Researchers at Sweden’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology say they have found further proof that the wolf ancestors of today’s domesticated dogs can be traced to southern East Asia — findings that run counter to theories placing the cradle of the canine line in the Middle East.
Peter Savolainen, KTH researcher in evolutionary genetics, says a new study released Nov. 23 confirms that an Asian region south of the Yangtze River was the principal and probably sole region where wolves were domesticated by humans.
Wolves were domesticated by humans. The next question: Who domesticated the domesticator of wolves?
The answer seems to be humans domesticated humans.
In the lost history whose DNA-aided recovery Wade chronicles, one of the most interesting chapters covers “gracilization” — that is, “a worldwide thinning of the human skull” starting around 40,000 years ago. Why was it that, millenniums before the agricultural revolution, our ancestors became progressively lighter-boned and smaller? A crucial clue: The fossil record and contemporary breeding experiments alike confirm that domestication, whether accidental — as in the evolution of the dog from the wolf — or deliberate, induces pedomorphism, or the retention of juvenile features into adulthood. “Gracilization . . . occurred because early modern humans were becoming tamer,” Wade writes. “And who, exactly, was domesticating them? The answer is obvious: people were domesticating themselves. In each society the violent and aggressive males somehow ended up with a lesser chance of breeding.
One more point, which is made by Jared Diamond in Guns, Germs, and Steel:
Almost all species of domesticated animals prove to be ones whose wild ancestors… maintain a well-developed dominance among herd members.
what?????? we’ve bred ourselves into non-teneable drives and processes thru advertising and religion???? no, it can’t be!!!
(and yes, those early humans who could co-exist with wolves (and not get all fucking pinched) had a DISTINCT advantage.)
SUCKS TO BE A DOG HATER LIKE YOU CHARLES!!!
Thank you for this, Charles. You’ve been much too coherent lately. It’s good to see you back to your old self again.
In southern East Asia humans and wolves would have had dragons as a common threat, so it makes sense they’d team up. It could have resulted from a romantic misunderstanding during the whole “wolves in sheep’s clothing” era; men where men, etc. I think that pre-dates the Iron Age. Thinning of human skulls was necessary for bipedalism, both which became possible by buoyancy when human ancestors returned and were Water Apes.
“In each society the violent and aggressive males somehow ended up with a lesser chance of breeding.” Why does this have to be a male thing and not a human thing? Was that a default prejudice? Were all the women June Cleaver in a clean apron 40k years ago? Don’t females maintain dominance in modern ape clans?
@3, you really ought to give the drugs a rest for a while. Whew.
Loves me some Jared Diamond. Thanks for quoting from my favorite book Charles!
@4 Said Jack to Crispin, heh. By his voice alone you can tell in which Seventies Nicholson movies he was doing lines between every line and not just between every scene. Raspy Jack was happy Jack. I don’t know what makes Crispin happy. Willard digs rats.
Someone recently made a request for more more Hunter S.-esque prose. The Sloggerati has spoken. Mudede seems to prefer broad, speculative fictions. Send me a SASE for the bloodwork and we’ll go from there. Your adrenalchrome levels are in safe hands. Not exactly sanitary but safe.