The Domestication of the Human Species

by Peter J. Wilson

In the exciting book Peter J. Wilson takes domestication as the starting point for his continued inquiry into human evolution. Wilson argues that settling down into a built environment was the most radical and far-reaching innovation in human development and that it had a crucial effect on human psychology and social relations. The insights of this book point the way toward amendments to social theories that will challenge the professional reader and at the same time offer to the general reader an enriched understanding of human behavior and human history.
“This book is a rare a total rethinking of a set of closely related fundamental problems in the understanding of human evolution….[An] immensely ambitious undertaking.”―Paul Wheatley, Contemporary Sociology
“This approach merges societies in surprising ways….It certainly leads to some provocative and stimulating generalizations.”―John Bodley, American journal of Physical Anthropology
“Perhaps this book is revolutionary…asking us to rethink human nature, its causes, its cures…It holds out the real possibilities of redoing the human condition by reconceptualizing the power of our environs….[Wilson] has given is a book that is hard to put down once begun, and one whose ideas are even harder to dismiss.”―Harvey B. Sarles, Contemporary Psychology
“This is definitely a book on which to sharpen one’s wits….The author invites the reader to think with him about matters not only past but also present which have much relevance for our future. This book makes lively and mind-stretching reading.”―Ashley Montagu

Genres: Nonfiction, Anthropology

201 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I first found this book when my friend suggested that the human species has undergone genetic change since domestication (the appearance of permanent shelters, agriculture, etc). I was trying to find some data on this fact (which I still haven't managed to do - though Jared Diamond's Third Chimpanzee seems promising). However, Wilson's book is about something completely different, though still relevant to my interests.

His thesis is that, since vision is such an important part of human life, the advent of architecture (permanent structures) induced a shift in culture and worldview, as well as in individual relationships and personalities. This is a fascinating thesis, and one that has a lot of potential to help me understand the issues I'm grappling with: how civilization arose and spread and developed. However, Wilson does not do ANYTHING interesting with his thesis. He spends a lot of time discussing a lengthy slew of anthropological culture sketches, presumably presented as evidence for his hypothesis. They are not particularly interesting, and Wilson is not a particularly interesting writer (though he is readable and apparently much better than most social science writers). The problem is not only that this information seemed superfluous - it's that he never seemed to take it anywhere. All of his conclusions seemed either too straightforward and boring, or too speculative and abstract (a problem I see with a lot of what I know of anthropology and social science in general - it reminds me of Freud; ick - I think the way I want to say this is that they are closed systems, which happen to more or less coincide with real elements of the ideological constructs of real people).

So I gave up after about 80 pages. If anyone's finished the book and disagrees with my assessment, please comment and direct me to continue.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A prescient, visionary study of constructing a possible simulation of early human experience. A must-read along with Wilson's previous book, Man, The Promising Primate. He makes a case that domestication was a revolutionary and transformative process made under incredible duress. Hierarchy, revenge, warfare, slavery, all emerge as consequences of domestication (his case is made).

This is among the great works about the total sapien experience, not merely the last 10000 years, which is only 5% of the sub-species's total presence.

[k.]

first reading - this book, about the impact of domestication on social life, its reflection of social order, and the generation of privacy as a resource for focused attention, is absolutely going to be re-read, for i am more and more coming to the conclusion that reading a book once is useless unless it is backed up with further study; that reading things once is about building a list on what to reread.

[Beckett Zinn-Rowthorn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got 75% done w this. Interesting philosophical arguments about what made early humans “human,” but outdated and often redundant in many ways. I wish it had more on the origins of early cities.