Domesticated

We would still be living at subsistence level as hunter-gatherers if not for domestication. Now there are more than 7 billion of us. It is no accident that the cradle of civilization--the Middle East--is where sheep, goats, pigs, cattle, and cats commenced their fatefully intimate association with humans.Before the agricultural revolution, there were perhaps 10 million humans on earth.

In a human-constructed environment--or man-made world--it pays to be domesticated.Domestication is an evolutionary process first and foremost. Our domesticated species have also thrived, in stark contrast to their wild ancestors. What most distinguishes domesticated animals from their wild ancestors are genetic alterations resulting in tameness, the capacity to tolerate close human proximity.

But selection for tameness often results in a host of seemingly unrelated by-products, including