Domestication

The adaptation of an animal or plant through breeding in captivity for useful advantage to and by humans. Early agriculturists controlled fauna through selection and breeding so that animals might produce more of what man needed than their wild forebears. The definition includes the taming of cats and dogs as house pets, as well as the care and control of cattle, sheep, goat, pig, horse, llama, camel, guinea pig, etc. It included breeding for produce such as milk, meat, hides, and wool, and the training of animals for draft and carrying. This selection by man resulted in osteological changes in the animals, so that in general domesticated animals can be distinguished by their remains from their wild ancestors. The process of domestication was a slow one; dogs likely being the first in Mesolithic times. Sheep were likely domesticated by 9000 BC in Iraq. Goats, cattle, and pigs followed in the next 3000 years, all in southwest Asia. The horse appears in the 2nd millennium, and the camel in the 1st. In the New World, domesticable animals were far fewer, notably the dog, llama, and guinea pig. The change involved, from hunting and gathering to food production was one of the most important in human development. Adaptations made by animal and plant species to the cultural environment as a result of human interference in reproductive or other behavior are often detectable as specific physical changes in faunal or floral ecofacts.

The process by which wild plants and animals have been adapted to man’s needs and methods of husbandry. The division between domestic and wild is not clear-cut. Many domestic plants and animals differ markedly from their wild relatives, others are very similar; several have no living wild relative at all. Some plants and animals are not ‘farmed’ by man in the sense of deliberately being bred or cultivated, but are still very closely associated with man. To add to the confusion, many of today’s ‘wild’ stocks may, in fact, be feral. Domestication involves a process of selection. It may be seen as part of evolution. Selection for particular features of shape, size and behaviour causes domestic animals and plants to diverge from their wild progenitor. Selection of this kind also leads to the establishment of varieties and breeds. The enormous range of breeds in animals such as the dog is probably due to selection for congenital deformities. See, for example, cattle, dog, donkey,