Social History and Domestication

            Along with domestication came the establishment of a more stable lifestyle. Human survival no longer depended on hunting and gathering their food sources, but rather on the domestication of livestock. To this day, cattle of all different species remain one of the top-regarded sources for meat, milk, and even leather. The Taurine was believed to have been domesticated first somewhere within the Fertile Crescent by the Asian peoples (China, Mongolia, and Korea) about 8,000 years ago. But several other incidences of domestication may have occurred in other regions around the world (including Africa and Pakistan). Cattle were strong candidates for domestication due to these specific qualities:

•  Not too flighty- To be able to handle them more easily, civilizations domesticated animals that were less fearful of people. By doing this, they were hoping to lower, if not eliminate, the possibility of injuries while handling the animal.
• Breeds well in captivity- In order to avoid depletion, a big part of animal management was being able to breed for large quantities of offspring. Their food and material supply would be constant.
• Grows at a relatively good pace- Because different lifestyles take different expenditures, individuals looked for a fast growing rate as to avoid putting too much of their costs and efforts in neonate and pubertal nutrition.
• Not aggressive- Once again, this deals greatly with the matter of safety. This allowed them to handle the animals more easily and avoid major injuries.
• Requires a low maintenance diet- The diet is the most expensive (in the long term) expenditure to raising animals and at large quantities, individuals look for animals with low maintenance qualities to avoid the high costs (outweigh their products from the products they make take to be raised).

Despite cattle having these characteristic dispositions, studies on their mitochondrial DNA suggest that domestication of cattle happened, although it was highly unlikely to occur. The most commonly known breed of cattle Taurine is descended from only about 80 females total. In other words, all cattle could be traced back to a small heard of just 80 animals that were domesticated from wild ox. However, because of this domestication and the heights reached, new technology and better research allows us to produce milk, meat, and leather at an even higher production level worldwide.

Taurine Cattle in Asia are descended from about 80 females total
that were originally domesticated from the wild ox.

Sources:

http://archaeology.about.com/od/domestications/qt/cattle.htm

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/holy-cow/introduction/1812/