Pathways to Animal Domestication: A Continuing Journey

Professor Melinda A. Zeder   

Lecture Abstract

Animal domestication represents a milestone in the history of humans, and of the planet we inhabit. Exploring the long history of the diverse and continuing pathways that humans and animal traveled into domestication, learning how and when they first embarked on these journeys, tracing the twists and turns they took along the way is vital to understanding where we come from, how we arrived where we are today, and where these pathways will lead us into the future. This lecture looks at the universal features of animal domestication and its impact on animal domesticates. It brings together archaeology, genetics, and animal sciences to trace the pathways that animals and their human partners have followed and continue to follow into domestication. It explores some of the issues that must be confronted – ethical, ecological, social – as we continue to push the frontiers of animal domestication and reshape the lives of all animals living within an increasingly pervasive human sphere.

Biography

Professor Melinda Zeder is a Senior Scientist and Curator of Old World Archaeology in the Department of Anthropology of the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. An anthropological archaeologist, she is best known for her research on the origins of domestication and the emergence of agriculture, with a particular focus on animal domestication in the Near East. Her work brings together genetics, animal sciences, and archaeology to understand the mechanisms behind animal domestication and the different pathways animals and their human partners traveled into domestication. She is a recipient of the Society of American Archaeology’s Fryxell Award in Interdisciplinary Archaeology and the Archaeological Institute of America’s Pomerance Award for Scientific Contributions to Archaeology. A Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008 and to the National Academy of Sciences in 2012.