Tag: domestication
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Why an olive branch?…
Olive branches have long been considered a symbol of peace throughout the Mediterranean region (and cultures at least partially derived from same, such as Christian Europe). But why specifically olive branches, and not olives or entire olive trees? There may be a scientific reason for that, and it has to do with the early domestication…
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Guns, germs, and steel: a corollary
So, Guns, Germs, and Steel was a book from 1997 that tried to explain why Europe (and to a somewhat lesser extent Northern Africa, and Asia) went around conquering everydamnedplace, and sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas didn’t. The basic theory goes about like this: Europe and Asia had a lot of easy-to-domesticate plants and animals,…