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Thousands of years ago, humans domesticated every possible large wild mammal species fulfilling all those criteria and worth domesticating, with the result that there have been no valuable additions of domestic animals in recent times, despite the efforts of modern science.
Jared Diamond
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote highlights humanity's historical achievement in domesticating large mammals and suggests that we have reached a limit in expanding our domestic animal species.

Jared Diamond's quote reflects on the extensive domestication of large wild mammals throughout human history, indicating that almost all species suitable for domestication have already been tamed. It emphasizes the culmination of this process, suggesting that modern scientific efforts have not produced significant new domestic animals recently, thus pointing to a limitation in our ability to enhance our interactions with nature.

Themes

DomesticationAnimalsMammalsScienceHistory

In practice

Example use cases

In a lecture on animal domestication, one might use this quote to illustrate the culmination of human efforts over millennia.

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