Zooarchaeology & Domestication Flashcards
Why is domestication important
- Fundamental change in our relationship with nature
- Development of agriculture: huge repercussions for human ecology, demography, and society
- Production of surplus food and other products
- Permitted dramatic global and human population growth
- Changes in health and disease
What is domestication (from a biological perspective)
- Domestication involves the reproductive isolation of domestic animals from the wild population
- Controlled breeding
- Lead to the domesticates no longer being able to live or reproduce in the wild
- Change from shared ownership of wild resources to private property
Zeder (2012): 3 domestication pathways
- Commensal
- Prey
- Directed
Zeder’s (2012) commensal pathway to domestication and examples of animals on this pathway
Wild - Anthropophily - Habituation - Commensalism and partnership - Captive animal control and intensive breeding - Commerical breeds and pets
- Dogs, cats, rats, mice, guinea pigs, chickens, pigeons, ducks, turkeys
Zeder’s (2012) prey pathway to domestication and examples of animals on this pathway
- Wild - Prey - Game management - Herd management and extensive breeding - Captive animal control and intensive breeding - commerical breeds and pets
- Sheep, goats, llamas, alpacas, reindeer, cattle, yaks, water buffalo
Zeder’s (2012) directed pathway to domestication and examples of animals on this pathway
Wild - captive animal control and intensive breeding - commercial breeds and pets
- Horses, donkeys, camels, buffalo, ferrets, hamsters, rabbits, turtles, mink, chinchillas, gerbils, ostriches, emu, parrots, goldfish
Hunting regulation
- Protects females with dependant young
- Provides a survival benefit to females providing longer maternal care
- Indirectly promoted slower life histories by modulating the fitness of maternal care tact
- Hunting regulation included artificial selection on female life history traits and affected demographic processes
Research challenges in the study of animal domestication
- Identifying gradual changes in human-animal relationships
- Some indicators of domestication not visible in the skeleton
- Biological changes may have a delayed response
David’s (1987) 6 criteria for recognising domestication
- Import of a foreign species
- Species specturm change
- Cultural signs
- Morphological change
- Size differences
- Age and sex policies
Why might we see changes in the size and shape of the skeleton
- Removal of natural selective processes
- Removal of male competition
- Deliberate selective breeding by humans
- Isolated domestic herds breeding in a limited gene pool
- Controlled husbandry
- Climatic changes (warmer climates can reduce average animal size, selective pressures relating to body ma to skin area ratios and animal’s ability to dissipate heat)
Case study: identifying early domestic horses in Eurasia
Wild horses:
- Adapted to steppe conditions
- Common acros late Pleistocene Eurasia
- Avoid forested environments
- Rare in early and middle Holocene
Domestic horses:
- In use throughout Bronze age Eurasia
- Remarkably high profile position by first millennium BC
Origins and spread:
- Discuss some early evidence, focus on the steppe and Europe
Arrival of the first farmers in Northern Europe
- Linear Bandkeramik (LBK)
- c. 5650 - 4900 BC
- Opening up of forests: changing Europe’s ecology
- Beneficial to horse population
Identifying early domestic horses
- Changes in body size and shape
- Changes in relative numbers of horse remains
- Biogeography
- Skeletal pathologies
- Demography
- Artistic representation
- Artefacts
- Biomolecular evidence
Horse domestication on the Eurasian steppe
- Eneolithic botai culture, northern Kazakhstan
- Evidence for domestic horses radiocarbon dated to mid-4th millenium BC
- bit wear on horse teeth
- Horse milk (lipid) residue in pots
- Proportions of horse bones match domestic animals
Metrical comparison of horse bone measurements + alternative interpretation
- Decrease in size
- Increase in variablility
- Horse domesticated early 3rd Mill BC (Bell Beaker culture)
Alternative
- Size increase due to improved nutritional state of wild horses as a result of ecological changes due to introduction/intensification of agriculture