Domestication: Plant vs. Animal

[iluvsheep]

For whatever reason (boredom being the most likely culprit), I have found myself in the middle of a large scale code regression pondering whether man domesticated plants or other animals first. After a little research (and by research, I of course mean google queries), my results are somewhat inconclusive

Comments

[2gouda4u]

I have found myself in the middle of a large scale code regression pondering whether man domesticated plants or other animals first.

How about women? Do any research on their efforts? ; )

[iluvsheep]

Oh no, it's like Schmack has come to life in my journal!

Kidding aside, I did notice that while I was writing this up. I did briefly try to fix it and make it truly gender-independent (or at least reference both genders each time) rather than the "male referring to both genders" thing, but it made the entry generally less lucid, so I decided to stick with this.

For what it is worth, I am sure your esteemed gender had every bit as much to do with both domestications as my own.

[camlost]

One might say that women are *better* at domestication than men... at least these days.

[camlost]

Well, if we assume that food was relatively abundant, but there were lots of scaries out there, then the obvious choice would be to get protection (dogs) rather than more food (plants).

Also, plant domestication requires (or at least encourages) staying relatively put for a long period of time. That would have required (led to?) a greater change in how they lived than domesticating canines.

Though I first thought you were wondering if man or some other animal domesticated plants first.

[derakon]

Friendly wolves can help you hunt. If you can't grow food, you have to kill it.

[camlost]

I was assuming that you gathered food, but hunting is also useful.

[iluvsheep]

Yes, the necessary transition between migratory and settled as a pre-requisite to agriculture was something I thought about when I wrote the entry but I guess I never got into writing. And that, for me, is one of the better explanations as to why dogs were domesticated before plants.

Protection is a point that, though it seems obvious upon reflection, I hadn't considered. Also, crops are probably the antithesis of protection since they themselves require the poor farmers to protect them from various animals, weather, etc., thus being a net drain on security resources, rather than a bonus.

[paperclippy]

What I have heard from shows about the history of dogs (you know I am a dog lover), humans and wolves have a whole lot in common. We both form packs (or family units), work in groups to bring down large animals, rely on each other for protection, etc. The idea is that since humans and wolves hunted in such similar fashion, they discovered that they could do even better if they worked together. By working with the humans, the wolves manage to take down larger animals than they would alone, and of course they get their fair share of the meat. People on the other hand also get help to bring down large game, and addtional protection at night. It's a mutually beneficial relationship, because humans don't eat wolves or mate with the females or anything. The domestication from wolves to dogs (in theory) happened because the "friendlier" wolves tended to hang out with the humans, and mate with each other, etc etc, without necessarily any intentional breeding on the part of the humans (that came later

[iainuki]

Yeah, you pretty much summarized what I had heard.

The Minoans, judging from their art, had bull-jumping competitions; I'm not sure that counts as "riding."

My guess is that work animals started out as food animals, but later on people realized they could be substituted for human muscle. After that, eventually some of them got too valuable to eat right at maturity, so humans worked them until they got too old and then ate them.

[iluvsheep]

The family units commonality is an interesting tie-in, and really does make sense when you think about it. Then again, I still can't see my cave-man self being entirely pleased sleeping alongside wolves, but that might just be me.

My thought is that people realized they could grow plants, then they thought, hey, can't we grow cows too?

That hypothesis is certainly well-supported by the Wikipedia animal list, with the Sheep, Goat, Pig and Cow all being domesticated around the same time (and all shortly after the advent of agriculture, at least according to the wikipedia).

Along the same lines, it is interesting to note that all the "work animals" were supposedly domesticated a fair bit later, and again, around the same time.

[bennj]

I don't have my copy sitting in front of me, but isn't this question pretty extensively handled in Guns, Germs and Steel?

[iluvsheep]

Can't say that I have read it. Though, I have heard it referenced a few other places, and the more I hear about it, the more interesting it seems. Perhaps I should pick up a copy.

I personally blame DeLaet for my aversion to anthropological literature.

[bennj]

If you're going to read it, skip the introduction and jump in at a random chapter. I got stuck for the better part of two years with the same stupid intro about him and an islander who asked a ridiculous question instead of reading about why people domesticated the almond and not the oak tree.

[iluvsheep]

Good tip. I'll be sure to skip the intro.