ANTH100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Gene Pool, Intensive Animal Farming, Megaphone

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTH100
• Professor: Nicole Hayes

Document Summary

Culture is variable and free to adaptation: not always easy to go back to the way it was before, can"t necessarily reverse domestication. Until about 10,000 years ago humans were hunter/gatherers: placine(?) era, end of ice age, sea levels were rising, winds are shifting, relied on niche construction. Or was it deliberate: modification of environment, chose plants that were easier to harvest, taste better, more nourishing, etc, women probably started off the domestication of plants. Domesticated species survive on inputs by humans and lose their ability to survive in the wild. Disease organisms spread more for settled people. Original husk was very protective and very strong. We want more wheat on the wheat because it means less work for us. Constructing niches for animals domestication of animals affects selective pressures on us. Some we have total control over including their reproduction. Most of history"s greatest epidemic diseases came from animals: the more people in an area the greater the epidemic.