Jared Diamond Domestication

In the article “Consequences and Future of Plant and Animal Domestication”, Jared Diamond, the author, discusses and explains a few very important topics involved with the domestication of plants and animals. First of all, the article starts off by discussing the topic of the origins of domestication around the world. There is no definite place or time of origin, but domestication began when a pair of changes occurred. The pair of changes that appeared was the change in the behavior of humans and the change in the plants and animals near them. The domestication of plants initiated when humans began selecting certain wild plant species and taking them back to their camps. On the other side, the domestication of animals began when humans tried …show more content…
Most wild species were not suitable for domestication because they faced many obstacles. Some of the obstacles include the unwillingness to reproduce in captivity, the lack of proper food and nutrition, and the slow rate of growth of many species. From there, the author shifts over to the topic of agricultural homelands around the world and explores why so few existed. Even though agricultural hearths existed throughout Earth, there was a reason why they only arose in a few certain areas. Agricultural homelands only emerged in areas that contained the most abundant and most valuable native domesticates. These particular areas were able to dominate and surpass other nearby societies because they had more advantages. If an area had no valuable domesticates to help it succeed, it most likely never became a successful agricultural homeland with plenty of domesticates. A few of the agricultural hearths that actually existed include the Fertile Crescent, Mesoamerica, Andes and Amazonia, West Africa, and New Guinea. Over time, the agricultural homelands changed and shifted to different regions, because newer homelands acquired domesticates that helped thrive and …show more content…
The large population came as a result of less spaced out births and the large quantity of edible plants and animals used for consumption. Less spaced out births increased the population quicker and the large quantity of resources made it possible to maintain a crowded population. Another consequence of domestication that came after large populations in a given area is the infectious epidemic diseases. Epidemic diseases became the worst consequence of domestication because the diseases targeted humans and caused either of two things. The diseases either killed a human on the spot or it neutralized a human for the rest of their life. Epidemic diseases were a definite consequence of domestication and agriculture because require a necessity that did not exist before, a large compact population. Epidemic diseases became a danger because they evolved as populations got denser and as animal diseases were transmitted between domesticates and other species. Epidemic diseases posed a greater danger because even though a population could become immune resistant, if the diseases spread to a non-immune resistant population, it could easily wipe the population