What is domestication?

Domestication is defined as a relationship between two parties in which one has significant control or influence over the reproductive success of the other which will in turn yield a higher return and quality of resource from the second party. For the hunter-gatherer, there are many examples of early domestication occurring without communities actually becoming reliant on these techniques. It is more likely that these small cases apply more to plant life as it is easier to have an effect on the success of static crops than that of wild animals. Early examples of this domestication include Australian Aborigines replanting unused parts of dug up yams and another more extreme case in eastern California where early peoples diverted streams toward natural fields of water-meadow root crops to increase the yield. These early examples prove that the movement towards an agricultural based world was a gradual one and the relationship between communities and their environments had roots far back into the Palaeolithic. The previous two examples of early domestication highlight the relationship between hunter-gatherers and plants, but there is also evidence to support the origins of the infamous relationship between man and dog dating back to as far as 14,000 years ago with some evidence suggesting the relationship could, in fact, be dated back to potentially 36,000 years ago.