliest activity and herding as coming after hunting, but it does not say when primitive subsistence agriculture began. Only option (4) starts with hunting and gathering and ends with commercial grain cultivation.
NCERT (2026-27): “HUNTING AND GATHERING … The earliest human beings depended on their immediate environment for their sustenance.” “PASTORALISM … At some stage in history, with the realisation that hunting is an unsustainable activity, human beings might have thought of domestication of animals.” “Extensive Commercial Grain Cultivation … The size of the farm is very large, therefore entire operations of cultivation from ploughing to harvesting are mechanised (Fig. 4.11).” |