Chapter 3 another possibility

imagine If we had chosen to hunt animals, But always keep a distance from them, So what does our world look like now? imagine If we hadn't raised animals, What will happen? ★Stage To understand ourselves, and our interrelationships with wild or domestic animals, we should first examine what kind of planet we live on.No matter how great human beings are, we are still citizens of the earth after all, and like earthworms or bladderworts, we are deeply influenced by this land in the universe. It is because of the reproductive nature of this little piece of cosmic dust that all the events mentioned in this book took place.Never before have any living beings known to us been exempt from our planet and the opportunities it affords;Even if we were able to colonize outer space in the next stage of our evolution, all we can do is carry some earthly items with us to survive; the other side of the universe.

The planet Earth has unique water resources, as well as abundant oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide, so it can supply life forms with different shapes and gas requirements on the earth.Water on Earth can easily switch between several different states, from gas to liquid to colloid to solid, without applying extreme temperatures or using a closed pressurized system.A combination of two hydrogen molecules and one oxygen molecule changes its physical state with a small change in temperature; water vapor in gaseous state rises into the air, then turns into a liquid and falls back somewhere on Earth.In this way, water can not only climb slopes, but even reach the summits of the highest mountains on earth.Water only needs to change its form in response to changes in external temperature, and it can go far and wide, controlling all life that comes into contact with water, whether directly or indirectly; all living tissues need water, and this connection with water is absolutely necessary .

Unless geothermal or volcanic eruptions reach the surface, the natural temperature range of the earth's surface is about 340 degrees Fahrenheit (about 171 degrees Celsius), which is a mild and tolerable temperature. temperature.The temperature at which most plants and animals can survive without stress is around 110 degrees Fahrenheit (about 43 degrees Celsius), but most organisms adapt to a much smaller temperature range.In contrast, for other planets and their moons, regardless of whether the sunshine is long or short, the temperature difference in a single day can reach more than 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (about 538 degrees Celsius).In a basin seven miles deep on the ocean floor, the pressure is extremely high, but the temperature difference is very small.It can be seen that life has been able to fully adapt to its environment and its own evolutionary potential, and reproduce on the earth.

Plate movement on Earth is fairly slight, if any, very slowly.Some plates vibrate like earthquakes, some rise or sink, some squeeze, shift or bulge, and others collide, slide or rub against each other along fault lines, but in terms of damage to the surface or possible damage, such plates are The tectonic plate activity caused no more than minor disturbances.Large crustal changes are often too slow for us to detect.As for the earthquakes that scare us, they are actually just like the earth shrugging its shoulders, and the crust is slightly shifted due to compression. Mountains on Earth are slow to form, but even slower to die.Over tens of millions of years, the number of active volcanoes has gradually decreased, and their vitality has generally declined.Take Ecuador, which has the most volcanoes in the world, as an example. The country has 265 volcanoes listed as active, even though these volcanoes are not currently active.But in the same area, there are countless extinct volcanoes that have been quiet.Despite the occasional turmoil beneath the surface, even the rare cracks of Krakatoa, or the irritable chatter of Vesuvius, Earth is still a place. a quiet planet.In the past, the earth has not always been as quiet as it is now, and this is one of the reasons why we can survive here.Before, volcanoes made their histories; now we write our own.

Earth isn't the only dust in our universe, some of which have grazed Earth.Humans blame these collisions for the extinction of the dinosaurs and other major disasters. Although this kind of inference is possible, it may not be correct.In any case, the rest of the space dust has recently stopped visibly breaking apart.If big impacts do occur every 50 to 100 million years or so, we can console ourselves by thinking that before the next impact, we may have evolved into a species more advanced than Homo sapiens, or even more advanced than Homo sapiens. May no longer live on Earth (maybe evolve into Homo electronicus, or Homo exodus? 】.It is because our planet is so peaceful and peaceful that we are able to live and work here right now.

★life After the emergence of life, only about three billion years ago, the evolution of living things on the earth has produced many surprising changes.The life forms we can see now have probably gone through this process, and those species that cannot adapt to evolution may have already become extinct (perhaps, this is also an inevitable result).In addition, some species have reached the end of evolution, while others have evolved to a better form, and then gradually disappeared in subsequent species competition. The biological network composed of various life forms has gone through countless trial and error processes; and the best biological network required by any evolving intelligent organism is this.The diversity of the network of living organisms is indeed breathtaking. It has continuously supported us and made us who we are now. Now, with the development of human science, we understand that it has helped us.Here, I am concerned with the fact that animals have played an important role in human evolution for thousands of years. Is this also inevitable?

★If Imagine if we had chosen to hunt animals and live on their carrion, but always kept a distance from them, what kind of situation would the world we live in now?Imagine if we hadn't kept animals?Let us examine the earth and humanity itself in turn, and see how things would have developed differently. ★Arctic / Antarctic If there were no domesticated animals, the polar regions located above 66 degrees north and south latitude would most likely be uninhabited.All attempts to explore the North Pole, let alone settle there (no one is known to have attempted to settle Antarctica) would have failed if humans hadn't kept dogs with them.Yet in the arctic and subarctic regions, wolves weighing about 60 to 100 pounds (approximately 27 to 45 kilograms), with proven domestication potential, still roam the wild.The same thing happened in Greenland; without the help of dogs, humans would not have been able to survive on their own.

What about Siberia?Not to mention.This vast land rich in fish catches, prey, timber, crude oil and mineral resources may still be rarely explored and inhabited by humans.The winters there are long and cold, and without animals that pull sleds, it is impossible for human beings to make long journeys. Even in summer, human beings cannot carry their belongings and families on such a long journey alone. Perhaps before humans have reached safety, the ice and snow have come again.Still, some apparently took advantage of certain belated warm winters to cross Siberia, and some even reached the western shore of the Pacific Ocean.If humans had crossed Siberia on their own, this vast land would remain uninhabited (in fact, humans have tried and tried, but can only return without success).

★Australia When Europeans discovered Australia, there were already several hunting and gathering tribes on this continent.In terms of material culture, these so-called aborigines at that time were still considered primitive humans on the earth. Not only were they not humans in the Neolithic Age, they were not even in the Mesolithic Age; in fact, they were still in the Paleolithic period at all. era.Unlike their fellow humans who traveled across the ocean from Europe with guns and printed books, these aborigines hadn't even invented bows and arrows. However, there is still a creative talent there. Their spark of wisdom, creativity and intelligence have made the unique culture of the aborigines.These aborigines’ concepts about the Golden Age (Dreamtime, [Note 1]), beliefs about the relationship between the land and them, a sense of perfect harmony, very complex family and clan relations, and the awareness and system of social responsibility are all important. An astounding cultural achievement; they have a splendid art of shaping, rich imagination and tradition.However, their talents did not move them out of the cave.It may not be a mere coincidence that no native animal has ever been domesticated by humans in this vast, diverse and animal-rich land of Australia.The native animals were only the prey of man, never his companion.As we have seen in other regions, humans must establish a relationship with a species before they can domesticate it.Perhaps the natural peculiarities of the primitive marsupials and monotremes[Note 2] that lived around the Australian Aboriginal people hindered the first step towards livestock.

【Note 1】Alcheringa is used in the Australian aboriginal language, referring to the golden age in the aboriginal mythology. [Note 2] monotrem, a relatively primitive mammal with a single cloaca. ★Europe At the northern tip of Europe, human activity around central Scandinavia would probably have been significantly reduced were it not for domesticated animals.Although reindeer are abundant there, these reindeer may have always been in the wild.Without sledge animals, and sufficient meat and leather, life would be a great difficulty, and all attempts to explore the North would be in vain; cannot escape the fate of destruction.It may be possible to find a foothold there against all odds, but the successive winters will eventually drive out all humans.

★Other regions On the other side of the globe, places such as Indonesia, the Caribbean, and sub-Saharan Africa have developed thousands of cultures, some with great success, before domesticated animals were brought in to benefit them. But few of them are cultures that can truly scale outward.At a place called Kantanga in present-day Sai, an astonishing fact was discovered: 76,000 years before similar tools appeared in Europe, well-designed spear guns were already being used in this area.If the National Science Foundation and Rutgers university's interpretation of the discovery is correct, humans were already making elaborately designed objects on the continent of Stone Age Africa as far back as 90,000 years ago. However, Europe did not start to make sawtooth fishing equipment until the Stone Age 14,000 years ago. It can be seen that the reason why livestock and livestock germinated in the same period is not just a coincidence in time. While it is true that some Stone Age cultures without domesticated animals once flourished, they always seemed to have passed away, to be seen only in solitude, like a firework show that no one watched, leaving no trace in the world or history of other cultures.Because these cultures are confined to a narrow area, they cannot provide externally or absorb externally the characteristics that develop at any time in each culture, and they wither and wither due to the inability to communicate and influence each other.A culture that is forced to isolate will never be able to grow and thrive.In the small structure of a village, it is impossible to give full play to one's creative talent.Coincidentally, no other local animal species was ever domesticated by humans in those Stone Age cultures, with the possible exception of dogs; Puzzles. A formidable monotheistic religion developed in the Middle East, but it might have been lost there if it had not been spread by travel.Monotheism originated on the edge of the vast and terrifying desert. The bones of people who tried to cross the desert on foot were all buried under the moving sand dunes.But with the help of domestic animals, monotheism crossed the desert, and with its many improvements, it affected the whole world.Only raising those animals can cause a greater impact. Caravans did not appear until humans took control of camels, oxen, horses, and donkeys.Without the presence of caravans, monotheism and its essence would not be able to spread. In this way, not only the gods would not be able to spread beyond the small village where it originated, but missionaries would not be able to preach everywhere except by boat. The places that can be reached are at best limited to the coastal areas.Although some pioneers did sail to Australia, and some evidence shows that a small number of people have reached the New World, these are only a few after all. Presumably only occasional, and mostly one-way trips.We know very little about these expeditions, and their impact remains a mystery. ★New World North America used to be very similar to the vast expanse of sub-Saharan Africa, with its huge populations of animals and the Stone Age hunters who preyed on them; these wild animals roamed, and humans followed them.Although native mammals were domesticated to be eaten or carried by humans, this never happened.In fact, dogs may have been domesticated by humans at least 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, but we should understand that dogs are a special case, a creature with a complicated and confusing history. There were farming Indians in North America. Their ancestors were hunters and gatherers. They crossed Siberia and arrived at the Pacific coast. After that, they crossed a land bridge that appeared briefly, crossed the Bering Strait, and then went south from northwestern Canada. Into the forested regions of the eastern part of the North American continent, the American Southwest, and the central Great Plains in between (this is now generally accepted speculation). The tribes to the south-west belonged at least in part to the Athabasca (Note) language family, and such tribes as the Navajo, Hopi, Nuni, and other earlier Ethnic groups, they have established some isolated civilizations, but they have not been able to spread.As the surrounding wildlife decimated and drought persisted, the assembled masses disintegrated, leaving behind their agriculture and sometimes even their unique cliff-top cave structures.Many of the early sub-tribes tended to disappear, as if they were lights that disappeared from the face of the earth after a fifteen-minute spark.Likewise, they did not keep any livestock other than dogs and turkeys. 【Note】A language family very closely related to the North American Indian language family consists of many small branches, including branches distributed in western Canada, Alaska, and from Washington State to the Pacific coast of northern California, as well as Arizona, New Mexico and Apache in Oklahoma.This language has no written language and is still spoken by only a few people, some of which are almost extinct. The Anasazi were one of the founders of the early Southwest culture, and their architecture in Chaco Canyon is breathtaking.There are about 600 rooms in Pueblo Bonito, and the entire area is located on a five-story building. In its heyday, the resident population of this place should have been nearly 1,000 people.The Anasazi once traded turquoise with the Mexicans, but the deal ended in less than a century because they could not sustain the overall situation with one hand.Sheep and goats were far more important to them than turquoise, but they still hadn't domesticated any food animals other than turkey.They also had no load animals other than dogs, but those weren't big enough for the task.As the world moved forward, the Anasazi were gradually forgotten, and their outstanding architectural talents and social structures disappeared with them.They couldn't make it to the next stage on their own, and it wasn't until centuries later that people in other parts of the world discovered that they had lived here. To the north, the Plains Indians hunted and subsisted among herds of bison, deer, pronghorn, buffalo, wolves, and grizzly bears, but these tribes could not settle long enough to develop agriculture.They couldn't even make pottery yet.They seem to be the slaves of animals, circling, hunting and feeding around the running animals.Their culture is rich and complex, and their self-esteem and character are extremely strong.Although they kept dogs, they did not use them for carrying goods.With the devastation that accompanied their honorable warriors, they were left to sit back and watch the arrival of European conquerors who brought horses.The Plains Indians on foot went unnoticed until they were killed or conquered by European conquerors and became history.All the great achievements are just for the survivors to remember at the end of their lives and claim to be the people of strength and independence.The horses pronounced their fate, but it was too late; the horses served their conquerors longer and did more good. To the east, in the woodlands and on the coast, the Indians had complex tribal factions and clever and fierce politicians, but they still depended on hunting and gathering for their livelihood.Their simple agriculture was only sufficient to support small villages, sometimes even a single family or tribe. The total number of these unique Indian cultures in North America is believed to be more than 2,000, but no matter whether it is a single culture or the sum of all cultures, they cannot affect other parts of the world.Centuries before Columbus and the Spanish invasion, and probably thousands of years before the earlier brief expeditions of the Scandinavians, no one knew of the existence of these cultures, and most of them were not related to each other. touch.Before Columbus, Europe and the Middle East were completely unknown to these cultures, which is why their successors took all the glory and became one of the greatest explorers in history.Likewise, the inhabitants of the entire northern half of the New World have no domestic animals, except in the special case of dogs, and of large birds such as turkeys. In Mexico some brilliant new cultures have emerged, but they seem to be going nowhere.In fact they could go many places, but they could not reach them; these peoples did not have good seamanship, so their development stagnated, and then they split off from each other, from which came the Aztecs, Toltecs, etc. (Toltec) and Quantopec (Quantopec) etc.At that time they had a very characteristic and extremely detailed design, as well as decoration, architecture, symbols, religion, astronomy and politics. In addition, they also obviously developed mathematics. Even from today's eyes, their crafts still show Very complex imagination.But these men of wisdom, who had accomplished so much, existed alone in the wilderness; they conquered every neighboring people, but that was insignificant, against the monotony and austerity of Stone Age culture.The impact of European invaders on these splendid cultures in the early sixteenth century AD was only one of the reasons for the collapse of these cultures.The creative genius of these cultures is still doomed to fail to spark the world.The Aztecs, for example, sat back and watched their destruction come.And apart from dogs and turkeys, they did not have the habit of domesticating other animals. In the south and east, the Mayans established another splendid culture.The Mayan culture is very distinctive, but it could not successfully escape the dilemma of cultural isolation. Although it expanded to Mesoamerica, it never developed enough technology to make it truly expand. At the same time, it hardly communicated with other cultures.Thus, a creative culture died prematurely under the splendid temple.Besides dogs, the Mayans also had no other domestic animals. Not long ago, I traveled to the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico.In an as yet unstudied Mayan ruin deep in the forest of the Quintana Roo Territory, I wandered along a gravel trail that hadn't been completely obliterated by jungle logs.Temples of ruined stone of the most elaborate carving towered on either side, covered with vines, and trees protruding from plateaus and fissures.Here, it is like entering another world, with butterflies and wild orchids everywhere.There are still scattered Mayan peoples; outside a simple aboriginal hut, I found an altar stone that was used for human sacrifices in the past.Large grooves in the stone, probably used to hold sacrificial victims, are now used as mangers for pigs.When I got there, the pigs were eating on the stone.These pigs are descendants of European pigs introduced to the New World long ago, but they haven't had time to change anything yet.Brilliant buildings, dazzling colors, miraculous religious statues, abject poverty, the strange contradiction between the above and Europe, the combination of these elements seems to remind us: if the same elements are recombined in a different order, the Mayan Culture may survive European invasions and further enrich the world. In the far south, on the isolated plateaus on the west coast of the continent, the Inca culture arose, and in the coastal lowlands other splendid cultures arose, such as the Chimu tribe, which thrived on the coastal lowlands. There is something magical about the explicit, sensual designs rendered in pottery.There are also Lamayequ people who established culture here.And the familiar remains of the pyramids of the Tucume tribe remind us of another glorious lost time.Still, the creative genius of culture is fleeting.Before these cultures disintegrated on their own, their agriculture developed only rudimentary techniques.To the north of these cultures, on the western coast of the Andes, in present-day Ecuador, there were various interesting cultures, but they did not spread far or attract other peoples in the vicinity.Exquisite pottery statues found there date back at least 6,000 years, however, domestic animals were also absent from these cultures. In the fertile valleys of Peru's barren coastal plain, the Moche tribe, who flourished briefly after the birth of Jesus, built awe-inspiring pyramids, one of the first known in South America before the European invasion. largest building.The pyramid is 135 feet high and has a base area of ​​more than 12 hectares.The Mochi used gold to create beautiful designs and patterns, but because they did not domesticate animals, their influence could not travel far.Here, too, the cultural gift is alone, with no other culture nourished by it, and thus these cultures, like many before and after, disappear silently. The two huge continental plates of North and South America, as well as the Great Isthmus of Central America that connects the two places, reveal a common problem of isolation, lack of mutual communication and influence.These three regions also had brief, distinguished but very limited cultural blips in the past, but 99 percent of their barren lands remain only Stone Age cultures.Some of these cultures did have brief periods of extraordinary success, but most were obliterated by time and other avant-garde cultures that domesticated domestic animals, leaving only ruins to this day. For example, there have been large-scale building works in Ohio and adjacent areas in the United States, but the culture that created these works has never had a long-term impact on world history.It was another firework that no one came to watch.While the builders of these burial mounds were truly remarkable, their accomplishments did not include raising animals; in other words, they were not really out of the Stone Age.Even if the barrows they labored to build were as high as mountains, and even if their skill in modifying stone swords was beyond their limits, they still gathered berries, drupes, and roots, fished with spear guns, and hunted bison with wooden or stone weapons , Rabbit, Squirrel, Raccoon, Porcupine, Bear and Deer. Especially in Latin America today, the admirable art and architecture, pottery and fabrics, and the concepts embedded in them, exemplify the individual and collective creative genius of these cultures.But despite their sophisticated craftsmanship, and despite their extraordinary insights into astronomy and mathematics, these cultures were still confined to the Stone Age.Distinctive cultures emerged and disappeared, and the Stone Age continued.These cultures reached their zenith in the 1500s and split from within.And thousands of years ago, most of the world's work on raising animals was done.However, the opportunity and freedom to cross Stone Age cultures and combine with the creative genius of other places was passed by the peoples of the New World. What about the local livestock situation?Besides dogs, there were only four domestic animals in the entire Western Hemisphere at the time, three of which were in South America.The two native New World camelids are the vicuña and the alpaca (descendants of the wild llama and the guanaco).But these animals, which lived on the pampas and alpine mountains, were unable to cross the jungles of the Amazon Basin. As a result, these animals, and the cultures that might have depended on them to expand northward, were localized. The total area of ​​North, Central, and South America is about 16,648,935 square miles. There are towering mountains, steaming lowlands, dense rainforests, boundless deserts, There are thousands of species of birds and mammals in the vast grasslands, criss-crossing river banks, rich forests, and tens of thousands of miles of coastlines. Among them, only one mammal is domesticated as a food animal, which belongs to rodents, about one to three pounds (0.4 5 to 1.36 kilograms), but what is even more incredible is that even with primitive tools and many wild animals around, this success did not start the opportunity to domesticate animals.It didn't happen after all.If the discovery of the New World can be delayed another thousand years, perhaps there will be livestock animals here.And if these Western Hemisphere cultures can find their way out of the Stone Age, what kind of miracle will happen? ★food Everything we do on Earth is just for food.The crops of the whole world have always been biased towards a few highly specialized grains. Corn, millet, barley, rice, and beans especially prefer protein-rich species and strains (among these grains, rice is labor-intensive, and if there is no animal assistance, in comparison, it is less likely than other grains to play its current role).The natural elimination and survival rate of human beings have led to the development of agriculture, but if there are no animals for food and service, there will be no so-called agriculture.Everything in human history, only happened after humans fed themselves first.Where there are no domestic animals, humans still have to devote themselves to trying to feed themselves, and there is no guarantee that they will not go hungry. Fishing cultures exist on our planet, but these cultures are also the most persistent since ancient times.Although primitive seamanship developed from these fishing cultures, it is completely unrelated to the various seafaring-related technologies that we have developed today, including metallurgy, meteorology, electronics, computerized navigation, portable Freezers, flash freezing for long-term preservation, communications, aircraft, and an on-call global marketing strategy to distribute the perishable catch. The long-standing problem with metropolitan centers is that they cannot produce their own food, and without a controllable population of animals, the metropolis will collapse as the population grows.The protein needed by cities usually has to be imported from other places. At first, live animals were driven to slaughterhouses, but now they are slaughtered outside the city and then transported into the metropolitan area by trains and trucks equipped with refrigeration equipment.Such a long-distance transportation process is simply not feasible if only wild animals are relied on. The wild animals close to the emerging urban centers are quickly depleted. As for those species that can survive under hunting pressure, their habitats Usually occupied by humans as agricultural land.Once the urban population is concentrated, the residents or food suppliers of the city must go to further places to hunt, and the population concentration becomes a bad method, and the urban population also disintegrates and perishes due to insufficient protein. People who cannot produce their own food cannot even obtain agricultural products without pack animals.And without the use of pack animals, and the consequent development of subsequent technology, there would be no carts and roads, and certainly no tunnels and bridges. ★Chat and culture If there were no large population centers (derived from crossroads and markets, backed by livestock), there would not be any cultural agglomerations where distinct cultures could emerge and interact with each other, and we All kinds of technologies that are benefiting infinitely today, such as metal smelting, more advanced mechanics, electronics, communications, flight, space science, printing, medicine, computer technology, etc., will not be born.These technologies cannot be developed by relying on rural crafts alone. They are completed by various related technologies. In other words, they are the products of interaction, communication and subsequent growth (that is, cultural evolution).Without the foundation laid by caravans of livestock trailers, humans would not have been able to build and maintain cities and industries, and thus would not have invented glass, plastic, man-made fibers, and metals. (Of course, we can also try to assume that even if livestock versions of horses, bison, camels, and donkeys were never invented, humans could still invent railways, checkpoints, and airplanes. But I believe that this assumption is doubtful of.) The word trivia in English is derived from two Latin words Tri and via, which means: three ways.In ancient times, where the three roads intersected, a market would naturally form, and the market and water source are the reasons why these roads converge here.As for the so-called trivia, that is, the gossip that people hear at the intersection of three roads.But there is more than gossip in places of crowds; the university, the outgrowth of the gossiping gatherings of travelers at crossroads, was at first a small gathering, where people sat in the shade of trees, or around the fire at night, Talking about the beautiful things I saw and heard on the trip, then the library, classrooms and laboratories gradually developed. Small talk, therefore, is a kind of wisdom exchanged at a crossroads.However, humans may not have been able to reach (or create, or even never hear of) the crossroads without the transportation provided by animals or the machines that later replaced animal power.Without mutual communication, without a place for creativity to flourish, culture is doomed to stagnation.A genius living in a village of fishing, hunting︱gathering life or primitive farming life style is like an unidentified tree fallen in a remote virgin forest; will there be a sound when no one is listening?Can creativity still play out? ★Important by-products Agriculture collapsed in many cultures due to the depletion of soil resources.Fertilizer, a natural resource that saves and endlessly regenerates the soil, is hard to come by without domestic animals.And if it takes more energy to produce or collect food than it can supply, our society will eventually collapse; this is an inescapable fact of energy supply and demand.Thus, without animal husbandry, human beings would suffer from disease and malnutrition due to the increased inbreeding between generations, and tribes or clans would stagnate or degenerate.家畜賜與我們的禮物當中，最重要的就是協助人類散播基因，如果沒有牠們，人類基因將無法像目前如此迅速而廣泛地傳播。 若是沒有最初的市場聚集處及後來的大學所提供的文化交流，地球的子民非但不會不斷面臨新思想的挑戰，也不會鍥而不捨地尋求答案；倘若沒有接二連三的問題及其解答，像車輪和字母等新事物，也就不太可能出現。如此一來，我們毋需尋找煤或石油，不必利用地球所蘊涵的大多數天然能源，更不會發現數百種的副產品（從環保的觀點來看，這也不見得完全不好）。 ★人類方程式 在土壤尚未枯竭且獵物仍多的地區，人們的身體狀況通常相當健康。但若沒有動物夥伴來減輕壓力及降低血壓的話，出現在這些地區的個體便有早逝的傾向，且不會將他們生病的基因遺傳給許多後代。 於是，一連串具反諷意味的事件因而衍生了。作為馱獸之用，並提供可靠蛋白質來源的家畜，導致了人口大量密集，造成人們日漸增強的競爭心，以及彼此之間的孤立與疏遠。城市雖是絕佳的文化展示地點，卻並非總是能夠滋養人們心靈。在多層而高聳的公寓裡，動物已將自己全然地奉獻給我們，成為我們的同伴，並幫助我們減少處於人群當中的孤寂感。就心理層面而言，動物一直是自我實踐的預言；牠們的到來，是為了協助我們解決牠們為我們帶來的問題。如果沒有牠們，我們如今不會面對這些都市的壓力，但相對地，沒有牠們，我們大多數人可能也無法比現在更能適應這些壓力。 另一件諷刺的事則與人類的健康有關。馱獸及食用動物雖然同時為我們提供了聚集閒聊中心，同時也帶給我們許多重大問題。在城市、市集與文化之間穿梭的商隊，徹底改變了致病微生物的生態，因此，病菌的隔離也告結束。諸如瘟疫之類的細菌性疾病四處散布，並且埋下了未來世界性流行病的遠因。各式各樣的細菌和病毒到處傳播，一旦有新的機會或新的挑戰時，它們就會伺機產生突變。人口密集的都市中心也有助於性病和濾過性病毒呼吸道疾病的散播，這類疾病潛伏著，等待下一批商隊的來臨，將它們帶到其他地方。此外，自從需要大量穩定水源的稻米等農作物倚賴動物協助耕作後，水生寄生蟲引起的疾病也日漸影響了人類的健康。 愈是追求便利，人類相對付出的代價也愈大，現在人類必須面對全球生態戰對抗所處的星球、征服微生動物以求生存，以及被瘋狂的眾人破壞的心靈安寧。為了畜養動物所帶來的命運，我們付出了不小的代價。整體而言，它是我們至目前為止付出最多的一項抉擇。 人類的語言若處於隔離狀態下，將會日漸貧乏，毫無美感及藝術可言。語言最初是因需要而產生的，但如果沒有新的科技，沒有對新知識的追求，以及新的社會問題，我們對語言的需求可能就會降到最低。太空時代與電腦科技雖然可能尚在起步階段，只是近代剛出現的兩道文化光影而已，但它們為我們帶來的語言與新字彙，遠超過某些目前尚存的非科技文化的全部語言。 交流對語言的成長是非常重要的，如果沒有篷車商隊的話，語言交流可能就不會發生了。語言當然會有自然老化的傾向，但若沒有動物協助我們交換與吸收各種思想與優點，我們絕不可能完成語言複雜精緻的基礎。穿梭於各文化之間的馱獸，所攜帶的不僅是貿易的貨品；牠所負載的最可貴貨物並沒有實際的形體那是無形的思想。 ★奴隸制度 農業剛起源時，如果人類必須依賴自己的力量耕作，並將農產物運至所需之地，那麼當時的人類可能承受極為沉重的社會壓力。沒有家畜以及隨之發展的道路、車輪與車輛的話，奴隸制度可能會成為每個文化中的普遍現象。在戰爭中被俘虜的人注定會終身受到束縛；每個人都可能是奴隸的擁有者，也可能有朝一日會變成奴隸。 當然，未進化的文化往往自行產生奴隸，即使這些文化未必稱呼這些人為奴隸。這些奴隸就是女人，當男人外出狩獵並到處宣揚所謂的男性權利的迷思時，這群女人在田裡辛勤耕作。狩獵需要人力，但也需要有人拿起鋤頭來掘土，從事這項工作的女人於是陷入了被奴役的處境。 奴隸短缺時，女人也必須擔任運貨的工作。一旦被當成馱運重物的動物，她們便失去了在智慧方面與男人平等發展的地位，這個世界也因而損失了一半的天賦，徒然耗損了人類的潛能。家畜造成整個世界解放奴隸的連鎖反應，同時也解放了女人，女人不再是物品，而是與男人共同建構文化的夥伴。我們目前正處於這種演變之中。今天，如果任何文化依然因襲過去的暴政，忽略了佔半數人口的女性的潛能，同時無視於人們目前的觀點，那麼，這樣的文化將因而停滯不前，同時，也將無法在人類智慧曙光乍現時繼續倖存。 有些文化即使已經有了家畜，卻依然有奴隸制度和奴役女人的現象存在，這個事實在文化演進上，是一個令人洩氣的反常例子，不過造成這種壓迫的因素並不在本書的討論範圍之內。畜養動物其實可使文化以不同的方式演進。然而牠們通常與人類的異常行徑並無太多關聯，例如戰爭、犯罪以及饑荒等。地球上生產的食物早已足以餵飽全世界，但人類卻仍為了那些無來由的事而挨餓、掙扎，甚或互相殘殺。如果下一世紀的人口超過食物供應量的話，任何人都可猜出將會發生什麼事情。 ★戰事 人類為了種種原因而偷竊或殺人。但是在沒有家畜的情況下，人類會將戰爭視為獲取奴隸的主要方法，而且為了不斷地掠奪戰利品，戰火將會綿延不絕。如果奴隸主人的壽命並未超過三十五至四十年，繁衍奴隸對他而言並不划算。在主人有生之年中，他無法藉由餵養、訓練、繁衍奴隸，並從奴隸之子的勞力中獲得利益。當然，他也會繁衍部分奴隸，但仍需要不斷攻擊其他部落以補充奴隸，而這樣的戰爭往往會造成文化瓦解。 沒有動物促進文化交流的話，我們所發展出來的科技就只能製造原始的武器（不可否認這是個優點），這類的武器大多數是近身攻擊用途，如匕首、棍棒、刀和斧，以及遠攻專用的弓箭（如澳洲原住民所使用的）、投擲用木棒、迴力鏢、琢磨過的投擲用石塊、矛和擲矛器等。不論使用原始或先進的武器，戰爭所蘊涵的社會本質是相似的，只是在原始的戰爭裡不會出現金屬、化學和複雜機械等武器，這或許也算一個優點吧。家畜既未創造戰爭，也無法消弭戰事，戰爭是人類自己的過失；不過，牠們的確改變了戰爭的形式。 如果人類必須自己運輸每項物品，那麼戰爭的規模自有其侷限。沿海地帶的民族雖然可以乘船旅行，但他們無法取得動物性蛋白質，因此他們必須停船捕魚，或是靠岸狩獵或採集食物，也因此他們在海上的活動範圍也受到了限制。真正的長途旅行仍無法實現，就像我們現在對未來的太空旅行的想像一般。這種長程的旅行是跨世代的，且率先出發的人可能將不會再回到原鄉。最後，或許因為好奇心，或許因為某種回歸的探索，一些移民至遠方者的後裔會再度來訪，但他們與家鄉的連繫已是非常薄弱，而思鄉病不過持續短短一個世代而已（但尋根則是另一種過程，通常是一種將疏離加以浪漫化的反應）。 以攫取奴隸與戰爭來擴展生活，因而建立自我形象，是行不通的。人們為了能達到前述目的，難免發展出種族神祕主義，甚至乾脆宣稱自己比其他民族更為優秀。他們這麼做，因為這正是種族主義最終的理論基礎，並且能將奴隸制度合理化。一旦有了這種信念，人類會因而狂妄自大，且必會變得殘暴。在人類歷史中，曾畜養動物的社會也曾發生過奴隸制度以及殘忍的種族、宗教與民族戰爭。不過，侵略性與殘酷無情不至於證明我們與原始洞窟生活相差不遠；侵略性格及殘酷無情至今仍然存在，應該算是一件反常的特例。 ★隔離 在一個缺乏動物協助交通運輸的世界裡，山岳、冰原、沙漠、海洋等所有的地理特徵，都將會成為巨大的屏障，造成與外界的隔離，並妨礙對其他民族的信賴。一種僅在少數地區使用的語言，其擴散程度有限，若沒有市集與商隊代為傳播，它可能就會和創造它的人一樣封閉。如果對天然屏障之外的世界一無所知，人們可能會對來自其他未知之地的人和想法懷有敵意，換言之，他們因無知而敵視這世界上大多數其他區域的人。如此一來，懷疑將會主宰所有人的生活，多數人將對未知的新事物懷有恐懼。在隔離的狀況下，人們可能會覺得只有隔離才是安全的。就某種程度而言，這樣或許也不錯，至少限制了疾病微生物的散播。 一旦野生動物或適耕地耗盡時，人類將會被迫遷移，但也只有在這種時候，或是在逃避災難時，人們才有機會遇見其他地區的陌生人。旅行可能是充滿危險的，因為旅行者可能隨時都會被發現，或被視為敵人而加以俘虜或殺害，如果他們加以抗拒的話，也許還可能被吃掉。這些人用來對待他們的方式，幾乎也正是他們加諸在其他族類身上的待遇。在人類歷史上，除了已將獵人而食的習俗完全儀式化的食人族之外，一般食人族通常並未飼養家畜。 人類這個物種最早只在一、兩個區域中演化，之後才散布至整個世界，這個事實與隔離這個想法並無衝突。人類由直立原人（Ｈｏｍｏ ｅｒｅｃｔｕｓ）演化至尼安德塔人（Ｎｅａｎｄｅｒｔｈａｌ）或其他同等人種的過程，並不是像個移民似的，扛著背包就啟程前往遠方的某個港口，去迎接新的生活；人們成群結隊地緩緩向外擴展，逐漸渗透到地球大部分的地方，只有在冰河時期或其他災難發生時，才有突然的遷徙之舉。一般說來，當時的遷移行為，不過是越過鄰近的山脊去採集漿果，然後，小心翼翼地逐漸移向另一個能夠提供食物、住處和水源的鄰近地區。因此，我們在種族識別上所投注的強烈情緒，顯得十分諷刺。每當談論種族時，我們似乎認為每個種族之間是毫無關係的。但從人類歷史所得的事實來看，其實我們都屬於同一個種族；我們也許膚色不同，但都來自於同一個根源，而且這是不久之前才發生的事。 ★野生動物園地 缺乏畜養動物對野生動物所造成的影響，似乎頗具爭議性。如果沒有家畜提供蛋白質，由野外獲得的蛋白質對人類生存而言，就變得極為重要，而其引發的直接影響將是具有破壞性的。如此一來，在人類居住地四周的野生動物將大量消失，而其減少程度，與人類的人口密度成正比。 相對地，偏遠地帶的野生動物很快就學會了對人類懷著警戒之心。然而，人類對野生動物的獵殺並未停歇，而狩獵的成功與否，也決定了人類家庭及宗族的大小。和其他物種一樣，人類繁殖及生存的能力，都受到食物的影響。在人類住處周圍，食物獲得率的曲線總是呈現下降趨勢，如果人類只依賴打獵和採集來獲得食物，他終究必須到更遠的地方去尋找可補充蛋白質的食物，這樣的行程，似乎和其他形式的旅行一樣危險。 在動物會大量遷徙的地區，人類也會隨著動物遷移。由於與其他陌生民族的遭遇可能會導致文化衝突，因此，整個部落、宗族和家庭便生活在恐懼之中。此時，如果雙方都同時需要奴隸，或需要女人作為妻子或奴隸，那麼就更有理由發動戰爭，結果導致某個族群被徹底消滅，而戰勝的一方則因為有新的奴隸從事馱運重物的工作，因而能將奪取的許多肉類和皮革帶走，滿載而歸。 另一方面，在沒有畜養動物的情況下，人類對野生動物及環境所造成的衝擊，並非完全是負面的。人類對自然所造成的衝擊，終究還是會受本身人口與科技的影響，而人口向來必定與食物有所關聯。如果人類並未發展工業科技，實際人口數量應是不多，所造成的衝擊也很小，動物的物種也不至於被逼至幾近滅絕的地步。那時，沒有將河流轉向的水壩，沒有被砍伐殆盡的森林，沒有礦場，沒有燒墾（刀耕火種），沒有殺蟲劑，沒有農業用化學藥品所造成的汙染，也不會有任何地方被成群的山羊、綿羊和牛群過度啃蝕草地，而土壤流失、酸雨、空氣汙染、水質優養現象（ｅｕｔｒｏｐｈｉｃａｔｉｏｎ）（湖泊淤泥沉積）也都不會發生。家畜固然能夠提供輕鬆且穩定的食物供人類繁衍，但人類也因此增加到令人厭憎的數目。如果未曾畜養動物，人類所造成的衝擊將微不足道，而棲息地和野生動物目前所遭遇到的悲劇也大多能夠避免。 雜交（ｈｙｂｒｉｄｉｚａｔｉｏｎ）則是另外一件可能不會發生的事。家畜總有機會脫逃，轉變為野化的動物，甚至演化成新的物種，牠們通常可與自己親代相同的物種反交，繼而使這個物種滅絕。基因庫一旦被雜交所汙染，至少在理論上它是永遠都沒有辦法再變得純粹了。一般相信，脫逃的家馬與牠們殘存下來的野馬祖先反交，原則上已經摧毀了牠們的基因庫；同樣的事情也正發生在狗和北美郊狼身上。 若說智人是地球上目前最聰明的物種，我想不至於會引起太多的爭議，不過倘若人類沒有畜養其他物種，我們可能遺漏了自己演化過程中一個注定會發生的重要部分。對那些被我們關進圈籠裡，且其演化過程受到人類大量干預的物種而言，這個部分也是注定要發生的，同時也是不容被忽略的。換言之，人類畜養其他物種是雙方共同完成的。畜養與被畜養這種物種之間相互依賴的行為，已成為支配地球的新動力。被馴養的物種在生存上的確仰賴人類，但是牠們回報給人類的，也已有千萬倍了。我們虧欠牠們的，就是我們完成自己命運的能力；如果光靠人類自己的力量，我們根本就不可能辦得到。 我想，我所要表達的重點應該已經十分清楚了。我們是文化、歷史和種種事件的產物，由於動物提供肉源、乳品、衣著，擔任坐騎，甚至擔任馱獸，一切才可能發生。長久以來，牠們一直是我們文化和知識演進上的忠實夥伴，其重要性僅次於我們自己的大腦。我們曾經因為牠們的奉獻而獲益良多，但我們顯然並未將牠們的貢獻記上一筆，甚至也並不關心動物為此所付出的代價。事情就這麼自然而然地發展下去，使人類和動物彼此的關係愈來愈緊密，最後無法脫離彼此。這正是我們目前的處境；我們正處於一種夥伴關係之中，而這種關係在我們生活中所具有的重要性，是遠超過人類巧妙的心靈所能夠想像的。