foreword if What this book describes are two interlocking themes: the animal kingdom, and our own history.Of course, what the book is about is how these two earthlings developed an incredible relationship.Each of the following chapters explores in depth the growing dependence of humans on animals and the assistance of animals in the evolution of human culture.There is such an inference, but the premise is that human beings alone cannot achieve the current situation alone.As imperfect human beings, although we hope to take a big step forward, we cannot do it on our own strength alone; just because animals play the role of catalyst in each key evolution, we to move on to the next stage.

What we intend to explore is what humanity would have become if this simple concept hadn't popped into our minds, or discovered its hidden potential.In this way, we will be able to understand what happened, and what kind of miracles (and problems) the result caused; finally, we will speculate as much as possible, how such results may lead to the future. Why talk about what if?Why imagine things that have already happened, as if they never happened?The reason is quite simple, because unless we first reflect on what life would be like without animals, we will not understand how much we are blessed.A naked man at the North Pole needs clothing far more urgently than a man wrapped in fur.It's a game, but once we understand how we got to be what we are, and what we really are, then we really understand everything.

The best way to assess the human condition is to look beyond our current practical standpoint and try to look at the world we have transformed with a fresh attitude.Where does our culture come from?Where would we be if the evolution of these cultures differed from what we believe to be the historical truth?Then, look at what actually happened, and how different the two scripts really are.This is what we are going to explore. Humans have been dormant for millions of years in the blood of apish creatures and prehominides who are very similar to humans.The actual length of time for the formation of human beings is bound to be debated for a long time, perhaps forever.But the genes humans currently use to reproduce themselves may have originated in more primitive organisms.It is said that the tree shrew, an ordinary animal, may be the predecessor of our evolution.At least, it points us in the direction of evolution before it fades away from our history forever.As it walks away from us along an extinct branch of an ancient evolutionary tree, we also begin to search for ourselves, and our own destiny.And no matter what happened in the past, no matter how long it took to complete, we are all witnesses, and whether prepared or not, we are already in this world.Where would we be if humans had never had the idea of ​​domesticating animals?And what will be the history of mankind and the current situation of the earth?

★About definition In this book, the terms domestic and domesticated are used to refer to animals that have been kept in captivity by humans, domesticated to be manageable, or even approachable, to interact with humans, as well as those that After getting along with humans, animals that have been genetically modified by humans.There are still many differences between these animals and their living or extinct ancestors, so people can easily distinguish them.We have bred animals ourselves by replacing natural selection with human selection.My definitions of these words, while not my own, do not necessarily correspond to those used by other authors, nor do they cover other definitions.In short, in this book, their scope of definition is limited to those stated above.

The term feral refers to animals that have indeed been domesticated by humans within the above definition, but are now in the wild; whether escaped, lost or abandoned, these animals are usually or More or less can multiply enough to continue to survive the group.Most of them mate with the descendants of the original ancestral species to produce hybrid offspring, which may eventually cause the original pure line of their ancestors to disappear. (The term is also applied to plants in the same situation.) The word wild here means that the animal has not been domesticated by man. A tame is an individual animal that is still a member of a wild species but whose behavior has been adapted to individually tolerate human approach.

★About time As I try to make clear in the following chapters, the study of the process of raising animals is really the study of human history.Historians tend to put too much emphasis on the time of events, and are more obsessed with exploring modern events than exploring the distant past. On November 22, 1963, US President John F. Kennedy was tragically assassinated in Dallas, Texas.When historians write about this historical event that shocked the world, they are still wondering whether the person accused of shooting the president, Lee Harvey Oswald, could shoot this fatal shot in 6.3 seconds. The gun, or he actually needs eleven and four seconds to do it.What they want to know is the location of all the important people in the whole incident thirty seconds, one minute, ten minutes, one hour, one week, one month or one year before the bullet is fired.What also aroused their interest, of course, was where these people were every minute and every hour after the incident.Time, always the element of time, is the basis for the arrangement, classification, communication, understanding and evaluation of all other elements; for us, time is the most valuable key to understanding modern history.

Let us compare the Kennedy assassination with other historical events that fall within the scope of this book.The process of raising goats, the human decision to captive and selectively slaughter goats, or the first attempt to express the milk of a cow or goat to save a baby from a mother who had a difficult delivery all affect humans more than the first time. The combined impact of World War II is even more profound, and for those who were in or experienced it, the process can be quite difficult to accept.But backed by the discoveries of archaeologists, paleontologists, dendrochronologists, stratigapherists, and many, literally, specialists of all kinds, historians are contemplating man, sheep, and man. When you are in a relationship with a cow, you will accept that these events took place over thousands of years (perhaps they are just giving in and not really accepting).Events that occurred thousands of years ago have no definite date like November 22nd, and we should keep this fact in mind as we proceed.Although it is interesting to understand the clear sequence of time, but for the details, there is no need to be too penny-pinching.

Everything must have a source, no matter how many times it has happened, or in how many places since; but we cannot infer when any animal was first domesticated in the past, and the first breeder and The origins of domesticated animals are similarly ambiguous.The people who first did these incredible things and thus changed the course of human history forever are not named in history, but they are all indispensable in the intricate and colorful fabric we call human beings. One line is missing.The actions of these unsung men and women not only changed the course of our history, but defined it; they provided us with the keys to our own destiny.If a star ever touched a mortal human being, it must have touched the unknown man or woman who first thought of capturing and raising goats instead of hunting goats.That being the case, we need not grieve over the details we cannot know, but consider the impact of these events in a broader perspective, cherishing their historical wonder, their absolute necessity, and their inevitability.

★About gender Needless to say, I believe that words like he or she, his or hers, etc. appearing repeatedly between the lines not only indicate poor writing skills, but are very long and tedious for the writer and the reader.In most cases, we have no way of knowing what a man or woman did in that ancient, strange and unique culture.Man (man) used in this book means human beings, including both sexes, the species of Homo sapiens, us, and so on.If the word is related to gender, it will be explained separately.It's a succinct way of stating what humans do, with no other hints or implications.