Domestication

Domestication is a multi-generational mutualistic relationship in which an animal species, such as humans or leafcutter ants, takes over control and care of another species, such as sheep or fungi, to obtain from them a steady supply of resources, such as meat, milk, or labor. The process is gradual and geographically diffuse, based on trial and error. Domestication affects genes for behavior in animals, making them less aggressive. In plants, domestication affects genes for morphology, such as increasing seed size and stopping the shattering of cereal seedheads. Such changes both make domesticated organisms easier to handle and reduce their ability to survive in the wild.

Terrestrialvertebrates are the first animals to be domesticated by humans, with the earliest domestication of vertebrates being the domestication of dogs from wolves, who diverged from their wild relatives and developed a commensal relationship with Upper Paleolithic/Mesolithic humans at least 15,000 years ago during the Late Pleistocene. Other animals, including goats, sheep, and cows, were domesticated around 11,000 years ago. Among birds, the chicken was first domesticated in East Asia at least 3,250 years ago. The horse came under domestication around 5,500 years ago in central Asia as a riding animal. For aquatic vertebrates (fish), the GunditjmaraAboriginal people in southwestern Victoria, Australia may have raised short-finned eels as early as about 4,580 BCE, and the local Budj Bim Cultural Landscape (a World Heritage Site) is one of the oldest known aquaculture sites in the world. Common carp were cultivated in Ancient China as early as 2000–2100 BCE (around 4,000 years BP) as per oral tradition, and the earliest written evidence lies in a Spring and Autumn periodmonograph by Fan Li called The Classic of Fish Culture, written around 475 BCE (c. 2475 BP). Circumstantial evidence from the Jiahu archaeological site from prehistoric China also speculated possible aquaculture locations dating from 6200 BCE (about 8,200 years BP), where trapped carp were fed with nymphs and silkworm faeces. Among invertebrates, the silkworm and the western honey bee were domesticated over 5,000 years ago for silk and honey, respectively. The branch of agriculture concerning domesticated animals are known collectively as animal husbandry.

The domestication of plants began around 13,000–11,000 years ago with cereals such as wheat and barley in the Middle East, alongside crops such as lentil, pea, chickpea, and flax. Beginning around 10,000 years ago, Indigenous peoples in the Americas began to cultivate peanuts, squash, maize, potatoes, cotton, and cassava. Rice was first domesticated in China some 9,000 years ago. In Africa, crops such as sorghum were domesticated. Agriculture developed in some 13 centres around the world, domesticating different crops and animals.

Three groups of insects, namely ambrosia beetles, leafcutter ants, and fungus-growing termites have independently domesticated species of fungi, on which they feed. In the case of the termites, the relationship is a fully obligate symbiosis on both sides.