Domestication is not an ancient moment of selection for prosociality

Insights from dogs and modern humans

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2405490
AutoresR J Losey (0000-0003-3615-8160, University of Alberta, autor de correspondencia)
Año2022
Volumen22
Número2
Páginas131-148
Fecha de publicación2022-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Social Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1469-6053 • E-ISSN: 1741-2951
EditorialSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/14696053211055475
OpenAlexW4200404126
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas77

Domestication is often portrayed as a long-past event, at times even in archaeological literature. The term domestication is also now applied to other processes, including human evolution. In such contexts, domestication means selection for friendliness or prosociality and the bodily results of such selective choices. Both such perspectives are misleading. Using dogs and modern humans as entry points, this paper explores why conceiving of domestication as a threshold event consisting of selection for prosociality is both incomplete and inaccurate. Domestication is an ongoing process, not a moment or an achievement. Selection in breeding, including for prosociality, is a part of many domestication histories, but it alone does not sustain this process over multiple generations. Further, much selection in domestication has little to do with human intention. Care, taming, commensalism, material things, and places are critical in carrying domestic relationships forward

Biology · Domestication · Event (particle physics · Selection (genetic algorithm · Computer Science · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior · Geographies of human-animal interactions · History · Human-Animal Interaction Studies · Ecology