I find it interesting that when humans began to domesticate animals, they began to become domesticated themselves. Civilization is the domestication of the human species:
We Domesticated Ourselves
First off, it’s worth examining what it means to be domesticated. In the most basic sense, to be domesticated is to be tame. Tame animals are not dangerous. They are easy to manage and hard to provoke. Their adrenal response, the cause of the fight-or-flight reflex, is tamped down. In some sense, this is neoteny in behavior- the lifelong preservation of the trust, playfulness, and sociability of youth. In the case of dogs and the purpose-bred silver fox, domestication seems to have increased social intelligence, at least in regard to interpreting human gestures and emotions.
Not surprisingly, behavioral neoteny goes hand-in-paw with physical neoteny. Domestic animals, on average, have smaller skulls, teeth and brains than those of their wild counterparts. Dogs are particularly pedomorphic, hanging onto the tail-wag, puppyish bark, and floppy ears of a juvenile wolf their whole lives.
Humans certainly preserve a host of juvenile traits into adulthood. Descendants of cattle-herding populations are able to digest lactose into adulthood, a trait normally lost once an infant is weaned. Mature human bodies are less muscular and more fine-limbed than those of Neanderthals, our closest hominid relative. Our jaws and teeth remain small and narrow, in contrast to our broad, babyish foreheads and wide-set eyes.
http://www.nextnature.net/2011/02/we-domesticated-ourselves/
We Domesticated Ourselves
First off, it’s worth examining what it means to be domesticated. In the most basic sense, to be domesticated is to be tame. Tame animals are not dangerous. They are easy to manage and hard to provoke. Their adrenal response, the cause of the fight-or-flight reflex, is tamped down. In some sense, this is neoteny in behavior- the lifelong preservation of the trust, playfulness, and sociability of youth. In the case of dogs and the purpose-bred silver fox, domestication seems to have increased social intelligence, at least in regard to interpreting human gestures and emotions.
Not surprisingly, behavioral neoteny goes hand-in-paw with physical neoteny. Domestic animals, on average, have smaller skulls, teeth and brains than those of their wild counterparts. Dogs are particularly pedomorphic, hanging onto the tail-wag, puppyish bark, and floppy ears of a juvenile wolf their whole lives.
Humans certainly preserve a host of juvenile traits into adulthood. Descendants of cattle-herding populations are able to digest lactose into adulthood, a trait normally lost once an infant is weaned. Mature human bodies are less muscular and more fine-limbed than those of Neanderthals, our closest hominid relative. Our jaws and teeth remain small and narrow, in contrast to our broad, babyish foreheads and wide-set eyes.
http://www.nextnature.net/2011/02/we-domesticated-ourselves/
