DOMESTICATION

With the word DOMESTICATION, the fifth session on Wednesday 25 February 2026, 5-6pm, FAB4.79 will be led by Professor Robin Allaby from the School of Life Sciences, who will introduce a short pre-circulated textLink opens in a new window to open the conversation. Here’s a brief description of the session by Professor Allaby:

Domestication is the foundation on which civilization was built, often depicted as the moment that humans became dominant over nature. Implicit in that view is the centrality of humans to existence, not unlike the geocentric model of the Solar System before Copernicus or aspects of Natural Theology. However, the rise of domestication was actually a time of famine and disease that developed out of a human ecology that stretches into deep time. The emergent picture of domestication has become one in which animals and plants adapted to a human environment, in their own interests and not always to the benefit of humanity. A deeper understanding of domestication forces a re-evaluation of the extent of human control, the nature of what is wild or domesticated and our place in the world.

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