Land, water and the way people lived

Curriculum expectations

A1.4 — compare a few early societies, including at least one First Nation and one Inuit society, in terms of their relationship with the environment […], and describe some key similarities and differences in environmental practices between these societies and present-day Canada

A3.5 — describe the importance of the environment for a few early societies, including at least one First Nation and one Inuit society, with a particular focus on how the local environment affected the ways in which people met their physical needs […]

Brief

This lesson asks you to describe how the local environment affected the way people in an early society met their needs, and to compare societies' relationship with the environment, including with present-day Canada. The curriculum asks for a few societies, including a First Nation and an Inuit society; the museum offers medieval Islamic records on reserved grazing land, on farming and water, and on a desert road, so your class must bring the other societies and the comparison with Canada today. ¹

How did the land and its water shape what people did?

The expectations ask how the environment affected the way people met their needs, and how societies treated their land and resources. For each record, note what people did with the land or the water, and what the record does not say.

Go deeper

In the Sira of Ibn Hisham, when the people of Jurash embraced Islam, the Prophet ﷺ reserved for them a hima around their village, marked by known signs, for the horse, the riding camel and the plough-ox ². A hima is land that the ruler reserves, so that none may graze it except those for whom it has been reserved ². On Ibn Jubayr's road from Qus to Aydhab, the travellers halted at named water points, and the book states that the road was deadly to pilgrims through thirst ³.

Think about it

A hima kept grazing land for the animals of one village and kept others out. Is that fair to people who live nearby, and why?

Into the museum

The hima: what Ibn Hisham reports about the hima of Jurash and the letter to the delegation of Hamdan.
From Qus to Aydhab: the water points on Ibn Jubayr's desert road.

Try this

Read the records on the hima and on agriculture in Islam. Draw two columns, land and water, and list under each what the records say people did; then add a third column for what your class finds about Canada today.