04/05/2025
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The Consequences of Human Domestication. Part 1: Are humans domesticated?
Human rewilding is a topic that has been around for a long time. At its core is the idea that contemporary humans are domesticated versions of the species. This concept, that humans have been modified from their wild form to attenuate undesirable traits and accentuate desirable ones, was even being discussed by Charles Darwin. There was a time, in the not-too-distant past, when rewilding was a major theme, and many participated to lesser or greater extents in this movement. People came to understand that numerous aspects of modern living are in stark contradiction with our needs (physical, emotional, and spiritual). The high frequency of chronic disease, depression, identity crises, drug use, and failure to feel spirit were all clear signs we needed a change in how we related to earth (and the cosmos, for that matter). It is obvious that we still need a new filter through which to view the remaining wilderness areas.
Human rewilding sought to regain the necessary features of human ecology and culture to allow a group of people to live wild upon the landscape—free of industrial inputs. In other words, they would become one of the strands in the local ecological fabric. Using time-honored skills and recovering aspects of egalitarian culture, humans would live using the original affluence (placed-based knowledge) to exist in close relationship with those beings that were food, medicine, and material for human living. Unfortunately, this movement was rocked to its core by division, brought on by identity politics. It fractured the groups into the righteous and the accused. It created bitter rivalries and the turmoil simply made things relentlessly tense, with folks constantly worrying about being judged. It stood as a major obstacle to learning about and embracing the wild. We need a reset.
As part of a short series, I would like to first accomplish here an explanation of why almost all contemporary humans are, in fact, a domesticated form of Homo sapiens. In other words, we are similar to cows, sheep, pigs, dogs, chickens and other such animals—we are a new form derived from the wild. But how do scientists determine when an animal is domesticated? In other words, what traits do they display that mark them as different from their wild progenitors? There are a number of features that we can examine, but four of them are critical for understanding how domesticated animals differ from their wild counterparts, and we will start there.
1. Altered Temperament. Domesticated animals must be tame. They cannot be aggressive toward their captors. If the animals engaged in hostile behavior to escape, protect themselves, or exert dominance, they would potentially injure the humans who tend them. Think of the modern cow and its wild progenitor the auroch. While the auroch is extinct, the Spanish fighting bull is a less domesticated form of cows, one who doesn’t accept the conditions they are placed in.
MODERN HUMANS are clearly tamer versions of Homo sapiens, and the priority on non-violence appears to grow with each generation. Despite the fact that many important affronts to various segments of the population cannot be resolved with peaceful strategies due to legal tactics, executive orders, and corruption by the politically or wealthy elite, modern humans choose to outsource their violence (for better or worse) to law enforcement and branches of the military.
2. Altered Social Hierarchy. Domesticated animals must accept a new leadership system. In other words, they need to recognize humans as their leader or they will not perform the tasks demanded of them. Whereas gray wolves will not display submission and do what humans ask of them, clearly domesticated dogs do.
MODERN HUMANS have an altered social system. Egalitarianism, which created extreme equality through harvest sharing amongst genders, ages, and roles, has been replaced with hierarchy and societal privilege based on class (primarily a function of wealth).
3. Tolerate an Altered Diet. Domesticated animals must be able to tolerate the food given to them by their human captors. It rarely matches the foods obtained by the wild versions of the animals. For example, the jungle fowl of Asia eats a varied, omnivorous diet. The chicken, which was domesticated from the jungle fowl, is often fed a diet nearly or entirely of grain.
MODERN HUMANS do not eat the same diet as wild humans. We now are primarily fed from agricultural foods that are heavily based on grains and pass through substantial processing. Seed oils, synthetic ingredients, environmental contaminants, and other such features of the modern diet stand in stark contrast to what humans have eaten for millennia.
4. Ability to Breed in Captivity. Domesticated animals must be able to reproduce within the conditions they are forced to live within. Without this ability, the herd, flock, or pack could not be replenished when animals died (such as when they are consumed by their human captors). The conditions in captivity are usually very different from the conditions experienced in the wild.
MODERN HUMANS are not only capable of breeding in captivity but have been so infused with fear that most believe this is the only safe way to birth. Birth sovereignty has largely been taken from contemporary people.
Undeniably, modern humans possess these four tenets of domestication (and other traits not discussed here, such as crowded dentition, also observed in domesticated wolves—dogs). We don’t often like to think of ourselves as domesticated because we have been taught from early on that we are pinnacle of humans (and life on earth) and our current situation is the best that humans have ever had. Yes, we certainly enjoy more comfort and convenience than did our wild progenitors (which were Indigenous Peoples that have largely been eradicated and also domesticated to some extent). Who cares, you might think. So what? We have electricity, cancer medications, cars, video games, and so much more. Well, that will be topic of the next part—the seven outcome of domestication and how they impact you and the world you live in.
