How Do You Tame A Human?
Question? How do you tame a human? It takes 1 part early man, 1 part language, 2 parts culture and 5 parts time.
HI, my name is Tye Glover and welcome to Think Different Nation. SO, back to the question of “How Do You Tame A Human” or to put it in a different way, “How do you feel about the domestication of humans?” If you are bought into the idea that humans are just as much of an animal as any other living creature than it should not come as much of a leap of faith to know that we, at one time, were just as wild as any other primate.
Beginning back somewhere in the area of 100K years ago it is believed that homo-sapiens
experienced some type of transformation that allowed us to become what we are today — modern humans. There were many other humans that came and went before we emerged some 200,000 years ago but that first emergence of homo-sapiens … yielded a different kind of a wise human.
Anthropologist believe this first “sapiens”, had the same brains as we do and visually were identical to us but it’s also believed that these first sapiens lacked one basic capability. Their ability to communicate complex messages. This first homo-sapiens known as Cro Magnons, According to Dr. Yuval Noah Harari professor in the Department of History at the Hebrew University, were identical to us but for some reason, the cake wasn’t fully baked as they left Africa and entered Europe. It’s believe that they were missing some primary cognitive abilities. That first migration entered into Europe somewhere in the area of 100,000 to 70,000 years ago as a failed experiment that ended with their extinction and with Neanderthals and other early humans winning out. Dr. Harari continues with the thought that while these first sapiens had the ability to create language, theirs was different from ours and they most likely would not have been able to learn our language and neither we, theirs. Outside of that, they would have fit right in at any dinner party that we would ever attend — as a silent guest.
But if we are animals, than what tamed us?
How did we transition to being the civilized species? The only way I could figure out how to explore this question was to study animal domestication but considering the domestication of the dog to the wolf took between 10,000 and 30,000 years, I obviously don’t have that type of time on my hands. So I went with an animal that was forced to domesticate and studied with great detail to understand that process.
The taming of the Siberian Fox:
The conception of this test began back in the 40s. Dmitry Konstantinovich Belyayev was a Russian
geneticist who was interested in studying the behaviors and characteristics of domesticated animals which was illegal in Russia at the time. So he needed to have a way to hide his research and what better way to do that than to have a fox farm for the production of fox pelts for the fur industry. You see the premises here was that he would select and breed the most calm and docile foxes and the ones that displayed aggression would be used for their pelts for the thriving fur industry. This provided natural cover from government investigators who sought and persecuted anyone who was not abiding by government regulations.
During the first selection of foxes for the breeding process, researchers sought simply the one or two foxes that were the most approachable.
This started back in 1960 and while most foxes would instinctively growl and bare their teeth, the researchers looked for the least aggressive of the lot and each year, that’s exactly what they selected.
Once the first litter emerged it took two generations before the researchers recognized a subtle change in the offspring with the most obvious being the fact that they were more approachable and submissive as compared to other foxes. This was apparent by 1962.
By the fourth generation it was recognized that the selected off spring of young foxes showed obvious signs of tail wagging similar to dogs, when the researchers would appear. This was behavior that was uncommon to any other foxes and was visible just 4 years after the beginning of the experiment. Additionally, young foxes or kits as they are called, were docile enough to be picked up, petted and they would whimper with appreciation during the process.
By 1966 or the 6th generation the foxes were showing full affection to the researchers with the most affectionate ones following and licking the care takers when possible.
By the 9th generation or in 1969 the ears displayed differences when compared to the wild foxes. Normally the ears would stiffen just after birth but the test foxes retained soft ears for 3 months after birth. At this point there were obvious changes as well in the coats of the foxes being born with spotted fur and star shapes on the forehead.
By the 13th generation or by 1973 the fox’s tails began to curl up when they came into contact with humans as compared to the wild foxes whose tails pointed down upon contact.
By the 15th generation tails had become shorter by 3 to 4 vertebrae. Yes, that’s a structural change on the body and this occurred by 1975.
📝Read the full article over at:
https://thinkdifferentnation.com/2020/04/how-do-you-tame-a-human/