Lesson topic: " The emergence of agriculture and cattle breeding."

Lesson development for 5th grade on the history of the ancient world

The purpose of the lesson: to form students’ ideas about the emergence of agriculture, cattle breeding and crafts among primitive people; new tools of labor of primitive people and new teams; characterize the consequences of the emergence of new occupations for the lives of primitive people.

Planned results: subject: master holistic ideas about the historical path of peoples; highlight patterns of changes in the social and economic life of people with the advent of agriculture and cattle breeding; meta-subject: independently organize educational interaction in a group; formulate your point of view; analyze, compare, classify and summarize facts and phenomena, solve test tasks; public speaking skills; personal: comprehend the social and moral experience of previous generations; consciously choose the most effective ways to solve problems; fostering a conscious attitude towards work and choosing a profession.

Basic Concepts: Agriculture, stone axe, hoe, sickle, grain grater, cattle breeding, pottery, spinning, weaving, craft, productive economy, tribe, elder, council of elders, spirits, gods, prayer, sacrifice, idol.

Equipment:

• Computer
• Multimedia projector
• Screen
• Presentation “The Emergence of Agriculture and Livestock Breeding”
• Didactic handouts for group work
• Self-control sheets
• Goder G.I. Workbook on the history of the Ancient World. 5 grades in issue 2 - M., Education, 2014
• Vigasina A.A. History of the ancient world: textbook for 5th grade. educational institutions / A.A.Vigasin, G.I.Goder, I.S.Sventsitskaya. – M., Education, 2014

Key dates : about 10 thousand years ago – the emergence of agriculture and cattle breeding

Lesson type : lesson in developing and improving student competencies

Lesson form: lesson - game

Elements of pedagogical technologies:ICT, research, problem-based, gaming, health-saving, group learning.

Hello guys. The girls sat down, the boys sat down. Everything on our desk is already prepared. Guys, before we get acquainted with our topic today, let's check our homework. What did we study in the last lesson? Ex.3 question page 20

Updating knowledge.

1. How was cave painting discovered?
2. Why did primitive artists depict mammoths, bison, deer, and horses? What role did these animals play in people's lives?
3. What ancient religious beliefs do you know?
4. How did primitive people imagine the life of their ancestors in the “land of the dead”?

Teacher : Well, now let’s try to formulate the topic of this lesson, and questions will help you do this.

• What did you eat yesterday and today?
• What products are these dishes made from?
• Can you live without food, clothing, dishes, shelter, etc. Why?
• Where did the very first people get their food from?
• Did gathering and hunting always provide people with food?
• So what are your assumptions about our topic?

Teacher : Today in the lesson we will talk about how and why ancient people switched to more reliable occupations - agriculture and cattle breeding.

(Recording the topic of the lesson -The emergence of agriculture and cattle breeding.)

Problem task: Two tribes live in different areas and do not communicate with each other. One is engaged in gathering and hunting, the other is engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding. Which tribe of people lived in better conditions and why?

Motivation

Teacher: Let's imagine that in our age of technological progress a machine is invented - time , on which we can be transported to any historical era.I suggest you travel back in time. And go on 10 ka to Western Asia.

But what is it? We see exhausted people. For several days now, women and men have been returning from the forest empty-handed. There was a threat of famine and extinction. We're landing. After all, we definitely have to help them. Let's imagine ourselves in the shoes of these people and try to create a program for saving them from death.

Learning new material:

Teacher: In the territory where we landed there are three clan communities(What is a clan community?) the Horse clan, the Bison clan and the Bear clan (we are divided into 3 groups of students).

Choose an Elder of your kind, he will guide your work, give advice, explain incomprehensible material, and then make a report.

A tribal community is a group of people related to each other by kinship.

Now we will make a table of the tribal community.

The role of elders in tribal communities:

1. The elder leads the economic and social life of the clan.

2. Resolves disputes within the family.

Students write down the definitions of the words clan and clan community.

Write down the diagram.

Several clan communities living in one area constituted a tribe. The tribe was governed by a council of elders.

After the speech of each elder, we will check the ability of the clan to survive by solving tests, whose clan will score more points - more opportunity to survive.

Group work:(10 min).

Groups		Problem task
Horse Genus	Hoe farming	Write a story about the origins of agriculture using helper words: Start : Women of our clan, grinding grains of wild cereals brought from the forest into flour, noticed that the grain that fell to the ground...., therefore... Words are helpers: stone axe, trees, burned, ash, hoe, wheat, barley, sickle, grain grater, flour, cakes, agriculture For help, you can use the text of the textbook on page 21, paragraph 1
Bison genus	Taming animals	22 p.2
Rod of the Bear	The emergence of crafts	The emergence of crafts. Fill in the missing words: We learned how to make dishes and clothes. 1. We put a basket woven from branches and coated with___clay____ into the __fire___. The rods burned down, leaving a strong _________jug_. We invented ______pottery__. 2. We learned to twist ______threads from ____animal wool and ____linen fibers_. This is how we invented ______weaving_____. Words are helpers: jug, pottery, wool, clay, fire, flax, spinning, thread, fabric, loom, weaving For help, you can use the textbook text on pp. 22-23, p. 3-4

People's Assembly: Elders report on the work of the groups (presentation slides are used for the story).

Everyone discovered a new type of activity. List these occupations (agriculture, cattle breeding, crafts).

Previously, people only took from nature what it gave, that is, they appropriated it. And now you have helped them start producing food and crafts. such an economy is called producing.

Checking the "survival" of the genus. After the report of each elder of the clan - the solution of the tests.

Consolidation (questions are displayed on slides, answers are recorded in self-control sheets).

1. Agriculture arose from:

A) hunting

B) gathering

B) fishing

D) crafts

2. Find the odd one out:

Used in agricultural work:

A) a hoe

B) sickle

B) stone ax

D) potter's wheel

3. Cattle breeding arose from:

A) hunting

B) gathering

B) fishing

D) crafts

4. The first animal that ancient people tamed was:

A) tiger

B) horse

B) cow

D) dog

5.What craft did not arise among primitive people

A) making knight's armor

B) pottery

B) spinning

D) weaving

6.Pottery is:

A) making threads

B) making pottery

B) fabric production

D) construction of housing

7. Choose the wrong answer:

Several clan communities living in one area:

A) formed a tribe

B) consisted of large families

B) were governed by a council of elders

Checking the correctness of answers, assigning and counting points. For each correct answer, students put 1 point on the self-control sheet. Scoring, marking. Calculating the total score of the genus. By summing up the marks (or points), which “genus” has more – a greater ability to survive.

Let's discuss the problem situation

What general conclusions did you draw? Whichrescue programWe will offer it to tribal communities.

1.10 ka in Western Asia, agriculture arose from gathering, and cattle breeding from hunting.

2. The appropriating economy is gradually being replaced by the producing economy

3.People have more free time, they began to engage in crafts

4. The standard of living of ancient people increased, now they depended not on the vagaries of nature, but on their labor, thereforeTo save ourselves from hunger, we need to switch to a productive economy, start growing grain, vegetables, fruits ourselves, and raising livestock.

Reflection:

• What was the main thing in the lesson?
• What was interesting?
• What new did I learn in class?
• What did you learn?

Homework:

item 4, assignments in the workbook of the student’s choice No. 13, 14

List of used literature:

1. Brandt M.Yu. Ancient world history. Tests. 5th grade: Educational method. allowance. – M.: Bustard, 2002 (some tests)
2. Roll call of centuries: Reflections, judgments, statements / Comp. V.G. Noskov. – M.: Mysl, 1990 (epigraph)
3. Starobinskaya G.I. Questions and assignments on the history of the Ancient World: 5th grade. – M.: ARKTI, 2003

Self-Check Sheet

question
answer
points

Self-Check Sheet

Student 5 A Class __________________________________________

question
answer
points

In questions, for each correct answer 1 is a point, 0 is for an incorrect answer.

Total points____________ Score ___________________

points

In questions, for each correct answer 1 is a point, 0 is for an incorrect answer.

Total points____________ Score ___________________

Horse Genus

Hoe farming.

Write a story about the emergence of agriculture using the following words:

Beginning: Women of our clan, grinding grains of wild cereals brought from the forest into flour, noticed that the grain that fell to the ground... ., therefore...

Words - helpers: stone axe, trees, burned, ash, hoe, wheat, barley, sickle, grain grater, flour, cakes, agriculture

For help, you can use the text of the textbook on pp. 21-22 p.1

Bison genus

Write a story about the origins of cattle breeding using the following words:

Beginning: Men sometimes brought young killed animals from hunting. They were fed and... The first domestic animal was………………………, then people tamed and domesticated…………………. So from …………………………………….. appeared …. Livestock gave people………………..

Words - helpers: tame, dog, pig, goat, cow, hunting, cattle breeding, wool, leather, milk, meat.

For help, you can use the textbook text on p. 22 p.2

Rod of the Bear

The emergence of crafts.

Fill in the missing words:

We learned how to make dishes and clothes.

1. We placed a basket woven from branches and coated with ____________ in _____________. The rods burned out, but a strong ________________ remained. We invented ______________________.

2. From ____________ animals and fibers __________ we learned to twist ______________. This is how we invented ______________.

3. From the _______________________ threads we made _________________, from which we sewed clothes. This is how we invented ___________________.

Helping words: jug, pottery, wool, clay, fire, flax, spinning, thread, fabric, loom, weaving

You can use the textbook text for help. on page 22 item 3

• Developmental:

Educational:

Basic concepts:

Equipment:

• Computer
• Multimedia projector
• Screen

During the classes:

Updating knowledge(slide 1). Teacher:

• What did you eat yesterday and today?

Teacher: Today in the lesson we will talk about how and why ancient people switched to more reliable occupations - agriculture and cattle breeding.

(Record the topic of the lesson.)

Your task:

Motivation(slide 2).

Teacher: chronolet, into primitiveness, on 10 ka to Western Asia.

tribe

Learning new material:

Teacher: Tribe clan communities:

Select elder

Group work

Problem task

Beaver genus

Hoe farming

Start:

Helping words:

Taming animals

The emergence of cattle breeding.

Genus Lizard

The emergence of crafts

The emergence of crafts.

Fill in the missing words: We learned dishes and clothes.

Helping words:

View document contents
"Open lesson on the topic: "The emergence of agriculture and cattle breeding""

The emergence of agriculture and cattle breeding.

Lesson plan for 5th grade on the history of the ancient world.

The purpose of the lesson: to form students’ ideas about the emergence of agriculture, cattle breeding and crafts among primitive people.

Tasks:

Educational: consider the reasons, essence and significance of the emergence of agriculture, cattle breeding and crafts for primitive people.

Developmental: develop students’ ability to analyze theoretical material, think logically, compare historical facts and phenomena, express their point of view, and draw conclusions; explain the meaning of the studied historical concepts and terms, work in a group, solve test tasks, public speaking skills, self-examination and self-assessment, determine the causes and consequences of the most important historical events based on educational material;

Educational: fostering a conscious attitude towards work, choosing a profession, and maintaining health

Basic concepts: Agriculture, stone axe, hoe, sickle, grain grater, cattle breeding, pottery, spinning, weaving, craft, production economy, tribe, elder, council of elders.

Equipment:

Computer

Multimedia projector

Presentation “The Emergence of Agriculture and Livestock Breeding”

Didactic handouts for group work (in the lesson notes in the table)

Signs on tables with the names of “tribal communities”

Self-control sheets (Appendix 1)

Goder G.I. Workbook on the history of the Ancient World. 5 grades in issue 2 M., Education, 2014

Vigasina A.A. History of the ancient world: textbook for 5th grade. educational institutions / A.A. Vigasin, G.I. Goder, I.S. Sventsitskaya.-M., Education, 2012.

Main dates: about 10 thousand years ago - the emergence of agriculture and cattle breeding

Lesson type: lesson in developing and improving student competencies

Lesson format: lesson-game “People's Assembly”

Elements of pedagogical technologies: ICT, research, problem-based, gaming, health-saving, group learning, advanced learning.

During the classes:

Updating knowledge(slide 1). Teacher:

What did you eat yesterday and today?

What products are these dishes made from?

Can you live without food, clothing, dishes, shelter, etc. Why?

Where did the very first people get their food from?

Did gathering and hunting always provide people with food?

Teacher: Today in the lesson we will talk about how and why ancient people switched to more reliable occupations - agriculture and cattle breeding.

(Record the topic of the lesson.)

Your task:draw a conclusion: what does the well-being of a person, his family, and society depend on?

Motivation(slide 2).

Teacher: Let's imagine that in our age of technological progress, a machine - chronolet, on which we can be transported to any historical era. I suggest you travel back in time into primitiveness, on 10 ka to Western Asia.

But what is it? We see the distress signal that is being sent tribe Fire. Let's land and find out what's going on?

We see exhausted people. For several days now, the women and men of the tribe have been returning from the forest empty-handed. There was a threat of famine and extinction of the tribe.

How can we help them? Let's imagine ourselves in the shoes of these people and try to draw up a program to save the tribe from death.

Learning new material:

Teacher: Tribe Fire (slide 3) consists of three clan communities: the Beaver clan, the Eagle clan and the Lizard clan (we are divided into 3 groups of students).

Select elder of your kind, he will guide your work, give advice, explain incomprehensible material, then make a report at the People's Assembly.

After each elder’s speech, we will test the clan’s ability to survive by solving tests; whose clan scores more points, the more likely to survive...

Work in groups:

		Problem task
Beaver genus	Hoe farming	Make up a story based on the pictures in the presentation (slide 6) about the emergence of agriculture, using the following words: Start: The women of our clan, grinding the grain of wild cereals brought from the forest into flour, noticed that the grain that fell to the ground..., therefore... Helping words: stone axe, trees, burned, ash, hoe, wheat, barley, sickle, grain grater, flour, cakes, agriculture. For help, you can use the text of the textbook on page 20, paragraph 1
	Taming animals	The emergence of cattle breeding. Find at least 4 errors in the text: Often while hunting, our men noticed that the wounded man was being chased by tigers along with them. Sometimes they overtook the exhausted animal before them. The hunters who ran up finished him off, cut up the carcass, and the discarded entrails were devoured by the tigers. Wild tigers ran up to the village itself, dug into the garbage, growling as a warning about the approach of other predators. The tiger became our first pet; he helped us hunt and find a den for a wild boar. Our hunters killed the beast and little piglets. They did the same with the caught kids. Living near us, the animals got used to it. Gradually we tamed pigs, goats, sheep, cows, and horses. This is how the craft arose.
Genus Lizard	The emergence of crafts	The emergence of crafts. Fill in the missing words: We learned dishes and clothes. 1. We placed a basket woven from branches and coated with ___________ in ___________. The rods burned out, but a strong ________________ remained. We invented ____________. 2. From ______________ animals and fibers ___________ we learned to twist _______________. This is how we invented __________. 3. From the threads on_____________ we made ________________, from which we sewed clothes. This is how we invented ______________. Helping words: jug, pottery, wool, clay, fire, flax, spinning, thread, fabric, loom, weaving For help, you can use the text of the textbook on page 21, paragraph 3

People's Assembly: The elders report on the work of the groups (pictures on slides 4, 7, 8 are used for the story).

Checking the "survival" of the genus. After the report of each elder of the clan, the decision of the tests.

Teacher: The Fire Tribe is watching your work, and closely clarifying questions:

Fastening: questions to groups (after the “elder’s” report)

Agriculture: What is farming?

1 .Agriculture arose from: 2 . Find the odd one out:

A) hunting In agricultural work they used:

B) gathering A) hoe

C) fishing B) sickle

D) crafts C) stone ax

D) potter's wheel

3. Agriculture arose: Cattle breeding: What is cattle farming?

A) more than 2 million years ago. in East Africa 4. Cattle breeding arose from:

B) about 40 thousand years ago in North Africa A) hunting

B) about 10 thousand years ago in Western Asia B) gathering

D) about 7 thousand years ago in Mesopotamia B) fishing

(district Z.13) D) crafts

5. The first animal to be domesticated 6. Name the principle that unites these

ancient people were: concepts:

A) tiger Gathering and farming, hunting and

B) horse cattle breeding

B) cow A) these activities allowed the primitive

B) a dog for people to survive in the fight against nature

B) gathering arose at the same time

with agriculture, hunting, with cattle breeding

Craft: 8. What craft arose among the primitives

What is craft? A) making knight's armor

A) tillage B) pottery

B) cattle breeding C) spinning

C) manufacturing D) weaving

D) sale of goods

9. Pottery is: 10. Choose the wrong answer:

A) making threads Several tribal communities living

B) making pottery in one area:

B) making fabrics A) formed a tribe

D) construction of dwellings B) consisted of large families

B) were governed by a council of elders

General question(slide 9).

Distribute activities by type of farm (in the table):

A) gathering

B) cattle breeding

D) agriculture

D) crafts

Appropriating economy	Producing farm

Checking the correctness of answers, assigning and calculating points. For each correct answer, students score 1 point on the self-control sheet.

Scoring, marking. Calculating the total score of the genus by summing up the marks (or points), each “genus” has a greater ability to survive

Teacher: What are the common conclusions did you do (slide 10)? Which rescue program shall we propose to the Fire Tribe?

1.10 ka in Western Asia, agriculture arose from gathering, and pastoralism from hunting

2. The appropriating economy is gradually being replaced by the producing economy

3. People have more free time, they began to engage in crafts

4. The standard of living of people increased, now they depended not on the vagaries of nature, but on their labor, therefore To save the Fire Tribe from hunger, they need to switch to a productive economy, start growing grain and vegetables, fruits, and raising livestock themselves.

Practical orientation(slide 11):

Do you think it is possible for you to apply the knowledge you have acquired today in your future adult life, in providing your family with the necessities? (You can organize a small business: boys can engage in farming, sowing grain, raising livestock, construction, girls can engage in gardening, spinning, sewing, painting dishes, etc.)

What does the well-being of a person, his family, and society depend on?

What is your main work today? (If there is education, there will be a profession, and one’s own business, and money, and prosperity, etc.)

Reflection: (slide 12).

What was the main thing in the lesson?

What was interesting?

What new did I learn in class?

What did you learn?

Homework:

List of used literature:

Brandt M.Yu. Ancient world history. Tests. 5th grade: Educational and methodological manual. –M: Bustard, 2012 (some tests)

Roll call of centuries: Reflections, judgments, statements/compositions. V.G. Noskov. - M.: Mysl, 1990 (epigraph)

Starobinskaya G.I. Questions and assignments on the history of the Ancient World: 5th grade. - M.: ARKTI, 2011

Annex 1.

Self-control sheet

Student 5 _____ grade ________________

Question no.

In questions, for each correct answer - 1 point, 0 points - for an incorrect answer.

Total points:____________________ Score:___________________________

A house in a tree, a coffin in a tree, food made from a tree, clothes made from a tree... The balance of the small world of the Papuan tribe completely depends on the trees. Korowai are like branches of a large plant, the roots of which are faith and ancestors, and the trunk is tradition.

G EPROY Silan Sindek The elder of the Sindek clan, consisting of several families. Age: about 45 years old, doesn’t know exactly. He was born and lives on the ancestral territory of the clan, in the village of the same name in the Yaniruma district of Bowen-Digul district. Together with his wife and two daughters, he shares a tree house with the family of the clan leader. TO ORIGINAL PEOPLE Korowai or Kolufo An ethnic group of Papuans settled in the swampy jungles of the upper Siret River in the southeast of the Indonesian province of Papua. The total number is about 3000 people. They speak the Korowai language, one of the thousands of languages ​​on the island of New Guinea. There is no written language. The self-name of the people is Kolufo. They lead a nomadic lifestyle. They build houses in trees at a height of up to 50 meters. Until the 1970s, the Korowai had no contact with peoples other than the neighboring Papuan tribes. They profess animism. They do not use metal tools and practice hunting and gathering. The basis of the diet is sago.

My clan has lived in this forest since my grandfather's time. This place, Sindek, bears the name of the clan. We, the Colufo people, are the owners of the forest, and he is our home and breadwinner. We always take only what we need to survive. You should not cut down an extra palm tree or rattan bush unless necessary. You cannot kill another animal if the hunt has already taken place. The forest is divided between clans, and certain territories are given to spirits.

We call evil spirits, like strangers, kwai. If a kwai enters our territory, he will be in trouble. My bow is always with me, it is part of me. I never leave home without a bow and arrow.

Korowai give themselves piercings by piercing their nose with a sago palm thorn. Women often insert elements of bat bones into the piercing

My grandfather said that the formidable Asmat people came here from the big river. They killed the men and took the women away. The Kolufo began to build houses high on iron trees so that the Kwai could not reach them. It is impossible to get into our house unnoticed: the ladder is attached to the roof itself, and if the enemy starts to climb, the entire structure will sway. In addition, we make a notch around the tree. Dry branches and trunks will crunch under the feet of approaching kwai. We will hear them immediately.

The people who call us Korowai have come from beyond the Great Forest and the Great Water to destroy our faith, and with it the Kolufo people. The ancestors said that one day ghosts with white skin will invade our domain. Then the earth will split, everything around will be engulfed in fire and mountains will fall from the sky. The powerful spirit Ginol, who created our world, will destroy it to the ground and create a new one...

Cutting down a palm tree, stripping its bark and chopping the wood is hard work for men.

White people build settlements along a large river. They tell us about their gods and build temples on our land. They are kwai, their way here is barred. But many of our fellow tribesmen, especially young women, go to their world in search of another life.

I have a wife and two daughters of marriageable age. Having daughters is a great happiness. Our people often quarrel among themselves over women, who have always been in short supply. There was a case when a man from one clan kidnapped a 13-year-old girl in a neighboring village. Her parents demanded the return of their daughter. The girl was not returned at the appointed time, and then her relatives killed the kidnapper, and his body was brought to their village and eaten.

The ancestors believed that revenge could be complete only if the enemy was not only killed, but also eaten. The soul lies in the brain and stomach, which means you need to eat them.

In my village, cannibalism has long been forgotten. However, it is still practiced by some clans. The evil spirit, whether an enemy or a sorcerer, must be destroyed and eaten. The Kolufo believe that sorcerers - khakhua - cause the death of a healthy person, if he is not an old man or a baby. Khakhua eat a person from the inside and fill the body with ash so that no one notices what happened. Sometimes the dying person manages to name the name of the khakhua who came to him. The sorcerer can be a man from the same clan, a friend or relative. If a khakhua has eaten a person, the Kolufo must eat the khakhua and thus destroy the evil spirit.

There are spirits that we revere. These are the spirits of our ancestors, our roots. Those who die will definitely come back. The leader of a clan in the land of the dead can send the deceased back to their homeland in the body of a newborn.

Most houses are built at a height of 5–10 meters from the ground

To appease the spirits in difficult times, the Kolufo sacrifice a pig. This is the most expensive thing we have. We don't raise pigs. In the forest we hunt wild boars and pick up their cubs. Women breastfeed suckling piglets like their own children. Then the pigs actually become members of the family. These are the ones we sacrifice to the spirits.

The blood and fat of the sacrificial pig are intended for the creator spirit Ginol, and the meat goes to the colufo. The ritual takes place near the river. Women are not allowed to see him. Otherwise, the sacrifice will not be accepted and the tribe’s troubles will not end. The hunter must shoot an arrow directly at the heart of the animal. And for two days after the ceremony, while Ginol drinks the pig’s blood that has flowed into the water, no one dares to enter the river.

There are many prohibitions in our life. A man and a woman should not be together too often. Any tree house is necessarily divided into two halves: male and female. A husband and wife cannot have private conversations in public, only in private. Private parts must be hidden. The woman wears a skirt made of sago palm fibers, and the man wears a dutamon, a small sheath made from a tree leaf, over the tip of his penis. This is what my grandfather and great-grandfather did, this is what I do, and this is what my children will do.

When a boy is preparing to become a man, we take him into the forest to put on the dutamon sacredly, away from women’s eyes. Dutamon, like the rattan belt with several turns, is the clothing of the Kolufo man that the forest provides. Sometimes, if the dutamon is inconvenient for some reason, the Kolufo man puts on a nut shell. We call such a case a bayak.

Korowai set up a fireplace right in the house. To do this, they line the area under the fire with a layer of clay.

When a woman is about to give birth, she must leave the house for the forest. You can't give birth on a tree. Her husband builds her a small hut in the forest. A month after giving birth, a woman and her baby can return to their shared home. Not everyone returns; many die during childbirth. Newborns die even more often. If the first child does not survive, then the one born after him needs to cut off the phalanx of the finger. This is a sacrifice in the name of life.

When a colufo dies, the relatives mourn the deceased for one day, and the next morning the whole family leaves the house, leaving it, along with food supplies, to the spirit of the deceased. The Kolufo build a new home elsewhere within the ancestral territory.

We move to another territory only when the forest that provides us with food is depleted. The most important thing for the Colufo is the sago palm thickets in the swamps. She is our nurse. The entire clan participates in the extraction of sago. Men use stone axes to chop down the fibrous tree trunk for a long time until it collapses to the ground. Then the trunk, having cleared it of bark, is crushed into crumbs. After this, women take over. They wash the wood pulp in water - in a trough made of palm leaves, as a result of which starch settles at the bottom. Women make bread from dried sago.

Sometimes we leave felled palm trees entirely to rot in the swamp so that the spirits will send us sago larvae. If you return after three full moons, there will already be many large and fleshy woodcutter beetle larvae in the trunk. This is our main delicacy, which we first offer to the guest.

Woodcutter beetle larva is the best treat

Once a year, when there is heavy rain and food is plentiful, several neighboring villages meet for a sago larva festival. For this purpose, a large house is built on the ground. Each clan comes with an ancestral wooden shield, each with its own design. In the past, a lot of colufo gathered at the festival. There was enough food for everyone. We have always believed: the more magnificent the celebration, the more prosperity our family will achieve and the more children our women will give birth to.

Nowadays, Colufo families are becoming smaller, more and more young people are leaving our forest, and traditions are becoming a thing of the past. If this continues, only the older generation of Kolufo will remain on the ancestral territory and our clan will fade away. And then the dark prophecy of the ancestors will come true: thunder will strike, and Ginol will destroy our world forever.

ABOUT TERRAIN ORIENTATION
Papua, Indonesia

Capital Jayapura
Area of ​​Papua Province 309,934 km² (1st in Indonesia)
Population 3,672,000 people
Population density 12 people/km²
Indonesia area 1,904,569 km² (14th place in the world)
Population 255 million people (4th place)
Population density 125 people/km²

ATTRACTIONS tree houses up to 50 meters high in the villages of Abou and Walup in the Yaniruma region; missionary settlement of Baygon with a Protestant church and houses on stilts.
TRADITIONAL DISHES sago cake with woodcutter beetle larvae, pork in sago leaf, baked under hot stones.
TRADITIONAL DRINKS juice of the “red fruit” pandan.
SOUVENIRS a cassowary bone knife, a stone ax with an ironwood handle and rattan binding, a necklace made of dog teeth.

DISTANCE from Moscow to Jayapura ~11,050 km (from 18 hours flight excluding transfers)
TIME is 6 hours ahead of Moscow
VISA Russians don't need it
CURRENCY Indonesian rupiah (100,000 IDR~ 7,5 USD)

Why he did this is a mystery. However, Shalev, in the words of the poet, has long been “wounded by the fate of women,” and all the most sympathetic characters in his books are strong, tall, courageous (and beautiful) women. But none of them have ever received the main word in his books, where the narrators have always been male heroes, so perhaps he is just paying off an old, old debt. True, you can think differently. One might think that the hero-narrator of the new novel has another, more important purpose than simply being the “voice of a woman.” For, closing the book, we clearly feel that we have been told not one, but two parallel stories of the Tavori family. Ruta Tavori told one - the real - story of her family in an interview, and the other - a kind of “myth of the Tavori family” - she created in her stories. And the mutual reflection of these two parallel stories in continuously alternating chapters allows the author to create a powerful plot movement that keeps readers of the novel in suspense until the last pages, because its main scene, as already said, is assigned to the very end.

But here we are already approaching the border beyond which the preface threatens to turn into a paraphrase. And, not wanting to deprive the reader of the pleasure of reading the novel and thinking for himself, we would rather follow the example of the wise Shahrazad: we will stop permitted speeches and give the floor to the author himself - Ruta Tavori, alias Meir Shalev.

Chapter first
Phone conversation

The cell phone is ringing. A tall, heavily built guy looks at the number displayed on the screen and turns to the woman with whom he is having lunch.

“I need to answer,” he says. - I'll be right back.

And he heads towards the door, trying to suck in his small tummy as he goes. He has not yet gotten used to this acquisition, and his belly surprises him anew every time - either in the mirror, above his belt, or under the gaze of his girlfriend when he is working on her body.

“I counted nine rings,” says a familiar voice on the phone. - You're keeping yourself waiting.

Sorry. I'm in a restaurant, I had to leave...

We have a problem.

I'm listening to.

I will explain it to you, carefully and wisely, and you try to answer me in the same spirit.

Do you remember our walk in nature?

This morning?

What did I just tell you? Carefully and wisely. No dates, no days, no hours.

It was a nice walk...

Silence.

Don't you hear? I say: it was a nice walk...

No, I heard.

But you didn’t answer!

Because you told me to answer carefully and wisely. So what could I answer?

What kind of phrases do you have - “because”?! How do you allow yourself to express yourself like that? You're supposed to say "because"!

What's so good about that? Repeat after me: “Because you ordered.”

The guy tries to suck in his stomach again, but immediately relaxes his belt:

Because you ordered it. So what could I answer?

You could tell whether you agreed or disagreed with what I said.

What do you agree with?

What a nice walk it turned out to be.

I agree. We had a nice walk.

Just be so! This is the second time you've made me wait. The first time with beeps, now with an answer.

Don't keep me waiting in the future, ever, do you understand?

Do you remember that throne-like place where we sat at the end of the walk?

Listen, I told you: "Careful and smart"! No dates, no names, no titles!

But I didn’t call anyone!

But you said "haruv", didn't you?

The guy carefully squeezes his right palm and looks at her. The palm is wrapped in a white bandage, and only the fingertips peek out. His small, close-set eyes close for a moment, but then open again, as if from a sudden stab of pain. She always wakes up when they remember the moment of her birth. Now I see him in my imagination: he stands near the restaurant, looks down at his boots, then slightly raises his left leg and rubs the shiny square toe of his left boot with his right trouser leg.

It would be nice if you just said “haruv” - okay, God is with you. And even just “hefty” is not scary either. But to say “hefty haruv” - both a noun and an adjective together - is the same as presenting people with something cooked on a plate. Bon appetit, eat healthy. Not just a tree, but a haruv. Not just a haruv, but a very big haruv. And not just a very large haruv, but a very large haruv in a wadi. This description greatly narrows the search. People invented language to make it clear to everyone. But for you and me, everything that is clear to everyone is very bad, do you understand me?

Yes. Sorry.

Stop apologizing. Just take it into account.

Fine. Now to the point. The fact is that we forgot something there.

That gas burner you used to make tea on?

No, something more important.

A spoon for sugar?

If only we could talk over spoons! Think carefully and remember. Use your brain for its intended purpose at least once. Even the smallest brain can figure something out if used correctly. But when you remember, don’t say what it is. Just say: “I understand what you mean.”

I'll think about it now.

Silence.

Are you making me wait again?!

Silence.

I remembered! I understand what you mean.

In that case, go there again, search there, find it and bring it back.

How urgent?

If anyone finds this before us, it will be very bad.

I’m already rushing, I’ll just grab a flashlight.

A hopeless case, that's what you are! A hopeless case. First “because”, now “I’m rushing”. Only hens lay eggs. People don't rush, people drive. Say: "I'm on my way." When will I finally hear one correct expression from you?

I'm on my way.

And stop annoying me.

Just don’t try to show up there at this time with a lantern! It's already dark now. Someone might notice your lantern from a distance. Better get up early in the morning.

What does "in the morning" mean?

Early. At dawn. And don't leave your car at our usual place. Find another parking lot and walk a little, you will get there at first light and you can calmly search.

But she also notices differences: instead of those delicious things that he took on their former walks to pamper her at a rest stop, now he prepares simple and rough food - a few pieces of bread, hard-boiled eggs, unpeeled cucumbers, a jar of sour cream. She suddenly remembers the word “ascetic.”

She notices other details too. He cleans the eggs in advance, right there in the kitchen, so that shell fragments do not remain on the ground later and betray his presence. He resolutely ignores the touching hints of salami, this constant companion of their previous walks, who wanted to join him this time too - the smell of sausage can attract a dog, and its owner, as a rule, appears behind the dog. She notes that he also prepared his black coffee in advance. And he cooked it and poured it into a thermos. The fire can be seen from afar, the gas burner is noisy, the smell of freshly brewed coffee carries too far.