The early history of domestication of animals

The more recent Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans during the last Ice Age, the social hunting of large mammals such as mammoths or bison would have more closely paralleled that of wolf packs, and indeed the first partnership between wolf and humans may have begun from their joint hunting skills at least 30,000 years ago.

Domestication begins with ownership. In order to be domesticated animals have to be incorporated into the special structure of a human community and become of ownership inheritance, purchase and exchange. 

Animal domestication has not only provided a ready supply of food, clothing and companionship but, in many respects, has changed the way people live and view the world.

This was the basis of the so-called Neolithic revolution when the fundamental change in human societies occurred and groups of hunter-gatherers became farmers and stockbreeders.

The human species has evolved what appears to be a unique capacity for wanting to tame, nurture and love with almost all species of vertebrae animals.

The goat came into human lives in the pre-agriculture stage of development, during the Middle Stone Age, between 12,000 and 15,000 years ago at the end of the last glacial period.

The only other pre-agriculture domestic animal was the dog, the reindeer and the sheep. But the goat probably came first, judging from the bones that have been found and their demonstrable age.

Pigs were domesticated separately in Europe and Asia about 9000 years ago.

Domestication of llama and alpaca took place in South America about 6000 years ago at the same time that people of the Sredni Stog culture in the Ukraine began domesticating horses for meat and transportation.
The early history of domestication of animals

Carbohydrate in history

The initial history of carbohydrates is the story of sugar cane and the human passion for sweetness.

Sugar cane’s origin is thought to be Papua New Guinea, cultivated from wild plants about 10000 years ago during Neolithic agricultural revolution.

Crystalline sugar from cane was known in India around 300 CE and the use of sugar spread via the caravan routes over North Africa into Spain around this time.

 Joseph Louis Proust, who formulated the law of definite proportions, had studied the sugar juices of plants from 1799 to 1808 and had identified three different sugars: sucrose, fructose and glucose.

 In 1792, a carbohydrate was isolated from honey which was different from cane sugar. In 1802, a sweet carbohydrate was found in grapes which were also different from sucrose.

 In 1820, it was found that the same crystalline sugar could be obtained from the urine of diabetics and from the acid hydrolysis of cellulose.

 The name glucose was coined by Dumas in 1838 for the sugar obtained from honey, grapes, starch and cellulose; 20 years later its molecular formula of C6H12O6 was established.

 The name carbohydrate was first proposed in 1844 by German chemist, Carl Schmidt. Chemically this is logical, since as the name implies, carbohydrates are compounds of carbon and hydrogen, together with oxygen.

 In 1856, Liver glycogen, the animal storage form of carbohydrate, was discovered by French physiologist Claude Bernard.
Carbohydrate in history

Agriculture Revolution in History

Agriculture Revolution in History
Starting about 10,000 years ago, or near 8000 BC, people made the major technological advance of domesticating animals and plants.

The early part of this agriculture Revolution especially in the Middle East is often called the Neolithic Revolution. Similar agricultural Revolutions occurred independently in the Middle East, the Orient, New Guinea, and the Americans.

At one time, historian assumed that the Agricultural Revolution was simply a form of progress. Historian currently hypothesized that people knew how to raise crops and keep animals before the Agricultural Revolution, but were reluctant to do so until either rising population or reduced natural food supplies forced them into agriculture.

This is partly supported by a rise in population preceding the adoption of agriculture as indicated in the archeological record.

Another belief that this largely been discarded is that urban life began as a result of the Agricultural Revolution. Towns were forming before farming became a way of life. The principle purpose of pre-agricultures settlements was trade.

Towns arose at the juncture of trade routes or near supplies of goods that could be traded. Jericho, for example, was founded well before agriculture started.

It is shard to find any evidence of the physical sciences around the time of the Agricultural Revolution except for that discarded by developing technology, such as the introduction do sun-dried bricks and mortar. Major developments of the period following the Agricultural Revolution were largely in astronomy, mathematics and technology.
Agriculture Revolution in History