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What was the most important animal to civilizations development?
- Thread starter Uncle at Nintendo
- Start date
Interesting fact regarding horses.
Didn't see that in films, not that they are bastions of history but quite the overlook.
Didn't see that in films, not that they are bastions of history but quite the overlook.
There is no single answer because civilisations developed in a variety of times and places somewhat independently, existing in different ecosystems and employing domestication of animals in differing ways and to differing degrees.
It's oxen (cattle). There is a far longer and broader history of using oxen as beasts of labor than horses, and the labor they did was key to feeding the growing cities.
Dogs. Before agriculture even developed (which you don't need horses or cattle for) dogs helped grow mankind's numbers by helping us when we were a hunting & gathering society. Without that we couldn't have transformed into a larger civilization. And you don't need horses or cattle to have a large civilization. Look at the Aztecs and Inca.
Dogs overall. Their relationship with humans and eventual domestication allowed for a better diet through improved hunting which led to larger brains in the humans with them. Bigger brains led to better analytical and problem solving skills which led to agriculture and from there human civilization really began in earnest.
While dogs might have been less crucial once hunting and gathering stopped being the primary means of acquiring food, they still served purposes for us. This is why we see so many breeds today, dogs have been formed and molded to fit our needs and desires for millennia. Other animals have been domesticated, of course, but dogs were the first and are the most integrated to our species.
While dogs might have been less crucial once hunting and gathering stopped being the primary means of acquiring food, they still served purposes for us. This is why we see so many breeds today, dogs have been formed and molded to fit our needs and desires for millennia. Other animals have been domesticated, of course, but dogs were the first and are the most integrated to our species.
Probably the horse but I'm open to other suggestions.
Mass farming was not possible without the horse.
Mass farming was not possible without the horse.
While true, the existence of certain animals helped certain parts of the world advance faster technologically and gave them an edge.
The lack of native horses in the Americas has been given as one reason that the civilizations there were not at the same level of war capability and overall development as Europeans. I'll try to find the exact source for it but I remember reading that horses, for example, are easier to breed, domesticate and handle than llamas and alpacas and can also carry far heavier loads. That allowed people with horses to advance their living standards to a higher degree than those without.
That said, I'm not 100% sure if this is still accepted theory now.
Horses were the fastest means of human transportation for thousands of years, you can't beat that animal wise.
One could argue camels filled this role during crucial periods of development as well.
There were thriving civilizations in the Americas without horses. You don't have civilization period without bees.
that only person that said fish so far. goddamn. needs to be one the poll choices.
Given enough time I believe indigenous Americans would have domesticated bison. You have to remember that the America's didn't even get colonized until around 10,000 years ago. And South America even less. Civilizations in Africa and Europe had over 100,000 more years to develop.
Sure, and ecosystems had/have massive impacts on social development and structures beyond the presence/types of animals suitable for domestication too (although I wouldn't use the term living standards here). But framing the question as which animal was most important for "civilisation's development" necessarily means taking a specific and narrow (and usually/largely Eurocentric) view of what counts as civilisation, as well as assuming a unitary nature of modern civilisation.
There are ruins of aquaculture systems and shelters built by Indigenous Australians that predate the estimated arrival of the dingo by a few thousand years (humans having inhabited the continent for tens of thousands of years and dingoes only arriving in the past 3-4 thousand).
It is cattle. Horses weren't really utilized for a long time and civilization grew. The creation of better agriculture techniques basically started human society with large territories with rules, laws, currency, etc.
Bees aren't a single animal, even if we limit it to pollinators there are thousands of species who do that. Whereas all the animals on this list are a single species
Yeast, for bread and alcohol.
Edit: Wikipedia says yeast is a fungus, so I guess beasts of burden like cows/oxen for hauling goods, plowing fields and building stuff.
Edit: Wikipedia says yeast is a fungus, so I guess beasts of burden like cows/oxen for hauling goods, plowing fields and building stuff.
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There are some theories that say without dogs human populations would have never exceeded the millions.
I love spiders, but I don't know how they would be the most important animal to the development of human civilization.
Dogs are the only universal domesticated animal here, being part of virtually all human cultures for at least 10,000 years, so I go with them.
Dogs are the only universal domesticated animal here, being part of virtually all human cultures for at least 10,000 years, so I go with them.
In that case dogs. There are plausible theories that the domestication of the dog was essential in helping early civilizations form
Yeah Dogs were super important. I think which is most important also depends on when you're looking. Dogs were essential to helping us reach the point where we could start early agricultural socities, cattle were super important for their role as beasts of burden and draft animals after that point. Horses were also super useful but didn't really take off until horse collars became universal in the 12th century, at which point oxen became completely outclassed and which is cited as a huge part of the transition from the middle ages and feudal society
I know spiders is the joke option but considering mosquitoes are humanity's deadliest enemy in terms of malaria death toll (an estimated half of all the humans who have ever lived have died from malaria), anything that controls mosquito population is arguably extremely instrumental to the development of civilization.
This is kind of true, but there's a big caveat. For most of human history cattle were unrivaled as draft animals since the original collars would choke horses and so they couldn't be used for those jobs. That said, once the horse collar was developed and popularized horses completely outclassed cattle in this regard and so their uses became a lot more generic
Oh what a surprise, the dog complaining about cats in a poll. Specist!
There seem to be multiple instances in history where figuring out new ways to use horses was such a radical competitive advantage that the whole map of human civilization was upended, so I'll probably go with that one.
Cattle and chickens do more for the average person in terms of providing food and other products, but when the a significant chunk of the world is speaking a language that can trace itself back to the migrations of the first people to figure out horseback riding, and the the fall of the Roman Empire was precipitated by some Huns figuring out the stirrup a few thousand miles away, hard to not say it's the horse.
Cattle and chickens do more for the average person in terms of providing food and other products, but when the a significant chunk of the world is speaking a language that can trace itself back to the migrations of the first people to figure out horseback riding, and the the fall of the Roman Empire was precipitated by some Huns figuring out the stirrup a few thousand miles away, hard to not say it's the horse.
Long term is dogs because in the darkest of dystopias dogs literally give you hope. PS cats suck.
Yep. I went with cattle. Plus, horses weren't utilized in Americas until the arrival of Europeans.
Realizing that this is probably an irreverent reference to your name (but maybe not), an argument could be made for the tortoise/finch combo. imo the most important invention of humans is science and the study of those two creatures propelled science ahead in ways that are vastly important but difficult to calculate.
I mean, the Americas didn't really make significant use of pretty much any domesticated animals since there are almost no suitable domestication targets (especially among mammals who tend to be the most important). The lack of them is a pretty big factor that led to Europe and Asia advancing significantly faster
