A number of you have sent email that from your end looks unanswered.  I have
been having a horrible problem with my server; it forgets my password and
for some reason has a hard time sending my mail--it keeps bouncing.  I had a
meeting with the computer geek in charge of PINE here at MU, and apparently
a number of us graduate-types have similar problems.  (It also scrambles
part of our messages, introducing "typos", cutting off parts of messages,
etc.  Not cool) It has been promised to be fixed within a week or so, so
please be patient.  As for me, I am just about to pay for an AOL account or
teach 'pooter geeks a new language.  Bobonics.
 
Q: (From FML/Mucho Private Posts): Any domesticated animals in the New World
   prior to European contact?
 
A: Oooooo, this could get ethnocentric. Only turkeys think domestication
   occurred in the eastern hemisphere.
 
Proportionally, more animal domestication took place in the New World than
the Old World.  Off the top of my head, New World (independent)
domestication produced dogs, turkeys, llamas, chinchilla, guinea-pigs,
alpacas, and macaws.  Since contact, you have to add skunks, mink, trout and
other fishies, and various insects.  That is not to mention the plants,
which, BTW, literally feeds the world (Try living without maize, beans,
squash, spuds or tobacco...ok 4 out of 5 ain't bad).  Just because
ethnocentric western/white/European science tends to emphasize European
achievements, it doesn't mean Asia, Africa or the New World hasn't made
significant contributions.  As a matter of fact, Europeans didn't
domesticate much compared to Africans, Mid-Easterners, Americans, and Asias.
(Horse-Asia; Cow-Eurasia/Asia; Sheep/Goat-Middle East; Dog-pert near
everywhere; Cat-Africa; Ferret-Eurasia/Mediteranean; Chicken-Asia;
Rabbit-Europe; Pig-Middle East/Eurasia; Reindeer-Europe....heck, I could go
on and on, but the point is made.
 
The main difference between domestication in the New and Old Worlds was the
degree of diffusion from the origin point, and that was primarily an
accident of fate.  Eurasia tends to run east-west and the Americas
north-south.  Domesticated species tended to remain isolated in the Americas
because of severe changes in environment, while in Europe, they could spread
from one side to the other, increasing their impact.  However, in terms of
numbers of species, the Native Americans contributed more than their share.
As for references, I'm not going to waste my time and FML space on this one.
Go to a good library and look up domestication on Current Contents,
Biological Abstracts, or Anthropological Abstracts.  As a specialist in both
paleoecology and domestication, I can say you will find thousands of modern
references regarding New World animal domestication.
 
The origin of the Ferret is lost or at least obscured by antiquity.  It is
clear that it (or its ancestor) was mentioned by early Greek writers.
Between 450 and 425 BC, Aristophanes mentions ferrets at least 6 times in
five plays.  About the same time, a "wild ferret" was mentioned by
Herodotus.  This situation illustrates a common problem in studies of
domestication.  At what point does the animal's name change from the wild
species to the domesticated species?  To this day, in many European
languages, the name of the ferret and the polecat is the same or very
similar.  I think the ferret was domesticated by the time of Aristophanes
and Herodotus because they could differentiate between the two types of
Ferret; wild and domestic.  As for the idea that the ferret was domesticated
in Egypt; I've recieved some mail recently from top Egyptian archaeologists
that state they have never heard of domesticated ferrets in Egypt.  Although
the occasional weasel has been found mummified, no ferret has ever been
found.
 
In Europe, polecats HAVE been found in archaeological contexts, but as of
yet (as far as I know) no ferret remains have been confirmed.  I have been
speaking with several Old World archaeologists about animal remains from
castles and large town garbage dumps, and there is a good possiblity that
ferret remains are included in the collection, but they are unidentified as
of yet.  Hopefully, by next year, I can correct that!
 
Mo' Bob and the 18 Mo' Sofa Sharks
[Posted in FML issue 1846]