
How and why did humans domesticate animals? - diodorus
https://aeon.co/essays/how-domestication-changes-species-including-the-human
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tigroferoce
On this topic I strongly advise to watch this:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOmjnioNulo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOmjnioNulo)

Also all the others videos are worth watching.

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jchimienti
Has anyone read Sapiens? The book argues that the farming revolution around
10000 years ago was our biggest misstep in history. We casted off our
symbiosis with nature and sprinted towards greed and alienation and have
domesticated ourselves. I thought the idea that we have been enslaved by wheat
was interesting since I never thought of it that way.

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danieltillett
I love how the article elides that humans have also been domesticated by
nobles without quite saying so.

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novia
Did you mean alludes? I looked up elides because it was a word I didn't know,
but the definition does not seem to match the context.

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danieltillett
I meant elide :)

The article skips over this conclusion while getting rather close. Nobody has
really looked at this hypothesis in any depth because of the political
consequences of finding it is true.

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novia
I'll start researching it if I see the proletariat developing floppy ears and
other cute features :)

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danieltillett
It is not just the proles that get domesticated, it is the nobles too. Since
in even the most ridged societies there is movement across classes, if the
peasants become domesticated then the same genes will eventually end up in the
nobles.

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amelius
I sometimes wonder why humans would find animals "cute".

Is it mere coincidence?

Or is there some (evolutionary) reason for it?

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dri_ft
I think they have traits that set off the cuteness triggers we have for
(human) babies - big eyes (relative to head), big head (relative to body),
etc.

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m0nty
> cuteness triggers we have for (human) babies - big eyes (relative to head),
> big head (relative to body)

Known as "the baby schema". Is adaptive in the evolutionary sense - cute baby
will be more attractive to adults, hence better cared for, etc.

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jjtheblunt
I'd conjecture the answers are "long ago" and "because animals are awesome
companions".

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dualogy
"Long ago"? Did the title read "when" instead of "how" at first?

> because animals are awesome companions

Now this is of course obvious to everyone here other than baby infants but
domestic animals are "awesome companions" for many reasons:

\- they're _tasty food_ (and I might add _fully_ nourishing for those whose
ancestors thrived off mammoths for many ice-age millenia),

\- or _capable and strong beasts of burden_ ,

\- or _providers of wool, hides, leather, candle wax and countless other
useful product pre-cursors_ ,

\- or _skillful hunting /tracking companions grateful to share the prey in a
co-op fashion_,

\- or _defenders of the realm against predators vermin and pests_ ,

\- or _powerfully speedy transportation engines running on cellulose_..

\- later on, the _soil fertilization_ didn't hurt either I reckon

I'm sure I'm even still missing aspects.

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joggery
>I'm sure I'm even still missing aspects.

Perhaps this comes under 'defenders of the realm', but: dogs bark at strangers
thereby acting as an alarm system.

I wonder if dogs domesticated _themselves_ , at least to begin with. By
following a human camp around they would be more likely to breed with other
human-liking and human-tolerated dogs.

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dualogy
+1 the alarm system!

It occurs to me that domestic animals are (certainly in a moderately-warmish
climate) all that's required for a "fine", "humane", "quiet pleasant" human
civilization. Not a highly industrialized one perhaps, or a highly complex
hierarchy of state and formal roles, but still, if & as long as humans could
use enough of their gray matter to reign in their own breeding in sync with
pasture-land availability and domestic-animal breeding.. seems even for metal-
working and old-school defence (perhaps useless in the nuclear age) is quite
doable without industry or slavery indeed. Something the doomsday preppers
would be wise to keep in mind and focus on, rather than memorizing what small
proportion of calorically meagre, highly seasonal, local
herbs/mushrooms/nuts/berries aren't immediately deadly / long-term damaging,
or wasting valuable pasture space trying to sprout a some silly freedom fries
;) one cow feeds a man for 12 months, or absent freezers, 12 men for a month,
with full nutrition and copious kcals, nothing else will ever beat that.
Smaller animals are a decent hedge and for variety.

