Domestication and agriculture 2
Driving force and knowledge
H-G community didn’t have any knowledge of genetics, breeding or inheritance
They knew a large amount about the land, local plants and animals
Their main goal was increasing food supply
Pre conditions for domestication
There needed to be a place for the pants to grow
A knowledge of local land and species
Hunting and herding was likely a precursor for their domestication
Unconscious domestication
Best candidates for domestication were there already
Edible, high yielding and self-pollinating
E.g. H-G societies in the fertile crescent already harvested wild grasses and this provided a stable
source of food through out the year
It is basically non-intentional selection
E.g. harvesting and transportation automatically selects for shatter resistant spikes and larger
grains
Natural variation can be purified without thinking about it
Humans actively replant from locally harvested seeds so this way plants with weak dormancy
and synchronous germination were automatically selected for
Early domestication of animals is fundamentally similar
Though the decision to manage a herd is deliberate, but the ensuing genetic selection for
reduced aggression/flightiness, reduced size and increased fertility will occur automatically
Second path to domestication
Fruits formed the second wave of crop domestication
This was an even more unconscious process
Only worked for fruits
Replanting from now local plants is the key step
Automatic selection ensued
Conscious domestication
Later domesticates involved more thought
E.g. maintaining quality in apple and pear trees couldn’t be done just from cuttings, cuttings
needed to be grafted on to rootstock
Eventually farmers became very good at looking for potential
Auto-domestication
Cats and dogs were originally wild, aggressive animals
Early domestication came from predation of rats and rodents in early human settlements
Less vicious individuals were then tolerated, they had increased reproductive success
Eventually adopted as companions
Disease domestication
Several human diseases originated from domestic pets
As intimate contact with them allowed diseases to jump the species barrier
Sedentary and agriculture lifestyle increased the parasite burden
This was made worse by urbanization
We also spread diseases to domesticated animals
Reflexive domestication
Driving force and knowledge
H-G community didn’t have any knowledge of genetics, breeding or inheritance
They knew a large amount about the land, local plants and animals
Their main goal was increasing food supply
Pre conditions for domestication
There needed to be a place for the pants to grow
A knowledge of local land and species
Hunting and herding was likely a precursor for their domestication
Unconscious domestication
Best candidates for domestication were there already
Edible, high yielding and self-pollinating
E.g. H-G societies in the fertile crescent already harvested wild grasses and this provided a stable
source of food through out the year
It is basically non-intentional selection
E.g. harvesting and transportation automatically selects for shatter resistant spikes and larger
grains
Natural variation can be purified without thinking about it
Humans actively replant from locally harvested seeds so this way plants with weak dormancy
and synchronous germination were automatically selected for
Early domestication of animals is fundamentally similar
Though the decision to manage a herd is deliberate, but the ensuing genetic selection for
reduced aggression/flightiness, reduced size and increased fertility will occur automatically
Second path to domestication
Fruits formed the second wave of crop domestication
This was an even more unconscious process
Only worked for fruits
Replanting from now local plants is the key step
Automatic selection ensued
Conscious domestication
Later domesticates involved more thought
E.g. maintaining quality in apple and pear trees couldn’t be done just from cuttings, cuttings
needed to be grafted on to rootstock
Eventually farmers became very good at looking for potential
Auto-domestication
Cats and dogs were originally wild, aggressive animals
Early domestication came from predation of rats and rodents in early human settlements
Less vicious individuals were then tolerated, they had increased reproductive success
Eventually adopted as companions
Disease domestication
Several human diseases originated from domestic pets
As intimate contact with them allowed diseases to jump the species barrier
Sedentary and agriculture lifestyle increased the parasite burden
This was made worse by urbanization
We also spread diseases to domesticated animals
Reflexive domestication
