Source: Budiansky, S. 1992. Visions of nature. p. 1-17. In S. Budiansky. The covenant with the wild --why animals chose
domestication. William Morrow Co.,
Inc., New York.
Society in the 1990s is more removed from nature than ever before in history.
Many people have an unrealistic view of nature as a "Garden of Eden"
because they have no experience with nature outside of the human-controlled
world. It is true that nature is beautiful but it is also savage and
unpredictable. Humans have little experience with those savage aspects. Animals
are an intrinsic part of nature and have become an essential part of the human
lifestyle. Our current way of life depends on animal agriculture as a source of
food for some and as a source of income for others. People who have lost touch
with nature often condemn agriculture for being cruel without seeing that
nature can be just as cruel. In order to understand our agricultural
association with animals, people must consider the role humans have had in
nature over centuries and re-evaluate human relationship to animals. In a
conversational manner, Budiansky discusses this relationship and examines the
motives of animal rights and anti-farming activists. He draws on archaeology as
well as the concept of co-evolution to defend his ideas. He shows that most
people who oppose the use of animals for food, research, or even as pets, have
not considered the consequences of taking human contact away. Budiansky argues
that without farming, cattle would now be extinct. Humans share a heritage with
animals and have evolved with them over time. Archaeology shows that long
before domestication, the association between humans and animals evolved as
both adapted to the same environment and interacted with each other to survive.
Even now animals depend on humans just as we depend on them. The majority of
animals that have been domesticated would be extinct if they had been left to
nature.
Abstract Author: Kellie M. Gauvin, 22
October 1997.
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