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
The limitations of the domesticating work, the fact that as between
two kindred species the one has been chosen by man and the other left,
indicate the truth--which is generally of much importance--that the
intellectual qualities of animals commonly differ more than their
frames. This is a part of the larger fact that with the advance in
organization the individuality, as regards the whole spiritual field
in persons and species alike, becomes greater. The culmination of the
tendency is seen in man, where, with bodies which do not vary much, we
have an almost infinite range in individual qualities.
This is perhaps a good place in which to make answer to the suggestion
that the domesticability of the animal species is in inverse
proportion to their native courage and independence of mind. The
reader will see how fallacious is this common notion if he will
consider the quality of the supremely domesticated creature, the dog.
There is probably no beast which has a larger share of natural courage
and of independent motive. When not under the control of their
masters, they have perhaps as free a contact with nature as any
creature in the world; the same thing may be said of the elephant,
which, next to the dog, lends himself most obediently to the
requirements of the master. Owing to the power of his huge body and to
the ease with which he wins his food, he is in his native wilds the
least dependent of land animals. Except from the assaults of man, he
has nothing to fear; yet when enslaved he at once surrenders himself
to his captors. In general, it may be said that the true gauge of
domesticability is the sympathetic motive, that strange outgoing
spirit which leads the mind to recognize the life about it and to
accept that life as a part of its own. In other words, the
domesticability of man is due to his willingness to enter into social
relations and rests on the same foundation that supports his
intercourse with the lower animals he has won to his use.
[Illustration: Indian Bullock and Water-Carrier]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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