ANIMALS AND SOCIETY: AN INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN-ANIMAL STUDIESChapter 5: The Domestication of Animals

Copyright Margo DeMello and Columbia University Press, 2012

The History of Animal Domestication

Animal domestication is the #1 most important thing to happen to animals in the course of

human history. On top of that, it is one of the most important things to happen to human

cultures as well.

First domesticated during the Mesolithic, perhaps 30,000-15,000 years ago.

Evidence suggests that dogs were fi rst domesticated in East Asia, and some of the peoples who entered North America took dogs with them from Asia.

Some researchers have speculated that the benefi ts that dogs off er to humans may have contributed to the rapid expansion of humans into the New World.

Why the dog?

THE DOG

FROM FOOD COLLECTION TO FOOD PRODUCTION

The Neolithic Revolution

Domestication involves more than simply taming. Animals are considered to be domesticated when:

they are kept for a distinct purpose humans control their breeding their survival depends on humans they develop genetic traits that are not found in the

wild

Not the same as: Taming Training Captive Breeding

THE DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS

The fi rst animals domesticated were the goat, sheep, pig and the cow: the fi rst food species.

Horses (the fi rst beast of burden), cats, chickens, l lamas, alpacas and camels followed

Of the 14 large animals to have been domesticated, most can be defi ned by a number of behavioral traits, including: scavenging rapid maturity rate reasonable size a calm disposition ability to be bred in captivity a gregarious nature willingness to live in close quarters a hierarchical social life

THE DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS

First, specifi c behavioral and physical traits of individual animals who scavenged or hung around human encampments were favored by natural selection in the process of domestication.

This set up a selective breeding situation that resulted in a strain of animals having shorter and shorter fl ight distances, until they were eventually comfortable near humans, having domesticated themselves, so to speak.

Humans would have made choices as well, selecting woolly animals from among wild sheep (who are not normally woolly), thus acquiring livestock better suited to lowland heat and from which to obtain wool.

Second, humans most l ikely adapted their own behavior to that of the animals, incorporating them into human social and economic structures and later, manipulating the physiology and behavior of the animals themselves.

THE DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS

Because a handful of traits (like curiosity, lack of fear, willingness to try new things, food begging, submissiveness, etc.) found among the juveniles of species are selected for in domestication, the physical traits of the young (shorter faces, excess fat, smaller brains, smaller teeth, etc.) will also be selected for, leading to modern domesticates who are physically and behaviorally unable to live independently, and who are, in fact, perpetual juveniles (a condition known as neoteny).

THE DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS

Domestication allowed humans to Contain animals with the right temperament Have a steady food supply Use animals for companionship, religious

purposes and draft work

In return, the animals received protection and a constant food supply.

Selective breeding occurred as humans got rid of animals with undesirable traits, not allowing them to reproduce.

ANIMAL DOMESTICATION

Herders can feed many more people in a much more unstable environment, allowing humans to live in climates as diverse as Siberia, Mongolia and the deserts of Africa

When combined with farming, animals can be used to pull ploughs, plus their fertilizer can be used to fertilize the fi elds; animals also often eat stubble off the fi elds after harvest, clearing the way for a new crop

Animals as beasts of burdens allowed for migration (especially when pulling carts) and long distance trade; also warfare (on horses)

Only areas that had large ruminants available to domesticate (Middle East, Asia, Europe, parts of Africa, South America) were able to profi t from these benefi ts

RESULTS OF DOMESTICATION

When combined with plant domestication, allowed for: A steady food supply Animals as labor, food, clothing, companionship,

religious purposes, transportation Settled living: villages to cities to states With states: inequality, population growth, occupational

specialization, trade Enabled more extensive migration, warfare, trade

Other results from animal domestication: greater protein consumption, new communicable diseases like measles, mumps, the plague (which eff ectively wiped out much of Native America) and more recent ones like SARS, avian fl u, mad cow disease and AIDS.

In modern times, with the heavy emphasis on meat consumption and industrialized methods of meat production, we also have new diseases of the circulatory system as well as wholesale environmental degradation.

RESULTS OF ANIMAL DOMESTICATION

Altering the Animal Body

The story of animal domestication did not end with the creation of today’s major domesticated animals. Domestication continues to this day, imposing new shapes and traits upon animals, fi nding new uses for these “improved” creatures, and creating new benefi ts and profi ts for humans.

As farmers and later, show breeders, learned more about the inheritance of traits, animal breeders began selectively breeding their animals for more specifi c characteristics, such as overall size, fur and wool color or texture, ear and tail shape, and more.

ALTERING THE ANIMAL BODY

THE CREATION OF “LIVESTOCK”

From Auroch

Here animal bodies are transformed through selective breeding to create animals who are tame, easy to breed, easy to feed, and easy to control.

THE CREATION OF “LIVESTOCK”

To CowWith the ultimate goal being to create animals whose sole purpose is to create a commodity for humans.

MODERN LIVESTOCK

Since the 19 th century, animals have become meat-producing machines, manufactured and maintained for the highest profit.

ALTERING LIVESTOCK BODIES

Since the early part of the twentieth century, farmers have been experimenting with creating new livestock breeds, via careful cross-breeding, in order to maximize size, fat composition, productivity, or other traits.

Since the development of artificial insemination and the ability to freeze semen, cattle farmers are able to more selectively breed their prized bulls and cows to replicate the traits of the parents.

With the advent of industrial methods of food production in the twentieth century, changes in livestock breeds accelerated.

INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION OF ANIMAL BODIES

Large-scale, centralized production, which concentrates animals into small spaces and controls food, water, and temperatures, enables easier health monitoring, and controls “unnecessary” and “ineffi cient” animal movements.

No outside air, no dirt, no sunlight, and no capacity for natural movement or activities like grooming, play, exercise, unaided reproduction, or the like.

This type of confinement can be compared to the “total institutions” experienced by residents of prisons or mental institutions.

To produce the most meat in the shortest amount of time, animal agribusiness now breeds farm animals to grow at unnaturally rapid rates, with radical results to the animal body.

These changes have been encouraged by new developments in agricultural science, aimed at improving the productivity of food animals such as the routine use of hormones and antibiotics to keep animals alive, and to encourage fast growth.

INDUSTRIALIZING ANIMALS

The pet industry, too, relies on artificial selection (and today, following the livestock industry, artificial insemination) to create breeds of animals with favorable (to humans) traits.

Recent years have seen an escalation in the varieties of dogs, cats, and other companion animals being developed in order to appeal to discriminating consumers.

One result is a whole host of health problems associated with these breeds.

Dogs in particular are at risk of problems associated with the odd proportions in body, legs and head that are bred into many of the breeds.

RESULTING HEALTH PROBLEMS

Genetic manipulation of animals represents a new scientific development that has irreversibly changed animal bodies.

Because pigs, beef cows and chickens are created for one purpose—food consumption —their genes have been altered in a whole host of ways to suit that purpose, resulting in, for example, pigs engineered to have leaner meat, tailor-made to suit a more health-conscious consumer.

Genetically engineered animals are also becoming more popular among scientists who experiment with or test on animals.

Genetic engineering has even found its way into the pet world, with the production of a new hypoallergenic cat (selling for $12,000-$28,000), created by manipulating the genes that produce allergens, and Glofish—zebra fish modified with sea anemone genes to make them glow.

GENETIC MANIPULATION

In terms of reproduction, cloning animals is the wave of the future, allowing humans the greatest level of control over animal bodies.

Thus far, the livestock industry has been most active in the use of cloning, cloning prized breeder animals in order to ensure higher yields (in meat, wool, etc.) by copying only very productive animals.

Laboratory scientists are also cloning mice, rabbits and other laboratory animals in order to ensure that the animals used in research are genetically identical, and to control for any “imperfections.”

CLONING

Another way that animal bodies have been changed is through surgical procedures, for both cosmetic and control purposes.

This includes castration, debanding, tail docking, debeaking, dehorning, ear cropping, debarking, and other ways that animals have their bodies altered to fit human needs.

All of these uses of the animal body can be illustrated with Foucault’s notion of biopower: the ways in which the modern state controls and regulates their citizens’ bodies.

When it comes to animals, it’s easy to see how society’s needs and desires have shaped the changes to the animal body. But it’s also about control: control over animals.

CONTROLLING THE ANIMAL BODY

Certainly, many companion animals gain a great deal by living with humans, and many working animals may live better lives with humans than without.

Most companion animals, and many other domesticated animals, could not live without human care, creating a permanent dependency.

But we also care for domestic animals because we have grown dependent on them. But whereas the dependency of most domestic animals on humans is irreversible, that is not necessarily the case for human dependency on animals.

Just as we have bred dependency into the domestic animal/human relationship, we have also bred its corollary, dominance, into that same relationship.  

IS DOMESTICATION GOOD OR BAD FOR ANIMALS?