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May 23, 2007
Midweek Cat Blogging
Over at About Archaeology, K. Kris Hirst has a post on a non-subject, cat domestication. Anyone who has ever lived with cats knows that they are not domesticated animals. It is far better to understand them as domesticators of people. It appears Kris understands this problem because she entitled her post, "Cat Domestication (if that's even possible)." She tells us,
Although evidence for cats hanging around people has been found as long ago as 7200 BC (when cats were imported with a lot of other animals to the Greek island of Cyprus), most scholars pick the Egyptian civilization of about 4,000 years ago as the period of the permanent domestication of the wily feline critter some of us are so fond of.
I'm not exactly sure what counts as "permanent domestication." Rather, I think her phrase "hanging around people" is as good as your going to get with this species.
Aydin Örstan at Snail's Tails has a short photo essay on cat mating and the role of neck biting. He ends with a description of his wounds after an attempt to take a cat, one that lived in his house, by the nap of the neck. No, he wasn't trying to mate with it; he was just trying to bring it indoors.
Here's a recent picture of our Socrates, playing the role of a domesticated cat.
"Life is good but please don't flash that light in my face again. I am trying to get a little rest before you feed me dinner."
Posted by Duane Smith at May 23, 2007 4:38 PM | Read more on Odds and Ends |
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Comments
We probably shouldn't expect every "domesticated" animal to behave the same way around humans. Cats are not cows. Cats' behaviour is also influenced by the fact that they are carnivores. Besides cats & dogs I can't think of other domesticated carnivorous animals. And cats don't kill people, but dogs-man's best friend-do.
Posted by: Aydin at May 24, 2007 8:48 PM
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