ANIMALS, DOMESTICATION OF. Animals are cap tured and tamed by man either as pets or for use, and some of the more familiar domestic animals, such as the dog and the cat, come under both headings.
Pets.—The keeping of pets with no ulterior object is practically universal wherever attractable animals are found. The Australians have never domesticated any animal, but they like pets. They catch rats, opossums, wallabies, bandicoots, frogs or young birds for playthings. They tie them up at night to prevent their es cape, and as they are not fed or cared for, they soon die. Casso waries, with wings clipped, are allowed to wander about the camp and pick up scraps, and young opossums or wallabies often learn to be self supporting. The dingo is usually caught young and tied by its leg until it is reconciled to its surroundings. In America many tribes tame animals and birds in this way.
From such unpromising experiments the taming and domesti cation of animals made a start, and the subsequent steps are easy to follow, the last being conscious breeding by man, by which he creates new species or varieties for his use and pleasure. In the first stage, that of toleration, there is no definite ownership or "purposive control" by man. The animals are free, but are encouraged and protected in consideration of services rendered. Next comes domestication, the private or collective ownership of animals trained to be of use to their masters, such as cattle, horses and domestic animals in general. In the further stage of artificialization, "previsional breeding or stirpiculture," animals are bred and reared for special purposes. The influence of religion or magic, either in animal cults or totemism, has probably been an important factor in the domestication of certain animals. The reverence paid to sacred animals tends to establish friendly re lations with it animal cults are connected with many domestic animals, and especially with cattle, and the origin of domestic cattle is traced to this source. Thus totemism has been claimed as the starting point of domestication. The totem animal, being venerated, protected and encouraged, acquired confidence and became domesticated.
Dog.—The dog, a sociable animal, is of use to man at his low est culture stage, assisting the hunter in tracking, chasing, attack ing, and capturing the game. The origin of the domestic dog is uncertain. At least four different types were in existence in Europe (Portugal, Switzerland and Denmark) and Asia (Anau) in the Stone Age. America also has several varieties of dogs.
Cat.—The cat, like the dog, probably domesticated itself, and is usually derived from Egypt, where it was known about 2000 B.C. The importance of grain-growing in that region has sug gested that the reverence paid to it was based on its services to the agriculturist. It is found wild in Europe, Asia, and Africa. It is recorded in Greece about 150o B.C. and in Rome, much later, possibly not much before the Christian era. According to popu lar belief, it was introduced into Britain by the Romans.
Cattle, Goats, Sheep, Pigs.—Domestication of cattle, goats, sheep and pigs was an established feature of the Neolithic age in Western Europe and of the earlier—but still Neolithic—settle ments of Anau in Russian Turkestan and of Susa in Mesopotamia in the 3rd and 4th millennia, suggesting that Asia may have been the area where the domestic species and their culture originated, and whence they were derived. In arid regions such as desert oases like Anau, animals are forced into proximity to man, and there, in drier seasons, they could survive in desperate cases only by the sacrifice of their independence.
Ass, Horse. The ass was probably domesticated at about the same time both by the pre-dynastic Egyptians and by the Su merians of Mesopotamia, but the origin of the domesticated horse, for which there is no such early evidence, is a more difficult problem. At least four varieties were known to, and probably hunted for food, by palaeolithic man. Its domestication appears to have been fairly late, and though its remains occur in the Swiss lake dwellings there is little evidence for its use in western Europe until the Bronze Age. It is characteristic of the steppe culture of Asia, and spread thence both east and west, and is referred to in early Japanese traditions, which contain no mention of the dog. The story of the horse in America is more clear, as the native animal was extinct in prehistoric times and was unknown to the Americas before the coming of the Spaniards who followed Co lumbus. Stray horses soon multiplied on the plains of both North and South America, and were so quickly caught and tamed by the Indians that horse culture was established among many of the tribes long before they came in direct contact with Europeans.
Reindeer.—The reindeer shows interesting grades of domesti cation. The American caribou was always hunted and never domesticated, though recent experiments indicate that this was not impracticable. The eastern Siberian tribes such as the Chukchi own huge herds of wild deer, used mainly for slaughter and barter; the Tungus, farther west, train the deer for sledge work, and do most of the carrying trade of the tundra; the Lapps in north-west Europe and to a certain extent the Samoyeds to the east alone have domesticated the reindeer, using it both for trans port and for milking.