May

3

Some in these areas of science (genetics, animal development and behavior) have proposed that humans have essentially domesticated ourselves during the Holocene.

Domesticated silver fox

The domesticated silver fox (Vulpes vulpes forma amicus) is a form of the silver fox that has been to some extent domesticated under laboratory conditions. The silver fox is a melanistic form of the wild red fox. Domesticated silver foxes are the result of an experiment designed to demonstrate the power of selective breeding to transform species, as described by Charles Darwin in On the Origin of Species. The experiment at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics in Novosibirsk, Russia, explored whether selection for behaviour rather than morphology may have been the process that had produced dogs from wolves, by recording the changes in foxes when in each generation only the most tame foxes were allowed to breed. Many of the descendant foxes became both tamer and more dog-like in morphology, including displaying mottled- or spotted-coloured fur.

But there has been criticism of the breeding experiment and conclusions.

Asindu Drileba responds:

My definition of "domestication" used to be that of "Animals simply living under the care of other animals". When I watched a PBS Eons video some years back, I learned that Paleontologist's had a very different definition of "domestication". They define it as "the dependence on the care of other living things, to the extent that they cannot no longer live in their natural environment (the wild) anymore."

In the animal context, humans domesticated dogs and stray dogs (dogs with no owner) are riddled with wounds and in general don't do well. They would probably die if left in a forest. Foxes however look good in the wild.

In the human context, a human being with no owner (a government, a parent or an employer) usually does as badly in the manner of the stray dog. This human would perfectly fit the paleontological definition of what would be a "domestic human". The same applies for the ownership class/ruling class. They have used the working classes to domesticate themselves so they too, also can't survive with out them either. An undomesticated human would be people that can survive in an environment urban dwellers can't, the natural environment.

Like how the Khoisan do well in the desert, or tribes in the deep Amazon also do well. If you dumped a random urban dweller in the Amazon rain forest or the Kahalari desert (under same circumstances as the natives) 99% of them would die within weeks.


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