Main content
Course: World History Project - Origins to the Present > Unit 2
Lesson 5: Was Farming a Good Idea? | 2.4BEFORE YOU WATCH: Farming and the State
Use the “Three Close Reads” approach as you watch the video below.
Use the “Three Close Reads” approach as you watch the video below (next in the lineup!). If you want to learn more about this strategy, click here.
First read: preview and skimming for gist
Before you watch, you should skim the transcript first. The skim should be very quick and give you the gist (general idea) of what the video is about. You should be looking at the title, thumbnails, pictures, and first few seconds of the video for the gist.
Second read: key ideas and understanding content
Now that you’ve skimmed the video transcript and taken a quick peek at the video, you should preview the questions you will be answering. These questions will help you get a better understanding of the concepts and arguments that are presented in the video. Keep in mind that when you watch the video, it is a good idea to write down any vocab you read or hear that is unfamiliar to you.
By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- What do Candice Goucher and Laura Mitchell think about the argument that farming was a pre-condition for the state?
- What evidence do Goucher and Trevor Getz provide as a counterargument to the claim that grain farming, in particular, leads to states?
- What does Mitchell say about the connection between labor and the state?
- Given the added labor and tax burden, do Goucher and Mitchell think the state was a good idea?
- According to Goucher, is there still a connection between farming and the state today?
Third read: evaluating and corroborating
Finally, here are some questions that will help you focus on why this video matters and how it connects to other content you’ve studied.
At the end of the third read, you should be able to respond to this question:
- What does the relationship between farming and the state suggest about the relationship between the production and distribution and communities frame? In what ways are these frames related? In what ways are they different?
Now that you know what to look for, it’s time to watch! Remember to return to these questions once you’ve finished watching.
Want to join the conversation?
What are the different types of farming?(8 votes)
You can split up types of farming in a lot of different ways, I guess. There's farming for yourself/family (subsistence agriculture) and farming for other people to make money (commercial agriculture). There are intensive farms, which are high labor per area of land, and extensive farms, which are low labor per unit of land. Nomadic farmers move with their farm, and sedentary farmers don't. There is crop farming and livestock farming. There is terrestrial farming and aquaculture, which is the farming of sea creatures and plants. There is farming by yourself, and farming as part of a large corporation. And then there are numerous smaller categories, such as dairy, urban farming, slash-and-burn agriculture, etc. I remember having to memorize a big whole list of these in a human geography class once.(15 votes)