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Food Production>State Society>Technology>Money Economy>Domesticated Animals>Diseases

Domesticated Animals.  The Fertile Crescent had four of what are still the top five domesticated and domesticatable animals (sheep, goat, cows, pig—and horse, but it was in the Ukraine).  Diamond’s Chapter 9, “Zebras, Unhappy Marriages, and the Anna Karenina Principle,” pp. 157-175) distinguishes between the Big Five and the Minor Nine (Arabian [one-humped] camel, Bactrain [two humped] camel, Llama and alpaca, Donkey, Reindeer, Water buffalo, Yak, Bali cattle, and Mithan) by how widely they have dispersed and become important to human civilization.

The Fertile Crescent’s accidental geographical, topographical bounty continues in animals as it does in plants.  Diamond defines a “candidate for domestication” as an omnivorous or herbivorous mammalian species weighing over 100 pounds and summarizes the result in a chart on p. 162:

  Table 9.2   Mammalian Candidates for Domestication

Diamond makes clear that the figures are the result of the nature of the animals and not the characteristics of the people.  One proof is that every people has immediately made similar use of all animals that become available.

Diseases