What Tech Level Is Your Fantasy Part 4
So, having gone down the clothing rabbithole, let’s talk about domestication.
I know I initially said animals, but plants matter too.
Let’s start by defining domestication. When we domesticate a species, we create a mutualistic relationship in which one species takes over control of another to obtain a steady supply of resources. In return, the domesticated animal gets something. That’s what we mean by mutualistic.
Our first attempts at domestication occurred in the Mesolithic Period in the Old World, and we are pretty sure the first animal we domesticated was the dog. Dogs were easy mode because wolves have a very similar social structure to humans.
In plants, we think the first crops to be domesticated were flax, bitter vetch (a kind of pea), chickpea, pea, lentil, barley, einkorn wheat, and emmer wheat. However, we may be pushing back the domestication of maize (corn) too.
Domestication creates, ultimately, a genetically modified organism (technological GMO is just a way to speed up the process and reduce trial and error).
So, let’s talk about a few domestications, of both plants and animals.
Man’s Best Friend
Can you actually imagine a world with no dogs? I can’t, not really. The unusual plasticity of the dog’s genome has allowed us to make dogs from four pound chihuahuas to 200 pound mastiffs (no other species has the range of size and features of the dog).
We probably started by competing with them for prey, then cooperating. It’s even possible that ravens served as an intermediary, working with both wolves and humans to provide aerial recon in exchange for us bringing down larger prey.
Either way, dogs are so much part of us that we wouldn’t be human without them, I suspect. Only three species of mammal point to indicate where something is…humans, dogs, and wolves. Chimpanzees don’t point unless taught to by a human. In other words, we probably learned to point from our dogs.
And dogs do everything for us. Hunting, herding, helping a disabled person handle the world better, protecting us, fighting in our wars, hauling our stuff around…and being adorable.
Would we be the dominant species without our best friends? I don’t know.
Beasts of Burden
The first way to increase muscle power beyond what humans have to offer…is to enlist a species with more muscle power. Donkeys were domesticated very early in the Middle East. Horses on the plains. Zebras never because they’re assholes.
Oxen handled plowing in Europe until the horse collar was invented and water buffalo remain the most common beast of burden on the planet.
In the North African desert, we enlisted camels, the “ship of the desert.” In India, elephants were “hired” to help us move logs.
The Inca didn’t have the wheel…or rather didn’t use it…but they did have the adorable llama. Now, you can go llama trekking…you hike and your llama carries your stuff. In the arctic, dogs were the draft beast of choice in Siberia and North America, but in Europe, they had reindeer.
Every single culture has beasts of burden. Some of them are ridable. Some pull. Some carry. Some plow. But they are a central technology…and yes, your OTTB is technology, one which periodically malfunctions. (Did I have a fight with an OTTB recently? Why, yes I did).
Mother Corn
Let’s move on to plants now.
Maize. Corn. Expensive in the Old World even now, but staple in the New. You’ve eaten lots of it if you live in America.
The indigenous people of this continent domesticated maize at least 8,700 years ago…and did such a good job of it that we couldn’t locate the wild ancestor, teosinte, until we developed DNA sequencing. They changed the plant that much.
GMO, like I said.
Corn sweetens our beverages, feeds our livestock and, of course, makes the best tacos.
And corn is, to most of these people, the literal manifestation of a goddess…because without corn they wouldn’t have a civilization. (And don’t tell me they don’t).
Capsaicin, Huh?
You may love hot peppers. You may want nothing to do with them…in which case I’ll have your share. Capsaicin is a chemical evolved by plants in the pepper family to discourage mammals from eating them.
These plants wanted their fruit to be eaten by birds, which transport them longer distances before pooping them out, unharmed, to grow. Capsaicin is so unpleasant it’s used in repellents.
Then, along came us crazy homo sapiens, who tried this stuff…and in at least some cases liked it. We’re weird. I mean, capsaicin is a painful substance to consume, but doing so also seems to impact our endorphin levels. Pain becomes pleasure.
Pepper plant: What the heck, mammals?
Humans: I love this.
Pepper plant: Where are you taking my seeds?
Being liked by humans, of course, spread pepper plants far further across the globe than the birds did.
A lot of people think domestication is exploitation, but it’s mutualistic. Plants, in particular, can benefit hugely from being liked by the silly naked apes.
Domestication Syndrome in Animals
So, now I’m going to talk about something else: Domestication syndrome.
We have deliberately bred animals for certain traits. Two of the key ones are tameness and color. Every domestic species comes with extensive white markings on some individuals.
And every domestic species is bred to have less fear of humans and be more capable of socializing with other species. This often extends beyond humans. Horses have goat best friends, dogs and cats live together in a way they never would in the wild, etc.
In a project in Russia, foxes were bred for tameness to see how many generations domestication actually took. The researchers soon noticed something strange.
Their tamest foxes also tended to have multi-colored coats and floppy ears.
We had discovered domestication syndrome.
Domestication syndrome combines certain common traits, which include:
Smaller size
Reduced aggression
Smaller brain.
Variations in coat color.
Shorter muzzle.
Extended breeding cycle.
Floppy ears
It appears to be associated with neural crest development, but it’s worth noting that domestication syndrome does not affect all species the same and certain parts of it can be mitigated by other pressures.
For example, horses have been bred to be larger not smaller and may have a larger brain…or at least improved problem solving skills…from the things we ask them to do. They do have variations in coat color, but they need their long face to graze.
And there is no breed of equine with floppy ears. Why? The mutation that causes floppy ears does develop in horses, but horses afflicted with it have difficulty communicating with other horses, resulting in them not having good social skills. Floppy eared horses also can’t communicate as well with humans.
So, when a floppy eared horse shows up, it’s removed from the breeding pool. Don’t worry, we give them a good life, we just don’t let them have babies.
Domestication syndrome may or may not exist. And it may simply be that those are traits we like. Floppy ears are cute. Or are they cute because we associate them with tameness? Black and white horses are pretty.
We don’t know for sure, but we do know that domesticated animals change…and they change us.
When considering your fantasy world, consider when and where animals were domesticated. Don’t forget camelids exist…Mercedes Lackey included chirras, which appear to be a kind of llama or alpaca, in her world.
And remember that we probably wouldn’t be us without our dogs.