Table of Contents
What are the requirements for domestication?
In his book Guns, Germs, and Steel, Diamond argues that to be domesticated, animals must possess six characteristics: a diverse appetite, rapid maturation, willingness to breed in captivity, docility, strong nerves, and a nature that conforms to social hierarchy.
How did humans domesticate plants?
Plant Domestication People collected and planted the seeds of wild plants. They made sure the plants had as much water as they needed to grow, and planted them in areas with the right amount of sun. Weeks or months later, when the plants blossomed, people harvested the food crops.
What are some of the environmental impacts of plant domestication?
Plant domestication leads to the need for clearing more land, including burning fields to fertilize them and clear them. This, already beginning by 10,000 years before the present, began to have an impact on societies and even likely global temperatures through the release of carbon dioxide and methane.
What helped people of the Neolithic era domesticate plants?
Terms in this set (15) How did domesticating plants help the people of the Neolithic era domesticate animals? Domesticated plants provided a reliable food supply to feed the domesticated animals.
How can Archaeologists tell when past people domesticate plants and animals?
New techniques for the identification of plant and animal remains, the application of accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS) radiocarbon dating and advances in microscopy have enhanced the ability of archaeologists to detect and date evidence for the initial domestication of plant and animal species.
What problems might be caused by domesticating plants or animals?
A downside to domestication was the spread of diseases between humans and animals that would have otherwise jumped between species. Pig flu and transfer of parasites are just a few examples of humans and animals getting a little too close. But without domestication humans may well still be wandering hunter-gatherers.
What are some of the environmental impacts of domesticated animals?
Here, we describe the diverse issues associated with domestic cats and dogs and wildlife including predation, competition, pathogen transmission, hybridization, behavioural modification, harvest of wild animals for pet food, and creation of human–wildlife conflict.
Which farming method has a negative impact on the environment during the Neolithic era?
slash-and-burn.
Why was the domestication of the plant so important?
The domestication of the plant was arguably the single most important technological advance in our history, and allowed us to develop into the highly complex civilization we have become. As technologically advanced as we might be, we are still as dependent on plants as we have ever been.
Are there any negative effects of plant domestication?
The crops have certainly evolved, but not as much as they did during those first centuries. With domestication came some negative aspects such as reduced genetic diversity. The genetic bottle neck effect seen in modern crops is a product of man’s selection for desirable agronomic traits.
How does the environment affect the growth of plants?
In some cases, poor environmental conditions (e.g., too little water) damage a plant directly. In other cases, environmental stress weakens a plant and makes it more susceptible to disease or insect attack. Environmental factors that affect plant growth include light, temperature, water, humidity, and nutrition.
When did the first people domesticate wild plants?
People first domesticated plants about 10,000 years ago, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia (which includes the modern countries of Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria). People collected and planted the seeds of wild plants.