Who is making humans domestic??
This is going off of a post from Feb 11. about the topic, but what I would like to know is why are we becoming domesticated? I understand that technology and luxury play big roles in the answer to this query, but what I do not understand is the species-on-species (if you will) domination/domestication. In the animal world, when an animal becomes domesticated it is because a human directly wills this process into action. However, this action that precipitates domestication is due to the conscious decision of a species with more dominating capability (humans), to undertake the 'taming' of another species.
In the story of human 'domestication,' it is quite unapparent to me who is perpetuating this cycle (and who began it). I think this is what "I'm an Animal" means when asking "where did the root of this domestication of humans begin?" This question, though obscure, is absolutely fascinating to me because we cannot blame our domestication on a more dominant, "stronger" species - for it we have none but ourselves to thank. This however, is precisely what puzzles me.
Why have we domesticated ourselves willingly? Human's evolution has always been coupled with our developments in tool- making abilities and sadly, our slow divergence from nature into a world of our own creation. But who is pushing us there (here)? Is it overpopulation and the need to make money to support oneself and family? Or is it the emphasis on materialism and constant need to be 'living in comfort and style' that Western world views exert on their dominions' psyches? Somehow, we have 'tamed' ourselves, although whether or not we are still beasts remains to be seen...
8 comments:
This is a really interesting question. It seems like once humans stopped being hunter/gather types, we settled down into a fixed environment. We developed systems of agriculture, farming, etc.--and over time we no longer had to concentrate so much on survival. We had society to take care of us. Once we enter into a society, once we are trapped and forced into routines and governed by laws, our more animalistic, outward nature becomes internalized. We no longer have to hunt and gather food, we no longer have to worry about other species killing us and we no longer have to fend for ourselves. We are no longer able to exercise our animal nature outwardly. Is it that we are trapped within the walls of society, so that nature turns inward and causes us to domesticate ourselves? And once this happens, the pull of culture, the new cultural evolution we experience, pulls us to teach our children to live with these same standards. Once society is in motion, more babies are born and are taught how to be domestic. They don’t need to hunt or gather food, so they are taught not to. People are in their heads now, instead of in the “wild” world. And the more we are in our heads, the more we become so. It seems like we are going through a new evolution—an evolution of “brain power”—creating technology and theorizing about the world. And we can do so because we no longer have to focus on survival. We are domesticating ourselves through the walls of our society. ??? I don’t know.
I think that domestication is the wrong word if you're gonna take it literally. I don't find that it makes sense to apply it as something we're doing to ourselves. It's helpful as sort of a cute way to discuss how we are not wild anymore, but a different word than domesticated applies, I daresay.
As for why? Well, most people just wouldn't want to live in a wild way. You give a modern person a TV and a sofa and a laptop, and he or she is probably gonna prefer to do that rather than go hunting for food and not know from day to day whether or not they're gonna survive.
The major reason that the word "domestication" doesn't seem to apply is because the word "tamed" doesn't seem to, either. These words, as Alison said, suggest a bigger force dominating us. One might be inclined to suggest that perhaps big corporations or the government is dominating us, but I don't see a great argument for this. If anything, we look to those entities to make things more comfortable to us.
If the word "domestication" is simply being used in the sense of preferring to be at home rather than out in the wild hunting for food, then I guess it began when we found a way to do that for ourselves. I think any animal would try to find a way to remain domesticated if they could create their own shelter and farm their food.
So I fail to see any difficult, nagging problem regarding how or why we like to just chill instead of having to walk around starving and naked in the jungle or desert. It kind of feels like this question of "human domestication" is just complicating and confusing without any real insight to gain from it that I can imagine.
But maybe I just suck or something.
Anyway........
I didn't mean for domestication to be taken so literally. This is not about being "wild" (what does that word mean anyways?)It is really about being more self sufficient.
The part of the metaphor that I find most interesting is the gradation of "human domestication" that exists in the world.
Some insight that can be gained is that if we are not self sufficient then who are we relying on?..other animals (human and non-human) are doing our work for us. We're just a bunch of spoiled poodles here in the western world.
I totally agree with you in retrospect, Matthew. I think I was trying to get at something larger, but I don't exactly know what that is. My interests seem to center more around why we have become increasingly lazy and disconnected from our world. So I guess I was saying what 'I'm an animal' was saying all along. Or asking rather, why so much technology yo??
Are people in Europe as lazy and disconnected from reality through usage of devices as we are?? probably...
As the philosophers 50 Cent and Justin Timberlake said in their treatise "Ayo Technology":
"Ayo... I'm tired of using technology... why don't you sit down on top of me?"
The Latin root "domestic" as defined in my Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms is simply "around the house". There is no implication of domination by another species...and I feel that "domesticated" can surely apply to humans at many levels.
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