ABSTRACT
Considered generically, domestication is the collective genetic alteration of a species’ physiology, behaviour, appearance or life cycle through selective breeding. It is a common phenomenon in nature that manifests itself in the domestication syndrome, a large collection of quite specific characteristics. Usually, one organism assumes a significant degree of influence over the reproduction of another, be it deliberately or not. There is no intent involved in human auto-domestication; that process is incidental to the development of deliberate mate choice governed by cultural imperatives. These are mostly unrelated to Darwinian fitness and include subjective perceptions of attractiveness and youthful appearance. In humans, the domestication syndrome is expressed especially in the selection for neotenous characteristics. Gracilisation is a prominent effect of this development. However, many of its incidental consequences are deleterious genetic predispositions and defects. Recent genetics research supports the attribution of aspects of the ‘modern’ human genome to the domestication syndrome.
