Alternative Domestication: Anthropological Study Domestication and Cultivation

Keywords

Domestication,animals and plants,subsistence technique

Objectives

The purpose of this study is to weigh one new case of domestication or cultivation by humans against another, thereby sorting out these phenomena and clarifying the conceptual framework. The new cases here are those of animal feeding, where domestic animals’ specific characteristics (non-aggressive, easily tamed, etc.) are not allowed to be acquired, such as the retention of wild animal characteristics, the use of wild species, and anti-domestication, and those of plant cultivation, where domestication syndrome (loss of threshability, detoxication, etc.) is not induced. In this study, we call these cases “alternative domestication.”
Specifically, in this study, we report (1) ethnographic facts associated with “alternative” use of animals and plants and (2) compare several cases, thereby breaking down human approach toward animals and plants into patterns. This should result in finding universality and specificity in the way of using the target living matter. Based on (3) discussions on conventional domestication, we clarify the originality and the conceptual framework of this study. In this study, as the initial step, we will deal with animals and plants that are used as “means” in subsistence activities. The reason is that many of the aforementioned cases are identified in animals and plants used in cormorant fishing, falconry, hunting, fishing with poisonous plants, etc. We will then expand the subject of our study to other cases using animals and plants.

Research Results

The objective of this research project was to identify the following types of cases mainly in Asia and Oceania, classify them from a comparative perspective, and present an interpretive framework for them: those in which humans have not brought in too many other types of species into an artificial environment, those in which wildness has been maintained, and those in which species have been changed into “natural” or “wild” after being domesticated.
The project lasted two and a half years from October 2016. We held a total of eight workshops during that period and delivered oral presentations on the relationship of humans with 23 species including Harris’s hawk, palm civet, Japanese honey bee, and loach. Each workshop began with the coordinator stating the themes and results of the project so far to the other members. In many of the presentations, a researcher from another field was selected to provide commentary, in an effort to examine each case from a broader perspective, including subsequent discussions.
Through such efforts, we identified commonalities and differences in the use of animals and plants in the individual cases, and presented an interpretive framework for the relationship between humans and other species. Specifically, by identifying the extent in which humans have brought other species into an artificial environment and cases in which humans engaged in efforts to modify other species, we found that we could classify cases into four broad categories: 1) continuous use of wild species, 2) adjustment of balance between wild and domestication, 3) modification after domestication, and 4) unintentional domestication. Specifically, 1) applies to cases in which humans intentionally continue to use wild species with no intention to intervene with animal reproduction in a rich natural environment; 2) applies to cases in which humans manage the life-cycle of animals but engage in efforts to avoid domestication syndrome, including decline in aggressiveness and excessive obedience; 3) applies to cases in which humans establish techniques to propagate, farm, or cultivate a given species, manage its entire life history, and then modify its character to come closer to what is commonly called “natural” or “wild;” and 4) applies to cases in which a species invades an environment that was created by human modification of nature, such as developing living areas and clearing land for farming, and lives there continuously for generations, but is “discovered” by humans somehow who subsequently begin to use the species. By presenting a framework for interpreting and classifying cases in this way, we reconsidered phenomena of “Western” or “Chinese” domestication in which humans have tried to aggressively manage other species, and succeeded in furthering our understanding of cases that do not fit in those categories. The characteristics of each type and individual phenomena will be described in detail in a book we plan to publish once the project has finished.