NAME: TSHIFHIWA DANIEL

SURNAME: RAMAKGAPOLA
STUDENT NUMBER: 208520874
NAME OF TUTOR: MILDA
DUE DATE: 26 FEBRUARY 2010

DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS
Domestication is the transformation of wild animals or plants into something that is more useful to
human beings. This transformation is one of the most important processes that have occurred.
Domestication is the backbone of all the modernizations that had taken place in his world. Economic
transformation in this world had resulted from domestication of both animals and plants. However there
is so much argument on this process as the information about domestication remains vague.
Domestication of animals is described as bringing wild animals under human control so that human needs
can be fulfilled. Transformation of animals remains a big issue in research as to why some species were
transformed whilst some where not. Besides that arguments had aroused on how it had come to be what it
is and why it took place. (Diamond 1998:159)

It is argued if domestication was just transformation of wild animals since there is a difference between
domesticates and their ancestors. Arguments rise because in Africa there are so many animals yet none of
them was domesticated .However scholars argue that these animals had been transformed from their wild
ancestors. Diamond insists that the introduction of these animals to human environments had altered their
minds such that they could be different to their wild ancestors. He also says that transformation resulted
from the automatic evolution that took place due to forces of natural selection which took place in human
environments. He proceeds by saying that there were species which were domestic able and some which
were not. It is also stressed that many ancestors of these domesticates are in Eurasia were 13 species of
such animal could be found proved by the fact that seven of these were found to have been inhabitants of
Southwest Asia. It is clear that domesticates were non African animals but Eurasian animals.(1998:159).

Some animals could not be candidates amongst domesticates in that their grow rate was low. This refused
them access to being domesticates in that human beings needed animals which could mature faster.
Besides that some were not able to breed in captivity. Cheetahs have to first have to run to induce
themselves into sexual activity. They could not do so in captivity as there was no allowance for that.
Besides sexually inactivity in human environments, some animals were dangerous to capture and breed.
Such an example could be to take a zebra in place of a horse. A zebra has been proved to be one of the
many candidates which could not qualify domestication due to its dangerous biting and kicking
techniques. Besides that it can also be the same for a lion which, it has failed the position of being a
candidate due to the fact that it is dangerous. (Diamond 1998:196).

Most of domesticates are terrestrial animals other than aquatic animals. This issue had raised arguments
since there are aquatic animals which are big to provide the needs that terrestrial animals do. Terrestrial
animals were simple to maintain as compared to aquatic animals since the environment they lived in is
similar to human environment. Aquatic animals will need an aquatic environment which is very difficult
to provide when not near the sea or ocean. The aquatic animals like hippos were also difficult to breed at
that time as there were no proper sea world facilities to encourage such breeding. A hippo could need
perhaps the whole dam in somebody’s home as its shelter. (Diamond 1998:159).

Diamond says that domestication of these terrestrial animals had happened due to the fact that humans
found these animals useful. This proved by the fact that each domesticates provides something useful to
the human beings. However it can also be argued that human beings could have wanted increase food
production by domesticating these animals. Basing on large animals, domestication improved the way in
which farming was done. The introduction of horses in ploughing intensified production of food as these
animals could provide more power. (1998:158).

Furthermore domestication can be linked to increased knowledge of farming and agriculture. People
might have wanted to shift from hunter-gathering process which was becoming inefficient as the
population increased. When the population increased resources become scarce such that people had to
move long distances to find food. The Okiek, Kenyan hunter gathers domesticated animals to ease
scheduling of animal use. Scheduling the use of domesticates allowed proximity to the animals thereby
ensuring a predictable access to them. In addition to that humans wanted full control over domesticates in
captivity. It was difficult to control wild animals in the bush than on captivity. Hunter gathering was a
tiring process due translocations which happened oftenly, people felt that capturing these animals could
serve some calories as the distance became reduced. (Marshall and Hildebrand 2002:104).

It appears that human beings had many ceremonies basing on the archaeological evidence. Religious
motives are some of the things that led to domestication. Most of the ceremonies that human beings
which are religious need a lot of meat to take place so without domestication scheduling of such
ceremonies could be unpredictable. Human beings felt that the only way to bring wild animals was to
capture them and breed them in captivity to provide as a predictable source of meat. The scheduled
consumption model insists that in western Asia, were early domestication is thought to have taken place
around 10000 BC; religious motives accelerated the domestication of animals.(Marshall and Hildebrand
2002: 104-106)

Arguments arise over domestication; some think domestication was a good thing to occur whilst some
takes it as a lethal gift. Domestication has some good and bad effects. The introduction of domestication
into the early communities brought germs which caused much more sicknesses to the people. Multiple
diseases are thought to have resulted from animals for example influenza, small pox and AIDS. AIDS, an
active pandemic is thought to have originated from African monkeys. This defines the lethal side of
domestication since most of the diseases affecting human beings have originated form wild animals.
(Diamond 1998:197)

Domestication transformed socio-economic values of human beings .This transformation had led to much
competition amongst human beings. The human needs have become unlimited as compared to the hunter
gatherers. People have means to get other things which lead to exploitation of other people by those with
means to get whatever they want. It an also be argue that domestication contributed to the uneven gap
that is there between the rich and the poor. The poor remain poor whilst the rich become richer this can
be proved people in some parts of Africa, starvation is said to claim lives of people when Africa has a lot
of resources to sustain its people. In addition to that Domestication nullifies human equality as those who
posses more power than other people harness the modes of production and political system to be in
control. (Marshall and Hildebrand 2002:99-103)

The most negative aspect of domestication is that it transformed warfare; in fact it can also be argued that
domestication introduced wars. At first people didn’t have time for wars as that time was not there,
besides spending much energy in wars people could go and hunt. Hunting was tiresome so the energy for
going to wars was not there. The introduction of domesticates to human societies meant that people could
no longer move and run longer distances that more energy they acquired had to be used in warfare.
Besides that people could exploit the weaker companions to get more resources this was done through
going into wars they could go to wars over livestock for example Shaka, a well known Zulu leader most
of the wars he fought resulted in repossession of rival’s live stock. (Diamond 1998:159).

Wars become much dangerous and quick because of development of some tools due to domestication
people introduced spears which were then transformed into guns. In war fares some of domesticates
provided transport to warriors for example the introduction of the horse in the battles. The warriors could
move faster using horses than it could be by foot, guns could be easily used for such hit and run battles
were one had to hit his opponent quickly. Diamond argues that domestication contributed to colonization
and colonization of weaker states this was due to introduction of horses which increased the magnitude of
distances which could be moved. (1998: 198)

In conclusion to that domestication is process which many human beings benefited from, although it has
many negative impacts to the society like the lethal gift of germs found acquired from the domesticates.
Modernization which is taking place currently is a result of domestication. Development of infrastructure
is based on domestication. Domestication had triggered the economic part as people traded by skins, milk
and meat from domesticates. This has increased the GDP leading to civilization of the Dark Continent,
Africa. Food production to sustain the sky rocketing population made possible by domestication of
animals since many of the resources one consumes as food come from the domesticated animals.
REFERENCES

• Diamond, J.Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13000 years. London.
Vintage, 1998.
• Marshall, F and Hildebrand, E.Cattle Before Crops: The Beginnings of Food production in Africa
‘.Journal of World Prehistory, June 2002, Vol.16 Issue 2, pp.99-102 and 106-131(e-journal).