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Domestication Process
APA citation:
Zeder, M. (2012). THE DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS. Journal of Anthropological
Research, 68(2), 161-190.
Summary:
Domestication of animals encompasses any relationship between humans and animals
whether it is as livestock, working animals, household pets, or companions. This
relationship can have mutual benefits for both humans and target domesticates, not
only does this impact human evolution but also enhances an animal’s reproductive
success and in some way its genetic evolution. The selection of animal domestication
does not happen at random, there are some animals based on their behavior like low
reactivity to humans that make them ideal candidates. The process in which animals are
domesticated can be defined by three major pathways, the commensal pathway, the
prey pathway and directed pathway. The commensal pathway is a long journey were of
domestication where the animal has low reactivity to humans and gains a lot of benefit
from the relationship, for example the domesticated dog. The prey pathway is the way
most livestock entered into domestication, these domesticated animals were commonly
hunted by humans for their meat. The directed pathway is the most complex pathway to
domestication since it requires a lot of human effort. An example for this type of
domestication are horses, humans had to train and breed these animals to be able to
