A team of animal science specialists at Teikyo University of Science has found that most dogs have an eye color that is darker than their closet wolf relative, suggesting that darker eye color has evolved due to domestication, Phys.org reports: https://phys.org/news/2023-12-domestication-dogs-darker-irises.html
Abstract:“Innovations in horse equipment during the early Middle Ages provided advantages to societies from the steppes, reshaping the social landscape of Eurasia. Comparatively little is known about the precise origin of these crucial advances, although the available evidence points to early adoption in East Asia. The authors...
✨ New paper in Information, Communication & Society: Multi-site domestication: taming technologies across multiple institutional settings ✨
The article proposes the concept of multi-site domestication to capture how technologies can require different "taming" processes when used across institutional settings with different and at times opposing norms, rules, values, and logics.
breaking news, #chickens are Asian. (I don't know anything about chickens and never thought about where they came from, nor had the thought of wild ancestral chickens occurred)
"The earliest chicken remains came from Ban Non Wat, in Central Thailand, a dry rice farming site known to be inhabited since the Neolithic Age. The earliest chicken remains came from between 1650 B.C.E. and 1250 B.C.E., during the Bronze Age. Instead of being flooded like paddies, the fields were soaked by seasonal rains and attracted hungry wildfowl. The researchers note that this led to chicken #domestication around 3,500 years ago, Science News reports. Experts also found a correlation between the spread of dry rice farming, millet and other grains with the spread of chicken bone trails across Asia, the Middle East and Africa, Science reports."
Thoughts on #donkey#domestication.
Samwise trusts me enough to show me the really itchy spots now. I was working on two itchy spots right above his loins and he just leaned his entire weight back into me. His head was drooping and he was gently chewing the air. Absolute donkey bliss.
I was thinking about how this is what brought our earliest domesticated mammals to our fire. Ancient wild canids and desert cats can eat our trash and vermin without ever letting a human touch them! The ones that domesticated themselves were the ones that realized our hands give the best grooming on the planet. Horses, donkeys, and goats definitely made that bargain too.
The origins of saddles and riding technology in East Asia: discoveries from the Mongolian Altai (www.cambridge.org)
Abstract:“Innovations in horse equipment during the early Middle Ages provided advantages to societies from the steppes, reshaping the social landscape of Eurasia. Comparatively little is known about the precise origin of these crucial advances, although the available evidence points to early adoption in East Asia. The authors...