Domestication

Lead Author: Juliet Clutton-Brock (other articles)
Article Topic: Animals and society
This article has been reviewed and approved by the following Topic Editor: Linda Kalof (other articles)
Last Updated: November 5, 2006

Domestication is defined as the keeping of animals in captivity by a human community that maintains total control over their breeding, organization of territory, and food supply. True domestication involves a combination of biological and cultural processes. The biological process begins with the separation of a few animals from the wild species and their taming by humans; if these animals breed, a founder group is formed, which is changed over future generations both in response to natural selection under the control of humans and the animal's environment and by artificial selection for economic, cultural, or aesthetic goals. In the cultural process, animals are incorporated into the social structure of a human community and become objects of ownership, inheritance, purchase, and exchange.

Further Reading

  • Clutton-Brock, Juliet. 1999. A Natural History of Domesticated Mammals. Second Edition. Cambridge University Press/The Natural History Museum.
  • Clutton-Brock, Juliet. 2007. How Domestic Animals Have Shaped the Development of Human Societies, In Linda Kalof (ed.), A Cultural History of Animals in Antiquity. Oxford: Berg Publishers, Forthcoming.
Citation
Clutton-Brock, Juliet (Lead Author); Linda Kalof (Topic Editor). 2006. "Domestication." In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth October 11, 2006; Last revised November 5, 2006; Retrieved March 18, 2010]. <http://www.eoearth.org/article/Domestication>
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