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I had a thought a little while ago:

Since humans no longer hunt for sustinence, does that mean we are, in a certain respect, domesticated?

Queeb Salaron wrote:I had a thought a little while ago:

Since humans no longer hunt for sustinence, does that mean we are, in a certain respect, domesticated?

Sure, if you regard domestication as dependence upon technology. Take the average first-world citizen and dump him in the jungle somewhere, and he'll be in a world of hurt. Even most of the guys who like to pretend they'd be self-sufficient would find it rather difficult to survive without their guns, ammo, camping equipment, etc.

Domestication generally refers to a taming of some kind to fill a specific niche. Humans aren't savages anymore, but since there was no-one to domesticate us and make us to conform to certain standards, I don't think we're properly domesticated. Granted, if we had to go back in time about 200 000 years when we lived on the plains, we'd be pretty well buggered.

The Aliens wrote:Domestication generally refers to a taming of some kind to fill a specific niche. Humans aren't savages anymore, but since there was no-one to domesticate us and make us to conform to certain standards, I don't think we're properly domesticated. Granted, if we had to go back in time about 200 000 years when we lived on the plains, we'd be pretty well buggered.

So what we call "civilization" is really nothing more than, to coin a phrase, autodomestication?

I'll agree to that- we've made ourselves live up to our own standards and have removed a great deal of our survival abilities through that.