Insularity and early domestication: anthropogenic ecosystems as habitat islands

Abstract

Over the past decade research into early domestication has been transformed by the genomics revolution and increased archaeological investigation. Despite clarification of the timing, locations and genetic processes, most scholars still envision evolutionary responses to human innovations, such as sickle harvesting, tilling, selection for docility or directed breeding. Stepping away from anthropocentric models, evolutionary parallels in the wild can provide case studies for understanding what ecological pressures drove the evolution of the first domestication traits. I contrast evolutionary trends seen among plants and animals confined on oceanic islands with the changes seen in the first cultivated crops and animals. I argue that the earliest villages functioned as habitat islands, applying parallel selective pressures as those on oceanic islands. In this view, the collective assemblage of parallel evolving traits that some scholars refer to as either an island syndrome or domestication syndrome results from similar ecological pressures of insularity, notably ecological release.