Domesticates

Domesticates are organisms whose traits have been deliberately selected and propagated through human management, resulting in genetic and phenotypic differences from their wild ancestors. They include both plants and animals and are maintained for food, labor, companionship, or other human needs. Domestication is a long-term, co-evolutionary process that arises from sustained interactions between humans and a species, leading to changes that increase the fit of the organism to human environments and practices.

The domestication process typically involves selecting individuals with desirable traits and breeding them across generations, alongside changes in growth, reproduction, and behavior that make cultivation and husbandry easier. Common divergent traits include larger edible parts or yield, loss of seed shattering or dispersal, reduced aggression or increased tameness, synchronized maturity, and dependence on humans for food and protection. Domesticates often become less capable of surviving independently in the wild.

Major crops such as wheat, rice, and maize were domesticated in the Fertile Crescent, East Asia, and Mesoamerica, with other crops arising in the Americas and Africa. Domesticated animals include dogs, cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and chickens, traced to wolves, aurochs, mouflon, wild boar, and junglefowl, among others. The domestication of plants and animals reflects both technological innovation and cultural practice across regions and eras.

Domestication leaves detectable signatures in genetics and morphology, such as reduced genetic diversity and changes in plant architecture or animal behavior. It remains an ongoing process in modern times through conventional breeding, as well as gene editing and other technologies aimed at improving yield, resilience, and sustainability. Understanding domestication sheds light on human history and the coevolution of humans with other species.