Editing Meat (section)

=== Domestication ===

{{further|Domestication}}

[[Paleontology|Paleontological]] evidence suggests that meat constituted a substantial proportion of the diet of the earliest humans. Early [[hunter-gatherer]]s depended on the organized hunting of large animals such as [[bison]] and [[deer]]. Animals were [[domestication|domesticated]] in the [[Neolithic]], enabling the systematic production of meat and the [[animal husbandry|breeding]] of animals to improve meat production.{{sfn|Lawrie|Ledward|2006|pp=1–2}}

{|class="wikitable" style="margin:1em auto;"
|+ Major animal domestications
|-
! Animal !! [[Vavilov center|Centre of origin]] !! Purpose !! Date/years ago
|-
|[[Goat]], [[sheep]], [[pig]], [[cow]] ||Near East, South Asia ||Food ||11,000–10,000<ref name="McHugo Dover MacHugh 2019">{{Cite journal |last1=McHugo |first1=Gillian P. |last2=Dover |first2=Michael J. |last3=MacHugh |first3=David E. |date=2019-12-02 |title=Unlocking the origins and biology of domestic animals using ancient DNA and paleogenomics |journal=BMC Biology |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=98 |doi=10.1186/s12915-019-0724-7 |pmc=6889691 |pmid=31791340 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
|-
|[[Chicken]] ||East Asia ||[[Cockfighting]] ||7,000<ref name="Lawler Adler 2012">{{cite journal |last1=Lawler |first1=Andrew |last2=Adler |first2=Jerry |title=How the Chicken Conquered the World |url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-chicken-conquered-the-world-87583657/ |journal=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]] |issue=June 2012 |date=June 2012}}</ref>
|-
|[[Horse]] ||Central Asia ||[[Pack animal|Draft]], [[Equestrianism|riding]] ||5,500<ref name="MacHugh Larson Orlando 2017">{{cite journal |last1=MacHugh |first1=David E. |last2=Larson |first2=Greger |last3=Orlando |first3=Ludovic |title=Taming the Past: Ancient DNA and the Study of Animal Domestication |doi=10.1146/annurev-animal-022516-022747 |journal=[[Annual Review of Animal Biosciences]] |volume=5 |date=2017 |s2cid=21991146 |pmid=27813680 |pages=329–351}}</ref>
|}