DOMESTICATION AN
DOMESTICABILITY
Dr. Mine ERDAL
DOMESTICATION
Definitions from Oxford Languages
the process of taming an animal and keeping it as a pet or on a farm.
"domestication of animals lies at the heart of human civilization"
the cultivation of a plant for food.
"this book covers the evolution and domestication of six important cereal
crops"
DOMESTICATION
“a process of biological transformation,
which is an almost automatic consequence of
proto-cultivation and proto-animal breeding
when these processes are applied to certain
wild species”.
Such transformation takes long long time
At the end domesticated species loose their
original form
How domestic species formed?
First hominids chose from among thousands of other species for their
usefulness and their ease of exploitation
Neolithic people selected and kept small collections of individuals belonging
to one or another of these species in order to subject them to new, human-
made conditions of growth and reproduction, resulting from the practices of
proto-agriculture
After generation of selections descendants of species genetically and
morphologically, behaviurally different from original wild ones
If the such characteristics are heritable and advantageous then retained
Many times few useful characteristics might be enough
The Domestication of Cereals
Wild cereal species grows heterogeneously (highly diverse)
Some wild seed dormant (asleep) waits ideal conditions to kick in germination
hormones (actually this characteristic increase the change of spread to vast
areas and time)
as they are cultivated, sown together during the first rainy season and
harvested together during the following harvest, only the non-dormant seeds
can be harvested and subsequently sown again.
The common sowing and, subsequently, common harvesting of an initially wild
cereal population thus tends to eliminate the descendants of dormant seeds
surrounded by thick glumes and glumellas
The Domestication of Cereals
Vigorous seeds better germination and establishment than poor
ones which are eliminated
Larger seed rich in sugar emerge earlier compete better
Simultaneously matured grains commonly harvested while others
eliminated
Traits such as dormancy, thick husks, small grains, numerous small
flowerings, weak stalks and stemlets, easily shelled grains etc.
characteristics reason for elimination
non-dormancy, thin husks, large grains rich in sugars and poor in
proteins and fats, single or less numerous ears or flowerings of
large size with abundant grains, strong stalks and stemlets, grains
that are difficult to shell, etc. good characteristics selected for
next generations
A Small Number of Jointly Inheritable
Genes
Cereals genetic and reproductive advantageous potentials for domesticability
For example: Maize and millet few important genes controlling domestication
and grouped on the same chromosome (i.e. Jointly inheritable) that helped
faster domestication
maize, sorghum, millet, wheat, oats, and rice are preferentially reproduced
by self-fertilization (fertilization of each plant by its own pollen)
no risk of hybridizing with wild forms
Selection, selection and generations of
selections
Selection of domestic characteristics is automatic
(observe, choose and act) with respect to visible trait
advantages and eliminate wild
Some traits after selection may be unwanted but may
coexist with the domesticated counterparts
In order for domestication to take
place, the seeds resulting from
proto-cultivation must become
predominant and be sown for several
subsequent generations.
If wild cereals were abundant and more than population
needed, domestication was not likely in centers of origins
The Domestication of Other Plants
Other Plants with Seeds domesticated almost the same way to
cereals
Legumes with easily opening pods and dormant late maturing
seed lost during domestication
Plants Characterized by Vegetative Reproduction was rather
easy: cutting stems (cassava), collecting best tubers (potato,
yam), taking shoots (banana) all identical to parent plants
genetically advantageous plants can be found in unfavorable
conditions that prevent them from showing their intrinsic
qualities
Favored Non-Domesticated Plants: palm oil tree, baobab tree
(fruit, leaves, bark fiber), shea tree (buttery fruit) acacia tree
protected and propagated outsite of centers
Egyptian papyrus
The Domestication of Animals
Selection for preexisting trait of interest in wild type or,
Mutation on traits of interest during domestication Wild Animal
Same for plants except not much linked (jointly
heritable) genes in animals!!! Less sensitive, less
Shy/timid (not
nervous, less
accept feeding Dangerously violent
“The management of large herds makes it possible for /reproduction)
forceful and small
in size
the most vulnerable animals, which are the best
protected, to survive, while they would have been
eliminated in small herds living in the wild” X No domestication X No domestication Domestication
Domestic plants “improved” vs. primitive domestic
animals “debased”
not every animal species can be domesticated!!!
(ancient Egypt: pelicans, herons, hyenas, oryxes could
not be domesticated)
Overview of Neolithic Revolution
“agriculture was neither discovered nor invented.” J. R. Harlan
Agriculture is the result of a long evolutionary process that affected several societies of Homo
sapiens sapiens in the Neolithic Era.
Societies of predators transformed into societies of farmers were among the most advanced of the
epoch.
use of sophisticated stone tools, exploited plant resources abundant enough to allow them to live
together in settled villages, and undoubtedly practiced ancestor worship
some privileged regions of the planet suitable for the agricultural revolution (not every place equal
for spread)
strong increase in world population
Proto-cultivation and proto-breeding became from that moment more advantageous in these places
than simple predation
an infinite number of inventions, choices, initiatives, and reflections in every domain of material
and social life, as well as in the domains of thought, beliefs, morals, language, and other means of
expression
