Tamed
Ten species that changed our world! For hundreds of thousands of years, our ancestors depended on wild plants and animals for survival. They were hunter-gatherers, consummate foraging experts, but taking the world as they found it. Then a revolution occurred - our ancestors' interaction with other species changed. They began to tame them. The human population boomed; civilisation began. In this book, Alice Roberts uncovers the amazing deep history of ten familiar species with incredible wild pasts: dogs, apples and wheat; cattle; potatoes and chickens; rice, maize, and horses - and, finally, humans. Alice Roberts not only reveals how becoming part of our world changed these animals and plants, but shows how they became our allies, essential to the survival and success of our own species - and to our future.
Stats for nerds
2recommend
4mentions
3people
2019–2025years
50% recommend50% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Makes me wonder if the original wolf is similarly smarter as well
Tamed is a nice read by Alice Roberts, about domestication of various species like potatoes and horses (most of them before written history, so it's a puzzle with pieces being put together with archeological finds). One chapter is about dogs aka domesticated wolves
- The ones I rated highest out of those I read this year (which is what I think the question means).
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* Tamed: Ten Species that Changed our World by Alice Roberts
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- Being childlike is what makes us able to live in a society. We explore new things, don't stop learning, and forgive mistakes made along the way. Like wolves, who started being more like how they are in their puppy phase (playful, friendly, exploratory), thereby being possible to domesticate and now called dogs, we've domesticated ourselves (from the common ancestor we had with great apes) in that there was apparently an evolutionary advantage to be less physically imposing and more like, well, as we are today
(Based on what I remember from a books called Tamed by Alice Roberts)
- Back when I was reading Tamed by Alice Roberts, about the history of domestication, I remember being startled that modern ground nuts and rice were the product of irradiation.
