ABSTRACT
Ever since the domestication of fire began, a steady undercurrent in the development and history of human society has been the extension of human hegemony over other species. With the emergence of agriculture and pastoralism, this trend entered a new stage, as some species (the domesticates) were now protected and brought under human control, while others (the remaining wild species) were—if not exterminated—more or less effectively kept away from the expanding human domain. Almost inevitably, the availability of more land that people could exploit exclusively for themselves and their domesticates resulted in population growth—a process to which some biologists might refer as increases in human biomass, and which Eric Jones and other economic historians would call extensive growth. In a few cases, moreover, an increasing supply of goods per capita, or intensive growth, was obtained in the long run. Almost everywhere in the development of agrarian societies, however, the gains that were made in material prosperity tended to be distributed very unequally over the population.
