Worldbuilding Festival 2026

Currently Playing: An Ecological Approach to Domestication and Agriculture - Part 1 (ft. Lands Unknown)

Biblaridion and @landsunknown discuss the ecological and anthropological factors behind the domestication of plants and animals and explore how they might manifest in other biospheres. This stream is part of the 2026 Worldbuilding Festival, a free weekend of worldbuilding-related livestreams across YouTube! Check out the full playlist here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCDMgL_bQU84&si=MUefGBos5osKk-gg The website: https://www.madelinejameswrites.com/worldbuilding-festival Newsletter Signup: https://www.madelinejameswrites.com/festival-newsletter-signup SOURCES: Brooker RM, Casey JM, Cowan ZL, Sih TL, Dixson DL, Manica A, Feeney WE. Domestication via the commensal pathway in a fish-invertebrate mutualism. Nat Commun. 2020 Dec 7;11(1):6253. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-19958-5. PMID: 33288750; PMCID: PMC7721709. Crocraft, R. B. & Hambler, K. 1989. Observations of a commensal relationship of the microhylid frog Chiasmocleis ventrimaculata and the burrowing theraphosid spider Xenesthis immanis in southeastern Peru. Biotropica 21, 2-8. Diamond, J. 1999. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. W. W. Norton & Company. Dapash, M. O. and M. Poole. 2025. Decolonizing Maasai History: A Path to Indigenous African Futures. ZED. Fuller, D.Q. and L. Lucas. 2014. Adapting Crops, Landscapes, and Food Choices: Patterns in the Dispersal of Domesticated Plants Across Eurasia. Boivin, N., R. Crassard, and M. Petraglia (eds.). Human Dispersal and Species Movement From Prehistory to the Present. Cambridge University Press: 304–331. Greiner, A. 2021. Bio-Engineering across Empires: Mapping the Global Microhistory of Zebra Domestication in Colonial East Africa. Journal of World History 32 (1): 127–159. Grothe, S. 2021. Das Zebroid, des Kaisers Geheimwaffe. Der Spiegel. 26 April 2021. Hammer, E. 2025. The Archeology of Pastoralism, Mobility, and Society: Beyond the Grass Paradigm. Cambridge University Press. Irving-Pease, E., H. Ryan, A. Jamieson, E. Dimopoulos, G. Larson, and L. Frantz. 2018. Paleogenomics of Animal Domestication. Lindquist, C. and O. P. Rajora (eds.).. Paleogenomics: Genome-Scale Analysis of Ancient DNA. Springer. 225–272. Jane, P. L. 2013. The Archaeology of Pastoralism and Stock-Keeping in East Africa. In Mitchell, P. and P. L. Jane (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of African Archeology. Oxford: 586–601. Larson, G. and D.Q. Fuller. 2014. The evolution of animal domestication. Annual Review Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 45: 115–136. Levi, T., Lu, F., Yu, D., and Mangel, M. 2011. The behaviour and diet breadth of central-place foragers: An application to human hunters and neotropical game management. Evolutionary Ecology Research 13: 171–185. Piperno, D. 2005. The Origins of Plant Cultivation and Domestication in the Neotropics: A Behavioural Ecological Perspective. In Kennett, D.J. and B. Winterhalder (eds.) Behavioral Ecology and the Transition to Agriculture. University of California Press: 137–166. Purugganan, M. D. 2022. What is domestication? Trends in Ecology & Evolution 37(8): 663–671. Rowley-Conway, P. and R. Layton. 2011. Foraging and farming as niche construction: stable and unstable adaptations. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 366: 849–862. Salmi, A. K. 2023. The Archaeology of Reindeer Domestication and Herding Practices in Northern Fennoscandia. Journal of archaeological research 31 (4): 617–660. Steklis, N.G., M. Peñaherrera-Aguirre, H.D. Steklis, and I. Herrera. 2024. Why Were Zebras Not Domesticated? A Review of Domesticability Traits and Tests of Their Role in Ungulate Domestications with Macroevolutionary Models. Animals 14: 23555. Taylor, W. 2024. Hoof Beats: How Horses Shaped Human History. University of California Press. Watkins, T. 2023. Becoming Neolithic: The Pivot of Human History. Routledge. Winterhalder, B. and D.J. Kennet. 2005. Behavioral Ecology and the Transition from Hunting and Gathering to Agriculture. In Kennett, D.J. and B. Winterhalder (eds.) Behavioral Ecology and the Transition to Agriculture. University of California Press: 1–21. Zeder, M. A. . 2011. The origins of agriculture in the Near East. Current Anthropology 54: 221–35. Zeder, Melinda. (2012). Pathways to Animal Domestication. Biodiversity in Agriculture: Domestication, Evolution, and Sustainability. 227-259. 10.1017/CBO9781139019514.013. –––. 2012. The Domestication of Animals. Journal of Anthropological Research 68 (2):161–190. –––. 2015. Core questions in domestication research. PNAS 112 (11) :3191–3198. –––. 2016. Domestication as a model system for niche construction theory. Evolutionary Ecology 30: 325–348. IMAGE CREDIT: Fig. 1 - James Telford (iNaturalist.org) Fig. 2 - Griffith University Fig. 3 - Paul Tardie Fig. 4 - bandwagonman Fig. 5 - Sandias A (public domain) Fig. 6 - Hulcr Fig. 7 - Library of Congress, 1890–1923. Background to slides 10–13 and 23 - Anonymous, 1911. Public Domain