Domesticated animals : $b Their relation to man and to his advancement in civilizationShaler, Nathaniel Southgate
History
Domesticated animals : $b Their relation to man and to his advancement in civilization
Shaler, Nathaniel Southgate
Domestic animals
It may be noted that, beginning with the apparently simple and
eminently popular questions as to the origin and economic history of
the animals which have been subjugated by man, we have been naturally
led to the consideration of much larger problems, those relating to the
place of man in the order of nature, and his duty by the life of which
he is an integral part. There can be no question that the sense of this
duty which mastery of the earth gives or should afford is to be one of
the moral gifts of modern learning. So long as men considered
themselves to be accidents on the earth, imposed upon it by the will of
a Supreme Being, but in nowise related in origin and history to the
creatures amid which they dwelt, it was natural that they should
exercise a careless and despotic power over their subjects. Now that it
has been made perfectly clear that we have come forth from the maze of
the lower life, that all these tenants of the wilderness are sharers in
the order which has brought us to our estate, and that each one of
them, plant and animal alike, is the record of the impulses which lead
beings upward, we can no longer keep the old careless attitude. We are
compelled to deal with the organic hosts as we deal with the creatures
of our folds and fields. We have to look upon them all as a member of
the great household of man, made such by the intellectual conquest of
the world to which he has attained. We may trust the sense of this
large duty to extend abroad under the influences which have developed
it in the minds of a few men, or we may hasten its development by a
propaganda such as is carried on by the societies for the prevention of
cruelty to animals. If this latter course is taken the teaching should
be on a higher plane than that which we have yet had from those
generally admirable associations. Bad as is the ill treatment of
domesticated animals, the suppression of that evil will not bring us
materially nearer the true attitude that we need to assume in face of
our responsibilities to the natural world. We need to see the greatness
of the responsibility which has been imposed upon us by the action of
the guiding power that has made us lords of the earth.
INDEX
Animals, rights of, 204.
separation of city folk from, 223.
educability of, 227.
Antelopes, 247.
Aryan race, relation to domestication, 152, 220.
relation to rights of animals, 208.
Ass, 93.
Bears, possible domestication of, 243.
Beasts of burden, 103.
Beaver, 246.
habits of, 246.
domestication of, 247.
Bee (honey), 191.
in North America, 195.
Big Bone Lick, Ky., 129.
Birds, 152.
free-flying species of, 182.
tree species of, 182.
vocal powers of, 183.
aesthetic nature of, 187.
conditions of domestication of, 233.
future domestication of, 235.
Bison, 106.
domestication of, 241.
Buffaloes, 105.
African, 106.
Bulls, 105.
Camels, origin of, 119.
limited nature of, 120.
lessening value of, 124.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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