3 ms·
Domestication brings about neoteny. Adult domesticated animals maintain appearance and behaviors that wild animals only have when they are young. Young mammals
by saint_fiasco 10y ago
Domestication brings about neoteny. Adult domesticated animals maintain appearance and behaviors that wild animals only have when they are young.
Young mammals are very cute to us, possibly because we are mammals too and inherit our cute-sense from a common mammal ancestor.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoteny#In_domestic_animals https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoteny#In_domestic_animals
- theophrastus 10y agoThere is even an old theory that modern day humans are neotenous products of a proto-ape-man. A list usually follows of those characteristics that humans share with infant modern apes: less hair, larger head to body ratio, shorter arms, less muzzle, etc. Then 'futurists' grab hold of that and imagine current human babies as our adult future; is that how the bug-eyed hairless 'gray alien'[1] arises, or the 2001 "star child"? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_alien https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_alien
- amyjess 10y agoI have to wonder if this is partially responsible for the "Asians are smarter than everyone else" stereotype, given that Asians have more neotenous features than other races on average.