Domestication of Man

This book gives a contrary narrative to the general belief that man moved gradually but progressively from hunter-gather to a more regular, nourished and having a constant food supply of farming and animal husbandry. The author deliberately intended to be as provocative and outrageous as possible, to stimulate thought and discussions. One of his suggestions that man has become weaker and stupider as we herded ourselves in towns and cities. This book says also states that the move from hunter-gather was not as straight forward, that there instances that man moved back to hunter-gathering from farming, and that in some cases that hunter-gathering was more nutritious and used fewer calories than farming and produced better returns and people who were hunter-gathers were more healthy than individuals who were living a sedentary lifestyle. He also noted surprisingly only three grains wheat, rice, and maize produce more than half of our daily calorie intake and these take a lot of our energy in processing. Also, there is the danger of crowding diseases and epidemics which indicate why various surviving populations are hostile to outsiders. He believes that there was no evidence of villages being supported by fixed fields and animals until 7,000 years ago, but believes domestication of plants and some animals took place 11,000 years ago and because of the disadvantages associated with the settlement can account for this.

The author Prof James C. Scott has written six books is an American political scientist and anthropologist. He taught at the University of Wisconsin–Madison until 1976 and has remained at Yale for the duration of his career. At Yale, he is Sterling Professor of Political Science and Professor of anthropology has directed the Program in Agrarian Studies since 1991. He lives in Durham, Connecticut, where he once raised sheep. 

His theory is that the reason why we left hunter-gathering is that we were forced to by scarcity rather than contrary to the current belief that it was easier. The author claims that it seems that domestication has not made us unhealthier but more stupid. He gives the example of the sheep, that its ancestor has a bigger brain and is much faster and stronger, the males have strong horns and they don't need to fleece them yearly. But having us selecting them over the years, has produced a more compliant and less aggressive sheep, that does not have visible horns and provide us with wool for our clothes. There is an experiment was done in Russia in the 1930s (maybe an attempt to subdue their population) of the domestication of the silver fox, which over the years and selecting a subset from tameness, produces an animal that licked experimenters hand, wagged their tails, floppy ears, short curly tails, juvenilized facial, docile, responded to both verbal and non-verbal commands and whined when the humans departed, this was just before six generations i.e. 36 years. Our dogs now look at our faces and hands can pick up verbal and non-verbal cues and communicate with us that we tend to believe that they are communicating with us and our emotional bound to us. This might be true to some extent but what is also true is they have grown dependent upon us for their daily substance.

He gives the notion that if the gene planned to replicate and survive the animals and plants see to have manipulated us into extending their breed. Man devotes most of his time in protecting, feeding, watering, caring, etc certain plant and animals to produce stock and to ensure their continuity and survival of their species. So, it seems we have been domesticated by the animals and plants because we have grown to be dependent on them and cannot survive without them. There are certain corps which cannot grow unless a human plant and trend them. There have been major grains that states had empires have developed wheat, rice, maize, barley, millet and oats. Majority of our daily caloric intake is from these.

That commensals and parasites were able to adapt to the human lifestyle and environment. Malaria is set to adapt to man, afterwards and it's entire life cycle changed due to man's presence. Most of the diseases that affect man are from animals and are zoonotic diseases. From Malaria, Small Pox, Polio, Rubella, etc Various studies have been done to calculate that there are certain diseases which require a population of 300,000 to continue to exist i.e. these diseases would die out as smallpox did and polio might soon. The example of the island of Rotuma, on the western fringe of Polynesia (12°30′42″ S, 177°51′9″ E), was one of the most isolated places on earth, the first attack of Measles occurred in in 1875, then it is said to have died out. Measles was again re-introduced to the island in late January 1911 by 2 sick women, during the ensuing measles epidemic, nearly all island residents were exposed to measles, and nearly 13% died. And all those who were alive at the first attack were saved due to their immunity. The idea is that Measles died out in the community because the population was so low as to sustain it, i.e. it being endemic in that community and it only occurred when reintroduced from the outside.

Populations of towns and settlements size did not only depend on the various diseases or epidemics going around but also was dependent on the resources or lack of it thereof. As by default once a nation or state is formed in the ancient world, the clock on its demise has started ticking. Without fertilizer, there is a limit to what the soil can maintain, and their resources, can. Even if it was built on a gold mine, that in itself attracts an invasion or takeover and deportation of the population. It seems because each settlement did require and in the history books we will see of internal strive and discontentment the causes could be linked. Also, although a settlement needs food a state needs grain, something that could be stored and measured. Although there is a section of the populace which who might be immune to the effect of its demise but later on, they too would be affected. Man and our societies had always been dependent on our grains and animals and it is very unlikely we could have survived without them.