The Intimate Bond
How Animals Shaped Human History
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- $329.00
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- $329.00
Descripción editorial
Animals, and our ever-changing relationship with them, have left an indelible mark on human history. From the dawn of our existence, animals and humans have been constantly redefining their relationship with one another, and entire civilizations have risen and fallen upon this curious bond we share with our fellow fauna. Brian Fagan unfolds this fascinating story from the first wolf who wandered into our prehistoric ancestors' camp and found companionship, to empires built on the backs of horses, donkeys, and camels, to the industrial age when some animals became commodities, often brutally exploited, and others became pets, nurtured and pampered, sometimes to absurd extremes.
Through an in-depth analysis of six truly transformative human-animal relationships, Fagan shows how our habits and our very way of life were considerably and irreversibly altered by our intimate bond with animals. Among other stories, Fagan explores how herding changed human behavior; how the humble donkey helped launch the process of globalization; and how the horse carried a hearty band of nomads across the world and toppled the emperor of China.
With characteristic care and penetrating insight, Fagan reveals the profound influence that animals have exercised on human history and how, in fact, they often drove it.
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Fagan (The Attacking Ocean), emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, delivers on the promise of his title by focusing on the domestication of eight species: the dog, goat, sheep, pig, cattle, donkey, horse, and camel. In each case he blends his anthropological and historical skills to explore how the process of domestication took place and affected both humans and animals. The dog was domesticated first, according to Fagan, and as with all the animals he discusses, there were significant benefits to both parties. Wolves, dogs' ancestors, gained by having a more reliable food supply, and humans benefited from the protection offered by wolves and their "matchless sense of smell and silent tracking abilities." The shift from hunting to herding yielded dramatic changes that completely remade human society: populations became sedentary and the twin concepts of wealth and inheritance began to appear. The domestication of donkeys from wild asses somewhere around 5000 B.C.E. helped "globalize much of the eastern Mediterranean world." He also examines the more recent shift in perspective that turned animals into industrial commodities, leading to industrial-scale abuse and cruelty. Throughout, Fagan presents well documented and fascinating stories that illuminate an important facet of human cultural evolution.
