The Domestication of Animals
Abstract
Over the past 11,000 years humans have brought a wide variety of animals under domestication. Domestic animals belong to all Linnaean animal classes—mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects, and even, arguably, bacteria. Raised for food, secondary products, labor, and companionship, domestic animals have become intricately woven into human economy, society, and religion. Animal domestication is an on-going process, as humans, with increasingly sophisticated technology for breeding and rearing animals in captivity, continue to bring more and more species under their control. Understanding the process of animal domestication and its reciprocal impacts on humans and animal domesticates requires a multidisciplinary approach. This paper brings together recent research in archaeology, genetics, and animal sciences in a discussion of the process of domestication, its impact on animal domesticates, and the various pathways humans and their animal partners have followed into domestication.
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The availability of cultivated cereals may have catalyzed a shift in the relationship between people and red junglefowl consistent with the commensal pathway.
“The availability of cultivated cereals may have therefore catalyzed a shift in the relationship between people and red junglefowl consistent with the commensal pathway (95, 96).”
From The biocultural origins and dispersal of domestic chickens (2022) · cites this paper as [95]
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- Authors
- Zeder, M. A.
- Affiliations
- Smithsonian Institution (US)
- Corresponding author
- Zeder, Melinda A.
- ORCID
- Zeder, Melinda A.
- Venue
- Journal of Anthropological Research
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- Published
- 2012-06
- Volume
- 68
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 161-190
- ISSN
- 0038-4801 (ISSN-L)
- 0091-7710
- 2153-3806
- OpenAlex
- W2088200338
- Semantic Scholar
- cb1270604740370f7cc39a81b9960a9f483d13ad
- Cited by
- 406
- References
- 80
- Citations by year
- 2026: 27 · 2025: 36 · 2024: 28 · 2023: 43 · 2022: 42 · 2021: 51 · 2020: 48 · 2019: 53 · 2018: 25 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 5.72
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Anthropological Research (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Human-Animal Interaction Studies
- Social Sciences › Geography, Planning and Development › Geographies of human-animal interactions
- Keywords
- animal domestication, domestic animals, human-animal relations, animal breeding, livestock, companion animals, animal genetics
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