ANT211H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter Article: Anthropomorphism, Commensalism, Parasitism
Document Summary
Women showed to have stronger attachments to their pets than men. Women have been known to breasts feed baby animals. Resource that could go to the children go to the animal: pet keeping is a type of symbiosis, mutualism. Humans feed animals and use them for things like agriculture: commensalism. Animals may have become pets by first being scavengers. By eating the scarps, the people lose nothing, but the animals gain resources: parasitism. One benefits at the expense of the other. Pets gain material benefits from humans, but people do not gain anything significant (for their survival) from animals. Pets can be considered as manipulators of the human species. Does not have to be a conscious attempt at manipulation. Manipulation is possible because of how the hosts (owners) behaviour is controlled: a pet-owner bond can be terminated by the owner if the pet suddenly displays undesirable traits. Ex: a dog is put down because it attacked a child.
